El Merlin de Cabo Blanco

Since I hadn't eaten in minutes, Fernando and I headed to El Merlin de Cabo Blanco in Lince.

They are a 'Northern Peruvian' restaurant. For years, I couldn't tell the difference, but there are indeed subtleties in the cooking from the different regions of Peru. The commonality: It's all excellent.

When you sit down, they hit you with a bowl of cancha (dried corn) and chifles (fried banana/plantain chips). I also ordered a leche de tigre (glass of cebiche, with the emphasis on the juice) to start.

For our appetizers, we shared their Cebiche Tsunami, which was a mixed fish & seafood cebiche, with the added bonus of some crab meat thrown in. We also shared the Causa con Pulpa de Cangrejo. A Causa is (basically) a mashed potato sandwich. They do a lot of stuff with potatoes here, and the causa is another popular food delivery device. Today's was stuffed with crab meat and avocado.

 

Fernando had a filet of fish for his main course. I stuck with my rice and seafood run, and one of their specials (I forget the name). This one came out in the shape of a fish (hard to see in the photo), stuffed with shrimp, calamar, snails, and a scallop or two. The fried stuff at the bottom were chunks of fish, and there were a couple of crab claws and scallops on top. At the risk of devaluing the word... Fabulous.

All food tastes better when it is fish-shaped.