LIMA DAY 7: Chicken Foot Soup. And Stuffed Ice Cream Pops

Waiter, what's that Chicken Foot doing in my Soup?

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

The day started slow, food-wise. I finally headed out, searching for Lunch, at around 2 pm. There's about 9648609347309970 hole-in-the wall Lunch places here, and this one looked good, plus it had a steady stream of people coming and going.

According to the chalk board, the place is called Cafe Restaurante Recavarren. It's bigger inside than it looks.

There's an a la carte menu, but most of these places do a one-price deal. I chose the combo with Chicken Soup, Lomo Saltado (with the 'better' cut of Meat, and a drink).

The Soup came. It had a Chicken Foot in it.

No body there was staring at me. There were no hidden cameras. I wasn't being punked.

I ate the Soup. It needed some Hot Sauce.

The Lomo Saltado arrived. It was dark in there, so it didn't photograph without a flash all that well. It was also crowded in there, and I didn't want to draw extra attention by using the flash, so this is sort of what it looked like:

It was good. I didn't specify how I wanted the Meat cooked, so it was more well done than I would have preferred, but that was on me, not them.

Earlier in the week, I had passed a place that featured Mexican Ice Cream Pops that were filled with various things. It was closed, so I planned to return. Today was the day.

 

There are a lot of choices of Pops here. I chose Chocolate, filled with Maracuya (a Fruit that they have here).

 

 

 

 

So it turns out that this place is owned by a fancy Gelato company. So the Ice Cream part of the Pop was really good, and the filling was Creamy and tasted pretty tart, but that's what Maracuya tastes like. Well worth the 8 Soles (about $2.50).

Panchita, my favorite restaurant, has another branch on the other side of town. Just to be thorough, I made a reservation for dinner there for tonight.

It's almost a carbon copy of the Miraflores branch, except everything is on a ninety degree angle from the original. The menu is the same, the signs on the walls... everything. The bathroom is even on the second floor. No Carlos, but you can't have everything.

My first course, along with the Bread, was Octopus on A Stick.

 

 

 

It was everything Octopus on A Stick should be. Tender and delicious.

For my Main Course, I remembered the Tamale I had the other night, which was topped with a little bit of their Adobo Sauce. It was great, so I ordered the Adobo itself, along with a Pastel de Choclo.

 

The Adobo was a huge hunk of Pork (it had to be a pound, easily) in a slightly Spicy, but even more so, tasty Sauce. I used a knife, but it had been cooking long enough that I could have pretty much just used a fork. And Panchita's Pastel de Choclo - Ground and Seasoned Corn, with some secret ingredient that makes it Creamy and Delicious, on top of Ground Beef (also magically seasoned), was also wonderful. I only ate a little of it, and took the rest home to give to Bertha for her mother.

Despite the fact that There's Always Room for Queso Helado, I just had a Cappuccino and called it a day.