we just got back from peru early this morning.
it was a short vacation trip to visit some friends (they are wonderful people!) and to take a break from work. there was a lot of eating involved. a lot of cappucino con crema, tropical fruits, juice drinks made out of tropical fruits, pollo asado, sweet potatoes, seafood…i’m not complaining. aside from a few hilariously bad meals that happened in transit, it was great. as far as the actual transit itself, on the way home from lima to ft lauderdale (layover in florida) we hit turbulence so bad i thought the plane was going to fall out of the damn sky–terrifying! i’m scared to fly for the first time in my life after that.
the view from the apartment where we stayed in in san isidro, facing the ocean.
limeños (folks from lima), like most peruvians, enjoy pisco, and pisco sours, which i found unimpressive–or maybe they made me a touristy one? in any case we tried a bit of one in pisco city, appropriately, and it just tasted like a frothy magariita. just a margarita with raw egg white in there. limeños are also fond of classy architecture with heaps of plate glass (often tinted) and putting their lives in their hands while taking cabs across the city. the coffee was great there, as were pastries and cakes, which were delicious everywhere from the mall food court to a classy fusion place to a neighborhood cafe far outside of the city. meat was a little hit or miss, but then again i’m a very minimal carnivore, so that might be why. the more you pay, the better it is as for everything.
but for cheap i liked otto’s grill and various small miraflores/san isidro cafes (delicass, 4D, etc) but definitely not chinese places or the restaurant we found on the plaza de armas in pisco city, which was horrible. the restaurant inside hotel españa in pisco city is great though, and only open for dinner.
good places i will not forget include punta sal in miraflores, the first place we had a real meal (sea bass cebiche with choclo and camote, tuna causa con palta, espresso, the whole deal) and chala in barranco, which came ny times recommended and cost me dearly. but it was worth it, even though i was trying to eat there while still on antibiotics from a brush with some undercooked meat at a chinese place earlier in the week. very good despite my slight illness. i bit the bullet that afternoon and went for the menu ejercitivo: three courses and a drink. the dessert spread included a shot of liquer made from chicha morada, normally a nonalcoholic drink of blue corn and canela and lime extract and pineapple (and some other flavors) that was pretty wonderful. i’d buy nonalcoholic chicha morada if i could find it here. now i’ll be on the lookout.
we certainly did other things, quite a lot in lima on foot, but since this is a food blog, here’s a quick look at the gustatory side of the trip. unfortunately we ate a lot of things before remembering to take photos. i’m getting better at remembering as time passes.
he ordered this vegetarian causa at punta sal in miraflores.
my pollo asado from the sunday artisan's market, as well as a whole grilled plantain and some peruvian salsa.
cappucino at chala in barranco, in front of the banana chips.
fancy chicken entree at chala in barranco. there's choclo in the rice and fava beans in the soup, mm.
fancy vegetarian entree at chala in barranco.
delicious combination of balsalmic reduction and very light olive oil which they gave us with the bread at chala.
