Peruvian food: You HAVE to try "Antichuchos" in Lima!!

The anticuchos are one of the favorite snacks or entree in Peru, specially in Lima where you can find them from street-carts in a Park to the best restaurants in town! The typical Anticuchos are from beef heart but know you can also find Anticuchos made from tenderloin.........what defines the Anticuchos really is the sauce, which gives them all the flavor: the meat is marinated in vinegar and spices such as cumin, aji pepper, and garlic, and then they are put on a stick ready to be cooked in a grill, and while they are cooking some more sauce is also applied with the help of the leaf from corn, if you try the Anticuchos from the street-carts you can watch the whole process and just delight with the smell while you are in the line to get your delicious Anticuchos!

One of the reasons why this dish is so popular in the street-carts, besides its flavor is that it is so easy to eat even standing because the small pieces of meat are on the stick and you really don't need silverware!

But I have not tell you the better part yet, Anticuchos are regularly served with white corn or potatoes (wich are also cooked in the grilled), or sometimes with corn AND potatoes, and even from the carts on the street to the best restaurants they have to serve the anticuchos with some aji or chili sauce, which is just delicious and the perfect combination for a great meal!!!

If you go to a restaurant the Anticuchos are typically served as a entree but you can also have it as your main dish, if you have the opportunity to share a barbecue in Peru the anticuhos are regularly one of the first items to be served, along with the "Choripanes" wich are sausages with french bread................or if you are just walking around maybe sightseeing or touring around Lima or other city in Peru you can quench your hunger with a stop by some of the carts you can find in many Parks and go on with your day!!!

The biggest Food Festival in Peru: Mistura! Come and delight yourself!‏

This days in Lima is all about Mistura! You take a bus, go to the movies, at lunch at work, everybody is asking “did you go already?, got some tickets? What day are you planning to go?”, because is the event nobody wants to miss, is the opportunity to try great dishes from all across Peru, from a great variey of restaurants and street restaurant and at very affordable prices!

The festival started first on 2009 with the Peruvian Association of Gastronomy promoting the idea of reuniting the main players in Peruvian Gastronomy and make a menu of activities that promote not only the Peruvian Gastronomy but the cultural identity of the Peruvians.

The festival also wants to celebrate that in Peru, through the centuries, the food has been associated with festivities and joy, using techniques that had been transmitted from generation to generation. Also, the food has also been very much hand in hand with the music and social fraternization among different kind of peoples………….and this is the spirit that prevails in Mistura.

The festival reunites all the actors in the gastronomic chain in Peru: small farmers, Pisco producers, cookers, chefs, bakers, confectioneries, restaurants, street restaurants, food institutes, food processing companies and more!

In Mistura you can find all kinds of foods, from Ceviche to “Picarones” which are a special Peruvian dessert almost in the form of a donut but with honey all over…..just delicious! You can also find the most exotic juices made with fruits from the highlands and fruits that are only found in Peru, like the Lucuma.

You can also find some food stands with some Tamales, and “Humitas” which is very much like a tamale but in a sweet flavor, or you can also find the popular “Anticuchos”, which are pieces of meat from the heart of the cow and are cooked on a grill, put together on a stick…………

You can also find Food that is typical from the jungle part of Peru, like “Cecina” wich is a dried meat that is regularly served with “Tacacho”, which is kind of mashed bananas cooked with some salt and species and us just delicious!

The best about the food stands, compared to the restaurants that you can also find at Mistura, is that you can  see the whole preparation of your dish!!!

But it is not all about just eating, you can also go to some of the conferences that are offered by the greatest and most recognized internationally, and they talk about the techniques for the preparation of some dishes, about the different ways a special dish has been reinvented and presented in different restaurants and many more interesting topics!

So if you are planning on Visiting Peru next year around this time, I strongly recommend you to purchase your tickets for Mistura in Advance, the cost is only S/.15 (which is about $6) and inside the festival all the dishes have standardized prices so is the best of Peru’s food at a great price! No better deal!

Where to stay in Lima: The Westin Lima Hotel & Convention Center‏

This is one of the novelties nowadays if you come to Lima, the capital of Peru in this days. It is the newest of all the luxury hotels that are in Lima and is the tallest building in the city. The hotel belongs to the chain “Libertador”, which also has other hotels in Cuzco, Trujillo and Paracas, some of the most visited cities in the country.

The hotel is located in San Isidro, the business center in Lima and is very close to Miraflores, one of the preferred tourists spots in the capital because of the great views of the sea, the many restaurants that are located there and all the crafts markets that you can find there!

In this hotel is all about luxury and relax, you can find some of the fines suites in the country and the best quality of food and service, that is why this hotel has become one of the favorites among tourists, in very short time of existence!

If you are not staying in the hotel you can still go by it for a night out in the town, maybe to some of the restaurants or to the bar where you can find some of the most exotic Pisco Sours (see my post regarding only Pisco Sour), made with fruits that you can only find in the forest.

I will try to make some more posts like this specific to hotels and restaurants so that you can check all the alternatives you have when you come visit Peru and can make the most of your stay!

Inside Lima, Peru: The Cathedral‏

The Cathedral of Lima is located on the main square on the "Historical Center" in the city of Lima, which is the capital of Peru, and is almost next to the government palace, home of the President of Peru and where many important ceremonies take place.

Francisco Pizarro, one of the conquerors of Peru founded the city of Lima, which is called "The city of the kings" and ordered the construction of the Cathedral in 1535, which will be the most important church in the entire South America in the times of the Spanish Viceroyalty in South America. Its inaguration was on March 1540.

The great work in the Cathedral, specially the cover, altars, the vaults and drawers is highly praised and is recognized as the oldest architectural work in Lima. The cathedral has been renew many times, in part because the conquerors wanted to look every time more grand and superb, and in part because of the earthquakes that the city has suffer, so there is really a mix of different architectural elements that visitors can appreciate in the cathedral.

The cathedral has two huge towers of neoclassical style, and its internal vaulta are of evident gothic inspiration. Inside the cathedral there is a museum of religious art, where you can find just beautiful paints from the times of the colony, and also some sculptures.

In keeping with the majority of cathedrals the front facade has three large doorways. The main or central gateway is called the Portada del Perdón or the "door of forgiveness". There are also no less than 14 side doors; one of which opens on to Calle de Judíos (Street of the Jews) and another on to the Patio de los Naranjos (Square of the Oranges, connected to the Cathedral).

Even with all this beauty inside and the great art that you can appreciate in the catheral when you visit it on the day, you should also take some pictures from the outside at night because the lights are just beautiful and it almost looks as a fairy tale palace!!!

Have a yummy "Suspiro a la limeña"

The word "suspiro" means sigh in spanish, and it was called like this when it was first created because "its taste was soft and sweet just as a woman's sigh", and of course, the second part "a la limeña" is just because the dessert is from Lima, the capital of Peru, so it is a very peruvian dessert.

The base for the elaboration of this dessert is the "manjar blanco", which is known as "dulce de leche" in other parts of South America, and is a very sweet sauce made from milk, and first came to South America from Spain. In the top of the dessert there is always the very traditional "merengue", which is made with eggs and sugar and is very very delicate and soft, just like foam.

This dessert is really really sweet, this in why in the majority of restaurants where you can find a Suspiro in Lima and in Peru in general the portions are small because it is really too much sweet to eat like a bigger size of it!! This dessert is popular in any season of the year and is always present in the menus of the restaurants of traditional food, you should not leave Lima without trying it!!