Street Cart · Cinnamon Ice Cream
Queso Helado ("Cheese Ice Cream")
Photo: _e.t from Saratoga, USA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Despite the name, it contains no cheese at all — the name comes from the old hand-cranking process, which left the milk ice with a dense, white, cheese-like texture.
A dense, milky ice cream flavoured with cinnamon, clove and often coconut is churned in a metal cylinder spun inside a wooden barrel packed with ice and salt. Vendors sell it from small carts around Arequipa's Plaza de Armas.
Why it's made this way: It is closely tied to Arequipa, where local tradition credits its recipe to the nuns of the colonial Santa Catalina convent, though the origin is not documented.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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