LIMA DAY 6: A Trip to the Mercado. And Panchita

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Rosa, The Seafood Lady is hard at work.

For Breakfast, Lonnise and I headed next door for Lattes and Ham & Cheese Sandwiches.

It turns out that two of the three people who work at Estacion 329 speak passable English... they just never bothered letting me in on the secret. Lonnise, sure. But me, never.

We took a walk through downtown Miraflores. While we were sitting near Parque Central, two girls came up to us brandishing Tupperware. They offered to sell us whatever it was that they had for one Sol each (about 30 cents).

Who are we to say no?

Apparently, they were selling under-cooked (or possibly uncooked) Cookie Dough. I don't know what they thought they were selling, but a hunk of Cookie Dough is worth thirty cents in mine and Lonnise's books, so we were all OK with the deal.

One of the next stops on out tour was the Mercado in Surquillo (Surquillo is one of the neighborhoods next to where we live). This market has everything, ranging from clothes to household goods to pirated DVDs to all types of Meat, Cheese, Vegetables, Seafood. Just about anything you want is there.

Photo Credit: Lonnise

Photo Credit: Lonnise

After getting an eyeful of everything going on, we arrived at Rosa, The Seafood Lady.

Lonnise vs. Crab

After catching up for a bit, we placed our orders; Fried Shrimp for Lonnise and Ceviche with Scallops, Fish, Calamari and Shrimp for me. But first, we each had a Bowl of Chilcano (Fish Stock Soup).

Then our food arrived, and the photos do not do these plates half the justice that eating them did.

We did a little more shopping after that, and managed not to eat anything else until Dinner.

Except for an Empanada each. I just remembered that. Sorry, no photos.

At Dinner time, Lonnise and I walked over to Panchita. Yes, I eat here a lot, but the food is super-great, they have everything, and of  course Carlos waits on me hand and foot.

We started with Bread and I ordered three Appetizers:

From the top, we have Pastel de Choclo, a Corn-thingamajig on top of Ground Beef, a skewer of Octopus (sorry about the photo quality - I was excited) and a Tamalito Verde - a green Tamale.

I was pretty much in heaven. Lonnise bravely tried her first bite of Octopus... it turns out that she is not a fan. Give her time; that's what I say.

For our Main Courses, I ordered the Tacu Tacu with Lomo Saltado and Lonnise ordered her favorite Peruvian Dish, Aji de Gallina.

Both of these dishes are killer. Lonnise has had Aji de Gallina (Shredded Hen in a slightly spicy Sauce) many times in the US and liked it. She said this was much, much better than the American versions.

Neither of us finished even half of our plates. We had to leave room for Dessert.

After a few minutes to recover, Carlos comes out with the all-time best Dessert: Queso Helado.

This is an Ice Cream-like concoction with a flavor that is pretty difficult to describe. Despite that, we almost polished off the entire vat of the stuff.

We left with enough leftovers to feed an army. I was going to go to a casino and make a donation afterwards, but once I got back to the apartment, I wasn't leaving.