Nuact'l Cuisine

The Blessed Trinity of beans, kinwa and potatos form the basis of Nuac'l cuisine. These staples form a triad which ensure a complete diet which can be augmented with meat if desired, but it is not entirely needed. Vast state storehouses are filled with these items, which store well, and are regularly distributed in times of famine or particularly cold winters. Other items which are common throughout the Kingdoms include yucca root, maxixe, okra and oca.

The Paria Ayllu, though great shepherds and fishermen, are vegetarians by nature with fish and dairy supplementing the blessed trinity. With at least some of their curaca living on the thousand-shores area of the Sötétkék Tenger, the Paria Ayllu are known for their production and consumption of xitai, a purple seaweed which is pulped and dried into sheets or bricks, as well as escabeche, wherein a firm white fish is chemically cooked in limoñ with various spices and vegetables. Common spices for these otherwise simple Paria dishes include limoñ, cumin and morróns.

It is not uncommon to find the Ichma'a Ayllu diet to be entirely devoid of any meat with beans and potatoes being cooked along with onions and peanuts in rich, creamy stews fortified with cheese and cream made from the llama or vicuna. To counterbalance and complement these stews, locoto are used to spice the dishes which are commonly served with manioc, a type of flat bread made from yucca root flour. Another traditional Ichma’a dish is pallares, a mixture of boiled white beans, cooked kinwa, onions, tomatoes and aji, all marinated in limoñ, vinegar and oil. When meat is seen in the Ichma’a diet, it is commonly preserved, whether by freeze-drying, jerking or salting the flesh.

The Tok’l Ayllu are known for their use of cuy (a small rodent akin to a rabbit) and domestication of these small creatures is a high priority in the curaca. Common compliments to the fine-flavoured, nearly fat-free meat are aji peppers and kinwa, especially when the latter is cooked in broth. The Tok’l are also known for their papa rellena, wherin a mixture of minced meat, eggs, spices and vegetables are surrounded by mashed potatoes and then deep-fried as well as the pachamanca. Not an individual dish, but more a banquet and cooking method, the pachamanca consists of a variety of meats, herbs and vegetables which are slowly cooked underground on a bed of heated stones.

It is commonplace for most people to have either chicha, a drink made from herbed and fermented beans of the chocho plant, morada, a sweetened, non-alcholic version of chicha or camu-camu, a refreshing sweet drink made from the fruits of the camu-camu tree.