Nuna Raymi

Nuna Raymi is Quechua for ¨feast of the soul¨ and a perfect way to describe how I feel about traveling, meeting locals and experiencing other cultures. My soul is being fed, and in abundance.

I had two items on my list of must-eats in Peru: ceviche and mazamorra morada. Ceviche was fairly easy to knock off the list. Mazamorra morada was a bit harder to track down. I first heard of this dessert from Judith, the Peruvian woman I hired to be my baker for the cupcakery who ended up becoming a good and loyal friend. She described it as a purple corn pudding. I had never seen or heard of such a thing, I was intrigued. Every Peruvian restaurant I visited in the States, I would flip to the dessert page to look for it, to no avail. I checked out numerous menus in Cuzco (which are all displayed on the sidewalk) - all offered cakes, crepes and ice cream but no mazamorra morada. Finally yesterday afternoon I was walking up the steep steps to San Blas when I saw a chalkboard with ¨mazamorra¨ on it.

After perusing the various art galleries and jewelry stores in San Blas, I returned to the restaurant where I had seen the sign for mazamorra, a restaurant called Nuna Raymi. I told the waiter all I wanted was mazamorra morada and even though it had been the dessert of the day for lunch only and they had run out, he asked the kitchen to steam me one from scratch. Then he started chatting me up about how long I was in Cuzco, whether I was doing the Inca Trail, etc. We ended up talking for almost 3 hours and it´s experiences like these that make traveling so soul-fulfilling.

It turns out that Victor is not just a waiter, he is one of the owners of the restaurant, along with his brother and father. He is from Lima originally and opened up Nuna Raymi with his family a couple years ago in Cuzco. He is also a licensed dentist, certified to practice in the United States. He spent a few months in the States in 1999 because his girlfriend at the time received a scholarship to study there and wanted him to move with her. He had several friends who had their own practices in the LA and OC area and he started looking into setting up a practice in the States as well. But in the few months he spent there observing his friends, he noticed that although his friends made a lot of money and lived very well, they never had time to enjoy their lives because they were always working. He noticed that even when they had the opportunity to not take an appointment so they could have more free time, they would always book their calendars because, well...in the first world, success and happiness is measured by how much money you make. That´s when he decided that even if it meant not making enough money to buy a big house in the OC or drive a luxury name brand car, he´d rather live in Peru where you make less money but enjoy life more.

¨To make a lot of money you have to live in the first world, but to really enjoy life, you need to live in the third world.¨

I asked Victor if he still practices dentistry (since he seemed pretty busy with the restaurant) and he told me that he does practice, but only pro bono. He works for a foundation (not sure if he started it, I forgot to ask) that provides free dental services to those who can´t afford them and performs his services several days a week. He was disheartened every time a poor patient would come in needing like 12 fillings but only have the money to pay for 1 and decided that he ¨didn´t want to live from my profession but live for it.¨ So he decided he would start a business that would provide for his monetary needs so that he could practice his dentistry for free.

Victor also talked about his visions for his restaurant when he opened it - he realized that when people walk into a restaurant, they want more than just to be fed. Especially in a tourist town such as Cuzco, when a tourist walks into a Peruvian restaurant, they not only want good food, but they want to experience a tiny part of Peru. So he trains his staff not to just take orders and serve food, but to really think about what can make each customer´s experience better. He tells his staff: ¨Everyone has the ability to make a footprint on another person´s life, even if only for a brief moment, so own up to that ability!¨

We talked a bunch about other stuff: politics, travels, living in the US, his advice for me for the Inca Trail, etc. but it´s the conversations noted above that I will remember as one of the most memorable moments during my stay in Cuzco. For however brief a time, Victor did make a footprint on my life.

As for the mazamorra morada? It´s a transparent purple jello-like substance that has raisins and pineapples floating in it. It´s basically a more solid version of chicha morada, the national drink of Peru made from purple corn. I wasn´t especially enamored of it, although I definitely appreciated the restaurant making me one. Their menu looked delicious though and I trust Victor when he says his goal for the restaurant is to serve good food in a good atmosphere at good prices.

***

If you are ever in Cuzco, you must visit Nuna Raymi: www.nunaraymicusco.com