La Comida Tipica de Peru

My friend Alvaro, who is from Lima, sent me an email with advice on what to do in Peru. In it he says, "eat, eat, and eat" because Peruvians are especially proud of their cuisine. Well, I certainly took his advice to heart. I spent 1.5 days in Lima and probably gained 5 pounds there--mostly thanks to Alvaro's friend Cesar. Thanks, Cesar, for the culinary tour.

Cuy

One of the most interesting traditional Peruvian dishes I tried was guinea pig, called cuy (I tried this in Cusco). I didn't like it all that much (wouldn't order it again), but it was certainly an experience.

My Home-Cooked Traditional Lunch

Here I am eating lunch at Cesar's house. He served me a wonderful meal of traditional fare.

We started out with "papa rellano con salsa huancaina," a fried potato stuffed with meat served with a traditional sauce.

The main course was called "aji de gallina," or spice of chicken, served with rice and a hard boiled egg. This was extremely tasty--and I ate too much of it.

After lunch, Cesar took me to try deserts made from the Peruvian fruit "lucuma." We had lucuma cheesecake and lucuma brownie. I liked this as well. The flavor was a bit similar to key lime, but more subtle.

My Restaurant Traditional Lunch

The next day, on Fernando's recomendation, Sara, Zooey and I headed to Jose Antonio's for more traditional fare.

I started out with an appetizer of "anticuchos de corazon," or cow heart. This was surprisingly not-gross. It pretty much tasted like regular beef.

Next, I moved on to "lomo saltado," which was an unremarkable beef and vegetable stir fry.

For desert I sampled "picarones," which are basically doughnuts served with molases.

Dinner

My second (and last) night, Cesar and I headed to a famous restaurant called La Bodegita de Hugo Plevesiane. We shared a burger and salmon dish for dinner.

But, the real treat was the desert. Again, we shared.

Boncanera de chocolate (basically a chocolate lava cake with ice cream on the side)

Crocatente de almendras (almond brownie with ice cream)

Cesar and I closed out our night with Passion Fruit Sours at Huaringas (another famous joint). Many people think that pisco is from Chile (I did when I was in Chile), but in fact it comes from Peru.

Finally, here is some "choclo con queso," or corn served with a block of cheese and some spicy salsa that I got on my tour of the Sacred Valley.

The one thing that Lima is famous for and that I didn't get to try is ceviche. Oh, well...next time.