Holidays in Lima (April 29 2010)

My last breakfast in Lima had to be special. As it was really early in the morning (3:30 am) I wanted to have just a lúcuma* and milk shake but my mum, who loves to overfeed her children as many other mums do, had bought wholemeal panettone (tastier and maybe healthier than the regular one, with dried fruit and nuts instead of candied fruit) and prepared some hot chocolate. I had two small slices of panettone and half a cup of chocolate mixed with low fat milk because it was too sweet, plus the lúcuma shake.

I checked the airport’s website and found out that my flight was delayed. I still decided to get there on the planned time, to have the chance of choosing a good seat (the bloody airline website didn’t allow me to do it) and solving any potential luggage issues (I did pack a couple kilos over the permitted weight). I had no problems whatsoever and was given a voucher for a complimentary breakfast due to the three-hour flight delay. I stayed for a while with my mum and aunties and then said goodbye, so that they and the neighbour who drove us to the airport could go on with their normal activities.

A few hours later, at 8:20 am I claimed my free brekky in Manacaru, one of the cafes located in the airport terminals. This was the second time I was given a free meal due to flight delays, the first one was in Buenos Aires (also flying with Lan) and breakfast was very average, two croissants (they call them medialunas or half-moons) and a coffee. This time I had: freshly squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs with two ham slices, two tomato slices and lettuce, one croissant, one white bread toast, one wholemeal toast, butter, strawberry jam and a long black (they gave me options for the juice, hot drink and style of eggs – scrambled or fried).

I got on the plane for the Lima – Santiago flight almost at 10 am. Once inside, the captain announced a 35-minute delay. The airplane took off around 11:30, which means that around 12:30 I had the third breakfast of the day: omelette with a ham slice, fruit (pineapple and orange), bread, butter, carrot cake (I only ate half of it) and water. Besides butter there was peach jam, which I didn’t eat.

After three hours and a half we arrived in Santiago. The Pacífico VIP room was finally open, the price was still low (US$28) but the showers weren’t available. I thought about it for a few seconds and decided to stay. Besides using the computers, reading sitting in a comfortable couch and using the toilet, I drank several mineral water bottles (they only had sparkling), two Heinekens, several green tea cups, a cappuccino, a macchiato, pineapple juice (plus a Vital Greens sachet), and I ate peanuts, peanuts with raisins and pecans, green olives, garlic and oregano bread, a sweet croissant, sweet biscuits, fresh pineapple and an apple. There was sushi too, but the last time I stayed there I learned to stay away from the stuff.

The Santiago-Auckland flight was on time. There I had dinner: lettuce, tomato and olive salad with lime dressing, canneloni with spinach, napoletana and bechamel sauces, bread, butter, a glass of cabernet sauvignon and water. Dessert was again jam cake, which I didn’t eat.

When half of the journey was gone I got hungry and ate a ham and cheese sandwich. Later I had an almond cookie. Breakfast before landing was: omelette with diced potato, ham pieces and silverbeet, strawberry yogurt, bread, butter and peach jam (which I didn’t eat), cake (which I didn’t eat), tea and water.

There was a one-hour stopover in Auckland, Alvaro had told me to buy kiwi shortbreads so I got one box for us and one for Gladys. In the Auckland-Sydney flight I had another brekky: fruit (apple, pineapple, melon), fruit of the forest yogurt, ham, cheese, tomato and spinach sandwich, bread, butter, strawberry jam, tea and water.

Gladys and Alvaro picked me up from the airport. We went home, I had a shower (I really needed it after 38 hours without one), we chatted and I gave them the gifts and things I had brought. That afternoon we had lunch in Corelli’s cafe on King St, which is always packed. Food arrived a long time after ordering and Alvaro found bugs in his salad. Looks like we aren’t going back there.

* The explanation about lúcuma can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 28 2010)

Wednesday’s pre-workout meal was a granadilla*, three boiled quail eggs that my mum had left in the fridge for me and a banana de seda**. Then, after training I had one banana de la isla** and almonds.

I had lunch with my friend from school Carla. Ironically, she was the one who “booked” a meeting with me before than anybody else and we had to reschedule our lunch a couple of times. First she was sent to a beach in the South of Lima on the day we had originally agreed. Then we chose another restaurant that was closer to her office, and when I got there it was being renovated. I ringed her and we quickly thought on another meeting point. She picked me up and I chose a restaurant nearby, another cebichería (I LOVE seafood) called La Preferida (the preferred). We ordered a tiradito*** with two sauces (yellow chili and Parmesan cheese) and conchitas a la parmesana (scallops with broiled Parmesan cheese).

