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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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Waiter, There’s an APEC Fly in My Ceviche Classico!
By Barbara R. Drake, with photos by Jorge Vera Ceviche Fuerza Asiatica, from Pescados Capitales, Lima, Peru Call it haute cuisine with a political bite. That’s what some foreign dignitaries are tucking into at a top eatery in Lima this week, when the APEC Leader’s Summit concludes with a special focus on the world economic crisis. Pescados Capitales, on the city’s gastronomic corridor of Avenida La Mar, is serving up a menu of original dishes that salute and satirize “Los Pecados de la APEC” (The Sins of APEC). Overseen by head chef Wilfredo Castillo and owner Nguyen Chávez, the APEC dishes feature “summit” gatherings of classic Peruvian foods like ceviche…
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Totally Offensive: McDonald’s Opens at Cusco Plaza de Armas
The “M” is brown, but it’s still the same Mac-chain Several posts ago, I incorrectly announced that Cafe Ayllu on Cusco’s Plaza de Armas had closed due to a pending rent increase. My source was wrong; what I found out when I visited Cusco last week is that the Ayllu is still open, for now. (It will close soon.) The real news is: fast-food chain McDonald’s has opened a franchise just three doors down from the Ayllu. The McDonald’s opened last Wednesday with little fanfare, according to John at the South American Explorers Clubhouse in Cusco. “They sort of snuck in,” he says. “There wasn’t any word about it.” The…
