Destination Peru #13: Apu Salkantay Puno

City of Puno

We were in Puno to visit Lake Titicaca. Quick, someone tell me something they know about the lake besides it being the highest lake in the world be elevation...yea that's all I knew about it also. However, my mom had remembered reading about it when she was in grade school so we made sure to check it out on our trip to Peru. We arrived after a long ten-hour bus ride with my brother painfully sick the entire time. Too bad for him, he missed out on all the alpaca along the way. When we finally got to the city, I actually thought the town was kinda dumpy and the lake not that magnificent. It wasn't until we got away from the town and went up into the mountains that we got a better view of the nearby lagoon.


Like the hat?

For dinner, we walked along the main tourist drag without any real direction. I had a few restaurants scribbled in my Moleskine, but nothing particular worth searching for. We ended up at the restaurant with the largest crowd, but there was too long a wait so we went across the street to here instead.

Apu Salkantay
JR Lima, Puno

After some extensive research (the kind that involved my Wikipedia search bar), I found out Apu is an honorific term for mountain spirits in Andean culture. Salkantay is the name of one of the Andean peaks. Fittingly, the menu was Peruvian heavily slanted towards Andean cuisine. My dad and I decided on the trout and pejerrey respectively. These are two of the four types of fish indigenous to the lake. Though the English translation of pejerrey on the menu said "kingfish," Wikipedia tells me that it's actually a neotropical silverside. Well whatever fish it is, it wasn't very delicious. The flesh was rather bland and fell apart too easily. It came with vegetables cooked in black bean sauce, seemingly Asian influenced. After trying the dishes, my parents and I were convinced the chef was Chinese. My dad's combination platter, the Fiambre Salkantay, had the aforementioned trout and also alpaca loin and Andean cheese. The loin was among the better alpaca meat I had in Peru. My mom opted French with a lomo a la pimienta, a pepper steak in a brandy sauce. While the reduction was excellent, it tried to cover up the inferior quality beef. Bad meat, bad dish, no matter what you do to it.

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Destination Peru #12: Peru has Pizza?

Amaru
Agua Calientes, in the town square with the Incan fountain

I apologize for the lack of addresses or more specific directions, but this is probably the easiest way to find the place paired with the above photo. Restaurant Amaru is upstairs, providing a scenic balcony view of the square.


View from the restaurant

I wonder if you noticed something peculiar about the sign of the restaurant in the first picture. "Bar,restaurant..." yes those all make sense, "...pizzeria"? Now in itself it may not be quite so strange, but pizzeria is actually a fairly common site in Peru. How many of you knew that Peru has pizza, and lots of it? After passing by many of these places, I couldn't help but try it.



And it was good. In fact, so good, it beats most of the pizza I've had here. Maybe it even holds a candle to NY style pizza. Though they are quite different types of pizza, I'd be hard pressed to choose a NY slice over a Peruvian one. The crust was thin, like a slightly risen cracker but crisp from the wood oven. This pizza is a pizza mixta, with ham, palm hearts, olives, bacon, cheese and oregano. As much as NY pizza is defined by the dough and the sauce, I think Peruvian pizzas are characterized by the cheese. I'm tempted to say it's queso fresco, but I can't confirm that. All I know is the the way the ham paired with the gooey strands made me go back to another pizzeria the next day.

Besides the marvelous pizza, I also had an empanada which I regrettably forgot to photograph. The crust was different than the Argentinian ones I had before. It wasn't flaky as much as it was smooth. I think they messed up my order and gave me a pure cheese one. Ultimately, it was too much dairy for me to handle.

