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A Peruvian (non)Thanksgiving Epiphany
It’s Friday, November 26, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States but which, in Peru, is just November 26. We don’t celebrate Turkey Day or Black Friday in this Andean nation of 30 million people. No pilgrims landed here. Just conquistadors. The locals were eating cuy, not turkey, when Pizarro invaded the place and smashed the Inca Empire. The conquistadors weren’t big on saying Thanks. They just grabbed. I was feeling unexpectedly sad yesterday morning. It was my third Non-Thanksgiving Day in Peru, and you think I would have gotten over it, but I hadn’t. What made my disappointment a surprise is that I’ve never been big on the holiday. Back in the…
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The Hare Krishnas Cure My Allergies
Zowie! as Osgood says in Some Like It Hot. Just got back from Govinda’s vegetarian restaurant, in Miraflores, where after lunch El Fotografo and I had some hot ginger tea. It was real ginger, chunks of it, ground up with honey and lemon, emulsified in a cup of hot water. The menu calls it a tisane. They need to correct that to a spice exorcism. Holy Mother of Purging, I’m allergy/demon-free — for now. DATO Tisane kion (ginger tea): 2.50 soles Govinda Vegetarian Restauant Av. Shell 634, Miraflores 445-8487 http://www.restaurantevegetarianogovinda.com/
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Trattoria Napoli: There’s No Place Like Home
Nearly every large city in South America has at least one or two very good, if not excellent, Italian restaurants. What every city does not have is an authentic Italian trattoria — a mid-priced, family-run restaurant that serves delicious, regional dishes in a casual, home-like setting. Lima’s Trattoria Napoli does just that, serving up first-rate southern Italian fare in a sliver of a building tucked in no-frills Surquillo. The trattoria is truly a family business: The owner’s from Calabria (the toe of the boot), his wife keeps the tiramisu in the fridge next-door, and the ponytailed son-in-law can often be found munching on gnocchi with the grandkids at a nearby…
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Peru’s Panettone Is Fake, Says Italy
Peruvians and Brazilians love their locally-made panettone, an Italian-style Christmas cake that’s grown into a multimillion-dollar business for bakers in South America. Now the Italian Cake Industry group wants nonItalian manufacturers to conform to strict baking standards or stop calling their cakes “panettone,” reports Reuters: Keep Christmas cake Italian, panettone makers say Dec 12, 2007 ROME (Reuters) – Italy already has strict rules governing the origin and quality of its wine, while Parmigiano parmesan cheese can only be made in Parma and regulations on “Italian” olive oil are being tightened. Now Christmas cake has become the latest product that the government and manufacturers want to protect from foreign imitations. Italian bakers produce…
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Argentinean Doctor on Brink of Death after Eating Pickled Vizcacha
Frank Zappa once warned: Don’t eat the yellow snow. The same might be said about the vizcacha, a reclusive member of the South American bunny family that some food experts have recommended as a economical protein source. (See my Feb. ’09 post.) Seems that the experts didn’t realize that improperly prepared vizcacha is an ideal breeding ground for botulism, as one victim in Argentina recently found out. Dr. Francisco Diez, a 45-year-old orthopedic surgeon, was rushed to a hospital in San Rafael in the Cuyo region of Argentina, on October 25, after contracting a local form of botulism, reported Diario Los Andes and other South American news sources. Diez became violently ill after eating vizcacha en escabeche, a traditional Argentinean dish of rodent cooked in oil, onions…
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Pizza at El Italiano: Two Thumbs Up
It’s been more than a year since I had pizza at El Italiano, a classic pizzeria/trattoria in Lima’s rough-and-tumble La Victoria neighborhood. In that time I had forgotten that El Italiano makes better pizza than almost any other place in Lima, a city that should have lots of excellent pizza joints but for some reason doesn’t. What might have induced my temporary amnesia is that I always seem to crave El Italiano when it’s closed. Several times El Fotografo and I have driven to El Italiano on a Monday night, only to arrive at a darkened restaurant. It took three abortive outings for the restaurant’s schedule (open Tuesdays-Sundays) to sink into my…
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Thank You, Lord of the Miraculous Chocolates
