TableConversation.com

Lima's Best Ceviche? Maybe Not

Alfredo Aramburu Picasso is one of Lima’s star chefs, and so I expected a lot from his restaurant Alfresco, especially because its ceviche had been named the best in Lima (the menu didn’t say when or by whom).

A mixture of shrimp and sole in a pale orange sauce with a nice tang and a hint of spiciness, the ceviche was good but no better than others I tasted, and it was skimpy on the sweet potato and corn kernels that traditionally accompany this dish in Peru.   

Aramburu’s book, “Alfredo Aramburu,” published by the newspaper El Comercio as part of its great chefs series, contains a recipe for cebiche de camarones al wok (wok-cooked shrimp ceviche) that sounded so interesting I went back to try it, but the dish fell short. The sauce lacked character, and the tiny shrimp did not resemble the photo in the book.

Furthermore, the two small slices of French bread that I was given were dry, as if they  had been sitting out for hours. And the coffee shop-style plastic butter container didn’t suit a restaurant of this level.

Still, the pisco sours were good, the glass-enclosed dining room is attractive, and the wait staff is pleasant. The restaurant just needs more attention from Aramburu.

Alfresco, Malecon Balta 790, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Tel: 242-8960.

It's a Sin to Eat Here

Add one letter to pecados capitales (capital sins) and you have Pescados Capitales, in my opinion one of Lima’s best seafood restaurants (pescados is plural for fish).

This play on words runs throughout the menu, which categorizes dishes according to sins and virtues. Such cute ploys often mask uninspired food, but not here. 

Pescados Capitales backs up good food with a large, attentive wait staff and dining spaces as airy and fresh as if they were beside the sea. In actuality, the Pacific Ocean is just a few blocks away.

Acknowledging that classic ceviche (often spelled cebiche in Peru) consists of only fish, lime juice, red onion and chile, the restaurant veers off into all sorts of variations.

On my first visit, I checked out an original sin, Cebiche Capital 3. As is obvious, it plays up the number three—three types of fish (sole, salmon and tuna), three types of onion and three types of chile.

Spicy and acidic, it comes topped with a slice of hot red rocoto chile, looking innocently like sweet red pepper, and a tangle of feathery seaweed. The usual sweet potato and fresh giant corn kernels are on the side. These seem as essential to ceviche in Peru as seafood.

The next time, I switched to a virtue, patience, and ordered Cebiche Gandhi--fish, shrimp and squid in a curry sauce with mango chutney, peaches and mandarin orange sections. Potentially weird, it turned out to be quite good.  Even my curry-loving friends in Singapore would have approved of the delicious blend of curry flavors, sweetness, lime and flecks of hot red chile and cilantro in the sauce.

Dessert that day was a whipped cherimoya mousse set on a crunchy praline crust, topped with tiny cherimoya dice. The glass dish holding the mousse was presented in a black bowl filled with ice, as if it were swimming in an icy sea.

I’m sorry I missed out on a lucuma tart topped with chocolate. But I did have a tall glass of vibrant yellow fresh lucuma juice—lucuma is a golden-fleshed fruit that is common in Peru and Chile. And another time, I indulged in a gorgeous, lucuma-flavored rendition of suspiro de limena, a pudding and meringue concoction that is one of Peru’s most popular desserts.

The pisco sours are fine, and the restaurant sends out a little plate of silky fresh scallops in tomato sauce to start off lunch.

Pescados Capitales is located on Avenida La Mar, a stretch of auto repair shops, hardware stores, glass cutters and such that has become a trendy place to eat. The restaurant gets very crowded, but arriving shortly after it opens at 12:30 p.m. will avoid a wait for a table.

Pescados Capitales, Avenida La Mar 1337, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Tel: 421-8808.

Delfino Mar: Almost Like Veracruz

Delfino Mar, a seafood restaurant near the coast of Lima, makes me think of Boca Del Rio. That heavily touristed resort town outside the city of Veracruz was once nothing but dirt roads and a couple of wonderful, open-air seafood restaurants.

Delfino Mar like is like those places—small, casual and breezy, looking oddly out of place tucked up against  modern apartment buildings. Like most of Lima’s seafood restaurants, it opens only for lunch, which continues to 5 p.m.

Each time I go, I order the same thing--ronda tres sabores, a plate of three classic Peruvian seafood dishes. These are tiradito, sliced raw senorita fish in a brilliant yellow sauce made with aji amarillo, a chile that is yellow  (amarillo) in name only; causa, a silky  potato mixture as yellow as the tiradito wrapped around crab, and, my favorite, octopus marinated with nutty- tasting olive oil and accompanied by tangy olive mayonnaise.

Just as Veracruz has its vuelve a la vida (come back to life) seafood cocktail,  Delfino Mar has caldo levanta muerto, raise the dead soup, a  fish soup with a bony hand clawing at  the bowl—just crab claws, nothing scary.