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Destination Peru #11: The Cuy Finally

Restaurant Pachatuzan
Pachatuzan Road, Agua Calientes
$16 for the cuy

If any of you have talked to me about my trip already, you'll know that I got a chance to try guinea pig. In Peru, guinea pig, or cuy, is usually served for special occasions. From what the guide said, it sounded like the equivalent of a goose. How often do Americans eat goose except for special dinners around holidays? Well cuy is an Andean dish, so I waited to get into the mountains before selecting a restaurant. Many of the places in Agua Calientes serve it to the tourist clientele. I saw a few of them skinned and sold in the markets, but none alive. I chose Restaurant Pachatuzan because we had been to plenty of fancy places and this one looked simple and somewhat less frequented. They featured a large wood oven in the back for roasting many of their dishes. Soon after we sat down, the lights went out. But the owners were quick to bring out candles and resume service. It occurred to me that blackouts were probably not too uncommon.






My mother had the cordero a la parilla. Looking in my trust pocket dictionary, I realized that it was roast lamb. It was simple, no fancy garnishes, but according to my mom, a great dish.



My dad chose the trout because of its ubiquity. Apparently, it is a regional specialty showing up on most of the menus around town. The skin was crisp, but the fish lacked much flavor of its own. Every dish came with a side of thin fried potatoes.

Finally, my order came.



I was hoping to see the whole guinea pig comfortably lain with its paws tucked underneath like a whole roasted pig. Mine came spatchcocked, which makes sense from a cooking perspective, but lacked the dramatic effect. Well if anything, it certainly looked more grotesque. It didn't bother me to see a whole roasted rodent on my plate, except when it stared at me as I was eating it. I turned the plate around so I could eat in peace.



Well that's the presentation, but what did it taste like? To be honest, there was nothing unique or distinct about the flavor of the meat. The taste and texture bore a striking resemblance to dark meat chicken, although the skin was very elastic and chewy. Perhaps I just had a bad cuy, but I was disappointed. Besides the novelty, I don't really see the appeal.

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Destination Peru #10: My Gripe with Dinner Shows

When I traveled as a kid with my family, I never liked our tour groups. Although I like the convenience of having everything planned out, I never trust the food provided on these tours. They always have some sort of deal worked out with a less than stellar restaurants to gouge the customers. Just the same, I'm skeptical of asking taxi drivers for recommendations. It was like this when I went to Europe. We were in a Chinese tour group and only ate at Chinese restaurants. Don't ask me how I went through France without eating anything remotely French.

On my trip to Peru, we booked a tour that took care of lodging, transportation and several tours of famous sites. Luckily, they gave us freedom for our meals. One of the few dinners they did provide was at Tunupa. It is centrally located in the town square, and better yet, there was live entertainment. The show consisted of an Andean band playing some traditional instruments and dancers performing native dances.



While the performance was good, the food was not. Though Tunupa has a menu available, the provided dinner was a buffet. In general, I don't mind buffets. I realize that the food is not going to be outstanding so I judge it on a different scale. Even though the alpaca stew and spit-roasted pork were tasty, overall I didn't think it was memorable or spectacular. What bothered me most though, was that it was a buffet. Simply put, buffets and dinner shows do not mix. The dancers frequently blocked the main floor of the restaurant, resulting in diner stuck to one wall while waiting for the routine to finish. At least with wait service the diners are not quite as inconvenienced, assuming that the performances are timed well with each course. If you're going to start a restaurant with accompanying show, please plan ahead. Don't leave me standing with a chocolate hazelnut cake in one hand for four minutes.

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Destination Peru #9: Inka Grill Introduction to Cusco

Cusco Cathedral

After our brief tour in Lima, we ventured up into the Andes en route to Machu Picchu. The town of Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire at its peak, now its a major tourist stop. Around the main square, little shops and restaurants gave the scene the flavor of a quaint European village. The cathedral in the center of town had more bling than the last thirty gangsta rap videos I've seen. Gold and silver leafed altar pieces were stunning. I have to give it up to the Catholic Church, when they want to dazzle you, they do so in style.


That's a candle that's accumulated over ten years.



