These are linguini noodles in a spinach and basil cream sauce. They are served with two thick slices of pan seared potato, and you can choose between a pounded chicken breast or beef steak to accompany the noodles. Although the noodles are the star of this dish, my thin beef steak was tender and very nice. The noodles had some grated parmesan cheese on top, and there was some creamy hot sauce on the side. The green sauce was a little oily, but not in a bad way, and there was just the right amount of it (not too much, not too little). Potato and pasta shouldn't really work together, but here they did. This is a Peruvian dish, so one has to sneak some potato in one way or another. The chef came out to talk with me, and he told me that in Peru the steak would be breaded, but he chose not to do that. I applaud his decision; for me, with all the other starch on the plate, breading would not have been welcome.
Location: Peruvian Fuego, 1751 Sunrise Way, #F1, Palm Springs, California. Date: September 4, 2021.
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This is a Peruvian method of using up leftover rice and beans by mashing them together, flavoring them (I detected garlic and cumin), and turning them into patties that are usually served with salsa criolla, a tomato based sauce. The vibrantly colorful version I got at Pachamama used quinoa instead of rice because they're a health conscious restaurant. They also used black beans rather than the traditional yellow, and their patties were topped with green, yellow, and red bell pepper slices as well as thinly sliced red onion. The three patties came with three sauces: a mild green one that I was told was jalapeño crema, a yellow medium hot aji amarillo (the most famous of the Peruvian chilies), and the red salsa criolla that was, surprisingly, the hottest of them all (it isn't in Peru). The dish also came with potato, Peru being the birthplace of those roots. The potatoes were cut like somewhat thin steak fries and baked with the peel on. They were nicely salted and tasted delicious. I dipped everything into the sauces, finishing them all, and almost blew my head off. But what could I do? I'm addicted to spicy sauces.
Location: Pachamama, 3737 Adams Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: July 24, 2021. This salad was advertised to come with kale, honey roasted carrots, mixed potatoes, and aji dressing. Aji is the iconic Peruvian chile, and potatoes originated in the Peruvian Andes; however, this restaurant, I was told, is not Peruvian but uses tastes from all over South America. My salad did come with kale, and also microgreens, along with yellow long potatoes and purple round potatoes, both quite small. The potatoes had skin on like you would find in Peru. The aji chile dressing was spicy, but not too much; it colored the salad yellow, and there were sesame seeds sprinkled. There was some crunch from the heirloom carrots, that had different colors, but for me (and this is a definite nod to the Andes), the perfectly cooked potatoes, enhanced with the aji chile dressing, were the star of the dish.
Location: Pachamama, 3737 Adams Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: December 27, 2019. In Argentina it's Choripan (chorizo sausage with bread), but in Peru it is, of course, Choripapa (chorizo sausage with potato). The chorizo here is artisanal; it was pink, smokey, not too salty, and sliced. The potato fries were typical of what I've had in Peru: unpeeled, medium cut, crispy exterior, dense in texture, and with a strong nutty potato flavor. The fries had melted cheese here and there that tasted like mozzarella. The eggs were perfectly fried, sunny side up, with runny yolks (which works really well with potato). I had this dish for lunch, but it's what Americans would call breakfast. I ate at the bar, and the friendly bartender gave me a few dried Aguaymento, a fruit from the Andes that tastes like sour plump raisins.
Location: San Martin Plaza Restaurant, Plaza San Martin, Lima, Peru. Date: November 27, 2019. Saltado is Peruvian stir fry that has the oddity of having potato fries mixed in. Lomo Saltado is the beef version, and it's probably the most popular one. This Belgian fusion version had beer in the sauce, and the fries were served separately in a cone. The gravy that the tender beef pieces with tomato wedges and still crunchy but mild onion slices were in was unusually rich, and that really was what set this Belgian version of lomo saltado apart. Dipping the fries in the tasty gravy is a must, so I tipped my fries out of the cone and onto the plate. I also found some crunchy thin red bell pepper slices in the dish, but only the unique culinary history of Peru put the mandatory rice on the plate together with the fries. I enjoyed my fusion dish in the courtyard with the mannequin pis fountain (not working) and the brewery vats (being worked on). The beer I had with my meal, the Lima 1 tripel, was made in the brewery right here at the restaurant. It was a strong Belgian style beer that was fruity and bitter and, at 9.5% alcohol by volume, was appropriately served in a wine glass.
