Thursday 8 July 2010

Inca - Contender 5

  • Brand: Choclo Inca
  • Description: Granos de choclo blanco tipo cremoso
  • Made in: Argentina
  • Weight: 350g
  • Drained Weight: N/A
  • Price: $5.75 (pesos)
  • Ingedients: Grains of Corn, Water, Salt, Starch, Sugar
  • Calories per portion: 45

As far as I know there aren't many Incas in Buenos Aires, but if there were, then they would have their brand of creamy corn. The label is not very inviting, the bowl of corn looking pretty washed out but it does on the side "Gracias Por Comprar Inca" (Thank You For Buying Inca), which is a nice touch.

Inca is actually a good brand name for corn as the Incas ate a lot of the stuff. It was their main crop and they used it for flour, bread and wine. Chicha is still drunk in Peru & Bolivia, it's essentially fermented corn and spit; the corn is chewed up to soften and and then spat into water.

When I stayed with a family in Paraguay my job was to help the 12 year old son to grind 2 kilos of dried corn grains in order to make the corn bread (confusingly also called chicha, or even more confusingly also known as sopa) that afternoon. It was New Year's Eve, something like 42C and we had to grind the whole lot twice to get it fine enough. God, it was hard work.


The flour was then mixed with water and made into a dough, and we all got to make our own shapes. It was then cooked in a brick oven which had been heated up by burning branches inside it. The branches came out, and the trays of bread went in. After 10 minutes it came out golden, beautifully hot and melt-in-your-mouth soft.

This is pretty much how the Incas made bread, very little about the process has changed. Not sure they ate tins of creamy corn, but I don't mind.

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Me vs Corn

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jontyjago
The other day I noticed that my local supermarket had 17 different kinds of tinned corn. Over the next few weeks I am going to try each one and review it here.
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