For lunch upon arrival, we went to Inka Grill, one of the restaurants on my Peru research list. The classy interior and experienced staff definitely took the restaurant out of the little town its in and placed it in a cosmopolitan city. Of course the prices also reflected that. During my trip, the exchange rate was roughly 3 soles per dollar. When my uncle went their before the Argentinian economy collapse, the exchange rate was one-to-one. At those prices, the country would not be any cheaper to visit than America.



They served us some chips with spicy, minty cilantro dip to start with, but they weren't that good. In fact, they had been sitting out and were no longer crispy. I couldn't tell if the potatoes tasted any different.


Aji de Gallina

I ordered the aji de gallina because of its popularity as a Peruvian dish. It's a shredded, poached chicken in a creamy sauce with nuts, parmesan cheese and mirasol peppers. As a dish, it's hearty, but beyond that, the flavor was simple. I can imagine people eating something like this on a day-to-day basis.


Alpaca Tournedos


Live alpaca for comparison

Of course I would've ordered the alpaca a lo tupac turin if my brother hadn't jumped on it first. This would be first of someone of the more exotic foods I'd be eating. Alpacas are so common in the Andes, although I suspect the people raising them tend to frequent tourist paths. They're dumb looking animals, but very docile and tame. Similar to llamas except they're not raised as pack animals since they're too small to carry anything. They're domesticated only for their wool. I bought several scarfs and sweaters made of alpaca and I'll admit that they are indeed soft and warm. Too bad their meat is not especially delicious. The tournedos were tender and slightly gamey, but nothing particularly memorable. I won't be disappointed if I can never eat alpaca again.


Inka Grill Sampler

My mom decided to go broad and order the Inka Grill Sampler, which consisted of tamales, potato empanadas, anticucho and papas rellenas. Everything on that plate that looks yellowish is potato. In my opinion, it was overwhelming, but the different styles of preparations with presumably different types of potatoes had radically different textures. Anticucho was a dish I had heard much about and was eager to try. It is a skewered beef heart. Sounds tasty...or maybe a little sadistic. Either way, it was indeed chewy and beefy. There was a slight taste of organ meat, but it was mostly just an overwhelming sensation of beef. Did I say overwhelming? I meant just right. How could you be overwhelmed by beef? That would be silly.

http://www.inkagrillcusco.com/

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Destination Peru #8: Chifas in Peru

Look familiar?

What about this one?

It's funny how Chinese restaurants look the same wherever you go. The same cheap furniture, tacky posters and paintings, and that ubiquitous bottle of soy sauce on every table. I suppose that you can say the same about any French or Japanese restaurant. But the frugality of Chinese decor will always be apparent. Chinese restaurants have taken a life of their own in Peru. Being such a diverse capital, Chinese have made their two million strong population felt in the Peruvian culinary scene. So much in fact that Chinese restaurants actually have a special name chifa, a transliteration of the Chinese 吃飯 meaning "to eat."


Sopa Wanton


Arroz Chaufa

Chifas are actually so common place in Lima that there's hardly a dining district without chopsticks and red walls. Wonton soup, or sopa wanton, often on the menu of even non-Chinese restaurants. As is arroz chaufa, fried rice. Just as Chinese food is in the States, the chifas in Peru serve a particular brand of cuisine distinct from its roots in the Orient. For one thing, sweet and sour seems to be big. A duck dish I ordered in Puno was peculiarly sliced and stir-fried instead of roasted whole. But given its uniqueness, I still found the food to be decent. The fried rice we had in Lima was particularly delicious. The chifas do have some strange habits such as serving jasmine tea with sugar (ack!).


Pato con ajo (Garlic duck)

We visited Chifa Parque Central in Lima and Chifa Nan Hua 南華 in Puno. Inca Kola has become a staple of chifas, much like the Belfast Apple Cider in Chinese restaurants in America. Still, I'd rather have my Chinese food with tea, but please, hold the sugar.