I had a Cusqueña beer and Carla a Inca Kola**** and, of course, we ate a lot of canchita****.

Food was really good, as usual, and I had a great time chatting with Carla. After lunch I checked my emails and went to Julio’s house. We walked a few hundred meters to the seafront of Miraflores, where the tandem flight guys are located when there’s enough wind to fly. The experience costs 150 soles (I think it was cheaper before) and lasts only 10 minutes. Because you fly with an instructor, you have to do nothing but relax and feel like floating over the sea and the seafront, watching the buildings beside you and other people in tandems performing tricks.

When time was over the wind kept pushing us up, so the instructor had to turn around and try again three times, meaning that I had extra time for free!

Then Julio and I went to Larcomar (a shopping centre next to the sea) to drink something. We stopped in a fruit bar called Disfruta (it means enjoy but the name in Spanish plays with the word fruta, fruit). I had a juice called Tuna Manía that had tuna, mango and granadilla. Before you scream in horror, tuna in Spanish is the name of a fruit, the fish you know as tuna is called atún. Tuna (the fruit) comes from cactuses.

On my way back home I had to change buses. I went to a bakery called Wilton’s and ate an alfajor, two corn flour sweet biscuits with a layer manjarblanco (caramel) in the middle and covered with icing sugar. It was delicious and it didn’t have shredded coconut on the sides (most of the times, people roll the sides of alfajores in shredded coconut, which I hate).

That night I went with mum to my aunties’ house. I had leftovers from the previous day for dinner: yuquitas fritas***** with huancaína and ocopa sauces and a quarter of a butifarra plus picarones, a dough made with flour, cooked pumpkin, cooked sweet potato and yeast, shaped like a donut, fried and served with miel de chancaca, a syrup made from dark cane sugar, fig leaves, cinammon and cloves.

* The explanation about granadilla can be found here.

** The explanation about the types of bananas can be found here.

*** The explanation about tiradito and huancaína sauce can be found here.

**** The explanation about Inca Kola and canchita can be found here.

***** The explanation about yuquitas fritas and ocopa sauce can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 27 2010)

On Tuesday I deviated from my usual quinoa plus fruit and shake options. I had been shopping in the market on Monday, and I bought ciruelas criollas, creole plums, which I honestly don’t know if are truly related to the plums everyone knows. They are smaller and with a elliptical shape, edible thin red skin and juicy, sweet and tangy yellow flesh. I had a big bunch plus some almonds and a banana de seda* for breakfast.

That day I finally had lunch with my parents in a very well known cebichería called La Red (the net). I had tried to have lunch there a number of times with no luck, it was always packed and I hate to queue for a table. This time was not different but I had to try this restaurants, so we waited. I said hi to my Buddhist friend César who works there as a waiter, he said he’d try to get us a table soon but the place was really busy. We checked the menu while waiting and chose our plates (then changed our minds, then decided again), so we ordered as soon as we were given a table. My mum and I shared a causa de pulpa de cangrejo (causa* with crabmeat), a tacu tacu de locro con camarones (tacu tacu** made with locro instead of beans, topped with shrimp and shrimp sauce) and a small jug of chicha morada***. Locro is a stew made with cubed pumpkin and potato, cooked until they collapse, mixed with milk and feta cheese, and served with corn, peas and usually beef. My dad ordered a saltado de pescado (lomo saltado**** made with fish instead of beef).

Food was spectacular. I loved the taste, the portion sizes were enormous (except the causa, which was regular sized) and the prices were not very high, although all dishes featuring shrimp were 39 soles, around 10 soles more than the rest of them. I didn’t have room for dessert but I tried a spoonful of my mum’s suspiro a la limeña***, which was tasty but not as good as the one in El Rincón Que No Conoces, a famous creole restaurant where I have tasted the best suspiro in my life, followed by mine (of course!).

