Thursday: Peruvian Food - Right Here at Home!

Thursday, January 23

I had big Dinner plans, so I kept it to zero point foods during the day.

Four Navel Oranges.

There's six there; I only had four.

Then, two Bananas and a Bowl of Pineapple.

The Bobblehead is always jumping in on my Pineapple. I finished the daytime eating with four Plum Tomatoes.

Larry has been talking about a Peruvian restaurant in Lantana called Victoria's Peruvian Restaurant. It's very popular, and he had gone there once with Leslie, but they didn't really have any clue as to what to order. I told him that 'everything would be delicious,' but we decided to make a date for all three of us to try the place out.

If you give me an opportunity to show off, I'm there. Plain and simple.

We decided to eat family-style. That way, we would all get to taste the most different things. For our Appetizers, we shared a Cebiche, Anticuchos, and Conchitas a la Parmesana.

The Cebiche was mixed Seafood and Fish (spicy), Anticuchos are Marinated and Grilled Beef Hearts, and The Conchas are Scallops topped with Cheese and baked. The Cebiche was excellent, The Anticuchos were as good as you'll see here in the USA (but not nearly up to Tia Grimenesa's standards), and the Scallops were slightly different than their South American inspiration, but were very good in their own right. We pretty much split all three dishes evenly.

Our Main Courses were Pescado a lo Macho, Tacu Tacu with Lomo Saltado, and -- a real treat for me -- Paiche.

Pescado a lo Macho is Fish Filets covered in a sauce with mixed Seafood. Normally, the fish is fried, but we asked them to grill it. The Tacu Tacu with Lomo is a Rice & Bean Patty (the Tacu Tacu) with stir-fried Beef strips with Tomatoes and Onions, over French Fries. That's a mouthful to say (and eat!), but the combination is really good, and it is a very accessible Peruvian Dish. And Paiche is a really large fish that is only found in the jungle areas of Peru. You can't always get it in Lima, much less Palm Beach County, so I was very excited.

All three dishes were wonderful. We had our choice on reparation of the Paiche, and we had them grill it as well. The Paiche is a thick filet, and it came with a different seafood mix and sauce than the other fish plate. All three were great, and I'm not sure if I liked the Paiche best because it was better, or because it was a treat. Either way, every bite of all three dishes were wonderful.

The Main Courses are where my Professional Eater status showed through... I probably had more than my third of the food, and there was still some leftovers.

If you're looking for Peruvian food and don't mind driving, head to Victorias. It is 'classic' Peruvian, in the sense that these dishes are what my friends grandparents grew up eating. I will be taking Loretta there one night.

That was plenty of food for Thursday.