Maido Tasting Menu and other Lima adventures

I;ve already blogged about our meal in Central, however the rest of the trip to Lima was also spectacular. First up the wonderful meal had at Maido:

MAIDO

First of all the decor, the ropes on the ceiling were so amazing and it gave for a great picture:

and now onto the food. We ended up having the 15 course tasting menu – the Nikkei Experience. We had had different opinions as to what to order if the tasting menu or regular menu, but we decided to trust Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura who was so gracious and nice and suggested we go for the menu

This was the menu for the day:

and here are the pictures and descriptions of what we ate:

SNACKS – piel crujiente de pollo, salsa pachikay, senbel de arroz, chorizo regional, platano asado, emulsion de sashatomate The little chicken skin was amazing (and im not even a fan of chicharron). The presentation of the dish was the highlight however, a great introduction to the menu

CHUROS (snails)- churos de shoyu, chalaca, espuma de dale dale Here was one of the first of my substitutions, being gluten free. The left side was the original menu item (Which i didn’t have and looked great, a huge snail!) mine was a simple sahimi – standard, normal

CEVICHE DE LAPAS tierra de cancha chulpi, lapas, palta punta, leche de tigre al aji amarillo nitro This was my favorite dish of the night. the sand was nitrogen aji amarillo and tigers milk and it was just spectacular. It was a party in the mouth for a while! Inventive beautiful and tasty.

SANGUCHITO DE PAICHE (paiche sandwich) pan al vapor, chicharron de paiche, criolla de lilo Here again i did not get the original sandwich (pictured on the left), but what I got was pictured on the right. It was a traditional native way of making cheese, but instead of milk here they used tofu. Quite inventive and nice, just not a dish i will remember. Note to the restaurant for the future: in some of the best tasting menus in the US, when they substitute dishes, especially for common allergies like gluten, they give a separate menu to the person, so as to know what they had. Here it would have been useful I remember, but i have no written specificity of exactly what i ate!

GYOZA DE CUY con ponzu amazonico Sustituted dish no. 3. On the left the original cuy gyoza (whcih everyone said was really nice, and were actually amazed at the end to know it was cuy). On the right my gluten free pork lettuce wraps. They were absolutely amazing. obviously much simpler than the gyoza, but absolutely delicious and one of the best bites of the night for me.

SUSHI MAR (sea sushi) calamar y conchas Here i also got a substitution, but i didn’t take picture of the original as it was basically the sauces that changed. Simple sushi, nothing spectacular and might not have wasted a course on this.

CEVICHE SELVA (rainforest ceviche) camarones, pejerrey, leche de tigre nikkey, charapita, chonta, farina This was an interesting hearts of palm ceviche. I liked it and it reminded me a lot of Dinner at DOM, with the prevalence of the palms. The presentation was amazing, the dishes were incredible

CHANCHO CON YUCA (yuca with pork) panceta guisada con yuca, nishquina, piel crujiente, reduccion de ramen, cocona this was the consensus of the least liked dish in the table too simple and really nothing special. The ramen broth was the highlight, but it really was not enough to make it an outstanding dish.

SACHA SOBA (sacha soba noodles with clams and crab) soba de sachapapa, aderezo rojo, congoles, cangrejo A very cool dish. Cold potato noodles with seafood that was a bit spicy with the red sauce. A great textural contrast and a wonderful little bite. Again the presentation was spectacular.

SUSHI TIERRA (earth sushi) a lo pobre y molleja – I don’t have a picture of this one but I do remember 🙂 it was basically a sushi of meat and egg and a sushi with sweetbreads. Really enjoyable bites. I hate sweetbreads and actually i did not mind this one, it wasn’t as greasy as they usually are. The egg and meat sushi was a hit, although ive had this type of sushi before, in Kabuki, Oya etc so not the most original.

FREJOLES (beans with avocado cream) crema de palta, culantro, frejoles regionales, gel de ponzu, crujientes de quinua, crumble de cafe It was beautiful – taste was ok. a normal dish that looked great on the plate.

GINDARA gindara, miso, casho fermentado, escamas de castana, crema de papa sangre de toro – This was in the menu, but i have no recollection or picture. So either it was so unmemorable that i don’t recall or we didn’t get it.

ASADO (wagyu roated steak) asado de tira wagyu – 50 horas, yema de huevo de corral, chaufa de cecina, ajicito de la selva This was my second favorite dish of the night after the nitrogen ceviche. that slow cooked beef just melted in your moth and wit the contrast of the yolk was sumptuous heaven in your mouth. I would have done a big bowl of this (although by this point i was stuffed, even if they had offered i probably couldn’t go on)

CACAO Chocolate amador 70%, yuzu, helado de shica shica, mochis, castanas de bahuaja, nibs de cacao Probably the prettiest plated dessert ive ever had. THe shicca shica ice cream was spectacular, yet the chocolate mousse was too chocolate for me, as i am not a fan of it.

MADURO (plantain ice cream with rice milk) helado de maduro con shoyu, tapiocas de camu camu y taperiba, crujientes y gelatina de coco, leche de arroz A dessert straight up my alley. the little tapioca pearls were great and the rice milk with the ice cream was spectacular.

Apart from the tasting menu, they brought us some additional desserts which were amazing, especially the one of the right which was a fruit ceviche! :

here is the video:

and of course birthday cakes! this time made of dulce de leche filled churros:

All in all a great experience and one i want to go back to. Yet is it one of the best tasting menus I’ve had – probably not : i think it needed a bit more finesse and some of the dishes were too heave for a 15 course.

Other Restaurants I tried over the weekend:

La Gloria – A classic one, and the first scallops of the trip (I ate a lot of scallops)

Mercado Mi favortie for lunch and we really ate a whole lot!!!!

Costanera 700 – Where we said goodbye to lima with Causa, ceviche and conchitas

Fiesta After so much fish a great change of pace with beautiful food. It’s entry in the Latam’s 50 best is well deserved as I had pointed out earlier. My little pot of arroz with duck was aamzing, and so was the warm ceviche.