Restaurant Reviews/Food Topics

Last Saturday was our long-awaited visit to Mistura, the Peruvian Food Festival.  This is a relatively new festival (one cabbie told me it’s 3 years old), but it’s already made a major splash in Peru and Internationally.  It’s best described as a State Fair minus everything but the food.

I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting it to be very organized (we are in a third world country, after all).  Shockingly, it was one of the best-run festivals I’ve ever attended.  Each featured restaurant (from all over Peru) offered 2 dishes, each of which was available in a full or half portion at the same set price.  It ended up being about $2.50 for a half portion, $5 for a full.  Additionally, they didn’t take cash.  You were required to put cash on a Mistura debit card that was then swiped at each booth and could be reloaded on site.  Honestly, it was quite brilliant and very speedy too.

Where we goofed was choosing to go on the last Saturday of the 10 day event.  It was completely sold out and the crowds showed it.  Nick was melting down within 5 minutes of getting in the door, so I plied him with alcohol in the hopes of buying myself an hour to enjoy some food (note: my evil plan worked).

The lines for the really popular Peruvian dishes were close to an hour long, so we just picked any line that looked short because all the food seemed yummy to us.  What we tried (from top to bottom): Anticucho (cow heart on a stick), Goat Ravioli with corn cake and salad and Jungle Ceviche.  And of course we had a few Pisco and Maracuya Sours.  Yes, the food was as good as it looks.  Too bad we couldn’t get more of it.

So yeah, we goofed by going on a weekend.  We’ll do it right next year and pick a time when we’ll avoid the crowds and get more than a taste of the food!

Here are a few more fun shots that capture the ambiance.  Above: The random marching band that busted through the thick crowds.  Below: The mobile beer pourer.  Innovative, huh?

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This week’s Saturday date coincided with an Embassy-planned outing to La Mar Cevichería.  Instead of going solo, we met up with 10 other ceviche-lovers at what could arguably be called the most famous Cevichería in the world.  Why is this one so famous, you ask?  Well, first off, it is owned by Gaston Acurio, Peru’s “Culinary Poster Child”.  He’s like the equivalent of Wolfgang Puck or Emeril in the US.  If you haven’t heard of him, you probably will soon, as he’s expanding his empire to the States (as well as other international locations).  La Mar recently opened in CA, NYC and DC (read about it in this LA Times article).  There’s a little background, now on with the review!

Price/Value: 5 stars. $20 a person for our entrees.  Top-notch ingredients and large portions leave little to complain about here.  This level of food quality and presentation would easily be $30-50 a plate in the US.

Food Quality/Taste: 4.5 stars.  Since we were at a world-famous Cevichería, Nick opted to get the classic Ceviche.  He’s had ceviche 5 or 6 times now and said that the taste and tenderness of this one was the best he’s had.  He gave it a 5 all the way.

Nick’s Classic Ceviche

I don’t dislike ceviche, but I’m not keen on having an entire bowl of it either.  Instead, I chose a ricotta-stuffed ravioli topped with sea bass, shrimp and scallops.  Despite sounding amazing, I was less enchanted with my dish, finding the flavor combination a bit bland.  In hindsight, I should have gotten something they were more well-known for since everyone else was raving about their dishes.  La Mar gets a 3.5 from me.  We’ll definitely be back though, so I’ll be opting for something non-pasta next time.

Sarah’s Ricotta-stuffed Ravioli with sea bass, shrimp and scallops

Plating/Presentation of Food: 5 stars. Visually stunning.  The artistic displays of food were *almost* too gorgeous to eat!

A delicious mix of various potato and plantain chips

Sweet potato puree topped with chicken, shrimp and sweet potatoes

Complimentary after dinner treat – Creme de Menthe flavored shaved ice

Ambiance: 3 stars.  Loud, al fresco and informal.  Didn’t do much for me.

Service: 5.  Superb.  This was clearly a tourist destination – it’s one of the first places I’ve heard English spoken by the waitstaff.  Our waiter was so amped up about Peruvian food, he insisted on writing down the names of his other favorites in town.

Overall Score: 4 stars. You won’t remember the place for the ambiance – the food is clearly the star here.  Merits the hype but needs a few more visits to refine my impression of the place.

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This week might as well have been called the “Week of Gluttony”.  I swear, all we did was eat amazing food.  It started back on Monday with our lunch date at Pescados Capitales.  As you’ll recall, it was our first day with Lupe (our new household helper, called an Empleada here).  Turns out we scored the jackpot again – her food was SENSATIONAL.  We had Lomo Saltado Monday, Sauteed fish and potatoes Tuesday, Ahi Gallina Chicken on Wednesday and Meat and Cheese filled Zucchini on Thursday night.  Wowzers.  And the crazy part is that’s about an eighth of her responsibilities!

Well, the week just kept humming along.  Nick found out he got tenured on Friday, so Saturday’s planned date got bumped up a notch in fanciness to accommodate the celebration factor.  We ventured out at noon on Saturday to a restaurant called Hanzo, which had come highly recommended from our sponsors.  It was a Japanese/Peruvian fusion restaurant and wow was it unique!  I’m getting really into photographing the food since it always comes beautifully plated, so I thought we’d start doing restaurant reviews as well. For those who are coming to visit, start taking note of the places that you want to be taken to!  Here we go…

**One thing to note, for price/value, I’ll be rating the restaurant in relation to other places in Lima, not US prices because nearly everything would be a good value then.