Many Lima restaurants serve only roasted corn with drinks, but Delfino Mar provides bread to eat with a delicious warm tomato sauce that contains chopped squid and actopus. The pisco sours come either seco (dry) or demi seco (sweet). 

I’ve had a delightful lucuma mousse for dessert, set on a chocolate-mint base and striped with chocolate. But really, it’s the seafood that counts here.

Delfino Mar, Jorge Chavez 509, Miraflores, Lima, Peru; Tel: 445-3470.

La Gloria: Lima's Finest?

Go to La Gloria if you want to dine with the swells of Lima. It’s a cozy place, not austere and imposing, as you might expect from an ambitious, high-ticket restaurant. 

The flowery menu  lets you know the food is delicious rather than letting you judge for yourself. It’s smart to order from the seafood section, because Lima’s fresh seafood is so good.  There are also meats, pasta, rice, salads and nightly specials.

Grilled tuna perfumed with aromas of eucalyptus from the mountains intrigued me, but the description had more flavor than the fish. I simply couldn’t detect an aroma of eucalyptus. Nevertheless, the tuna was cooked just as I asked (termino medio, half cooked rather than raw).  The salad on the side included only a shred or two of the promised grilled baby onions.

The standout was the dessert, delicia de chirimoya, a pillar composed of crumbly, rich chocolate brownie topped with diced fresh cherimoya and capped with cherimoya foam.  More fresh cherimoya and cherimoya sorbet were on the side along with spun sugar grillwork.

The butterscotch and pisco sauce sounded marvelous. Alas, it was confined to thin swirls on the plate, not enough to taste. But then chefly restraint is typical of restaurants of this caliber.

La Gloria has a superb list of piscos by the glass, categorized by brand and grape variety. Huarangal’s quebranta pisco went into my pisco sour, which was the smallest I had during a week in Lima and thin tasting—the sweet and sour balance was off.

Oh well, in pricey, top-of-the-line restaurants, less is more, but not when it comes to my pisco sour, thank you.

La Gloria Restaurant, Calle Atahualpa 201, Miraflores, Lima, Peru. Tel: 445-5705.

The Best of Lima and Buenos Aires

Selecting the “best of” anything is purely subjective. So this list of  “bests,” drawn from my recent days in  Lima and Buenos Aires, reflects only my own reactions. The next trip could produce an entirely different list of “bests.”

Fuller reviews of most of these restaurants will appear on www.tableconversation.com in the next few weeks.  One thing is certain. Both cities offer plenty of good eating. 

LIMA, PERU:

Best Restaurant: Pescados Capitales, a seafood restaurant in Miraflores.

Best Main Dishes:  Pork loin glazed with algarrobina (carob) sauce  and Trujillo style arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) at El Senorio de Sulco in Miraflores.

Best Dessert:  A tie between cherimoya  mousse on a crunchy praline crust at Pescados Capitales and coconut-topped arroz zambito, an exceptionally good version of a  traditional rice pudding, at El Bolivariano in Pueblo Libre.

Best Drink: Pisco Sour.

Best Coffee: Peet's coffee at my guest house in Miraflores.

Toughest Ticket: Getting into La Mar, the trendy restaurant on Avenida La Mar in Miraflores.

Best Food Buy: The normous caramelized pecans from Ica at a dried fruit and nut stall in the San Isidro Municipal Market.

Best Non-Food Buy: Salad forks and spoons made of beautifully grained olive wood from Arequipa.

Nicest Surprise: Stumbling across a copy of the out-of-print book “Los Chifas en El Peru” (a history of Chinese restaurants in Peru) by Lima journalist Mariela Balbi.

Nicest Moment: Snagging a table at La Gloria in Miraflores, ranked as one of Lima’s top restaurants, on my last night there without a reservation.

Greatest Disappointment: Gloomy, sodden weather.

Next Trip: Another try at La Mar and a side trip to Arequipa, renowned for its cuisine.

BUENOS AIRES

Best Restaurants: Almanza in Palermo Viejo and Social Paraiso in Palermo Soho.

Best Main Dish: Bondiola (pork shoulder) at Almanza, tender enough to eat with a spoon.

Best Dessert: A tie between burrata with fresh and preserved fruits, strips of local cheese, aged balsamic vinegar and black pepper at Damblee in Balvanera and crisp, sweet dried apple slices layered with passion fruit mousse and accompanied by a scoop of Sichuan pepper ice cream at Social Paraiso.

Best Drink: Domingo Molina Malbec 2003 from Salta.

Best Coffee: Café cortado (coffee layered with hot milk) accompanied by candied orange peel shreds at Croque Madame, the restaurant at the National Museum of Decorative Art in Barrio Norte. The museum was once the mansion of the elite Errazuriz Alvear family, which makes the setting as alluring as the drink.

