LIMA DAY 12: Breakfast at the Airport

Tuesday, May 15, 2017

Recently, Lima's airport has stepped up its game. There are now a couple of excellent places to grab a bite before getting on a plane.

One of those places is Tanta. This is a chain of 'diners' owned by the guy that also has Panchita, Astrid y Gaston, and a few others. It just opened four days ago; apparently, the airport is never done renovating.

My flight was at 10:00, so I had to be there by 7:00. I was all checked in with time for Breakfast, so Tanta it was. They supposedly only serve Breakfast at Breakfast, but right there, below the omelets: Lomo Saltado.

Maria's looked delicious yesterday evening, so I had them whip one up for me.

It was pretty wonderful, and much, much better than scrambled eggs.

Here's photo of the place. I took it off of their Facebook page.

That was it for this trip. Thanks for following along.

LIMA DAY 11: One Last Trip to Panchita

Monday, May 15, 2017

I had a busy day today, what with shipping boxes and taking my clothes to the cleaners and all. Oh yeah, and packing.

From my apartment window, there's a clear view of La Salsa Sandwich Shop. I hardly every get to go there, what with the mountain of choices in town. I headed over around noon.

That was a Pork Sandwich, along with Fries and a Chicha Morada (Purple Corn Juice). And the combo was a hot $6.

To soften the blow of it being my last night in town, Maria joined me for a trip to Panchita. It's one of her favorite restaurants, too. In a development that shocked absolutely nobody, she was late, so I got to eat almost the entire Octopus On A Stick by myself.

Ask anyone - Panchita has the best Octopus around. I don't think that they have their own Octopus farms, so I guess it is the marinade. But whatever -- it's the best.

For our Main Courses, Maria had the Lomo Saltado, and I had the Swordfish.

I don't cook Swordfish at home -- I just never get it right. So I leave it to the professionals. I assume that the Lomo Saltado was food... I looked over and it was gone.

For Dessert, we split an order of Queso Helado.

That was it. Home to finish packing. I'm off tomorrow early in the morning.

LIMA DAY 10: Double Duck Sunday

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Mother's Day. Just try to get a cup of Coffee somewhere early on Sunday. So I slept in.

When I finally got around to moving, I headed over to the Surquillo Mercado. My first stop was the Tamale Lady. It's a symbiotic relationship; we're both happy to see each other. I wished her a happy Mothers Day.

It turns out that the pop-up Market on the weekends has a guy that sells Coffee. I had a cup, but after the photo was taken. Here's my Rocoto Relleno.

After that, I taxi-ed over to Magdelena, which is apparently the neighborhood I walk around in on Holidays. I was last there on Christmas Eve. I read in the park for a while, and walked over to Los Esteros de Tumbes for Lunch, but it seemed like everyone on Magdelena had the same plan, so I went to one of the random Cevicherias across the street from Los Esteros, El Encanto Norteno.

I had the traditional Friedman three-course Mothers Day Lunch: Tamalito Verde (small green Tamale), Leche de Tigre, and Duck.

That's not the normal Rice with Duck, although there is Rice on the plate, with Duck. This was Pato Guisado, which is (I think) stewed for while. The Duck, and the Sauce, were delicious.

There are not a lot of upscale Sunday night options in Lima, comparatively speaking. One place that is open is Cala Restaurante. They are right on the ocean, and are ostensibly a Cevicheria. But not really, they have a lot of different stuff.

When I say 'right on the ocean,' I'm not kidding. Here's a Google Maps photo of the outside of the place, and then my photo, taken from my table.

I had the traditional Friedman three-course Mothers Day Dinner, which encompasses all three major Food Groups: Land, Sea and Air.

Representing Land, here is Beef Carpaccio:

Excellent. And the Dijon Mustard on top was the first use of a quality Mustard that I can remember here in Peru. They're just not a Mustard-loving people.

From the Sea category, Tuna Ceviche:

Yup, just chunks of raw Tuna, sitting in my plate. The little white thing was the Ceviche Juice to add for yourself. I did, but the Tuna was just perfect. It melted like Butter in my mouth. I will go back and sit at the bar, just for this dish.