After lunch I went shopping and then to look for creole sandwichs. Right next to the sandwich restaurant there was a garage where a lady with two giant pots was selling arroz con leche (rice pudding) and mazamorra morada (purple corn pudding, made by boiling purple corn with pineapple skin, cinnamon and cloves, thickening it with potato and corn starch and adding dried fruit), traditional desserts that are commonly sold in carts, stalls, etc., and that can be eaten alone or served together in a cup, changing the name of the dessert to combinado (combined). I ate the smallest combinado available, which was an 8 oz cup that costed 1 sol. Then I bought two butifarras (sandwich made with a special ham called jamón del país or country ham, with salsa criolla on top, ie thinly sliced onions with chili and lime juice) and one turkey sandwich. I asked the girl to pack the bread rolls, meats and sauces in different containers, to avoid the rolls from getting moist.

That night I went to Gloria’s apartment, one block away from my parents’ house. My sister was sick, but she did her best to have a good time and be a good host. She helped me with the preparation: cooked cocktail potatoes and broad beans in the microwave, skinned the broad beans, separated the corn from the cob and helped me wash plates and utensils. I prepared a solterito “reloaded”, a remake of a typical salad from a city called Arequipa. My version had lettuce, broad beans, corn, black olives, Paria cheese, avocado and lime juice. I also prepared ocopa sauce (a sauce also from Arequipa that has yellow chili, oil, peanuts, a herb called huacatay, milk, feta cheese and sweet biscuits) and huancaína*** sauce to dip the cocktail potatoes, corn and yuquitas fritas (yuca pieces that had been boiled and browned in butter). We also had the sandwiches I had bought previously.

We spent the night chatting and drinking a really good Argentinian Malbec that Gloria and Aníbal had (from the Luigi Bosca winery). I didn’t go home too late to let Gloria rest. Before I left, we split the leftovers for the next day.

* The explanation about the types of bananas and causa can be found here.

** The explanation about tacu tacu can be found here.

*** The explanation about chicha morada, suspiro a la limeña and huancaína sauce can be found here.

**** The explanation about lomo saltado can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 26 2010)

On Monday after the retreat I had a granadilla* and a banana de seda** as pre-workout meal. My post-workout shake had a frozen banana de seda, milk and cinnamon.

Then I went to meet my friend Víctor (an ex-coworker from TSS) for lunch in Pardo’s Chicken (a charcoal chicken franchise). He arrived a bit late and with a heavy jacket on, he had a fever and no voice. Still, he made the effort to meet me, which confirmed what a good friend he is. We both ordered a meal combo that included one quarter of grilled Pardo’s chicken with Pardo’s salad (cooked green beans, carrots and beetroot, and avocado) plus a glass of chicha morada***.

To be honest, I think that both quality and quantity of food in this franchise have been going down year after year. It’s still good but many years ago it was amazing. Chili sauce and mayonnaise seem to be the only things that have not changed.

For dessert I ordered a suspiro a la limeña***, which could be easily be my favourite Peruvian dessert. I recalled Pardo’s suspiro being very tasty and indeed it looked tasty, but it was rather average, with what seemed to be clots in the manjarblanco*** (I don’t know if they were half-cooked egg yolks, it felt more like badly distributed solidified gelatin) and a sad meringue, without port or cinnamon.

After saying goodbye to Víctor I went to two supermarkets (Vivanda and Wong) to buy the foods I brought back home: powdered lúcuma*, powdered ají amarillo (yellow chili) and ají panca (dried red chili), instant potato mash, vanilla esence, algarrobina****, a drinking chocolate tablet, chocolates filled with pisco*** and raisins, and chocolates filled with lúcuma. The luggage weight limits made me prioritise between the many things I wanted to buy.

That dinner I met Marlene and Jaime in Hanzo, the sushi bar where Jaime works. My friend Claudia from uni also came along. Marlene and I drank Kenzo coolers (I don’t remember what was in there but it tasted kinda apple martini-ish), Jaime and Claudia ordered Hanzo coolers. Drinks were nice, sweet and light in alcohol. We were served complimentary green beans, chicken morsels and a couple of other appetizers that I don’t remember. We started with four types of maki rolls, one of them was called Feru Maki, covered with salmon and octopus tartare. Another one was topped with huancaína*** sauce (the one in La Pescadería was tastier), another was covered with broiled cheese. They were good, especially the Feru Maki.

Then we were treated with maki rolls with stir-fried tenderloin in oyster sauce that were not in the menu, very yummy.

I thought that was it but Marlene and Jaime ordered more food: sahofan (rice noodles) with seafood, yakimeshi (fried rice with chicken and vegetables) and buta (pork) cooked four ways.

Jaime and I drank beer and then finished our big dinner sharing a tapioca and raspberry pudding with sauco (a Peruvian berry) yogurt ice-cream that was delicious.

