Dinner, which takes place about two or three in the afternoon, commences with a very insipid kind of soup. This is followed by the Puchero, which is the principal dish. Puchero, made in its best style, contains beef, pork, bacon, ham, sausage, poultry, cabbage, yuccas, camotes (a sort of sweet potato), potatoes, rice, peas, choclitas (grains of maize), quince and banana. When served up, the different kinds of meat are placed in one dish, and the vegetable ingredients in another. I was at first astonished at the poorness of the soups in Lima, considering the quantity of meat used in preparing them; but I soon discovered that the soup served up to table was little more than water, and that the strong gravy of the meat was either thrown away or given to the negroes. There prevails an almost universal belief that the liquor in which the meat is first stewed is injurious to health. Only a very few families are sufficiently free from this prejudice to allow the strong gravy to be used in the preparation of caldo, &c. The Puchero is an excellent and nutritious dish, and would in itself suffice for a dinner, to which, however, in Lima, it is merely the introduction. Roast meat, fish, vegetables, preserves and salad are afterwards served. Another dish not less indispensable to a Lima dinner than puchero, is picante. Under this denomination are included a variety of preparations, in which a vast quantity of cayenne pepper is introduced. The most favorite picantes are the calapulcra, the lagua, the zango, the charquican, the adobas, the picante de ullucos, &c. The calapulcra is composed of meat and potatoes dried and finely pounded; the lagua is made of maize flour and pork; the zango, of the same ingredients, but differently prepared; the adobas consists of pork alone; and the picante de ullucos is made of a root resembling the potato, cut into small square bits. These dishes, though much too highly seasoned for European palates, are considered great dainties by the Limeños. All the picantes have a very red color, owing to the quantity of cayenne used in preparing them; the achote grains, which are also used, produce a beautiful vermilion tint. Another dish, common on the dinner-table in Lima, is called ensalada de frutas. It is a most heterogeneous compound, consisting of all sorts of fruits stewed in water. To none but a Limanian stomach could such a mixture be agreeable. The dessert consists of fruits and sweets (dulces). The Limeño must always drink a glass of water after dinner, otherwise he imagines the repast can do him no good; but to warrant the drinking of the water, or, as the phrase is, para tomar agua, it is necessary first to partake of dulces. The one without the other would be quite contrary to rule. The dulces consist of little cakes made of honey or of the pulp of the sugar-cane; or they are preserved fruits, viz., pine-apple, quince, citron, and sometimes preserved beans or cocoa-nut. There is also a favorite kind of dulce made from maize, called masamora.
The Peruvians have some very singular prejudices on the subject of eating and drinking. Every article of food is, according to their notions, either heating (caliente), or cooling (frio); and they believe that certain things are in opposition one to another, or, as the Limeños phrase it, se oponen. The presence in the stomach of two of these opposing articles of food, for example, chocolate and rice, is believed to be highly dangerous, and sometimes fatal. It is amusing to observe the Limeños when at dinner, seriously reflecting, before they taste a particular dish, whether it is in opposition to something they have already eaten. If they eat rice at dinner, they refrain from drinking water, because the two things se oponen. To such an extreme is this notion carried, that they will not taste rice on days when they have to wash, and laundresses never eat it. Frequently have I been asked by invalids whether it would be safe for them to take a foot-bath on going to bed, as they had eaten rice at dinner!
The white Creoles, as well as all the superior class of people in Lima, are exceedingly temperate in drinking. Water and a kind of sweet wine are their favorite beverage; but the lower classes and the people of color are by no means so abstemious. They make free use of fermented drinks, especially brandy, chicha, and guarapo. The brandy of Peru is very pure, and is prepared exclusively from the grape. On the warm sea coast, the use of this liquor is not very injurious; there, its evil effects are counteracted by profuse perspiration. But one half the quantity that may be drunk with impunity on the coast, will be very pernicious in the cool mountainous regions. An old and very just maxim of the Jesuits is, "En pais caliente, aguardiente; en pais frio, agua fria" (in the warm country, brandy; in the cold country, water).
Guarapo is a fermented liquor, made of sugar-cane pulp and water. It is a very favorite beverage of the negroes. There are several kinds of guarapo. The best sorts are tolerably agreeable. Chicha is a sort of beer prepared from maize. The seeds of the maize are watered and left until they begin to sprout, after which they are dried in the sun. When sufficiently dry they are crushed, boiled in water, and then allowed to stand till fermentation takes place. The liquid is of a dark yellow color, and has a slightly bitter and sharp taste. Chicha is likewise made from rice, peas, barley, yuccas, pine-apples, and even bread. The kind most generally used is that made from maize. Even before the Spanish conquest of Peru, this maize beer was the common beverage of the Indians. In Lima there are some very dirty and ill-arranged restaurations, styled picanterias. These places are divided by partitions into several small compartments, each of which contains a table and two benches. The restaurateur, usually a zambo or a mulatto, prides himself in the superiority of his picantes and his clicha. The most motley assemblages frequent these places in the evening. The Congo negro, the grave Spaniard, the white Creole, the Chino, together with monks and soldiers, may be seen, all grouped together, and devouring with evident relish refreshments, served out in a way not remarkable for cleanliness. Brandy and guarapo are likewise sold in shops which are to be met with at the corner of almost every street. The coffee-houses are very inferior; most of them are very dirty, and the attendance is wretched.