Price/Value: 4.5 stars.  $20 a person for entree + non-alcoholic beverage.  Despite being on the more expensive end for Lima, the quality of the product was absolutely superior and the portions generous.

Food Quality/Taste: 4 stars.  I should start by saying that Nick and I differed in our ratings.  My dish was superb.  I had a balsamic glazed salmon over wasabi-pureed potatoes, served with pickled peppers.  It was a bizarre flavor combination but WOW did it work well together.  LOVED EVERY SINGLE BITE OF IT.  5 from me.

Nick chose the Tiradito Nikkei, which was a plate of thinly sliced raw fish in Yuzu sauce (a Japanese citrus fruit).  He chose it based on a review he’d seen online and was quite displeased with his choice.  The fish was of ample portion and high quality, but the sauce was lacking in flavor.  He felt that the fusion failed on this particular dish.  3 from Nick.

Sarah’s Balsalmic-glazed Salmon

Plating/Presentation of Food: 5 stars.  No question that this category gets a 5.  It was some of the most intricate plating I’ve come across.  Both dishes looked so much like pieces of art, we were hesitant to dig in to them.
 

Nick’s Tiradito Nikkei

Ambiance: 4 stars.  Really enjoyed the glass-frosted patterned window (shown below) but thought they could have done more with the main dining room.  Didn’t feel very intimate.

Service: 3.5 stars.  Average service, nothing that jumped out as bad, but nothing that impressed us either.

Overall Score: 4 stars.  Lots to like, but not quite a perfect dining experience.  Will definitely be coming back again to give it another shot (and to sit on this toilet again – most relaxing bathroom experience I’ve had in a long time!)

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Hola Blog Readers – Hope you had a wonderful, relaxing Memorial Day Weekend (for those who celebrate it).  We were initially going to go away this weekend for our first official getaway but weren’t feeling settled enough to actually go through with it.  Instead we had an administrative weekend, which included tasks like:

• Completing 5 more Empleada (Household Helper) interviews
• Hiring a gardener for our backyard
• Dealing with our Internet and TV situation (Finally resolved today on our 4^th visit!)

I knew that coming from Manila (aka the service capital of the world) was going to be hard to match in terms of household help.  I just didn’t expect it to be quite so frustrating.  Quite a few of our initial candidates had this air of entitlement, like we should be happy that they decided to interview with us (note: There is a large pool of household help, the key is finding highly recommended ones as well as individuals who’ve worked for an Embassy family before).  I was very turned off, especially when we’d tell them our priorities and they’d comment that they didn’t really like that but would do it if they had to.  Several also insisted on washing our dishes to give us a sense of their competency.  That amused me.

After 10 different interviews, we finally came across a few candidates that seemed to genuinely want the job and have a warm demeanor.  The crazy part is that to get a “Norma” here, we have to pay 125% more for the same hours.  Granted, it’s still only around $600 a month for six 10 hour days, but I guess I didn’t realize just how great we had it in the Philippines.

We ended up hiring Lupe (pronounced Lou-Pay) for Monday through Friday 8-6 and Miriam for Saturday 8-6 so we can enjoy a weekly date in the afternoon on Saturday (we’ve decided it’s necessary to carve out time each week to specifically nurture our marriage).  We offered Lupe the job Sunday night and she started on Monday morning.  So far, so good.  She’s wonderful with Nia, very skilled around the house and an amazing cook.  The bonus is that she also speaks a bit of English so between my beginners Spanish and her beginners English we can usually communicate quite well!

Our gardener also started on Monday and will stop by once every 2 weeks to take care of the yard.  It’s a must since we don’t have a single tool here to do it ourselves (unless you count the Butcher knife my husband used to hack off tree branches last week… let’s just say I didn’t want that to become a normal thing).

Nick and I celebrated our successful weekend by going out for our first meal sans baby in Peru.  Nick was itching for ceviche (a Peruvian delicacy), so we did some research and selected one of the top cevicherias in the area, Pescados Capitales.

I took the opportunity to enjoy my first Pisco Sour, while Nick downed a local beer.  This was our first time at a high-end restaurant here and although we’d heard the food was amazing, I don’t think either of us expected it to be THATGOOD.  Nick chose the Nelson Mandela Ceviche, composed of Black Tuna, Caribbean salsa, sweet potato and corn.  For those who aren’t familiar with ceviche, it’s essentially raw fish that is marinated in lime juice.  The reaction between the two causes the fish to go from raw to cooked without applying any heat.  The dish is served cold and is commonly known as a lunch food (Peruvians’ largest meal of the day is lunch).

I wasn’t feel quite as adventurous and opted instead for the common local fish, sole.  I had this magnificent piece of sole covered in shrimp, mushrooms and a tarragon butter sauce.

SERIOUSLY INCREDIBLE.  Both of our plates were under $20 and given that taxes are included in the price of the dish and tips are only 10%, we ended up getting out of there for a little over $50.  Not bad at all for a classy  meal.  Our current plan is to try a different restaurant every week on our Saturday date.  If they’re all like this, our tummies are going to be very, very happy…

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