Note 2: Inca snacks “on the way”
Not long ago, an office worker goes to work, makes a sandwich or prepares his lunch box before leaving home. The products and materials have changed, as 500 years have passed between stories, but the objective is the same: we still need ‘on-the-go’ meals, food that is transportable and quick to consume in order to remain active, to continue to work. It is a response to the easy and quick access to food, with a purpose more focused on satisfying the appetite than on nourishing the individual. In this article we try to trace this concept over time.
The movement of populations, whether in search of resources, transhumance or for forced causes, leads to a necessary reflection: how are we going to feed ourselves far from the family nucleus?
The solutions to this problem have been very diverse in each part of the world and archaeology can shed light on some of them.

In Greece, for example, evidence was found of consumption similar to what we know today as dakos, a dish dating back to the Bronze Age (3300 cal. BC) and still consumed today in rural areas. The conclusions highlight that this typical Greek dish served these societies because it was both nutritious and easy to transport and perfectly exemplifies the way of life of the peasant societies of Chalcolithic Greece through their consumption habits.
If in Europe the solution was to develop techniques that allowed for the transportation of food that they considered more nutritious, in Peru the place of consumption of the same was more developed.
The solution adopted by the Incas consisted in the location, along the road, of food deposits, called qolqas, which served to supply the mobilized groups of people, who would program their itinerary according to their location. These qolqas would be filled with corn, beans, chuño, sweet potato, xicama, quinoa, coca, meat and dried fish.
This solution makes sense in the context of Inca society, where the movement of groups of people was systematic. This generated a logistical demand for food that was not easy to solve.

One example was the mitimaes, more or less numerous groups of families relocated from their places of origin to other regions to fulfill specific tasks as part of the expansion of the empire. In a similar situation was the Inca military corps, destined to mobilize in the various incursions and conquests throughout the territory.
A solution was needed for food during the long journeys of a large number of people occupying this type of social caste.
If we consider what these groups ate when they were in the middle of a journey, it is likely that the road was full of provisions made up of fruits and wild plants and, as a complement to this, beans and roasted corn, sweet potato and boiled potato among other easily transportable and edible foods. They would constitute a safe supply of nutrients after cooking prior to consumption. The role of chicha is also noteworthy in these activities, which could be transported in small vessels and consumed at the various stops along the way.

Whatever the place in the world, what is certain is that the response to the need to produce ready-to-eat food crystallized in the appearance of processed, fermented, cured, dried, smoked or pickled foods, among others. In this way, a series of new products were generated that have come down to us today in the form of infinite types of cheese, sausages, breads, etc.
In other words, our need for movement and production left imprinted in our culture the traces of what we now call ‘fast food’. This concept, like the dakos, speaks of our habits of life and consumption, which is why it is as much a part of our gastronomic culture as the chuño or the huatia.