We had pre-arranged a cooking class to learn about the regional cuisine. We arrived at Anita’s restaurant, El Patio, in Tilcara at 9:30am. After several minutes of introductions and conversation about her background, she took us to the central Tilcara market to buy various veggies, fruits and other goods. The market is quite large and held every day including holidays and weekends and is full of every type of meat, fruit, and vegetable you can imagine, as well as a large portion devoted to the sale of clothes and other products. The variety of fresh fruit and veggies at this time of year surprised me, because in Mendoza we find that many common items are unavailable for several months in the winter. Turns out that because Jujuy is a province with four completely different growing climates/ zones, just about all types of produce are plentiful most of the year. We would never have found the market on our own. And, of course, we learned about the endless types of corn, potatoes, other tubers, and quinoa native to northern Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru! Beautiful! We headed back to her restaurant and began preparing the ingredients to make two types of empanadas –one with quinoa and pepper and onion, the other with pepper onion and llama meat (they raise and eat llamas commonly in northern Argentina). Of course, as all Argentines know, you shape empanadas differently according to their contents. Meat empanadas are shaped one way and vegetables another, etc. I found the shaping of the dough extremely difficult, but Knox took to it immediately!
During the morning, we had a lovely conversation about life in Tilcara and the Humahuaca region of Jujuy. Two girls from a national nonprofit based in Buenos Aires, Pequeños Pasos, whom Anita had known before and were in town came for lunch. We dined and chatted with them about the country, BA, and even politics. Anita brought out tamales also, made with a dried beef called charquie (pronounced Sharky). Very salty, but excellent.
After lunch, we went to the archeological site in Tilcara called Pucará (or fortress), a 70-meter-high hill on the outskirts of Tilcara. It is a fortress built as a replica of the ruins of an ancient pre-Hispanic, Inca town in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, and honestly, it is not very interesting. However, we followed the Spanish guide and learned about its disputed nature. At the top of Pucará there is a monument in honor of the first archaeologists to uncover the site in 1908, Juan Bautista Ambrosetti and Salvador Debenedetti from the University of Buenos Aires. It is a controversial construction because in carrying it out, they destroyed valuable original artifacts and built the monument in a contradictory architectural style that failed to conserve the Incan historical heritage.
After siesta, we went to another ceramics and art shop on the way to Humahuaca, a tiny, dusty town about 25 minutes north of our hotel where we had dinner and saw a live folk music show by two well-known guitarists from Jujuy. One of the musicians played a twelve-string instrument with a round back, a charango. We were pleased to be able to understand 95% of the folklore stories that were part of the performance. I had a quinoa risotto, which was a satisfying stew-like dish on a cold night!
Link to Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/X6fwzJHJ2XxRq4aj7