Lima is for Lovers (and Hungry Stomachs)

Well hey there, fellow Awesome Seekers.

WELCOME TO SOUTH AMERICA.

This is my first time on this continent, and to say I'm excited is perhaps one of the biggest understatements in the history of the world.  Or at least of this blog.  If you've had the misfortune of being anywhere within five feet of me in the last few months, you are well aware of JUST HOW PUMPED I have been to go on this adventure.

ANYWAY...

Lima:  Undoubtedly the first stop on pretty much any visit to Peru.  It's the biggest city in this country with a little less than 9 million people.  It's massive, sprawling, and traffic-filled, but also quaintly and very beautifully nestled right next to the Pacific Ocean.  Drive down the Circuito de Playa--or the road right up against the beach--and you could swear you're in Southern California on your way from Malibu to Santa Monica.  There's even a pier that juts boldly into the ocean.

Lima is also, I've noticed, for lovers--it's hard to look at this city without seeing couples cutely lost in each others' worlds.  Everywhere.  I saw a few couples cuddling at a construction site, for example.  It's sickening and fantastic; there's a popular park called El Parque del Amor, with mosaic benches reminiscent of Gaudi's in Barcelona, topped off with a giant statue of a couple full on making out in a passionate embrace.  It all makes you both want to puke and find the love of your life, especially at sunset.  For a single girl without a main squeeze in sight...it's begrudgingly beautiful.

We get it, Lima--you're romantic.  Now stop making us gals that are here for work feel lonely. 

We were greeted at the airport with a sign (I always miss this when I travel not for work), and were immediately welcomed into the five-star arms of The Belmond brand.  This was a (Awesome) recurring theme of this trip, as they were our sponsor-turned-hand-holder-turned-comfort-provider-turned-over-the-top-spoiler throughout.   

I am not worthy of the amount of luxe, believe me.

(SIDENOTE: Let me just throw this in now, and then continue on with a discussion of Peru.  The Belmond will ruin you for any other hotel experience ever.  It's just a thing.  But it is a wonderful, luxurious, take-me-away-and-never-look-back kind of thing.  Consider it, if you ever make it to this part of the world.  A few nights at a Belmond hotel is a great way to bookend a rough-and-tumble adventure at Machu Picchu.)

Ok, so...Lima.  If you read a guide book about Lima, or perhaps tune into some of the online travel conversation, a lot of the advice you'll get goes something like this: "Stay there for a night, and then move on with your trip--there is nothing in this congested city to see."

Awesome Seekers, I beg to differ.

Lima has recently become synonymous with good food.  No, wait--not just good food, but the kind of food that defines a culinary adventure, a city that begs you to eat, eat, eat, and then shoves more food down your throat when you're full.  If you do Lima right, you should never be hungry, but always be hankering.  At least that's what I took away from it all.

We were, admittedly and unfortunately, only in the city for about 24 hours, but in those hours, we ate. 

And ate. 

And ate.

(I later talked to a couple from Mexico who had spent a whole six days in Lima--just eating!--before moving on to the rest of the country.)

Our Guide to All Things Edible for the day was chef Jean Paul Barbier (who can be found at the restaurant Tragaluz in Miraflores), a man who has cooked for a fistful (or two) of celebrities in his time, and knows his Peruvian foods without missing a beat.  The first stop was the Mercado Surquillo in Miraflores, a market that, I was told, is a pretty typical neighborhood market.  There are, of course, supermarkets in Lima, but the mercados are kind of like daily farmers' markets, offering high quality fresh ingredients to families and chefs alike.

There are a few reasons for Peru's recent rise on the food scene, one of them probably being that Peru's economy has been booming as of late, allowing a vivid and expressive restaurant scene to truly begin to thrive.  But certain gastronomic groundwork had already been laid long before, particularly through the mix of cultures that make Peru, PERU--global influences brought on the backs of immigrants from Spain, Italy, Germany, China, Japan, and West Africa that combined with the already developed Peruvian palate to create new national dishes like lomo saltado or even ceviche, which is thought to have its roots--at least partially, and with dispute--in the Moorish culture that came with Spanish conquistadors. 

But maybe one of the biggest reasons Peru has such a blossoming food scene is simply because it has so much food.  This place is fertile.  The mercado was practically overflowing with produce--and with a whole lot of produce I had never even heard of before.  (There were avocados there as BIG AS MY HEAD, which is pretty much my definition of Awesome.)

Peru has three different regions--the mountains, the coast, and the Amazon--and each region has its own personality with distinct ecosystems.  Of the 112 bioclimates in the world (some say 104--either way, there are a lot), Peru has 84 of them--which means, as our guide explained, Peru can "grow almost everything and anything."  And it's true:  People in this area of the world have been mastering the art of agriculture for hundreds if not thousands of years (more on this later).  The potato as we know it was developed in Peru (there are somewhere around 4,000 types of potato in Peru, which makes eating even french fries a serious delight).  Avocados, peppers, tomatoes, cocoa, corn (lots and lots of corn)--all native to this part of the planet.  Basic staples for delicious eating just sprout from the earth here.

Peru also has a lot of not basic staples too, or at least foods that had never crossed my path before.  Chef Jean Paul steered me in the direction of fruits and veggies like granadilla, caigua, and--perhaps the weirdest--pacay, a giant pea-pod-looking thing filled with a starchy, sweet fruit the consistency of Styrofoam and giant black seeds to match. 

Next, Chef Jean Paul bought fresh fish at the market, and mixed us up some stunning ceviche back at the restaurant, explaining the key ingredient to Peruvian ceviche, the leche de tigre, or Tiger's milk. (Apparently, if you mix it with pisco, Peru's national spirit, it makes one hell of a hangover cure.  I can't say I tried it, but something tells me the Peruvians know their hangover cures.  I'll take their word for it.)

I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of seafood usually, but this stuff--it was good.  Really, really good.  Slightly spicy, fantastically tart, and incredibly fresh, accompanied by sweet potatoes and two different kinds of corn to help construct the perfect bite.  When he finished it out by bringing us all pisco sours to wash it down--well, I might as well have died and gone to (tastebud) heaven. 

It was like Peru had just jumped inside my belly.

And that was just the beginning of chef Jean Paul's showcase.  He proceeded to throw down course after course of scallops and shrimp and beef and quail eggs and gnocchi and potatoes (lots of potatoes) and avocado that wowed us all into a foreign food coma, making this whole "work" thing we're supposed to be doing a difficult concept later in the afternoon.  It was truly Awesome.

Work on we did, though.  The afternoon was filled with the more historic (and picturesque) sites of Lima, which began to paint the picture of just how beautiful this city is up close.  Sure, from far away, it's a bit overwhelming: bland buildings crawling up hillsides and and spilling across any open space, busy traffic, billboards filled with advertisements--all coupled against a sky that was (at least while were there) gray and depressing.

But, like a lot of places, it's the details that make it magical.

And Awesome, of course.

Because what would the world be like without Awesome.

 

(SIDENOTE: These balconies pictured above are on the Archbishop's Palace, or the administrative headquarters of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lima.  They're a good example of the famous wooden balconies of Lima, called celocias (from the word "jealousy"), which were built during the Spanish and signified the Moorish influence.  The balconies were used as a place for women to be allowed outside (kind of) without being seen.  Apparently this is the only "outside" those women really ever got.  Major bummer.  BUT they look really pretty, don't they...?)

 

You caught me, Lima.  I guess you really can't be in Lima without falling in love at least a bit...