* The explanation about granadilla and lúcuma can be found here.

** The explanation about the types of bananas can be found here.

*** The explanation about chicha morada, suspiro a la limeña, manjarblanco, huancaína sauce and pisco can be found here.

**** The explanation about algarrobina can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 22 – 25 2010)

Thursday 22

Thursday was the day the Phowa meditation retreat started. I had breakfast very early in the morning before leaving the house: quinoa with a splash of milk, almonds, a banana de seda* and a granadilla**. Then I went to the Buddhist centre, where we met to catch the buses that drove us to a beach club in San Bartolo, a beach less than one hour to the South of Lima.

Food during the retreat was included in the price we paid. The three main meals were prepared by the club’s caterers. In short, food sucked. Portions were small, bad tasting and loaded with starches. Refreshments were super watery, as if they tried to fill 260 glasses with 10 liters of thinned out juice. When foreigners complained about not having fruits or vegetables they started selling salads for 4 soles. Luckily for everybody, we had the centre’s cafeteria offering beverages and snacks.

As per agreement with the centre, hot beverages were not sold in the dining room by the caterers. Instead, we sold coffee, tea and herbal teas in the cafeteria. I worked some shifts there, so I can say that it was a pretty good business strategy.

After arriving and registering, we had some time to get our stuff into the rooms we had been assigned and chill out until lunchtime. I went for a walk and then bought a bag of Morochas (sweet biscuits with chocolate coating on one side) and a mate de coca (a Peruvian herbal tea made with coca leafs). Just to make things clear, biscuit bags in Peru are much smaller than in Australia, they usually contain four to eight biscuits depending on the size of them and if they’re sandwiched or not. Morochas are thin biscuits and the package contains eight of them.

Lunch was lomo saltado*** and passion fruit juice. The lomo saltado was so-so and the portion was not big enough. I had a mixture of tough and not-so-tough pieces of meat on my plate. The juice was watery. The vegetarian version was the same dish but with soy “meat”, the same happened with all other meals (talk about lack of creativity).

After lunch and before the first session of the retreat I had a green tea in the cafeteria. After the session we had dinner: asado** with mashed potatoes and white rice, and passion fruit juice. Once again, so-so taste and small portions. After dinner I had a mate de coca and a coffee with a splash of milk. Then there was another session and we went to bed.

Friday 23

Breakfasts were basically the same everyday: two bread rolls, a slice of cheese, a slice of ham, a bit of butter, a bit of strawberry jam and a diluted fruit juice. Yummy (not!). On Wednesday we had a wholemeal roll and a pan de yema**** and melon juice. It wasn’t enough for me so I bought a bag of dried fruit (apple, mango, banana, strawberry) and a green tea. If anyone’s interested, the brand of the dried fruit is Del Brujo and belongs to Brujas de Cachiche restaurant.

After the first session we had lunch: ají de gallina* and a thick transparent liquid that someone identified as pineapple drink (water boiled with pineapple skin). I had a coffee with a splash of milk in cafeteria and went to help Valerie in the dharma shop (where the centre sells books, CDs, t-shirts and all sorts of Buddhist paraphernalia). She invited me a banana manzano*.

After the second session we had dinner: pastel de acelga (silverbeet spinach pie) with a small lettuce, brown onion, tomato and cucumber salad. The pie was too salty, too small and, well, just awful. Once again I went to cafeteria to mitigate my hunger with a bag of Club Social (salty biscuits), a bag of Pícaras (sweet biscuits 75% coated in chocolate) and a coffee with a splash of milk.

At night, after the third session, some friends and I had beers, Tor-Tees (a Peruvian brand of nachos) and a bit of arroz chaufa****. Then Alfonso invited me a couple of shots of a Czech liquor.

Saturday 24

Breakfast on Saturday was similar as the day before, with pan francés**** instead of pan de yema and pineapple juice instead of melon juice. I ate fast and went to help in cafeteria. While working I had a coffee, a green tea, a bottled light tea and a banana (the cafeteria stocked fresh fruit to sell as per people’s suggestions).

Lunch was seco de pollo with beans and rice, and chicha morada*****. Seco is a stew (usually made with lamb or beef, this one had chicken) with onion, garlic, chili, coriander, malt beer and chicha de jora (an alcoholic fermented drink made from a type of corn used for cooking and drinking), but I doubt they used all the ingredients this time because the sauce lacked of flavour. Fortunately I got thigh instead of leg (I prefer breast over thigh, thigh over wing and wing over leg). The chicha morada was watery (no wonder) and tasted fermented. I had a coffee in cafeteria and a ciruela criolla (creole plum).

