Give it a different name! Yeah, that's it!

Among the many interesting phenomena observed in the Mission are those having to do with changes in altitude.  As you know, we go from low in the jungle to high in mountains, often within hours.

This can cause interesting changes in volume of objects, because of the change in pressure.
Example:  Us in Huancayo (actually across the valley, in Chupaca, you know, like Chewbaca).

This is us in La Merced, in the jungle, where the lower altitude translates in to much higher ambient pressure.

And, this is us in Cerro de Pasco, at 14,400 feet, where the lower pressure allows objects to expand.  Or maybe it was just the Chinese food, you know, with all the MSG (and all those calories...).

Anyway, such differences can cause havoc with normal recipes, as well as the clothing budget.

The other night, Paula decided to cook her famous Harry Nillson Cake, in which one does place the lime and the coconut, and mix 'em bot' up, for those of you old enough to remember the song.

All was going well, until she noticed that with the lower ambient pressure, and the well-known effect of lowering the boiling point at altitude, things were happening that shouldn't have been.

Instead of rising up nice and fluffy, it was doing something entirely different (actual simulated photograph).

In the end, when the bubbling had stopped and the smoke had cleared,

it didn't look quite as expected.  Tasted OK, but Harry Nillson would have come back from the grave if his name had been applied.  So, what do you do?

Exactly!  Scrape it out of the pan, plop on some vanilla ice cream, and give it a new name.

And thus was born Torta Limón a la Huancaina!  Served only in the best restaurants, and the missionaries never knew the difference.

We hope that your altitudinally-challenged culinary attempts go better.

Dave & Paula