Location: Casa Belga (& Lima 1 Brewery), Jiron Azangaro 260, Lima, Peru. Date: November 26, 2019. Fresh passion fruit and fresh mango were muddled together by my Chilean friend Donald to make a special pisco sour for me. The muddled fruit was strained, and pisco brandy and egg white were added and then shaken with ice. The flavor of the muddled fruit, which Donald gave me to taste before making the cocktail, was intense deliciousness; I'm not sure that I've ever tasted anything better. The sweet floral nature of passion fruit with the creamy mango is nothing short of divine. If there is a heaven, can they top this taste?
Location: Iqueña, Jiron Lampa 214, Colonial Center, Lima, Peru. Date: November 25, 2019. There are some noteworthy soups in South America, and this traditional Peruvian offering is one of them. This tasty and creamy soup is based on beef broth and milk to which onion, garlic, tomato, oregano, vermicelli noodles, and sauteed pieces of tender beef are added, along with one fried sunny side up egg per bowl. My soup was very beefy but not too heavy. The tomato adds brightness, and I could taste the oregano. Here at La Leña they serve this soup in rustic tin bowls. I saw a chef making this soup the night before at Haiti in Miraflores. He was slightly under cooking the fried egg so when he put it in the hot soup if would finish just right (the goal is to have some runny yolk). My egg was almost over done, but it was still just a bit runny. I didn't detect any potato in the soup, but the recipe I have in the cookbook I bought in Peru does list potato as an ingredient, which makes sense for a dish that is a Peruvian tradition.
Location: La Leña, Jiron de la Unión 765, Lima, Peru. Date: November 25, 2019. For my Irish breakfast at Molly's in Miraflores, I got a nice cuppa tea, a slice of white toast, a slice of Irish soda bread, a breakfast sausage, a slice of spicy blood pudding, three strips of bacon, half a grilled tomato, baked beans, sauteed mushrooms, and a sunny side up egg. And this is the small breakfast! (For the regular breakfast you double everything.) Molly's only serves up the Irish breakfast on weekends, and since I happened to be there then, I took advantage of it. Comforting and tasty.
Location: Molly's Irish Bar & Restaurant, Calle Berlin 172, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Date: November 24, 2019. Picarones are Peruvian donuts made with sweet potato and squash and drizzled with (or soaked in) spiced molasses. Navarrito is a brand name, and I came across the Navarrito street cart at the outdoor Festival del Picaron in Miraflores. These picarones had a crispy exterior and a soft, almost pudding like, interior. They didn't have a whole lot of flavor, but that's what the molasses sauce is for: that sauce was packed with flavor. I was told that it contained fruit such as pineapple and quince, but in hindsight I think I was being told what the molasses itself was made from. I'm sure I tasted cinnamon and clove, but the lady didn't confess to the spices; however, a Peruvian cookbook I bought in Lima lists cinnamon, clove, aniseed, and orange peel in their recipe. The fried dough is all about texture, and the spiced molasses sauce is all about flavor (deep flavor), and together it's a marriage made by culinary gods. I'm not a big sweets fan, but these are so addictive!
Location: Festival del Picaron y Postres de Antaño, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Date: November 23, 2019. A waitress passed by with carrot cake on a tray as I was drinking a pisco sour, and I decided to order a slice. It was not too sweet, there was less cream cheese frosting than would be normal in the U.S., I could see the carrots, and there were some nuts (a few with a bit of crunch). The cake was quite dense and took some chewing, but the flavor was nice; I could taste cinnamon. This was not the best carrot cake I've had, but it certainly wasn't the worst either. I appreciated the lower sweetness, the amount of carrot, and the location: I certainly didn't come to Peru for the carrot cake (though I discovered during my stay in Lima that carrot seems to be one of the more popular cakes here). The dish that my slice of cake was on was garnished with cocoa powder, a Peruvian specialty; Peru is the world's largest organic cacao producer.
Location: Cafe Cafe Peru, Martir Olaya 250, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Date: November 22, 2019. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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