That day the organising team decided to treat people with bottled water at lunch to make up for the hideous drinks and half of a tamal criollo per person at dinner. It was a good decision because dinner was again small and not too good (meat pie, but not the Aussie/British kind and sweet potato purée). Plus watery chicha morada, of course.

Sunday 25

On Sunday before breakfast I ate a granadilla and an apple that I had bought the previous day at the cafeteria. Breakfast was similar, with pan serrano (bread from the highlands), pan francés and mixed fruit juice.

For lunch we had one of the dishes I like the least: estofado de pollo (chicken stew with carrots, peas, etc) served with boiled yellow potato and white rice. To make things worse, the chicken part I got was leg. There was a vegetarian foreign girl at the table that spent all the retreat eating just potatoes and rice with no sauce. That’s how yummy were vegetarian dishes (not!). The drink that afternoon was emoliente, an infusion made with barley, some native herbs, linseed, sugar and lime juice. It was alright.

Then the retreat ended and we returned to the Buddhist centre were five couples were married by the lama. This kind of marriage doesn’t have legal value in our country but it’s a good thing to do if you and your partner want a faster development as Buddhists. Alfonso had hired people from Huaringas bar to cater for the event. There were skewers with grapes, mango, papaya and watermelon, grapes and cheese in toothpicks, celery and carrot sticks with huancaína sauce, celery and carrot sticks with avocado and mayo dip, spinach and cream cheese mini sandwichs, cream cheese, tomato and ham mini roulades, fried chicken sticks with teriyaki sauce, fried chicken legs with lime sauce, tequeños (wonton rolls filled with cheese and fried) with guacamole, tequeños with huancaína sauce, fried yuca pieces with yellow chili sauce, and ají de gallina in mini tart pastries. To drink I had beer and a maracuyá sour (similar to a pisco sour but with passion fruit instead of lime juice). Everything was absolutely delicious.

* The explanation about the types of bananas and ají de gallina can be found here.

** The explanation about granadilla and asado can be found here.

*** The explanation about lomo saltado can be found here.

**** The explanation about pan de yema, arroz chaufa and pan francés can be found here.

***** The explanation about chicha morada can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 21 2010)

On Wednesday I had a granadilla* and a banana de seda** before training and two shakes after training: one with lúcuma* and milk and one with frozen banana de seda, milk and cinnamon.

Then I had lunch with my sister Gloria in a cebichería*** called Punto Azul, which is a short stroll away from UPC, the uni I went to and where Gloria works and studies. There were few free tables left when I arrived, so I sat down and waited for her. As usual in this kind of restaurants, we ordered a cold dish and a hot dish to share: tiradito tricolor*** (with three sauces: lime juice, yellow chili sauce and rocoto sauce. Rocoto is a red chili similar in shape to capsicums but with a black stem and really hot) and tacu tacu especial con filete de pescado (tacu tacu is a mixture of cooked beans and cooked rice seasoned with onion, garlic and chili, and shaped like an American football in a wok. The one we ate had seafood mixed with the beans and rice, plus two breaded and fried fish fillets on top). To drink I ordered a Cusqueña negra (malt beer) and Gloria a Inca Kola (our national soft drink, sweet as hell. Only Peruvians like it, and not all of us, I’m one exception). In every cebichería you get complimentary canchita (a special kind of corn that is toasted in a pan with oil and salted), sometimes chifles (salted banana chips). This time we got only canchita, it was so good and we were so hungry that we asked the waitress for a refill.

The food arrived quickly, the tiradito was very yummy, the tacu tacu was alright, although some of the seafood morsels were not top quality (leftovers from other dishes, maybe?). The breaded fish fillets were delicious, big and not greasy at all.

After lunch Gloria showed me how much my uni have grown. There are new buildings everywhere (they had to buy houses around the original campus) and way too many students. They have several eateries inside the campus (including Starbucks) and vending machines, all the eateries are usually packed and the machines run out of food constantly. I remembered my time in uni, when we had only one cafeteria inside the campus and a couple of vending machines that were usually full. In those days, when my nutrition sucked big time, my lunch used to be a bag of sweet biscuits and a soft drink. And I thought I was eating “light” because of the size of the meal. Other days I would go with some friends to Bembo’s (a Peruvian burger franchise) and eat a cheese and bacon burger with soft drink and chips. I’m glad I realised later what I was doing to myself.