I was raving the other day about the chocolates and other treats made by nuns and sold at the church of the Nazarenes, in downtown Lima, where El Señor de los Milagros lives. I made myself so hungry writing that post, I had to go to the Nazarenes the next day and buy a stash from a nun in a brown Carmelitas habit. I’m not Catholic but I felt guilty going to church just to buy candy, so I picked up a purple religious candle while I was at it. Back home I lit the candle and said, Thank you, El Señor de los Milagros, for inspiring the barefoot sisters of…
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Afro-Peruvian Cooking Queen in Lima this Sunday
Mamainé will be cooking in La Molina this Sunday. If that news doesn’t make your mouth water, then you don’t know Chincha and you don’t know El Carmen and you certainly don’t know carapulcra con sopa seca. Mamainé is the Queen of Afro-Peruvian cuisine. Her restaurant in the El Carmen district of Chincha is the hub of local Afro-Peruvian culture, where dance, music and good food are celebrated daily. (See this over-exposed video for a glimpse of the Queen dancing in her own restaurant.) El Fotografo says her seco de cabrito (kid) and seco de carne (beef) are the best he’s ever had. Ditto Mamainé’s frijoles, which “melt in your mouth,” he says. EF…
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Food Businesses Boom in Peru
BBC Online published an insightful overview yesterday of Peru’s booming food industries (“Food business taking off in Peru,” 9/25/09), to coincide with this weekend’s second annual gastronomic fair in Lima. Dan Collyns reports on the growth of gourmet restaurants, artisanal products and food exports, trends that are helping to prop up Peru’s economy in the face of a global economic downtown. (He also notes Peruvians’ preference for fresh, rather than processed, foods, an idea I’ve been harping on lately in this blog.) Peruvians’ love of good food cuts across class, racial and ethnic barriers, Collyns says, and reflects the country’s rich bio-diversity, from its ocean waters teeming with fish, to the…
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French Fries vs. Choclo and Boiled Potatoes: Why Peruvians Aren’t Fat
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this week about obesity in the United States vs. weight and nutrition in Peru. We’re currently exploring these topics in the conversation class I teach at UPC (see class blog, here), but really, they’ve been on my mind since I moved to Peru from Florida in July 2007. Why is it now normal to be fat in the United States? And why do you rarely see an obese person in Peru? After living here for two years, I know why: We Americans regularly eat fried, processed foods, many of them in huge qualities. In contrast, Peruvians’ regular diet tends to consist of fresh food and dishes made…
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AlmaZen Organic Cafe Thrives in Lima
I haven’t seen much of my brother-in-law El Filósofo and his wife La Orgánica lately. That’s because they are busy until 1 in the morning every day with their new vegetarian restaurant AlmaZen, which opened two months ago in old Miraflores (see address below; update, as of 2020, the restaurant is closed). What makes AlmaZen different from nearly all vegetarian eateries in Lima is that its menu is organic. EF and LO buy their ingredients from small, certified organic farms throughout Peru, and that practice guides the entire philosophy of the restaurant. The menu reflects what’s fresh and being harvested now, so one week you might have stuffed squash as a side dish, the…
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Seven Gastronomic Wonders of Peru Contest Extended
The never-ending promotional hooplah that is Las Siete Maravillas Gastronómicas del Peru has been extended an additional month, from July 25 to August 23, announced the contest’s organizers last week. That means if you haven’t done so already, you can vote online for your seven favorite Peruvian dishes, from the list of 21 culinary semi-finalists: Adobo Ají de gallina Anticucho Arroz Chaufa Arroz con pato Arroz con pollo Cabrito a la Norteña Carapulcra Causa Chicharrón Chupe de Camarones Cuy chactado Juane Lomo saltado Pachamanca Papa a la huancaína Papa rellena Pollo a la brasa Rocoto relleno Seviche Tacacho con cecina I’m voting for ají de gallina, causa, chupe de camarones, papa…
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Archbishop of Cusco to Evict More Local Restaurants
Screw the locals, screw the poor, screw the backpackers, screw anyone who wants to eat healthy Peruvian food at decent prices.
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Peruvian ‘Viagra’ Soup: Does It Hoist Your Sail or Is It Just a Crock of Chupe?
Yesterday's post on the medicinal powers of chilcano de pescado led to my discovering a Peruvian restaurant in Chicago that's serving up a traditional fish soup as a wonder aphrodesiac. Taste of Peru in Rogers Park is touting its seafood-crammed "Sopa de Viagra" as a "natural elixir to jump-start the love life," reports the Chicago Sun Times. And at $25 a serving, the lovers' soup competes with U.S. pharmacy prices for the little blue pill:
