LIMA DAY 4: Flowers From A Celebrity Chef. For Dinner.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

On Saturdays, my usual routine involves walking down to the Mercado right outside of Miraflores. There's a pop-up food court there on the weekends, and I visited my old friends and had a Rocoto Relleno (Stuffed Pepper), a Causa (Mashed Yellow Potatoes stuffed with Shrimp and Crabmeat), and a Leche de Tigre (Basically, a small Ceviche).

For me, that's Peruvian Comfort Food.

I picked up a Tamale Verde from the Tamale Lady on the way home, and had it later for Lunch.

Central Restaurant was recently rated the 4th Best Restaurant in the World, and the Top Restaurant in Latin America. I've been there three times before (once with Ed), and we were looking forward to tonight. I made the reservation 5 months ago.

The Owner/Chef/whatever is Virgilio Martinez. He has risen to celebrity status in Peru, both for his creative dishes and for devotion to the ecosystems and biodiversity and that kind of stuff.

Central Restaurante now only offers its 17-course tasting menu. It is a 'tour' of the various elevations (and their foods) throughout the country.

We entered. They had the table I requested (by the kitchen) waiting for us. The place is very official and important, with lots of people running around being very official and important. The kitchen was a flurry of activity.

We received each of our courses, with an explanation of what we were eating. They did it in Spanish or English; whatever you liked. Everything was exotic and special and couldn't be found elsewhere, and there were flowers on the food. Lots of flowers.

Here's the photos. I won't can't describe them all. I will give my impressions after the pictures.

There were flowers. Lots of flowers. They were picking them in the kitchen and putting them on plates as the food was coming out. Most things were served on some sort of Rock, just so they could remind us that Everything We Eat Comes From Mother Earth. I live here on Earth -- I get it.

Some of it was really good (the Pork; the Scallops; one of the Ceviche-like Dishes), some of it was just weird (Dried Cactus Leaf), and a couple of things were inedible (some Radish-ish thingy, and most of the stuff in the Shot Glasses). But that's what you get with a tasting menu... different things to taste.

What I didn't understand was how serious everyone there was taking this. The waiters, the busboys, the other customers. Maybe my palette isn't developed enough, but I enjoyed the spectacle much more than the dinner itself. Everyone was treating this like it was The Most Important Thing On Earth. It wasn't. It was dinner. The word 'pretentious' comes to mind, but that's meaner than I feel about the whole thing.

The only one who appeared to be enjoying himself, apart from me & Ed, was Virgilio Martinez. He worked as one of the team in the kitchen during the rush, and stopped at every table towards the end of the night. He chatted with us and took a photo. I lamented that I missed the option of ordering off of a menu, and he told me that if I sat at the bar, they had a menu there. We even discussed long-gone side dishes!

Everything there is crazy expensive -- Dinner was US$130 per person, Ed's glass of wine was $36, etc. I would not return for the tasting menu (it changes a few times a year), but -- despite the high prices -- I will go to their bar to have Dinner there. The food that is identifiable as food was really, really delicious. I just wish there was more of that, and a little less flowers. It didn't used to be that way... CLICK HERE to read about my first visit; maybe sitting at the bar is the way to go.