My mum and I had a light dinner that night before going to Lama Ole’s public talk: Lebanese bread with avocado and sugar. Eating bread with mashed avocado and sugar is a very typical thing in my family, I suspect it was my grandmother’s idea.

I went with my parents to the public talk but they didn’t stay until the end (close to midnight). When I got back home I was a bit hungry, so I ate a mini king kong with manjarblanco de lúcuma (caramel with lúcuma) that my aunty Emi had given me. King kong is a dessert made with layers of cookie made with milk, flour, eggs, shortening, sugar and cassava starch, sandwiched with caramel and sometimes pineapple jam or quince paste.

* The explanation about granadilla and lúcuma can be found here.

** The explanation about the types of bananas can be found here.

*** The explanation about cebicherias and tiradito can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 20 2010)

Breakfast on Tuesday was my usual quinoa with a splash of milk, cinnamon, a banana de seda*, almonds and a granadilla**.

My friend from school Marlene and I met in Hikari, a charcoal chicken restaurant that is supposed to have one of the best lomo saltados in Lima. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed, so we took a taxi and went to Don Bosco. It was packed, as usual, so we had to wait for a table. The good thing is that people having lunch there usually have to rush back to their offices, so they eat pretty quickly. Obviously, I ordered lomo saltado, one of my favourite creole dishes which has a strong Chinese influence. It’s a stir-fry made with tenderloin pieces, tomato and red onion wedges and julienned yellow chili, seasoned with soy sauce and vinegar (as happens with all dishes every cook makes their own version, mine includes garlic, pepper, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, red wine vinegar and oyster sauce). The sides are white rice and potato chips (French fries), and common garnishes are chopped spring onions, parsley or coriander (I prefer coriander). There’s a debate regarding the chips, some say they should be mixed with the stir-fry so that they arrive to the table moistened by the sauce, others say that chips should remain crisp on the side of the plate and that the diner should choose whether to mix them with the sauce or not. I prefer my chips wet and juicy.

Marlene ordered tallarín saltado, basically a lomo saltado but served on top of pasta instead of rice and potato chips.

We left the restaurant soon to leave room for more people to have lunch. We walked to San Antonio, a popular cafe in a suburb nearby. I had a café con leche (flat white) and a lúcuma** and chocolate tart. Marlene ordered a café americano (long black) and a passion fruit mousse; she had another coffee later. Marlene and her partner Jaime lived for two years in Sydney so there were plenty of things to talk about. We agreed to have dinner before I left Lima in a sushi restaurant called Hanzo, where Jaime works.

For dinner I had some leftovers in my aunties’ house: one tamalito verde***, a lettuce, cucumber, capsicum and avocado salad with lime juice, one humita dulce****, chicha morada*** and green tea.

* The explanation about the types of bananas can be found here.

** The explanation about granadilla and lúcuma can be found here.

*** The explanation about tamalito verde and chicha morada can be found here.

**** The explanation about humita dulce can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 19 2010)

On Monday I had a banana de seda* and a granadilla* before training, and a lúcuma** shake (with milk) after training, super tasty!

That day I had lunch with my friend Christian from uni. We had lunch in a Japanese restaurant called Osaka, quite expensive but really good. We chose several dishes to share: sashimi Osaka (salmon, bonito and octopus) served with threads of carrot, causitas* with crab meat and avocado, nigiri sushi Osaka (prawn, sole and tuna) and tiradito 2 olivos (octopus sashimi with black olive sauce and green olive sauce), served with crispy wonton noodles and a little salad.

Besides from shoyu, gari and eel sauce, we were served a complimentary pickled turnip and seaweed salad. I had a couple of beers, Christian had only water. The food was awesome, definitely you can find better sashimi and sushi in Lima than in Sydney because seafood is way tastier.

We had room for something else, between another dish and dessert we chose the savoury option: balsamic teriyaki beef tenderloin with fried fan si noodles and mashed potatoes, also very yummy. We were full but not stuffed, because everything we ate was pretty healthy (except for the beers).

