Without a doubt one of the best parts of traveling is eating. Munching spicy, crispy chicken feet while shit faced on Soju in South Korea, slurping a mystery bowl of noodles in SE Asia, and chomping on shrimp burritos (Michelle and I daydream about these) while in Belize are some of my favorite traveling memories. As cheesy as it sounds, when I think of these meals I am instantly transported back. Not to just the food but to who I was with, what my life was like then, and all of the other memories associated with these trips.

While eating our way through the first part of the trip, I did not find too much culinary excitement but was still more than satisfied. While Colombia seems to rely on sheer volume and a deep fryer, and Ecuador’s coast provides more than decent seafood, there seemed to be something lacking in both cuisines that kept me wanting a little more. I love empanadas as much as the next guy, but variety is the spice of life.

Luckily, the shining beacon that is Lima, Peru is filled with enough great eats of all sizes, shapes, and prices to satisfy any traveler. With a little research, Michelle and I ate probably the best food we have ever eaten over a course of 2 ½ days. While the marathon of wine and beef in Argentina still awaits, I have a feeling I will happily trade that in for a few more days in Lima.

Lima is a giant city, and not all parts of it are safe for tourists, so we decided to stay and eat all of our meals in the Miraflores district. With its new high rise apartments and laid back attitude, it seemed quite different than the hustle and bustle of the other large cities we had visited. Lima seems to have a booming economy and an emerging middle class, who is more than happy to spend its extra income on exceptional food and drink.

Breakfast in Peru does not seem to vary much from just some bread and juice, so we decided that the free breakfast at the hotel would suffice and leave us more money (and room in our bellies) for our other meals. That left just 3 dinners and 2 lunches for our quick visit. With that, I poured through blogs and websites to get us a good mix and representation of the things that Peru does best. Needless to say, my homework paid off.  

One of my favorite surprises is that Peru has a strong sandwich culture. After several less than stellar sandwich offerings in other countries (hastily grabbed at bus stations), this had me salivating. So after a 9 hour bus ride I thought a large sandwich for dinner and then off to great night’s sleep was just what we needed. The internet kept pointing me to a sandwich chain called El Chinito. Started in Lima over 50 years ago with just one location, they have opened more stores with their huge popularity. These sandwiches feature Chinese style roasted pork on a hard roll, with fried sweet potatoes and pickled red onion. Although simple, the roasted pork was reason enough to eat here. While the sandwiches were delicious, Michelle and I both agreed that a large portion of the sliced pork was all we really needed, and the bread provided nothing more than a hand held delivery system for those on the go.

 

 

One cannot talk about the cuisine of Peru without mentioning ceviche. It is the national dish, seems to be on most menus, and is usually eaten for lunch. After the super limey and soupy ceviche of Ecuador (by no means bad, just different), we were ready to experience Peru’s version for our first lunch in Lima. There were a million options but I narrowed it down to the seafood oriented restaurant La Red. Holy shit did we hit the jackpot! For one, the quality of the seafood was second to none. While previous fish wilted under the large presence of citrus, this fish was firm and you could actually taste the flavor of the fish, not just lime. There was also squid, octopus, shrimp, and what we believe was conch in these delicious bowls of goodness. One of the most noticeable differences was the use of just a little heat in these ceviche’s, which really brought out the flavor. They also came with a large hunk of sweet potato, which helped contrast the acid with their natural sweetness. These ceviches were a measly $10 US each. Michelle and I have payed twice as much for ceviche in America that was not half as good, and just a fraction of the portion size.

 

 

Chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino’s restaurant ámaZ was our dinner choice. With its focus on Amazonian ingredients, our love for strange foods (we did eat dog together) we thought we would be in store for some unusual treats. Motherfucking snails!

 

 

Look at these humongous guys! These huge shells are filled with delicious hunks of snail, swimming in a sea of caviar. These were one of the most delicious things we have ever eaten. We even got a second order of them after our entrées. Other great dishes were the Amazonian charcuterrie board filled with various sausages, a banana leaf wrapped tamale of sorts filled with smoked pork, and a huge chunk of the Amazonian fish also wrapped in a banana leaf. Add in a couple of cocktails and a dessert and our bill came out to $100 USD. But hey, if Michelle keeps booking us on all these crazy hikes, I am going to make us eat an expensive meal or two.

 

 

As great as our dinner was, we wanted to hit the Peruvian honey hole of seafood at least one more time while in Lima. With our bellies finally receding from the previous night’s gluttony, it looked like La Picanteria was a great way to get back on the train. As we walked in only 30 minutes after opening we discovered that the place was packed, filled with full grown men in bibs, with an hour wait in the dining room. Luckily our waitress took us over to two open stools at the small bar and told us we could eat in there. This restaurant had a bit of a different set up and required some explaining from our waitress. Luckily, Michelle’s Spanish has been getting stronger and stronger, or else who the hell knows what we would have ended up eating. We choose one whole fish, they make a ceviche with part of it, a fish head soup, and then we choose one of many preparations for the main entrée. All of this is served in large dishes, family style. We chose the fish chita (a Peruvian white fish) and selected the traditional preparation of Jalea Norteña. We ordered a large beer as we watched the bar to continue to fill up and wondered exactly what we had ordered. BEST.LUNCH.EVER. The ceviche came out first and was even better than the previous days. Also featuring the same sweet potato as yesterday, what really set it over the top was the fried shoe string fish parts (we really have no idea what it was) on the sides. We also discovered that our favorite part of any ceviche is the fish, and not the accompanying seafood.

 

 

After devouring our ceviche, our soup and entrée came out next. The soup was solid but required some work to get to the delicious parts of the fish head. Our entrée was the rest of the fish perfectly fried with a great sauce, pickled onion, on a bed of yucca and sweet potatoes. Simply unreal. The total cost of this feast was about 50$ USD. Worth every penny.

 

 

Michelle and I spent the afternoon drinking beers and playing cards, awaiting the next culinary delight. After our expensive meals, I opted for more of a street food approach for dinner. Grilled beef hearts. The restaurant Anticuchos Grimanesa was on about every Lima food article I read. Originally just a food cart, its huge popularity forced it into a brick and mortar establishment. Its owner, Tia Grimanesa is somewhat of a national hero. The place has a pretty basic set up. You order as soon as you walk in, two or three skewers, and wait for some seats to open up. This place is insanely popular and there is almost always a wait. You sit on a stool in the smoky restaurant and then are served. Although we have eaten our fair share of guts, we had never eaten heart before and were not sure what to expect. The hearts were absolutely phenomenal. They tasted like a perfectly cooked steak on the grill. And at about $5 a meal, the best deal on beef ever.

 

 

 

Lima’s reputation as a foodie destination is well deserved. We did not even begin to scratch the surface of its thousands of restaurants and ate like kings for a few days. So next time someone is planning an eating vacation, Lima should be at the top of the list.