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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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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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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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Peru’s Answer to Jewish Penicillin: Chilcano de Pescado
Chilcano de pescado, as made by Gaston Acurio I need my Jewish chicken-noodle soup in the wintertime. I grew up on the U.S. East Coast, where delis and diners and Jewish moms cook up barrels of this fragrant, healing soup all year long. Then I moved to Miami where at gourmet delis like Epicure, you can buy big jars of delicious matzoh-ball soup that will cure you overnight of colds, bronchitis, pneumonia. I’ve been restored from the Dead with homemade chicken soup glistening with beads of kosher chicken fat. Then, a year and a half ago, I moved to Peru where there are like, 3,000 Jews in the entire country and no…
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Surquillo Market No. 1
The photo above was taken in Surquillo Market No. 1, in Miraflores. The vendor is arranging her eggplants and tomatoes as the day winds down. Peruvians prefer to prepare their meals from fresh fruits and vegetables, rather than buy canned, frozen or processed foods. Doing so it more economical and tasty, Peruvians agree. As an added bonus, preparing meals from scratch is healthier. Eating healthier foods enables many Peruvians to stay fitter than their U.S. counterparts. According to the World Health Organization, obesity in developed and developing nations is soaring, notes ACAP. An astonishing 74.1% of U.S. citizens over age 15 are classified as overweight. The United States ranks #9…
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We Want to Be Your Solution for All Things Potato
Delicious purple Peruvian potatoes Potatoes are a big deal in Peru. The Peruvan Andes were the birthplace of the potato, and today Peruvian farmers cultivate more than 3,000 native varieties of them — potatoes with names like Ica Huila and Purple Viking and Wilja. The United Nations has declared 2008 “the International Year of the Potato,” and this event is being celebrated in gastronomic festivals, restaurants and stores throughout Peru. Peruvians are passionate about potatoes and spend a lot of time preparing and eating them. This is not a country where you can get away with serving inferior spuds. Peruvians know a good potato when they eat one. Now that I’ve lived here for a…
