Lima Day 2: All Seafood, All Day. And Pork

Viernes, 15 Agosto

They have a lot of Seafood here. We had Breakfast, Lunch an Dinner, all in three hours.

First, I met some friends in the morning to deliver some stuff I brought from the USA. I stopped and got a Coffee, and they had Sandwiches. It would have been churlish of me to refuse one.

Javier and I had plans to meet today. He's an American that I had met before in Lima (we've kept in touch), and he & his family's plans and mine overlapped this trip. Today was Boys' Day at the Mercado; we're going out again on Sunday as a group.

He likes walking as much as I do, so we hoofed it over to Surquillo's Mercado #2 to visit Rosa, the Seafood Lady.

Javier had heard about her, but it was his first visit. She started us each out with a bowl of Chilcano, which is a Fish Stock Soup, with a little bit of mixed Seafood and Onions in it.

We wound up sharing the next Dishes. First up was a Cebiche with Mixed Seafood, and I had her add Clams, because I like Clams.

Javier's first Blog Photo. He certainly brought his 'A' Game.

Before we got very far along, our Jalea showed up.

Me, I'm a natural

They have Jalea here, and they also have Fried Mixed Seafood here. As far as I'm concerned, they are Exactly The Same Thing. Javier, who is clearly smarter than I am, came up with a plan: Ask Rosa the difference.

It turns out that Fried Mixed Seafood has Fish Chunks in it, and the Jalea contains an entire Fish Filet. There, now you know.

Since we had the Jalea, we missed out on Fish Chunks. We rectified that by getting a plate of Chicharron de Pescado - Fried Fish Chunks.

After we polished that off, we wandered the Mercado for a while, and then headed to Avenue Angamos to go to Al Toke Pez.

This place is the literal definition of A Hole In the Wall. The counter is two feet in from the entrance, and it seats eight. People line up in the street all afternoon. The chef/owner, 'Toshi,' is rapidly becoming a star in Lima.

The menu is limited, but that doesn't matter -- everybody gets the Combination Plate. Who are we to argue?

Of course he's a Rising Star. There's fire involved.

We order our Combo plates and wait patiently while Toshi gets working. It's worth taking a look at the video.

The Combo contains Arroz con Mariscos -- Rice and Seafood, Fried Seafood (not Jalea) and a classic mixed Cebiche. I finished mine and Javier gets some of his to go. And all that -- including a drink -- for 1 Soles -- less than $5.

Off to our third meal. Also in Surquillo, there's a street (Duarte?) that has a lot of Chicharron stores. For purposes of this discussion, Chicharron describes a Pork Sandwich with some slices of Sweet Potato and often, a spicy Onion concoction on top. They're excellent, and cheap.We order up two Sandwiches, and I also get a Cafe con Leche.

It turns out that we were really there for the experience. We both ate half of our Sandwich and took the rest to go. I wound up giving my half to the Doorman in my building.

Not surprisingly, I was not very hungry after that.

Much later at night, Kelly and I went out to Barranco to see some band play. The ad said 10:00, so we figured that we were safe showing up at 10:40. Ha! They were just opening the bar.

Undaunted, we walked just a couple blocks to La 73. More to kill time than to eat something, I swear.

I wound up ordering just an Appetizer and Kelly had Pasta and some Lime Pie.

My dish was a mini Stuffed Pepper (Rocoto Relleno) that was stuffed with cut-up Shrimp and some Vegetables. The square things around it were Gourmet versions of Pastel de Papa... a block of sliced Potato pieces with a little Cheese and Spices. It was delicious and in this case, more than enough. Kelly said that the Shrimp Pasta and the Pie de Limon were great. Or she was hungry. Either way, her plates were empty.

We finally heard some music after that. Here's my steps for the day; there were a lot of them.