Every street in Lima contains one or more cigar shops, in which mestizos and mulattos are busily employed in making cigars. Smoking is a universal custom, and is practised everywhere except in the churches. The cigars used in Lima are short, and the tobacco is rolled in paper, or in dried maize leaves. The tobacco is brought from the northern province, Jaen de Bracamoras, in very hard rolls called masos, about a yard long and two inches thick. Another kind of cigars is made of Peruvian or Columbian tobacco. They are scarcely inferior to the Havannah cigars, and would be quite equal to them, if they were kept long enough and well dried: but in Lima they are smoked within a few hours after being made. When any one wants to light his cigar in the street, he accosts the first smoker he happens to meet, whatever be his color, rank, or condition; and asks him for a light. The slave smokes in the presence of his master, and when his cigar dies out, he unceremoniously asks leave to relight it at his master's. It has been calculated that the daily cost of the cigars smoked in Lima and the immediate vicinity amounts to 2,300 dollars.
Formerly the market was held on the Plaza Mayor, and was always abundantly supplied with vegetables, fruit, and flowers. Now it is held in the Plazuela de la Inquisicion, and it is very inferior to what it used to be. Along the sides of the Plaza are stalls kept by women, who sell sausages and fish. The central part of the market is appropriated to the sale of vegetables, of which there is always an excellent supply. Facing the Palace of the Inquisition are the butchers' shops. The meat is good, though not very plentifully displayed. The most abundant kinds of meat are mutton and beef. The slaughtering of young animals being strictly prohibited by law, veal, lamb, and sucking pigs are never seen in the market. The daily consumption of butcher's meat in Lima is about twenty-eight or thirty heads of horned cattle, and between one hundred and sixty and two hundred sheep. Pork, neither fresh nor cured, is seen in the market; though great numbers of swine are slaughtered. The fleshy parts of the animal are cut into small square pieces, and boiled; the fat or lard is used in cookery, and the pieces of pork, which are spread over with lard, are called chicharones, and are held in high esteem by Limanian epicures. There is an abundant show of poultry in the market, especially fowls and turkeys, which are brought from Huacho. Game is never sold, and but very little is obtained in the neighborhood of Lima. The flower market, which is held on the Plaza Mayor, is but sparingly supplied with the gifts of Flora. The ladies of Lima recal pleasing recollections of the former glory of their flower market, and speak with regret of its present degenerate condition. The much-vaunted pucheros de flores are still occasionally displayed for sale. They are composed of a union of fragrant fruits and flowers. Several small fruits are laid on a banana leaf, and above them are placed odoriferous flowers, tastefully arranged according to their colors: the whole is surmounted with a strawberry, and is profusely sprinkled with agua rica, or lavender water. These pucheros are very pleasing to the eye, on account of the tasteful arrangement of the flowers; but their powerful fragrance affects the nerves. They vary in price, according to the rarity of the fruits and flowers of which they are composed. Some cost as much as six or eight dollars. A puchero de flores is one of the most acceptable presents that can be offered to a Lima lady.
A mingled feeling of disgust and surprise takes possession of the European who witnesses the joy which pervades all classes of the inhabitants of Lima on the announcement of a bull-fight. For several days the event is the exclusive topic of conversation, and, strange to say, the female portion of the population takes greater interest in it than the men. Bills notifying the approaching entertainment are stuck up at the corners of the streets; and every one is anxious to obtain a lista de los toros. When the season of the toros[36] commences, a bull-fight takes place every Monday, and then the whole city of Lima is thrown into a state of indescribable excitement. The ladies prepare their finest dresses for the occasion, and they consider it the greatest possible misfortune if anything occurs to prevent them going to the bull-fight: indeed, a Monday passed at home in the season of the toros would be regarded as a lost day in the life of a Limeña. Those who cannot go to the corrida, resort to the bridge, or to the Alameda, where they sit and amuse themselves by looking at the throngs of people passing and repassing.
In the time of the Viceroys, bull-fights frequently took place on the Plaza Mayor. Now there is a place expressly built for these entertainments, called the Plaza firme del Acho. It is a spacious amphitheatre without a roof, and is erected at the end of the new avenue of the Alameda. The preparations for the sport commence at an early hour in the morning. Along the Alameda are placed rows of tables covered with refreshments, consisting of lemonade, brandy, chicha, picantes, fish, dulces, &c. About twelve o'clock, those who have engaged places in the amphitheatre begin to move towards the Plaza del Acho.
Most European ladies would turn with horror, even from a description of these cruel sports, which the ladies of Lima gaze on with delight. They are barbarous diversions, and though they form a part of national customs, they are nevertheless a national disgrace. At the same time it would be unjust to make this love of bull-fighting a ground for unqualified censure on the Limeños, or a reason for accusing them of an utter want of humanity. Being accustomed to these diversions from early childhood, they regard them with perfect indifference; and custom, no doubt, blinds them to the cruelties they witness in the bull-ring. The same extenuation may be urged in behalf of the women: and though to most of the Limeñas a bull-fight affords the highest possible gratification, yet there are some who form honorable exceptions to this remark, and who, with true feminine feeling, shrink with horror from such scenes.
Peru is the only one of the South American states in which bull-fights are included in the category of public amusements. As Peru was the last to answer the cry of independence, and to shake off the yoke of Spanish domination, so she adheres with most tenacity to the customs of the mother country; for she has not the energy requisite for developing a nationality of her own. Even here is apparent that want of independence of character for which the Peruvians are remarkable. The faults of the Spaniards in them become vices, because, in imitating without reflecting, they push everything to an extreme. Thus, if bull-fights are cruel in Spain, they are barbarous in Lima. The government, too, finds it expedient to court popularity by favoring public entertainments, among which bull-fights take the lead. By allowing the people to indulge unrestrainedly in all their favorite amusements, the government gains a two-fold object, viz., that of securing the support, if not the love of the people, and of averting public attention from political affairs. These, it must be confessed, are important objects in a country which, like Peru, is continually disturbed by revolutions caused by the outbreaks of a turbulent populace, or an undisciplined army.