Winding up the trio is the designee from the Air, Duck:

The Rice was excellent, and the Duck was very good. It's easy to get picky when you're in a city with hot & cold running Duck. It didn't run fast enough -- I cleaned off the plate.

Evidently, traditional Friedman Mothers Day celebrations don't include Dessert. That was it for the day.

LIMA DAYS 8 & 9: Chicken Soup, NOT Like Mom Makes

Friday, May 12, 2017

Who doesn't like Chicken Soup? You -- In the back with your hand up... please leave the Blog.

Now that the rest of us are here, how about a gallon of Soup:

That was Saturday. But first, Friday...

I went back to Cafe Rilke for a late Breakfast. My chair in the Library was available. I had a Latte, a Quiche, and a Sandwich.

For Dinner,  I experimented a little. One of my Peru email subscriptions talked about a tiny Italian Restaurant, Taller Razeto, right on the Malecon in Callo, a fishing port at the other end of Lima. With traffic, it was an hour-long ride at 8:30 at night. I'm on vacation, so I figured I would give it a try.

The menu was 'limited,' but I am nothing but open-minded, so I felt that I was ok.

The Restaurant was as billed: Tiny, with just 7 tables, and with a menu that had Pizzas, two Salads, seven Appetizers, and seven Main Dishes (four of them Lasagna). It's very pretty, and all but one table is outside in their garden. They put a carafe of Water with Fruit in it on your table -- it's that kind of place.

I decided on a Salad (the waitress suggested the Camembert Salad and the Cheese Lasagna.

The Salad (as Salads go) was excellent. The Cheese was baked warm and soft, but not burnt, and the Salad and Dressing were very good. The Lasagna wasn't quite excellent, but it was also very good.

The kitchen clearly cares -- the sSde Salad with the Lasagna looked the same, but my Appetizer was garnished with Pecans, and the Side Dish had Almonds. So, they didn't just have Salad laying around and threw a piece of Cheese on top. I wish that I could say as much about the service. The Waitress was clearly annoyed that she had two tables to wait on. If she's like that at home, I feel bad for her boyfriend.

One thing that is a common thread here is that -- with a few exceptions -- the service in the non-expensive places is not that good. The help doesn't make very much, tips are low or non-existent, and I think the good servers get jobs at the better places. Strangely, the service is usually really good at the very cheap places. Partly because one's expectations are lower, but also because - I think - a lot of it is family-run, so you're not dealing with grumpy employees.

That was it for Friday. Shockingly, I am filling up quickly.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

I discovered another of the 7340979059460 Coffee Stores here this morning. This one is called 1972 Coffee. And you know how most Coffee Stores smell like, Coffee? Well, this one has the distinct background odor of Chocolate. It's very inviting.

I had a Latte and a Pastel de Acelga. It's sore of a Spinach-like Quiche, but not exactly.

That kept me until I met Alex for Lunch. We went to Caldo de Gallina Aramburu for a... Caldo de Gallina. That's Chicken Noodle Soup to us Gringos.

I had the Vat of Soup, and Alex had a Lomo Saltado.

After that, I went with Alex to the mall so he could do some Mothers Day shopping. We got some Gelato. It was his idea, I swear.

Peru's history goes back a long way. Back in the year 200, the civilization back then built this City/Pyramid thing called Huaca Pucllana. It survived for a couple of hundred years, then got conquered or something. Anyway, the pyramids got covered over until about 40 years ago, when they were found while the current Peruvians were building houses in the city. They stopped what they were doing, fenced off what they found, and have gone about trying to dig it up and see what they have. It's smack dab right in the middle of the city.

 

Anyway, they have a restaurant. It's Peru; everyone has a restaurant. This one is very high-end, sits right on the edge of the ruins, is really expensive (7% of sales goes to the restoration fund), and is very, very, touristy (the tour buses line up outside for dinner). The food is really good, and the service, well, the service leaves something to be desired. Unless, of course, you desire bad service. Then they give you what you need.

I started with Scallops Parmesan and then a Stuffed Pepper (Rocoto Relleno).

Both were very good, and the Rocoto was borderline excellent. The Scallops were in the little spoons instead of their shells because I suppose that they could charge more that way.

My Main Course was the Asado de Tira (Short Ribs).

The Meat broke apart with my fork, and I could have sat there and inhaled the smell of the dish for days.

