Alfresco Cevicheria, Lima, Peru

Back in Lima on our last day before flying home, we knew we had to have ceviche again. This time we tried Alfresco, a place in Miraflores recommended by a concierge. This time, having an extra mouth to help in eating (a fellow traveler from New York), we were glad we could order a variety and maybe even finish them. We started with a platter of grilled seafood -- squid, fish, octopus, shrimp, and scallops.

We then ordered 2 of the cold ceviches -- one was the Alfresco specialty (which apparently was voted a favorite of Lima). The other was a ceviche mixto.

Finally, we finished off with a seafood rice. This was so delicious - my favorite dish. Thought we could handle all this food with an extra person, but at the end of the meal I was still absolutely stuffed!

Alfresco
Malecon Balco 790
Miraflores, Lima

MAP Cafe, Cuzco, Peru

After coming back from Machu Picchu, we decided to go out for a nice fancy dinner in Cusco, and settled on the MAP Cafe, in the Museo del Arte Pre-Colombino (MAP - the Museum of Colombian Art). Probably the best restaurant in the city, the cafe is built in a modern glass structure in an outdoor courtyard within the museum. With only a handful of tables, it's a lovely intimate setting.

We decided to get the 3-course prix fixe menu - choice of appetizer, main course, and dessert. They started us off with an amuse - a mushroom cap stuffed with quinoa, peppers, and cheese. Then Redneckhunter chose the oyster mushroom with fava bean capchi casserole (pictured above). The pureed fava beans were creamy and wonderful. I chose the river stone cooked crawfish ceviche (right). The brown lump in the middle was actually the stone. I didn't eat that... but I did eat the sliver of red pepper on top. When the waiter brought my dish, he said something about being careful and "muy caliente." After I bit into that pepper, I realized what he was trying to tell me. My mouth was on FIRE - I practically leapt across the table for the bread basket. The Peruvians at table next to ours made fun of me, not realizing I understood them (this is already after having made fun of me for taking pictures of all our food).

I did recover in time to enjoy my main dish, which was a traditional Peruvian chicken dish, with sweet corn puree, and some cheesy potato side (sorry, there was a traditional name for it that I can no longer find.) Redneckhunter got pork belly braised in Pisco and spices, with pickled yacon and sweet potato.

Finally, dessert: I got lightly sauteed strawberries in chicha (purple corn) syrup with fresh corn ice cream and toasted chulpe corn pralines.

Redneckhunter's dessert choice was strawberry tres leches (we can never resist a tres leches cake) with Urumbamba's fruitillada sorbet.

MAP Cafe
Plaza Nazarenas 231
Cusco, Peru

Avoid the Pizza in Machu Picchu

So we noticed that pizza was a ubiquitous menu item at restaurants all around Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu. I figured it was to cater to the tourists, but with so much pizza around, we figured we'd give it a shot. (Incidentally, in a similar vein, a friend of mine from Sweden had backpacked all over the world, including Western China. While out there she was a big fan of the banana pancakes that were at all the backpacker cafes. She just assumed that they were a Chinese delicacy - it wasn't until she actually lived in the US for a time that she realized banana pancakes were American!)

Anyway... we should have known better. For one thing, all the bread we had up at altitude sucked - probably had to do with high altitude baking. But even beyond the crust, the thing was loaded with way too much cheese and not enough sauce.

We were however a big fan of another ubiquitous menu item - Avocado a la Reina (of the Queen). There were variations of this dish, but it basically was an avocado salad with other veggies, and topped with cheese.

Coca and Kola (Tea and Inka, that is)

Two signature beverages of Peru -- I didn't care for either unfortunately. The coca tea was mild (much better in leaf form vs. the teabags), but I didn't notice any difference in my body's reaction to the altitude. Inca Kola -- the country's favorite fizzly-bubbly was WAY sweet - ick.

Guinea Pig and Alpaca and La Casa del Corregidor, Puno, Peru

Ok, here it is, the post you've been waiting for. Yes, we did eat guinea pig while in Peru. There the little guys is, legs all splayed open and deep fried. I started using my knife and fork on him, but the waiter told me to just pick it up and eat him right off the bone. Sure enough, he had a lot of bones, and tasted like dark meat chicken. Being breaded and deep-fried, I'm sure, helped with the chicken analogy...

Redneckhunter got alpaca - also a cute and cuddly animal. We saw many of them in our journeys usually led on a leash by equally cute kids in colorful shawls wanting 1 sol for a picture. My impression of alpaca was a bit stringier than beef, but not as stringy as goat. It was served in a nice cilantro sauce.

This was at the Plaza restaurant in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel, right on the main Plaza de las Armas, the main square in Puno, on Lake Titicaca. We had walked up the Calle Lima - the main drag in Puno - full of restaurants and souvenir shops, but decided to opt for something quieter.

