The San Pedro Market in Cusco, Peru (Mercado Central de San Pedro) is a huge food market, open seven days a week. The building itself is one block long and three blocks wide. Vendors are packed into every bit of space inside. Outside, indigenous women and children sell foods and herbs they lay out on blankets. I couldn’t get enough of exploring this vast public market. I could have wandered the stalls for hours.
Markets around the world have beautiful produce and assortments of vegetables, but I’ve never been to a market that sells such a wide variety of items. I guess I should have expected this–there’s a lot of wonderful food in Peru.
Here are the 15 of the most interesting items we saw at San Pedro Market Cusco, ranked.
15. Beautiful pastries
14. Fresh-squeezed juices.
The Cusco food market had about 30 fresh juice vendors, serving identical mixes of juice at identical prices. I have no idea how one is supposed to choose which one to go to. Kevin and I went to this woman’s stand twice for these reasons: 1. She was the first stall in the row, and 2. She had a nice smile.
13. Rounds of bread that are bigger than my head.
12. Colorful ears of corn. Corn is dried, seasoned, and eaten as a snack.
11. Tropical fruits including my favorite, passion fruit!
10. Colorful, oddly shaped potatoes and tubers.
9. Fresh, foraged herbs—none that I recognized.
8. Peru’s favorite raw ingredient of cocaine—coca leaves!
7. Hard boiled quail eggs.
Street vendors surround the Cusco market selling three eggs for $0.50, in a baggie with a sprinkling of salt. You eat them with the toothpick. They tasted like chicken eggs.
6. Roasted and ready-to-eat guinea pigs.
This is our favorite of the weird foods in Peru. As you may recall, seeing this bucket of cuy made Kevin very hungry…
5. Dead, pickled snakes.
Presumably used for medicinal purposes. I have no idea what the green mush in the bucket is—does anyone know?
4. Soup served with a jawbone in it.
For extra flavor?
3. Dragon Blood
Locals called this stuff “Sangre de Drago” (“dragon’s blood”) and while it looks like animal blood, it’s actually sap from an Amazonian tree (Croton lechleri). Note the long spools of bark. When you cut a piece off, it bleeds! Local people use the ‘blood’ to sooth joint pain and arthritis.
2. An entire bucket of cow (Horse? Donkey?) snouts.
Finally, in case the snout isn’t enough…
1. A donkey head.
Have you been to Cusco’s San Pedro Market or other markets around the world that sell interesting foods?
A pastry and fresh squeezed juice sounds like the perfect breakfast. I’ll pass on the donkey head 😉
Yes, it was the perfect place for breakfast! As long as you have a strong enough stomach to handle the surprises around every corner 🙂
Holy cow this is awesome!!!! I think I would just wander around with my jaw on the ground!
It was an amazing place, so many interesting things to see! You guys should check it out if you make it back to Peru!
Those bread loaves look like giant bread hats!
Hehe, you haven’t changed a bit, Jenny G! I can picture you wearing that loaf on your head.
This is awesome. It just makes me want to go back to South America even that much more. I think my favorite is the guinea pigs especially since everyone probably wants to eat one out of a dirty bucket.
Hehe, I wouldn’t want a guinea pig any other way! Yes, you guys should definitely get back there! The Sacred Valley area is worth spending some time in.
I thought I was reading my shopping list..then things got weird! Not sure on buying a mixed bag of snouts! I’d heard the markets in Peru were interesting, I will have to experience it one day…the market not the snouts.
Love the blog, kind regards, Si
ps. We would love you to enter a photo to our Picture The World Project: http://www.thedepartureboard.com/picture-the-world-project
Hehe, there’s certainly something for everyone there! And thanks, great project–I’ll email you!
Wow, I’m so glad you found my blog so I could find your blog. As you saw, I got stuck in the San Pedro Market’s meat section (this is a problem I have had in markets around the world!) and missed so much of what you saw there. As I learned, don’t start with the meat section, it can put you off the market’s other treats!
Very good point and great advice! We made it to the meat section in that section at the very end, after we had already filled up on the fresh juice and pastries 🙂 Glad to find you!
#10 are not potatoes (papas) those are “olluco” or “olluquito”, don’t really know the name in english and #2 are used to prepare “Senca” it is a typical dish from the place
Thanks, Jose! Great information! I modified #10 to read potatoes/tubers! I looked up olluco in wikipedia and see they also use the word “papa lisa” which I’d heard used before–another reason to think it was a type of potato 🙂 And #2–fascinating! How do they cook the snout? Is there meat on it or do they use it in a soup?
Any idea what the green stuff is in #5? I’m dying to know!
Hi.
Came across your blog doing some Cusco research for my upcoming Peru blog series (went there a few weeks, posts will begin in June). I have one post on What To Do in Cusco in a Day and will link your site to my my San Pedro Market recommendation.
Love your appreciation for both the wonderful and the weird. I share the same fascination. Wish I had read this article before I had left, as I missed seeing most of these items when I was there.
Great post: informative, straightforward and interesting.
Thanks, Esme! Glad you appreciate the post and more importantly, the place! It is the most fascinating public food market I’ve ever been to and definitely one of the highlights of my travels to Peru. We were a little burned out on travel by the time we arrived in Cusco so the rest of the city just frustrated me, but I’d like to make it back one day to explore the place with an open mind. I really look forward to reading your post! 🙂
Actually it´s call “Sangre de grado” at least it´s call so in Peru 🙂
grettings!
Jorg, great, thank you so much for the tip! I’ll add the other name to the caption. Such a fascinating plant! 🙂
Exploring markets is an exciting adventure by itself.
Totally weird, horror stuff you depicted here… eeew!
It’s such a great market, my favorite in the world. Worth a visit if you’re ever in Cusco!
Just stumbled across your blog and post about the San Pedro Market in Cusco while trying to find info about the restaurants in the market. Have you eaten at these restaurants? And most importantly, did you eat without getting sick? I am not worried about buying fruits and vegetables, but am more cautious with the restaurants, and would like to hear from someone who has eaten there.
Oh my! I have a trip booked for Peru in August and you’ve got me very excited (and nervous?) over what I might see!