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Destination Peru #7: Lost Churros, Please Help

Most Delicious Churro of My Life

Admittedly, I am not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to Latin American food. Up till now, my churro experiences have been limited to the sugary snacks found at Disneyland for $5 or whatever they're selling for these days. Yes, they are good, but they got nothing on the churro in the above picture. The shape is quite unlike the star-shaped ones available here, though I did see a few of those as well. This one is designed for filling, a brillant idea to invigorate the snack.

My family and I were walking through the Plaza de Armas in downtown Lima taking the obligatory tourist pictures and buying trinkets in the markets when I saw a line gathered outside a small storefront. There were no tourists here, just hungry locals looking for a neighborhood favorite. Whatever it was, I had to have it.


Los Autenticos Churros Espanoles de la Virgen Del Carmen

Nothing more than a counter facing the street and a bench along the wall, the shop served one thing. The name says it all, Los Autenticos Churros Espanoles de la Virgen Del Carmen. Pure, unadulterated pastries of fried dough filled with a creamy custard. I think it may have been manjar blanco, a thickened milk cream similar in consistency to condensed milk. The churros were pulled out of the hopper, dusted in sugar and handed to me wrapped in paper. It may have been fried, but it tasted like it was baked in heaven. Light on the stomach and light on the conscience, I felt good having it as a snack.

Sadly, I don't know the exact location of this churro shack. If anyone has any information, please comment. All I know is that it's within several blocks of the main square of downtown Lima, down a side street.

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Destination Peru #6: Wet Your Whistle

I wanted to write an entry addressing the beverages in Peru. I mentioned the chicha morada, purple corn drink before, but there are many more worth mentioning. Also, the famous Pisco was also addressed previously.

The two drinks you'll find everywhere

The above picture shows the two most common drinks you'll find in Peru, much more popular than water. Actually Coke is also on that list, but we have Coke here don't we? Actually, more on that further down. Cusquena is by far the most popular beer in Peru by its sheer ubiquity. They seem to sponsor so much down there, including this remote wedding on a floating island in the middle of Lake Titicaca.


See the Cusquena gazebo?

For the non-drinkers, which seem to be very few, there's always the non-Coke standby Inca Kola. I've heard about Inca Kola during my research back in LA, but I was quite shocked to discover its florescent yellow coloration. My mom explained that it was likely due to the association of Incas with gold. I definitely racked up quite a few bottles of this during my trip. It tastes similar to bubblegum or cream soda. Apparently, it's also caffeinated. Pity I've never seen it before here, but I'll be sure to ask for it at my next Peruvian restaurant. In Peru, Inca Kola is closely associated with Chinese food. I'll explain more on that in the future.


Melon juice


Mixed fruit juice

Commonly, you'll see places serving jugos or juices from various regional fruit. I frequently saw banana, strawberry, papaya, pineapple, apple, orange, passionfruit and peach. The above melon juice is fresh squeezed from Astrid y Gaston. As with all the juices, it was sweet and refreshing. Also, they're all rather puply, usually not strained. While I usually like mine pulp free, it makes the drink healthier. I'm sure there's fiber or something in it. The mixed fruit juice is from a little restaurant in Agua Calientes that I will soon review. I tasted predominantely banana, pineapple and orange. Again, it's nothing unique besides the quality of the ingredients.



This was a Guarana soda my brother bought at the supermarket. I told him to try it because I'm in love with the Guarana Antarctica from Brazil. Sadly, the Peruvian counterpart seemed too artificial for my tastes. Asked to describe it, I would say that the soda tastes something like cream soda with a slice of apple. Please try it at your next churraschuria. Apparently, the guarana berry has two to three times the caffine of a coffee bean. Something to keep in mind next time I'm pounding these sodas at Fogo de Chao.

Something I notice when drinking Coke and Sprite in Peru. The sweetness is different. I have a feeling that the sweetener is more likely cane sugar than high fructose corn syrup. I've had sodas I've known to be cane sugar before, and the flavor is definitely superior. But I've heard conflicting information about HF corn syrup. On one hand, the body is supposed to find it indistinguishable from regular sucrose, common table sugar. But I've also heard people decrying HF corn syrup for being worse than transfats, cholesterol, salt or whatever our society is waging war on these days. Can anyone confirm or deny that for me?

