I went on a Gastrotour of Lima for the weekend, here’s what we did:
Friday
9:00pm Dinner at Malabar: A wonderful meal. Not the best of the trip but some interesting different ingredients and textures. I had a Corn on Corn Dish that was just delightful and a Socorrat that was amazing, and a great start to all the wonderful rice dishes that I had and love. The dessert was so weird it was fabulous. Guanabana ice cream with a mix of Andean grains, it was like a quinoa porridge that was weird but cool all at the same time
12:00 Drinks at Open Bar
Saturday
Morning: Driving around in a City Tour. My favorite: the wooden balconies in the central square.
1:30pm Lunch at Central. This time I didn’t do the full restaurant 17 course, we did the 9 course bar menu and it was great for lunch as you don’t end up so full, you still get amazing food and it has a great atmosphere. Our favorite wine (we tried quite a few) :
The Food:
ROCK MOLLUSCS – 10 m
SEA SNAIL · MUSSEL · SARGASSUM · LIMPET – An interesting start to the meal, with great texture
LOFTY ANDES 3 500 m
POTATO · TREE TOMATO · ALPACA · MUÑA MINT – A fun snack but probably the least interesting of the 9 dishes. In the dip you could def.initly feel the tree tomato, but not really the alpaca
WATERS OF NANAY 680 m
PIRANHAS · COCONA · ACHIOTE · HUAMPO BARK – This was the weirdest dish by far. I had never had piranha so that was a first. it had two presentations (thankfully the heads were just decoration). The pieces of piranha in the spinach leaf was the least satisfying bite for all the table of the whole meal. The texture was weird and the leaf overpowering. However the piranha skin cracker was surprisingly satisfying.
HIGH JUNGLE 2 8 00 m
MACAMBO · CASSAVA · COPOAZÚ · AIR POTATO – Delicious bread course, the butter was wonderful. An two out of the three were already gluten-free which for me meant I only didnt try one.
MARINE SOIL 0 m
SEA URCHIN · PEPINO MELON · RAZOR CLAM · SEAWEED – Wonderful contrast of flavors, and the uni wasnt overpowering at all. In fact, the pepino melon gave it a wonderful contrast of freshness
LAND OF CORN 2010 m
KCULLI · PURPLE · CHULPI · PISCORUNTO – delicious little corn fritters with so many textures. Probably my favorite dish of the day
SEA CORAL – 10 m
OCTOPUS · CRAB · SQUID · SEA LETTUCE – one can never go wrong with the freshness of Lima’s seafood.
LOW ANDES MOUNTAINS 1800 m
PORK · BLACK MASHWA · PANCA CHILI PEPPER · KIWICHA – Melt in your mouth pork. IT had a little bit of a Mexican Mole style
HUMID GREEN 3700 m
CAIGUA · CUSHURO · SWEET LEMON · CHACO CLAY – This was more of a palate cleanser than a real dessert, and I was totally ok with that as I usually like to go more for the savory than the sweet. A very interesting take, the black caviar like beads were a Andean bacteria and the white clay gave it an earthy but refreshing note.
4:00pm MATE Museum – I had never been to the Mario Testino museum so we decided to try it out, and i would highly recommend it if you are in Lima. It’s small and you can get through it in 30 minutes, but its beautifully laid out, gives a great retrospective of Testino’s work and to boot it has a fabulous little store. Some of my favorites
5:00pm: Whilst still in Barranco, we did some Shopping at Dedalo
6:00pm: Shopping at Dasso Street. I found my new favorite shoe store: Butrich
9:30pm: Dinner at Maido: We got a table on the later side, so we didn’t do the tasting menu like last time, but we decided to order some of our favorites. This time sadly I wasnt as impressed with Maido as the first time, and I think it had to do with service. We got a terrible waiter, who wasnt very guiding or knowledgeable about the Menu, but also was horrible in accommodating my allergies and that’s always a turn off. However the food still hit the sweet spot. What we got is below. As always the highlight was the sushi with meat and the ostrich egg, the long cooked braised rib and the ceviche, whose changing texture is amazing. The taco was also a revelation. The octopus was good but not amazing and neither was the rice.
SUNDAY
12:00pm: Shopping at Marcelo wong’s store. I got this really cute painting there:
1:00pm: Lunch at Mercado: My favorite lunch spot in Lima and it didn’t disappoint! Apart from the traditional ceviches and appetizers we tried a great shrimp tacu tacu (probably the best dish of the day) and an arroz con pato
4:00pm: Shopping at Larcomar
5:00pm: Ice Cream at Crem de la Creme … and then off to the airport
Tati's Tidbits 
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