LAS OCAS

My sisters and I used to eat ocas very often when we were young. My grandfather was a farmer and he would grow ocas─in Ancash, Peru─and send some to Lima for us. Ocas are like a mix of potatoes and ollucos, but a little sweet. They look like fingers. People in the highlands of Peru boil ocas and have them with coffee or tea─at breakfast or dinner. Today, some friends treated me with dinner. They boiled ocas and made tea. When the ocas got cooked, one of my friends put all the ocas on the table─not in a bowl but on the table! There were so many ocas! I had as many as I could. They were really good, as good as my grandfather’s.