Today, Laura asked if I wanted to go along on a foodie tour of Lima. It was about 8:30, and they were planning to head out around 9:30. I went up to the room to see if Dusty felt like going, but she was still a little under the weather from something she had eaten a few days earlier and didn’t really want to take any chances.
By 9:20, I had eaten a quick breakfast and gotten down to catch the bus out of the industrial port where we were docked. Laura was nowhere to be seen, and I found out through WhatsApp that she had gone on an earlier bus and would meet me with her two friends, Lauren and Delia, at the Plaza de San Francisco. After a half-hour bus ride and a half-hour Uber ride, I found them at the tiny plaza with the smallish, for Latin America, church in the Lima district of Barranco.
Our guide, who said I could call him Ricardo, arrived after four others had joined us and before the final two arrived. In discussing the mix of nationalities in Peru, he pointed out that one of our latest arrivals looked Argentinian. She was from Virginia. For the rest of the afternoon, we teased her about being from Argentina.
A short walk down the road brought us to a row of restaurants and shops. One of them was a small upstairs shop with the sign Exquisito Peru hanging out front. The walls had rows of chocolates, teas, and such, while in the center was a table with ten samples of a number of fruits, teas, and chocolates representative of Peru.
Custard apples, two kinds of passion fruit, tea made from the cacao bean skins, and three different local chocolates. The sampling was accompanied by Ricardo explaining the history and horticultural aspects of each. Educational and tasty. It was a nice introduction.
Next was breakfast: a history of coffee and freshly made chicken empanadas at Luna Nueva. Also educational and tasty.
Lunch included a little show and tell at Ayahuasca Restobar and Lounge. As a historic site of Lima, the exterior is impressive, and the kitchen was open to us for a small private tour. Lomo Saltado was on the menu as a demonstration of local fusion cuisine of Peruvian and Chinese. The wok work was flaming hot and resulted in the same classic dish that I enjoyed over two years earlier when I first came to Lima on our way to Machu Picchu. Our lunch was accompanied by an Inca Kola, a soda that tastes a lot like cream soda and was introduced by a British family nearly a hundred years ago.
Ricardo took us on a little walk through the art district to see a few things before our next course of Lima food. Artwork on the streets. Making a wish as we crossed the Bridge of Sighs. Passing by the Church of Barranco, waiting for restoration. To the República Pisco-Barranco for our class and sampling of Peruvian ceviche.
After a couple of appetizers of mashed potato with yellow Peruvian peppers and a cocktail of purple cactus fruit, we got down to the show and taste. Sea bass with a few chunks of ice to keep it cold had the salt, seasonings, and peppers added to it as it was stirred between steps. Finishing with local key lime juice, fish liquid, and thinly sliced onion, it was soon ready to eat. It was served on a bit of lettuce and a couple of slices of sweet potato that had been boiled and glazed with a cinnamon-seasoned syrup. The chef sampled the liquid and adjusted a few times as he got it just right before serving it to us. Honestly, one of the best that I have ever had, and I am not even a fan of most seafood.
Well, after all that, what else could one want? Maybe a bit of dessert. But something kind of light. How about some gelato? Sure. Each of us got something a little different from the other and then we were done. Right?
Well, maybe just one more Peruvian classic. Through the local square and to Juanito Barranco. With the comic-style drawing of the family on the wall, it was pretty easy to recognize Juanito when he got up from the table and took his place behind the counter.
The class in the Pisco sour included the descriptions of different qualities of Pisco before combining the concoction and having us help with the shaking of it before our bartender carefully poured it out into the waiting glasses. He finished with a few drops of bitters and an artful design on each before serving them.
With the food tour complete, we made a brief stop at the artisan's market before returning to the ship. All in all, a pretty nice day.