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Destination Peru #5: Alfresco in Miraflores

Alfresco
Malecon Balco 790
Miraflores, Lima
$10 or so per person for lunch

One of the restaurants that came up time and again on the Peru Chowhound boards was Alfresco for ceviche. Along with Puerto Madero, Pescadores Capitales and La Mar, Alfresco was on my list of possible lunch places. My plan was just to accumulate a selection of restaurants I know with a good reputation so that I could stumble into any one of them when a meal came up. However, when our driver picked us up at the airport, he immediately suggested Alfresco. So off we went!



The interior of the restaurant is casual, with a beach theme. The Northern wall has a large mural of coastal scene, and the large windows make the place bright and airy, even if Lima is never sunny in the Winter. From my research, I've heard that ceviche is only eaten at lunch and that Alfresco only served lunch, but when I arrived, I found an advertisement for their extensive dinner menu as well. I glanced at the menu, but I already knew what I came here for.

Ceviche, or sometimes cebiche, is something of a coastal delicacy popular in Lima. It's relatively common not only in Peruvian cusine, but also in any number of Latin American countries with access to fresh seafood. Ideally, it's a simple preparation of any type of white fish marinated in lime juice with some other flavorants such as red onions and chiles. You may have commonly heard that ceviche is raw, but the acid in the juice actually denatures the proteins of the seafood, in a form of heatless cooking. While it's debatable whether or not cooking has to involve heat, it's not debatable that Peru is home to some excellent ceviche. Due to the Japanese influence, Lima also has tiradito, which is a younger brother to the ceviche, lacking onions and less of a strong flavor more akin to Italian crudo.



To start, the waiter brought out a small bowl for the table. At first I was startled by its appearance, looking somewhat like little bugs. I know insects aren't completely foreign from the table in certain South American countries, as mentioned in my post about entomophagy, but I hadn't heard of any instances of it in Peru. Luckily, I realized that this was a bowl of cancha instead, roasted corn kernels. These make a terrific bar food and went well with my beer. I could definitely snack on these as an alternative to nuts or pretzels at the bar.



Again, a charge for bread meant the rolls that arrived were delicious. The larger ones were nothing particular, but the small rolls along the edge of the plate are onion rolls no larger than a half-dollar in circumference. I popped one into my mouth and got a surprise of rich onion paste filling. I always wonder how much more I eat when the portions are small enough to fit several into my mouth at once.



Finally our ceviche came. Since I didn't quite know what the portions were like and I wanted to try a combination, I ordered two different types of sampler platters for the four of us. The first plate in the top picture consisted of mixed ceviche, tiradito with lemon chili cream, causa (potato cake), octopus with olive sauce, a California roll and seafood salad. I don't even pretend to know which item is which, so you might have to use your detective work to figure it out. Although I do know the one on the bottom left is the ceviche.



The second plate consisted of flounder ceviche, tiradito in lemon pepper vinaigrette, crayfish cocktail, scallop tartare, octopus salad, salmon nigri and something call an Inka maki. In both plates, the plainest ceviche was always the best. The octopus is also surprisingly tender, lacking the chewiness common when served raw. I loved the presentation of each individual dish on scallop shells. It was quite a bit of food as just an appetizer for four people though.



With two appetizer, we decided to order three entree for the four of us. My scallops were disappointing. I wasn't sure how it would be prepared, but I didn't like the heavy sauce, which reminded me of the sauce served on takoyaki in Japan. I was also less than thrilled with the plating after they've already served the scallop shells with the ceviche. Although, it was nice to know they were using whole scallops.



My mom and dad shared a pretty grilled octopus salad. I actually don't remember much about how this tasted and there's nothing in my notes, so I suppose it wasn't particularly memorable.



