One of the things that a lot of upscale restaurants have been offering lately is a Tasting Menu. They call it something fancier than that, but these -- for a fixed (high) price -- offer a sampling of a lot of different dishes from the kitchen, often tied to a theme. Central Restaurant prides itself on serving food indigenous to Peru and its diverse and unique ecosystems, so the theme of the meal is a Gastronomic Tour of Peru. In less fancy words, it's A Lot of Different Peruvian Food.
And different it was. Last visit, every dish came with a backstory. This time, we were asking for it, and they came through. Our server brought the dish, and along with the plates, he brought someone to explain it. Somebody different. Every plate; someone different. Every one of them.
I will do my best to tell you what we had, but they talk fast, and even Fernando couldn't keep up with all the dishes. But before I do, here's a shot of the kitchen. They've got 7607520 people running around cooking things, and that doesn't include what's going on in the other kitchen, which I think has the bakery and other stuff.
Before we started the 'tour,' they brought out some chips. The orange ones were sweet potato, and the black ones were 'Black Potato.' There was some sort of spread in the bottom of the cup.
The meal started out with a bit from the four Peruvian Ecosystems. First up were the Sea and the Coast.
In the top picture there's cut up Calamari on a bed of seaweed, with some other ingredients that I couldn't start to explain (this will be a recurring theme). The other item is made all from corn, except for (I presume) the stuff growing on top. Another recurring theme this meal is their insistence that we eat shrubs.
The other two regions were the Andes (mountain) and the Amazon.
From the mountains, they brought us chunks of (they said) Tubers. I looked it up, and they come from the Potato family. The flakes on top were Chamomile. I have no idea what was on the tree trunk, but it was tasty and spicy. The menu says that it is "Raiz Picante," so there you have it.
If you're wondering when the bread gets trotted out, the answer is: Now.
I am skipping the part where I tell you everything was delicious; I'll get top that at the end. But it was Damn Good Bread.
These are Scallops, coated with something, with a sauce made from Tumbo (which we call Passionfruit)... I caught that
much. And they wanted me to eat the flowers. So I did.
I'd been in Lima for almost 30 hours, and hadn't had any Octopus. Those Dark Times came to an end here and now.
The menu claims that there was some Purple Corn involved with this dish. I don't see it. The brown dots were an Olive-based paste. The Octopus pieces were sitting on the Olive Paste as well.
The young man who came out to explain the River Shrimp from the Andes Mountains had a lot to say.
I couldn't tell you anything of what he explained, but he thought that it was Very Important that he mix up right in front of us and then add the grainy, greenish stuff that is on the bottom of the photo. He was right; it needed to be there, whatever it was. Here's Fernando, marveling at the Wonder Of It All.
By the way, Fernando didn't blink an eyelash at the fact that there are Shrimp up in
the mountains. He explained that to me years ago... it makes perfect
sense to him.
Next, from almost 15,000 feet above Sea Levey (they tell you that, too), is a dish they call (shockingly) Extreme Altitude.
Even though this is billed as Frozen Potato, this Mashed Potato-like dish was warm. The little balls of on top are Cushuro. They are known as "Andes Mountains Caviar" (I looked that up later). I know I said I would skip the platitudes, but this was Pretty Damn Good. This was one of the two dishes that -- if I had the option -- I would have asked for a big plate of just that.
We then dropped down to the Amazon Basin for the next dish.
It's hard to see, but the red stuff at the bottom of the pile is Pache, a HUGE fish that hangs out in the Peruvian Jungle. This was raw, with some different Jungle Vegetables shredded up and placed on top.I didn't really even want to use my fork, but afgter taking the photo, Fernando insisted.
The final Main Dish was the Cordero.
Cordero is Lamb. I had the Cordero on my last visit, and it was absolutely freaking fabulous. The grainy looking stuff is Kiwicha, which is a grain. The white cubes tasted like Cheese, but there was no mention of Cheese anywhere, and I was so intent on ignoring the Explanation Boy in this case because I wanted to eat my Cordero. So I have no clue. Fernando said that the Cordero was his favorite, too. Here he is, loving life.
They trotted out two desserts. The first from the Amazon.
This one was all creamy, but the menu talks about Nuts, Wood and Root. So go figure. What the Explanation Girl who came out with this dish did explain, however, was that the brown stuff that she added tableside was Wood. I stopped her, and asked Fernando: Wood? Yes, that's what she said. Wood.
The last official dessert came from the Mountains and the Forest, according to the menu.
The little brown dots? Cacao. The leafs? Coca leafs. The other stuff? No clue. Either this one or the one before it had an Ice Cream-like consistency, but I don't remember which one. See that cup up in the corner?
That's sun-brewed Cacao Tea, with some Stevia to sweeten it up. I think that it had a Chocolate taste, but I'm not sure. But I saw on television recently, that the ancient Peruvian ruling class used to drink this stuff, so that's good enough for me.
That's the end of the meal, but to help soften the blow, they bring out a few goodies with the check.
You've got Pisco Sour-flavored balls on the left, Chocoalate Bars made of 60% Cacao in the middle, and a little cube filled with Agarrobina (a popular liquor here) on the right,.
I want to say that everything was delicious, but I couldn't really get a grip on a couple of the items. It was either a case of the sample being too small, or more likely, I was still processing the previous item's flavors. There was nothing that I didn't like, and Fernando felt the same.
Was this my new Best Meal Ever? No. I already had a Best Meal Ever at Central, and this didn't replace it. I wasn't looking to do that, I was happy to have the opportunity taste all of the different things on the menu... I have always wanted to try this somewhere, and I'm glad that I did. I'm certain that my photos and descriptions didn't do these dishes any justice. They offered to explain the dishes in English, but after the first two, I realized that the stories were much more detailed in Spanish, so we went with that and I hit up Fernando for help when I got confused. The service was as outstanding as last time, and I have another reservation for Wednesday night, and I plan on ordering off the menu again.
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