LIMA DAY 8: Every Day is A Food Festival

Thursday, May 19

I worked in the morning (no Breakfast), and met Ed to do some shopping. Ed is even better than I am at shopping, so it went pretty well.

We hopped the Metropolitano and headed down to Chorrillos to Cevicheria El Marati. I found them just by happenstance a few trips back, and it's now one of my favorite places. Excellent food and service, huge portions, a large menu, and everything is extra fresh.

I had a Parihuela (Seafood Soup) as my Appetizer, and Ed started off with a Mixed Grill of Shrimp and Fish, with Vegetables.

Great. For our Main Courses, I ordered the Grilled Octopus, and Ed had Rice with Shrimp.

The Octopus is served over Vegetables, so it is healthy, and it comes with three Fried Causa Balls (mashed Yellow Potatoes), so it is Extra Delicious. Ed's dish was Excellent -- I tasted one iof his Shrimp and would have to agree.

We started our evening at the Atlantic City Casino, where I had a Cappuccino.

For Dinner, we met up with Dely and went to Panchita, which is officially My Favorite Restaurant in the World. When you go, tell the hostess that you DON'T want Junior to wait on you -- he's the worst. I swear, he disappeared twice to go out back and smoke a joint. He was gone forever, and was extra-dumb when he got back. Other than him, everything there is perfect.

They start you with Bread, and for our Appetizers, I had both the Sopa Criolla (doesn't photograph well, but is delicious) and the Pastel de Choclo. Dely and Ed each ordered an Anticucho of Chicken.

My soup had some sort of Noodles, Ground Beef, maybe some of that Spanish Cheese that Doesn't Melt, a little bit (very few) of  Vegetables and a ton of good flavor. The Pastel de Choclo is ground Corn, magically made extra-delicious over a layer of Meat. It's good everywhere, but it is great here. Ed and Dely's Anticuchos were chunks of white meat Chicken on a Stick, seasoned and Grilled. They're served with Papas Doradas (Golden Potatoes) and Kernels of Giant Mutant Corn.

All of those items were enough for anyone's Main Dishes. But not for us. Ed & I have excuses -- we're big guys. Dely weighs 100 pound soaking wet, and she pounds the food like a pro.

So our Main Courses show up. Ed has a Lomo Saltado, I one-up him with a Lomo Saltado over a Tacu Tacu (a RIce & Bean Patty), and Dely... she gets a Whole Freaking Chicken!

Yes, an entire Chicken. They claim it was a small Chicken, and they were right. But it was still a Whole Chicken. Ed had about half of his dish, I ate everything except half the Rice & beans, and Dely 'only' had about 1/4 of her Chicken, and took the rest home.

We passed on Dessert, and that was it for the day.