Toughest Ticket: Getting into tourist magnet La Cabrera in Palermo Viejo  at night without a reservation. The wait can last an hour.

Best Food Buy: A luscious glazed nut  tart at Las Familias bakery near Social Paraiso.

Best Non-Food Buy: A pizza slicer made in Argentina.

Nicest Surprise: Finding really good Korean food in a distant part of Buenos Aires.

Nicest moment: Sipping a glass of fragrant Torrontes in the late afternoon at Cartoon Bar and Restaurant in Recoleta.

Greatest Disappointment: Tough, fatty grilled matambrito (a thin cut of pork) at El Trapiche in Palermo Viejo although the restaurant is known for this dish. 

Next Trip:  Back to old favorites such as El Yugo in Recoleta and Il Vero Arturito in Abasto. And I’ll bring home a sack of medialunas, the delicious crescent rolls that Portenos adore. 

Next Stop--Peru

Tableconversation.com is heading to Lima, Peru to report on great places to eat there.

The seafood restaurants alone are worth the trip. But there is much more, including  buffet restaurants that present the vast range of Peruvian cuisine in a single meal, Chinese restaurants, which in Peru are called chifas; grilled chicken places on almost every corner and lively cafes.

Then there is the 19th century tavern that serves Peruvian style bar food along with the  national drink, pisco. It’s at one corner of a complex that houses the warehouse and sales counter of a top pisco producer, where you can pick up a bottle to take home—packed in your suitcase.

Peru and Mexico have produced the two greatest cuisines of the New World, but Peruvian food is not as known as that of Mexico, because it doesn’t travel well. The enormous variety of fresh ingredients required for Peruvian dishes is only available there—a good reason to visit the country.   

Then on to Buenos Aires for more wining and dining in a city that really knows how to live the good life.

www.tableconversation.com will resume after a three-week pause for travel. 

Lomo Saltado: Peru's Stir-Fried Beef

Lomo saltado (stir-fried beef)  is a curious dish. Although it sounds Chinese, it is genuinely  Peruvian, but then Chinese food is as basic in Peru as burritos and pizza are here.

The flavor of the version I make isn't Chinese at all. It contains soy sauce, but no ginger root. And the sauce is tangy with vinegar rather than composed of broth, wine, sesame oil and cornstarch thickening, which is the Chinese way.

In his monumental "Diccionaria de Gastronomia Peruana Tradicional" (Dictionary of Traditional Peruvian Gastronomy), published by Universidad de San Martin de Porres in Lima, Sergio Zapata Acha defines lomo saltado as a mestizo dish with Spanish influences. It has evolved, he writes, from simple salted meat to a tasty, colorful blend of meat, tomatoes, chiles, onions and garlic. Oddly, the typical accompaniment is French fries. And the dish is often served with both rice and French fries.

The following recipe is based on one from "La Verdadera Cocina Criolla" (True Creole Cuisine), published by Corporacion Editora Chirre. I came across this small book in Lima while shopping at Larcomar, a mall dramatically carved into a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

I've made some changes. The recipe said to mix the French fries into the meat, but that sounded nasty so I put them on the side. And I have replaced the Peruvian aji amarillo (yellow chile) with sliced jalapeno and reorganized the preparation.

Some recipes suggest flaming the meat with pisco, the Peruvian alcoholic beverage. This would be nice for Peruvian Independence Day July 28.  But I'm celebrating with typical straightforward lomo saltado. I prefer my pisco on the side, the better to offer a toast to the holiday.

LOMO SALTADO

1 pound boneless lean beef
2 small onions
2 tomatoes
2 cloves garlic,
1 jalapeno chile, halved, seeded and sliced
1 cup cilantro leaves
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons oil
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Prepare all the ingredients before starting to cook.

Cut the meat into short thin strips, as for stir-fry. Cut the onions in half through the root end then crosswise in thin slices.

Halve the tomatoes, squeeze out the seeds, then cut them in thin strips. Mince the garlic. Cut the chile in half, remove the seeds and cut crosswise in thin slices.

Chop the cilantro leaves coarsely. Combine the soy sauce, vinegar and water in a small cup.

Heat the oil in a wok, preferably non-stick. Add the meat and stir fry over high heat until evenly browned and any liquid cooks away. Season with salt and pepper while stir-frying. Remove the meat to a plate and set aside.

Add the onions, garlic and chile to the wok and cook until the onion is softened. Add the tomatoes and cook  until softened. Add the soy sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Return the meat to the pan and add the cilantro.

Test for seasoning and add more salt if needed.  Mix well, then continue to cook for 3 minutes, stirring. Turn out onto a serving platter. Accompany with French fries or rice.

Makes 4 servings.