LIMA DAY 1: A Good Start

Friday, August 11, 2017

You should try some Octopus. But buy your own -- this one's mine.

My flight got in way late Thursday night, so I just went to the apartment and crashed.

In the morning, I went next door to Estacion 329, the Coffee Shop literally right next to where I live, and picked up a latte.

They were pretty happy to see me back, and the let me take the glass and plate back to the apartment.

After working for a while, Bertha came over. I had picked up some stuff in the U.S. for her family, so we used "coming over to get her things" as code for "an excuse to go to Lunch."

Off we headed to Panchita, my Favorite Restaurant in the World. And one of Bertha's Top Ten, I am pretty sure.

Since it was just Lunch, we took it easy and stuck to the basics. We shared an Anticucho de Pulpo, Anticucho de Corazon, and a Pastel de Choclo.

Anticuchos, for purposes of this discussion, are Food on a Stick. Pulpo is Octopus and Corazon is Beef Heart (tastes like Steak, mostly). Pastel de Choclo is a Corn-based concoction that Panchita makes much better than anyone else.

Speaking of better than anyone else makes things, that was also the Octopus. Just wonderful.

For Dinner, I had a reservation at Lima 27. This is a place I've known for a few years now. They are maybe 100 feet from Astrid & Gaston, so they decided that they needed to Step Up Their Game. The place has remained the same - mostly. They have added a Tapas Menu, and they have decided that they need to get, um, fancier.

They were plenty fancy already, but they did what they had to do. Everything I had was delicious, there were few (if any) flowers involved, but it was just way too serious for my tastes. The place was full and it isn't cheap, so I am sure that they made the right decision.

The Bread and Butter comes in a bag and has a backstory. I didn't listen, but it was very good.

I decided on three courses. First up, something that they called Shrimp Ceviche.

I would have been happy with just Shrimp, but they mixed in some Scallops and Clams as well. So... excellent. Next up is something called Black Causa.

When it is not fancy, Causa is Mashed and Seasoned Potatoes that are used as a Food Delivery Device, usually in the middle of two layers, or sometimes on top. But this is fancy, so it was Potatoes colored with black... probably Squid Ink. The toppings were cut up Scallops (white), cut up Octopus (orange) and something crunchy that the waiter tried to tell me was fried Mushroom or something; I'm not sure. It was also very good.

I had been in the country for almost 18 hours, so it was time for Duck. I stuck with the classic: Rice with Duck.

It was pretty standard, except Fancy. But it was Rice and Duck, so I don't really care what it looks like on my plate. I could have added a photo of an empty plate, but why bother?

No Dessert, nothing later in the evening. I went to the casino after that, and allowed them to pay for all the meals that you just read about. :)