Food, glorious food...

Wherever we go in the world one thing unites us all... food (except the breatharians).  Although it is hard for a travelling gringo to avoid the temptation of pizza cooked in wood-fired ovens, which are commonplace here, part of every journey must involve sampling the local food.  Here is the first of a mini-series on some of the local delicacies from the finest restaurants to the grubbiest street corner.

The first review is of a restaurant called El Paisa which indicates it serves recipes from northern Peru.  To whet the appetite we were served with leche de tigre (tiger's milk) which is the sauce they use for the main savoury dish ceviche.  A bit like having a glass of gravy before your Sunday roast.  To accompany  this very sour concoction was a dish of roasted corn kernels, a bit like unpopped popcorn.  The corn was great but I'm not sure I'd like to suckle on a tiger's teet too often.

Of the main dishes we shared, three were ceviche del paisa, one a little picante.  This is a traditional dish which is essentially raw fish in lemon juice with onion.  The secret to good ceviche is it needs to be freshly prepared with fish caught that day if possible.  This dish came with four small sides of beans served on upturned pecten shells.  Added to this were some sweet potato and fried yucca strips topped off with a garnish of fried seaweed in batter.  It's a considerable amount of raw fish but was very tasy and went down a treat.

Next up was the chupa de camarones, or shrimp soup.  However, as you can see, these were no ordinary shrimps, more like small lobsters.  The large central beast was surrounded by four smaller cousins, all of which surrendered a delicious morsel from their tails.  Very fresh.  The soup itself was very rich and creamy with a submerged treasure of beans and veg if you could negotiate your spoon around the imposing crustaceans.  I'm not sure I like my shellfish swimming once they've been cooked - ditch the soup.

Finally we have jaleo mixta which literally means a 'mixed fuss'.  These battered and deep fried morsels were accompanied by mayonnaise, ketchup, salad and fried platano chips.  This finger food was very tasty and would be the choice for those young kids used to the reformed chicken pieces some are fed in the UK.  Our Peruvian host assured me that within this fuss I would find calamari but however much I tried I could find only chicken.

I asked our amigos whether there were many vegetarians in Peru.  "None," they answered, "although you might find a few in Lima."  This is why I keep resorting to pizza as it's the only vegetarian option that is widely available and tasty.  Some animals were harmed in carrying out this review.  It's thanks to them I now have a full belly.  Whilst I eat veggie whenever I can I think it's also important to experience the local cultures and cuisines without judgement insofar as is possible.  Thank you Pachamama.