What Lima does best: Ceviche and Pisco Sours

Peruvian food is famous throughout the world, and if you go to Lima you will see why. It is one of the most diverse cuisines and has currently become a popular cuisine to study by top chefs. Since Peru has such a diverse culture and multicultural background that includes, pre-Inca, Spanish, French, and Japanese to name a few, the food combines a variety of flavors. Not to mention the homegrown local ingredients that make the cuisine very unique. One of the highlights of my trip has been the soups we have eaten, where even a typically boring chicken soup (which they call diet soup) is just so good.

It seems like no matter where you go in Lima the ceviche is incredible. We ate some ceviche at a small restaurant in downtown Lima. The fish is fresh, as it should be considering how close you are to the ocean. If you look closely at the picture above you can see some Peruvian corn, or as I like to affectionately call it ´giant´corn. It is much larger than I´ve ever seen and has a softer texture.

The Pisco Sour is Peru´s national drink. It is pretty yummy, and made from Pisco, brandy made from grapes. Our bartender made a few Pisco Sour for us and showed us the process on how to make one.

Recipe:

3 parts Peruvian Pisco
1 part lime juice
1 part sugar syrup (jarabe de goma)
1 egg white
a drop of Angostura bitter

Astrid y Gastón is a popular restaurant in Lima and always written about in the guidebooks, however I can assure you that the food is incredible. Seriously I want the chef Gastón Acurio to be a part of my family so I can have his dishes whenever my little heart desires. He was born in Lima and has helped make Peruvian food a popular cuisine around the world, not to mention make little tourists such as myself smile with glee.

Of course we had to try the ceviche at Astrid y Gaston´s and so far it has been the best I have ever tasted. We tried the ´travieso´ceviche which was a mix of the catch of the day. I cannot reiterate how goooood the ceviche tasted.