Did I mention that the service was bad? After asking six people for some more Bread (for the Short Rib Sauce), the Manager saw me not eating, asked if there was a problem, and got an earful. He went and got the Bread for me himself, then one of the morons working the tables came by and told me that there wasn't any more Bread. The Manager was keeping an eye on things and took care of it before I could say anything.

The upshot of it was that he offered to comp me Dessert. I chose the mini-assortment.

On the top was Lucuma Mousse, bottom right is Rice Pudding (Arroz con Leche), and bottom left was what they called Lemon Pie, but was really Lime Pudding. All three were excellent. Good thing that I was full, so I didn't pick up and lick the little bowls.


That was it for the day.

LIMA DAYS 6 & 7: A Little of Everything. Including Duck

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

When a trip to Astrid y Gaston doesn't provide the prettiest plate of the day, that's impressive. Here was Breakfast:

So I was in a cab the other day, and I saw what looked like another of the 7784627603 Coffee Shops. I mentally filed it away and headed over for Breakfast today. I show up, and it turns out that Cafe Rilke is an old house that has been re-purposed. They even left the 'library' the way it was...

They had some nice Desserts to go with my Latte, but the guy talked me into breakfast. It all looked good, so I picked the most expensive one.

There was a Poached Egg, Prosciutto, a big hunk of Cheese, some Salami and three slices of of a Whole Grain Bread that was just full of both Grains and Taste. With the Coffee, it came to $11, but was well worth it. And even more so when I read what they do with their money, according to their Facebook page (I did the translating, so here is kind of what it says):

"Our prime objective is to raise funds for the social projects undertaken by the Jesuits here in Peru. With every coffee and cake you try, and every other delicacy you enjoy, you don't only enhance your life, you also help better the conditions of the children, teens and young & old in horrible situations and extreme poverty."

I liked the place; I will return.

I did some shopping in the afternoon, and stopped at a couple of places for Lunch. My first stop was a random joint, La Cuina de Bonilla, for their Lunch Special.

The first plate was what we would call Tuna Salad, and the second was slow-roasted Pork with Rice and Salad.

A little later in my shopping excursion, I was at the Surquillo Mercado, and stopped at the booth for El Cevichano, where I had a combination Clams & Fish Ceviche, along with a free Bowl of Fish Broth.

I met Fernando for Dinner. We had a reservation at Astrid y Gaston, the centerpiece of Peru's gastronomic surge. It's excellent without being too full of themselves. This restaurant is owned by the same guy who owns Panchita. It is officially 'better,' but for me, it is just, different. I like them both; I prefer Panchita.

Anyway, we started with our Appetizers. Fernando had Octopus, and I had Erizo with Pasta.

Erizo is what we would call a Sea Urchin. They're not terribly rare, but you don't see them every day, and I think that they are really good.

For our Main Course, we shared the Rice with Duck for two.

It was a lot of food. A lot of delicious food. The yellow things are Avocado. I'm not sure what they were doing there, but they worked. And the Rice was absolutely awesome. I'm not sure what you do to Rice to make it that good, but then again, I'm not the face of Peruvian cooking.

There was no way that I was having Dessert. Not so for Fernando, who had 'shots' of four different types of Chocolate. He said that they were great, but he couldn't distinguish one from the other.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

I had a bag of chips while I did stuff in the house in the morning.

I met Bertha for Lunch in Jesus Maria, before she picked up her daughter from school. We went to Cevicheria Maria Pastor, mostly because we both knew where it was.

We started with Leche de Tigre (me) and Leche de Pantera (Bertha). And we shared Pulpo a la Chalaca, which is cut up Octopus, mixed with Onions and Peppers in a Ceviche-like juice.

For our Main Courses, I had Fried Fish Chunks (Chicharon de Pescado), and Bertha had a Fish Filet in a Shrimp Sauce.

I bought a new phone before I left the USA. This one is a Sony, of all things. It has a 23 megapixel camera, and I am still learning how to use it. One cool thing that I noticed today was that it figured out all on its own that I was taking pictures of Food, and it switched to GOURMET setting. lol

Much later that night, Maria and I went to Punto Azul and shared a Mixed Ceviche.

That was it for the day.