Unusual food #1: Chicha morado

First, I want to clarify what I mean by having trying an 'unusual' food every week. This isn't some Fear Factor-like contest of wills, with hooting at the crazy people who would bother to eat (or commidify for that matter) the food in question. My intent is more to explore food that I wouldn't normally have, either by cultural exposure or that it just has never occurred to me. To that end, living up the block from Plaza Latina will be a boon towards this goal. It's a robust Latin American supermarket, which also happens to have an entire aisle dedicated to Middle Eastern food.

Since my first week went by quickly (and before I really had the blog up), I picked a quick food to start with. Chicha is a usually fermented beverage made from starchy vegetables. I've come across chica recipes in brewing books, and have been curious about trying it.

To make it, you get a starchy vegetable: corn or cassava are popular. Boil these for an hour or so with any extra spices and flavorings. This ought to sound familiar to any homebrewer, since it's pretty much the wort-making process essential to brewing. In fact from here, you could add some yeast (or if you're into the classical methods, saliva) and let it ferment. Some recipes recommend drinking it while fermentation is still going, to get a frothy kick. Finally, fruit and perhaps sweetener is added.

I chose to get a sort of kit from Plaza Latina. It was just a bag with dried purple corn, and some non-alcoholic instructions. Spices in the boil were cloves, cinnamon, and pineapple rind; fruit and sweetener was cane sugar and pineapple chunks.

It's kind of an acquired taste. It's a very syrupy liquid, from the starches still left. It was almost like a fruit juice concentrate drink, but with too much concentrate and not enough fruit flavoring. After a few days though, I've warmed to it. I think if you overload it with fruit, you'd get something like a high-quality jungle-juice base. Perhaps I should try fermenting it next time.


A glass of chicha, resting atop one of one of my planter barrels. Yes, it's that purple, and it gets purple on everything (not permanent, but annoying).