That night I had dinner with my friend Jessica from school, we went to Panchita, an anticuchería, ie a restaurant that specialises in anticuchos, beef heart pieces in a skewer, marinated in vinegar, oil, chili and herbs, and grilled. You can make anticuchos with other cuts of beef (tenderloin is popular), chicken, fish, etc. This restaurant was created by Gastón Acurio, the most influential chef in history of my country, who is making Peruvian cuisine known in the rest of the world. We first ordered our drinks, I had a pisco cocktail called “Qué buenos mangos” (damned good mangoes), Jessica had a granadilla juice.

Then the complimentary bread rolls and focaccias arrived, which are so big and tasty that together with the chili sauce and herbed butter can easily be considered a meal. In Panchita is impossible (at least for me) not to eat the bread to make room for the food, it’s just too good. And you have to make the most of the money you pay for cover (13 soles per head).

As a main I ordered a dish with a lengthy name, very common in Gastón’s restaurants: “el pato de la abuela norteña guisado con naranja agria y ají sobre pepián de choclo” (something like granny from the North’s duck stewed in sour orange and chili over corn pepián). Pepián is made with puréed corn seasoned with onion, garlic, chili and coriander. Jessica ordered anticucho de corazón (beef heart anticucho), with the typical sides: papa dorada (potatoes that have been boiled, skinned, halved and deep fried) and boiled corn off the cob. Both dishes were espectacular and the portions were generous, as the restaurant’s creator would say.

We didn’t have dessert, but it was early and we wanted to continue chatting, so we decided to go for coffee somewhere else. We went to Starbucks first (I met an ex-colleague there) but it was packed. Then we went to Café Z, I had a capuccino and Jessica a café americano (long black).

* The explanation about the types of bananas and causa can be found here.

** The explanation about granadilla and lúcuma can be found here.

*** The explanation about pisco can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 18 2010)

On Sunday I had a papaya and banana de seda* juice and some quinoa for breakfast, nothing too heavy in preparation for all the food that followed later on that day. We had one of those traditional family lunches in my aunties’ house where we eat heaps of food, chat, laugh and eat more food.

We had chifa for lunch. Chifa is how Chinese restaurants are called in Peru, and by extension, we use the same word for Chinese food. Many years ago a lot of Chinese, mostly from Canton, arrived in Peru as labourers and stayed there, along with their cuisine, which we adapted and adopted. If you walk on the streets of Lima you will find as many chifas as Thai food eateries in Sydney. I’d say that the most popular restaurants in Lima are chifas and pollerías (charcoal chicken restaurants).

My family has always bought food from the same place, Chifa Canadá (it’s on an Avenue called Canada), one of the yummiest in Lima, in my opinion. I had asked my auties to buy arroz chaufa (fried rice), kam lu wantán (pork, chicken, pineapple and vegetables in a sweet red sauce with fried wontons), tallarín saltado (fried noodles) and pollo enrollado con espárragos (chicken stuffed with asparagus). Additionally, the got chi jau kay (chicken morsels battered in potato starch, fried and served with oyster sauce) and pollo trozado de la casa (the restaurant’s signature chicken). They prepared some nabo encurtido (pickled turnip) to compliment the food.

I bought a Californian Zinfandel rosé instead of a Riesling because I thought it would be easier to drink for a family not used to drinking wine. Dessert was the crema volteada I prepared the day before, also to please my sister’s and my niece’s palates. It certainly isn’t one of my favourite desserts, I would never choose it if I had other options.

In this special Sundays we have lonche instead of dinner. The word lonche, as you might have guessed, comes from lunch, but it actually refers to some sort of afternoon tea. I wanted to eat tamales, so I asked my aunties to buy: tamalitos verdes**, tamales criollos***, humitas de pollo** (humitas stuffed with chicken), humitas dulces (sweet humitas, with sugar in the dough and filled with manjarblanco and raisins) and empanadas de carne (beef empanadas, those yummy pastries filled with ground meat, onions, garlic, boiled egg and olives you may already know thanks to globalisation). My aunties, of course, ignored my instructions the buy only two of each and split them to share and got heaps of food. They also bought bread rolls: pan de yema (a sweet roll similar to a burger bun), whole wheat bread and pan francés (French-style bread). I had a small piece of each thing and two bread rolls.

* The explanation about the types of bananas can be found here.

