Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Peruvian Food Video: Hand-Cranked Cane Juice In Huanta

El Chillico is a You Tube videographer who films goings-on and events in and around Huanta, in the Andes south of Huancayo and southeast from Huancavelica.

His interesting videos capture the essence of daily life in his community simply, honestly, and respectfully.

Lucky for us, he also films Peruvian food.

In this 00:31 second video, we are transported to a fair in the Andes, in the plain known as the Pampa de Maynay, where we see how sugar cane stalks from Huanta Valley are crushed in a hand-cranked contraption in order to extract the juice, which is then served in glasses. It is a delicious and refreshing drink, believed to have curative properties.

My favorite part is around 00:26 when the young woman selling the drink,
in order to attract customers, calls out: ¡Caña ... rica caña! .

huanta maynay jugo de caña pura
Video: El Chillico




One in an occasional series of posts with videos of everyday people in Peru filming their Peruvian food.





Click here for the Peru Food main page.

TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana

8 comments:

Anonymous social worker said...

that's too funny

::Alejandro:: said...

It's very old school...

Canelita said...

What a coincidence--today I ran into a farmer's market which featured a cane juice booth. However, this juice came out of a noisy machine that probably did not extract as pulp-free a juice as the manual machine would, and therefore not as delicious.
And on the topic of hand-cranked machines, I got reminded of this other YouTube video that features a little boy hand-cranking his cuy roasting machine, what a sight! I recommend it as the next one in the series...

::Alejandro:: said...

What a coincidence indeed! As to the boy cranking the cuy video, it's on the list...Saludos!

One Food Guy said...

I saw some guys on the side of the road in Chennai, India making some cane juice with the same type of hand cranked pulverizer, it was so cool to watch!

Anonymous said...

Te cuento que desde que yo tendría 9 a 12 años mi papá siempre tenía stands de distintas cosas en la Feria del Hogar (donde prácticamente vivíamos ese mes) y en una oportunidad puso una máquina que sacaba el jugo a las cañas de azúcar y la gracia era que uno mismo elegía su caña y la pasaba por la máquina. A esa edad no me gustaba mucho pero imagino que ahora pensaría distinto.

::Alejandro:: said...

@ one food guy: anywhere they have sugar cane, there is probably some type of machine to extract the juice. As a kid in Peru, I would buy pieces of sugar cane to chew out the juice.

@Katia: De repente fue tu padre que trajo ese tipo de aparato al Perú. Pero como comenta la persona anterior, que vio una maquina parecida en la India, me imagino donde hay caña, habrá una maquina para extraerle su jugo, unas a mano y otras no. Hace poco estuve en México y vi una maquina parecida a la del video. Saludos!

Canelita said...

"As a kid in Peru, I would buy pieces of sugar cane to chew out the juice."

Me, too! Actually, we would buy the entire cane and get it ready at home. First, we would peel out the tough skin, and then cut the inner flesh into chewable pieces. It was sooo much fun to chew on it. Perhaps the best machine is, after all, your own mouth and teeth! Hahahaha... (YouTube video coming up!)

By the way, here at the Farmer's Market, they were attaching all kinds of adjectives to the humble cane: microbiotic! nutritious! low-calorie! natural! etc. etc. etc. The latest panacea among many others in the market. A little overrated maybe, but still, a great drink to have.