Lima Day 7: All Major Food Groups

...Fried Pork, Octopus and Scallops. The Big 3.

My friend Mari questions my describing today's food as 'normal,' but if we can get her down here, she will understand. And after Wednesday's mess, this was welcome.

There's a town called Lurin, just outside of Lima. People travel from all around to go there for Breakfast. They have Pork Sandwiches, with a slice of Sweet Potato, and topped with Onions and a little Hot Pepper. I've done it, and it was great.

But I can walk five minutes from my apartment and do the same thing. And it is great.

The Pork Sandwich is called "Chicharron.' There's a street nearby with at least four (maybe more) "Chicharronias' in a two-block radius. I hit one up at random.

That Sandwich cost six Soles (less than $2.25). Hot, fresh, awesomely delicious. They were very excited to see an American in there.

Walking back, I saw two more stores, right across from each other.

I went into the red store. They were not nearly as impressed with my patronage. I tried to order a Sandwich there, just to be thorough in my comparison. The guy asked me a question. I thought it was, "Do you want Onions with that?" I said of course I did. There must have been a breakdown, because here's what I got.

Yeah, that's a Chicharron Sandwich, a mini-Sandwich with just Sweet Potato, and a Cafe con Leche. I ate the Pork, drank the Coffee, and had a bit pf the Sweet Potato Sandwich. I'm not sure that this Sandwich was better than the first, but it was also very good. This combo cost me 12 Soles.

I left there and considered trying a third place. I decided that today was not the day for my own personal Surquillo Chicharron Festival, so I headed home and got ready to meet Alex for Lunch.

Now Alex likes Octopus at least as much as I do; maybe more. Every time we go out, we split an Octopus order and both leave disappointed. With that in mind, I suggested we go to Puerto Norte. They know Octopus.

We started by splitting a pitcher of Frozen Lemonade, and then got the Octopus.

I asked for Octopus, Garlic, Grill, nothing more. It would have killed the chef not to garnish it with Asparagus, so we humored him and accepted it. Alex was pleased.

I wound up eating about a third of it; Alex had the rest. As I said, he really likes Octopus.

For my second course, I had the Parihuela (Seafood Soup). This place includes a whole fish in the proceedings.

It was really good, and I made short work of it.

Cimaru and I had plans for dinner. We were originally going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, but traffic was bad and the place was far away, so we changed plans midstream and went to La Rosa Nautica instead.

La Rosa Nautica (the Rose of the Sea) is smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The restaurant is out on what I suppose is a huge dock. Here's a picture that I googled.

It's all fancy and beautiful and elegant and romantico and everything. And the food's good, too.

We started with an order of Grilled Scallops.

Two for her; three for me.

For my Main Course, I had Corvina Rosa Nautica.

Under that Puff Pastry cover was a Filet Of Fish in a creamy Sauce filled with Seafood.

I was not allowed to lick the shell/bowl that it came in.

Cimaru ordered a Cebiche.

She loved it, she said.

We had Coffee, but passed on Dessert.

As we were leaving, Cimaru complained that I post more pictures of my guy friends than I do of her. I'm not sure if that's true, but she is certainly prettier than the guys I know here, so here's a couple more of her.