** The explanation about tamalito verde and humita can be found here.

*** The explanation about tamal criollo can be found here.

Holidays in Lima (April 17 2010)

On Saturday I didn’t have a pre-workout meal because I had been out the night before (again!), drinking and eating, and I wasn’t hungry. After training I had a papaya and banana de la isla* juice. Papaya is great for healing the stomach lining that is usually irritated after a night out. I always add cinnamon to juices that contain papaya. I also had half a wholemeal bread roll with butter and black olives. Until some years ago I totally hated olives. Lots of people write about the dualism that surrounds olives, it seems that people tend to either love it or hate it with passion. That happened to me, too, and now I’m in the olive lovers’ side. And I must admit that I love Peruvian olives a lot more than the ones I buy in Sydney.

After breakfast I prepared crema volteada, a Peruvian dessert similar to flan and crème brulée, made with eggs, evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla esence. When it was almost ready I turned off the oven and left it inside to finish cooking with the remaining heat. I went for lunch with my sister Gloria, her boyfriend Aníbal and my niece Ale. Aníbal drove us to a cebichería that belongs to a well-know Peruvian chef. The place, called La Pescadería (the fish shop) is located in a not-so-good neighbourhood but inside it’s a fancy restaurant on the pricy side. They even have a sushi bar inside. We ordered some sushi to nibble while waiting for the mains: maki montado (fried fish, avocado and Philadelphia cheese, topped with huancaína sauce**) and drinks (I had beer, of course). Before the sushi arrived we were served complimentary chilcano de pescado, a fish broth seasoned in this case with ají panca (dried red chili) and drank with lime juice and fresh chili, perfect for a cool afternoon.

While browsing the menu looking for the most appealing main option I spotted something I couldn’t believe, a dish that I’ve been craving for ages but that is hard to find in restaurants (and impossible to re-create here): cau cau de choros. The traditional cau cau is a stew made with mondongo (cow’s stomach), cubed potatoes, palillo (turmeric) and a herb called hierbabuena. I hate mondongo because of its strong smell and towel-like texture, but I love the dish when cooked with choros (mussels). According to the menu, this version of cau cau came with mussels and chorizo but instead of chorizo there was salchicha de Huacho, a spicy sausage (as in “with spices”, not as in “hot”) similar in flavour to a Turkish sausage called Sucuk. It comes from a town called Huacho, hence the name. The stew was served in a big clay pot with white rice in the center, it was espectacular.

Ale ordered cebiche de corvina (corvina is the name of the fish) without chili, Gloria jalea de calamar en salsa de tumbo (fried squid in a sauce made with a fruit from the jungle called tumbo, with fried yuca as a side) and Aníbal mako en guiso de frejoles y salchicha de Huacho (a fish called mako with a bean and salchicha de Huacho stew, which was served also in a clay plate like mine and was almost as good. Food was excellent, the only flaws in the restaurant were a dirty fork (which was changed as soon as I told the waiter) and that the waiter failed to let us know that the credit card system was not working before we even ordered. Luckily, Aníbal had cash on him.

At night, after dropping Ale at home we went to the city centre to have a pisco sour, our national drink made with pisco**, lime juice, jarabe de goma** and egg whites, in the old Hotel Bolívar, which fame relies on this drink. Gloria drank algarrobina, a cocktail made with pisco, algarrobina (a syrup made in the North of the country boiling carob pods for very long hours), jarabe de goma, evaporated milk, egg yolk, cinnamon and sometimes cacao liquor. We ordered two servings of bolitas de yuca rellenas de queso con salsa huancaína (cassava balls stuffed with cheese and served with huancaína sauce) to nibble on. The sauce was very thin (I like it chunky) but tasted alright.

We wanted another drink so we went to Huaringas bar “for a change”. We always end up here because a) the drinks are awesome, b) the food is amazing, c) the vibe is great, d) the manager is my good buddhist friend Alfonso and over the years many other buddhist friends have worked there as waiters/waitresses. Before going there we went to Aníbal’s house and left the car there. My friend Rashid was working that day, so he found us a table (the place is always packed, so he actually removed the “reserved” sign from a small table and let us sit there). Aníbal ordered one of the signature drinks: Huaringas sour (I don’t remember what’s in it), Gloria had a granadilla and mandarin juice and I had a sour de granadilla con fresas de Pachacamac (pisco sour but with granadilla and strawberries from Pachacamac instead of lime juice). We also had more nibbles (I know, we ate a lot!): quinoa-crusted prawns. Once again, everything was super yummy.

* The explanation about the types of bananas can be found here.

** The explanation about huancaína sauce, pisco and jarabe de goma can be found here.