As much as the other two entrees were letdowns, my brothers squid ink risotto was the redemption. I'll agree, it's not particularly appetizing to eat something that looks like that, but I wonder if there's anything really delicious that's black. The ink was fresh, so it didn't have a fishy taste. However, the waiter told us there was no calamari, so they were substituting it with crab, crayfish and shrimp instead. Makes you wonder what happened to the pens in the restaurant.

At this point we were all stuffed to the gills. Fresh seafood is usually pretty hard to screw up as long as the cooking process is kept simple and quick. I had my taste of the sea, now it was time to move inland.

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Destination Peru #4: Miscellany of Fruits and Produce

As mentioned in my last post, Peru is home to a huge amount of biodiversity. What this means for me is a huge amount of things to eat. The above picture was taken at Vivanda, an upscale Whole Foods type market in Miraflores. Although many of the fruits and vegetables are recognizable as global staples, there are many that you don't see here unless in specialty markets.

For one thing, I was amazed at the varieties of heirloom tomatoes that have grown in popularity recently, but the number of those tomatoes are a paltry number compared to the over 3,000 varieties of domesticated potatoes in Peru. During my time there, I only had perhaps 5-6 that were consistently used in dishes, each with distinctly different flavors and textures. A potato can be intensely earthy, while its counterpart could be almost ethereal. One can be mealy and the other creamy. I suppose you can accomplish some of these different textures due to cooking method, but the differences in flavor are not so easily replicated.

Besides potatoes, there were also different types of corn, although not to the same degree. A constant staple was the large kernel corn you can see in my short ribs in the previous post. Below is a picture of a man selling boiled corn on the street. It was quite a common site actually, though typically with an Andean woman. My first impression upon seeing the giant kernel, each about 3-4 times larger than regular corn, was that it must be a large ear. Instead, I soon realized that the ears were the same size, but the kernels were just disproportionately large. I was also disappointed when eating it. There was no crunch, no satisfying snap to the corn. Each kernel was chewy and soft. In fact, it has almost no discernible flavor. I suppose I might be spoiled by the ultra-sweet GMO white corn here, but if this is what corn originally tasted like, then I would rather make a tortilla out of it instead. I think you would lose the pleasure of having a tasty corn on the cob treat.



Also, Peru has a purple corn most prominent as a drink chicha morada. The corn is boiled in water, turning the liquid the signature purple, and then pinapple and sugar are added as it cools. We bought a bottle at Vivanda, but it wasn't very good. It tasted artificial, and looking at the bottle I wouldn't be surprised if it was. It was much too sweet, but had an aftertaste of corn. I didn't see anyone eating the purple corn raw, but sometimes in a cooked state as a complement to a dish.




Every morning we had a complimentary breakfast served by the various hotels. In each hotel, there was always fresh squeezed papaya, pineapple and orange juice. Every fruit I ate was deliciously sweet, no "bad apples", not that I actually ate any apples. The plate below is a typical breakfast fruit platter I would make of kiwis, watermelon, papaya and an unidentified fruit in the top left. Those three pieces were sweet and a little mushy, but the seeds were round and extremely hard. If anyone can identify them, please comment below. My family also had many of the passionfruits in Peru. Considering how expensive they are in the States, it was a pleasure having them so cheaply we could eat them until we got sick of them. In the second picture, we bought a mandarin orange on the bottom right and three different types of passionfruit.



Of course I can't leave out meat. Commonly, there is the pork, chicken and beef that we all know and love. It is the alpaca and guinea pig that we don't see often. Strangely enough, I've heard that alpaca are illegal to slaughter for food, which makes me wonder where the meat comes from. Since I am much more a carnivore than anything else, I will go into these when I mention the restaurants that served them to me. But here's a picture of a typical meat market in Lima near Barrio Chino (Chinatown).



Sorry for the dearth of non-meal related pictures. Believe it or not, I'm still using a 256 mb memory stick on my camera. It wasn't until meticulously documenting this trip that space became a problem.

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