After dinner we walked across the square and had coffee at the Cafe in La Casa del Corregidor. Set in the former 17th century colonial home of a Spanish official, the place is part cultural center, part gift store, part cafe. With an airy little central courtyard. I loved the local feel - when we went early on a Saturday evening, the woman working at the cafe was watching lucha libre (pro wrestling) on the TV with 2 other patrons who didn't seem to eating or drinking much of anything, just hanging out cheering on the masked luchadores. I had wanted to go back the next afternoon to take a picture of the place in the daylight... but after a long day on Lake Titicaca, I just crashed out with an altitude headache.

La Casa del Corregidor
Deustua 576

La Bodega de la Trattoria

We decided instead of having dessert at Huaca Pucllana, we'd walk across the street and get coffee and a sweet at La Bodega de la Trattoria. Apparently this is the more casual outpost of a restaurant La Trattoria that is owned by a popular Peruvian TV cooking star. The coffee was excellent, and we share a Cinco Leches cake -- in addition to the milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk of the traditional Tres Leches, this version added coconut milk and dulce de leche.

Huaca Pucllana, Lima, Peru

I can't remember where I read about this place, but it sounded so amazing, we had to go. Set next to pre-Incan ruins right in the middle of Lima, Huaca Pucllana is truly an experience. You walk up a cobbled walk to a colonial mansion next to the ruins, and if you're lucky enough to be seated ont he veranda, you are literally in the setting pictured above. We didn't have a reservation, but the hostess and wait staff were very cordial and accomodating. We sat in a comfortable bar area eating corn nuts and perusing the menu until a table freed up outside.

For his starter, Redneckhunter chose the crab croquettes served in a shot of corn cream. He was hoping for a crab version of the ham croquettes from Amada that just burst in your mouth, little balls of delicious juiciness -- but these sadly weren't as good. Fun presentation though.

My appetizer was much better -- a corn cake topped with beef and mushroom ragout. The corn cake was smooth and creamy.

For our entrees we both chose from the section of the menu of reinterpretations of traditional Peruvian Creole cuisine. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the photo of Redneckhunter's entree, which was Breaded and pounded tenderloin served with refried black beans and rice, fried bananas and sunny side-up egg. As he put it, like country-fried steak Peruvian-style.

I got the Creole Style Chupe, typical Peruvian crab chowder, served with corn, lima beans, cheese and topped with a fried egg. The broth was wondefully flavorful. It reminded me of a high-end version of the Costa Rican sopa marinera at our place in Trenton.

After dinner, we walked a little bit around the perimeter of the ruins taking pictures. The site was closed as a tourist site, but we got to see a little bit. It would have been nice to see it during the day, but I was glad to have gone at night and been able to have the full spectacular dining experience.

Huaca Pucllana
General Borgoño Cdra 8 s/n, Miraflores
Phone 445-4042

Pescados Capitales, Lima, Peru

The first of several posts of our honeymoon culinary adventures in Peru. So one of the things that pushed Peru over for us as a honeymoon destination was that Lima was called The Next Great Food City by Bon Appetit magazine.

We flew in to Lima at 6:30 am, took a harrowing taxi ride across town to our hotel, checked in, took a nap and a shower, then head out for lunch. Our first stop was Pescados Capitales in the seaside Miraflores neighborhood. Our friend Debbie had given us the meal as a wedding present. The restaurant also had been mentioned in the NY Times 36 Hours in Lima. The title of the restaurant is a play on words. In Spanish, "pescados" means fish, and "pecados" means sins, so everything on the menu is based around the 7 deadly sins.

Redneckhunter started out with the ubiqitous national drink -- a Pisco Sour -- pisco grape brandy, lime juice, simple syrup, egg white and Angostura bitters. Then we ordered 3 ceviches and 1 appetizer, thinking of US-sized ceviche portions... it was WAY too much food... I think you really need to have ceviche with a big group of people so that each person gets a bite and you can try a little bit of a lot of things.

Our first dish was a "Pecaito" a minor sin -- Conchitas a la Chalaca -- scallops in the shell with chopped red onion, new peas, lime juice, and chili.

The second one (pictured on top) was my favorite. This one was actually a Virtue rather than a sin: Temperance: Tiradito of Tuna -- with asparagus and mushrooms and a sauce of honey, olive oil, and orange juice. The traditional way to serve ceviche in Peru is with sweet potato and corn, the sweetness of them complementing the sourness of the ceviche marinade.

By the time the third dish came around, I was already pretty full. Another Virtue: Generosity: Ceviche Capital 3 x 3 -- three types of fish -- sole, salmon, and tuna, mixed with three types of onion -- white, red, and green, and three types of peppers.

When we didn't finish this one, the waiters were very concerned that we didn't like it, so we tried to explain that we were just too ambitious in our ordering...

Because it was a hot dish, they actually brought our appetizer out last. Redneckhunter loves the made up pseudo-Polynesian/Asian finger food known as Crab Rangoon, so when he saw these Tequenos on the menu, he wanted them -- Fried wonton wrappers stuffed with shrimp. The photo doesn't convey just how large these things were - we're not talking bite-size - each was about 4 inches long!

Pescados Capitales
1337 Avenida La Mar
Miraflores
Lima, Peru