Eating Habbits

Naturally food is a huge part of any culture, and even more so in this country- one of the most common questions that I get are what are the traditional food dishes of your country or more specifically of my state. Because here there are alot of traditional foods!
I am hoping that at some point during my year I will post a blog with pictures of the traditional dishes (which aren't just traditional, traditional dishes that you prepare on ceremony, they are traditional and staples of the country and the everyday life, it's what we all eat) with photos and descriptions of a selection!

But in the mean time I thought that I would write about some general eating habbits. As many know here lunch is the largest meal, it would be our dinner. So the eating habbits are switched up a bit:
In the morning there is always a bag of fresh roles from the panaderia around the block and then there is usually cheese, slices of meats, and butter that you can choose between putting in the role. I usually just eat a couple of the roles, because they are really tasty (but I do it casually because eating plain rolls is kinda considered odd). OR I will microwave the roll with the cheese and ham.
Now, what you drink is a big deal with breakfast. My host mom is all about the milk, she was for it with me and my host sister, but I have never been a big fan of straight milk in the U.S. and it taste very different here (when you drink it people add sugar and always drink it warmed), so I had some for the first couple weeks... Which is when my host mom made orange juice! Which is utterly amazing! Because it's fresh squeezed orange juice!! Ofcourse its great! And so my host mom started making it for me instead of any milk, if we have oranges, we'll have freshed orange juice! Which is amazingly awsome! And I felt guilty at first for my host mom makng orange juice every morning, but then I sort of caught on that really is the sort of cultural norm.
Every morning when I go on the bus all the moms of the kids who get on in the morning will be waiting by the window and wave them off.

Lunch is the meal of the day, it's usually eaten early afternoon and is a large meal usually made up of mostly rice/potatoes and meat.
I eat lunch after school because you don't eat lunch at school. So I don't eat until four fifteen ish during the school week. Though that is not to say that there isn't alot of eating during school, because there is! The kids around my grade level eat alot of cookies, crackers and lollipops all day long. What's more is there are three places where you can buy snacks- all sorts of cookies, chips, candies, drinks, ice cream, donuts, sandwhiches, all sorts of things. I always try and bring crackers and fruit if we have it to eat at school!

Then there is or there isn't dinner. Usually after I eat it's early evening and so if i get hungry later in the evening I just get a snack and I am all set. But if someone's hungry or I say that I am really hungry while my host parents are home we will have dinner but we won't eat until late (usually it will be pollo a la brasa or pizza, something complete that can be ordered in because at that point my host mom is not cooking)

Also some generalizations about restaurants in Lima, Peru; there seem to be select few types. There are ALOT of Chifas which is the Peruvian Chinese food. It's good, though it's not exactly chinese food. Anyway they are all over the place, we live next door to one, and across from two. Then there are Chicken places which serve pollo a la brasa, which is basically a heavily seasoned chicken which is served with french fries and some salad on the side. Then there is some other smaller restaurants which serve things that are more typical like anticucho and other things. Basically there are three main types of places where you will eat. Then there is the fourth area which would be fast food restaurants from America: KFC, Pizza Hut (which somehow became a sit down, classy, wait in line restaurant here), Papa Johns, Dominoes, McDonalds, BurgerKing... there are also some other specialized restaurants, lke italian or what have you, but those four sections are really the most common (at the very least in my generalized experiance!!) This no doubt factors in my local neighborhood and such!