My Fulbright partner and roommate is vegetarian. Most of the time this poses no real difficulties, but every so often, while returning from the bodega with groceries for dinner, I make the decision to grab an anticucho, a food that fits into a category I endearingly call 'street meat.'
Anticuchos are basically the Andean version of shish kebabs. Dating back to the Incan empire, they are a relatively straight forward but incredibly delicious food involving roasted skewered meat topped with half of a boiled potato. The most well-known varieties are anticuchos de corazón, or cow heart anticuchos, but there are also ones of chicken, beef, pig's stomach and chicken gizzards. Finally, depending on personal taste, you can dose the meat in ají, or Andean chili sauce.
It was really impossible for me not to feel pure joy as I stood on the side of the street in the Peruvian Andes eating freshly roasted grilled meat. Maybe it's from Anthony Bourdain's strong influence on my life, but I have no aversions to organ meat at all. I felt just as happy eating heart, stomach and giblets as I did eating chicken and beef.
