Lima - 2nd day

Today's schedule is exploring the city center of Lima on my own first, then joining a food and walking tour in the same area. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Gastronomic Museum. According to the guide book, it's a pretty small museum but the admission fee is only US$1.00. So, why not? It shows regional dishes using photos. Probably because my expectations were lowered, I kind of enjoyed visiting the museum.

The organized tour is conducted by Food Walking Tour Peru. They have different programs but I chose "Lima's Downtown Street Food." I was told by the tour company that I should be hungry so I had a very light lunch. The tour takes us to various food stands in the Lima city center. I didn't know exactly how many stops and how many dishes we were going to have. Let's see.

The first dish was the soup called Caldo de Mote. It's only US$1.00. It's a soup with corn and beef organ meats. It's probably cooked for a long time with the bones, based on the creamy color.Very comforting and tasty. The stand had optional toppings, such as cilantro, lime and salsa. I love spicy food and have tried many hot sauces/salsas. But I found Peru's salsa is quite hot!

Then, we move onto the fruit stand. The picture below is dragon fruits, which looks quite different from what I can find in California. Normally dragon fruits have super bright pink skin. Peruvian dragon fruit has the same flavor and texture. But this is sweeter. Dragon fruits are originally from Peru and transplanted in southeast Asia.

The next fruit is Cherimoya. I've seen and tried cherimoya at a Mexican market in California. But they are not as nearly sweet as this one. Also, the flavor is a lot more intense. Cherimoya is considered as one of the most expensive fruits in Peru.

The next savory dish is stuffed and deep fried potatoes topped with lightly pickled onion. The stuffing is chicken and some veggies. And the whole potato is fried in oil so that the inside is moist and the outside crisp. This stand also had a red salsa and that was very spicy. This dish was very good but a bit too salty. I started to realize the foods in Lima in general are saltier than those in Cuzco or Puno.

This is fish escabeche from the same stand. The fish was deep fried and cooked with tomato-based sauce. This dish was even saltier than the potato I had previously. Many foods from food stands tend to be salty for safety in many countries. But I thought this was very salty.....

After something salty, it's time for something sweet. The dish is called picarones, which are ring-shaped fried donuts. The donuts are coated with black molasses-like syrup. The Peruvians call it "honey" (miel) but this is a syrup. The dough was made with pumpkin and some spices.

The next dish is a very unique dish in many ways. In Peru, Chinese restaurants are called Chifa. The dish below is kam lu wantan. On the bed of fried wonton skin, stir fried mixed protein and vegetables, such chicken, duck, pork, beef, shrimp, squid, pineapple, snowpea, red bell pepper, etc. are placed in a mound. The sauce looks like sweet & sour. But this is just sweet.... Unlike the other foods I tasted, it's not salty at all. Just sweet.... I don't know whether the color comes from ketchup or some sort of red coloring. But there are no flavors. Just sweet.... Each country has their own version of Chinese food, normally sweeter than the original version. The guide said the sauce includes tamarind, but it's not really tangy. I tasted just sweetness.

Then, we walk around the market. Since I arrived in Lima, I found olives as a garnish on many dishes. I didn't associate olives with Peruvian cuisine. Not only are olives popular, but they're also grown in Peru. It seems Peru can grow anything..

This drink is called chicha morada. It's made by boiling purple corn, pineapple skin, spices (cinnamon & clove), and sugar. This is a very popular drink in Peru.

Then, I found this in McDonald's. It's a Chicha Morada Sundae!

The tour was ended with Peru's national cocktail, the pisco sour. The guide took us to the Gran Hotel Bolivar in the city center. I tasted the pisco and it wasn't too sour nor too sweet. Very good balance. I had a small portion of the basic pisco sour but I would have loved to try other variations.

They were right, I was really full. I think they could have introduced us to more dishes but they stopped because I said I was really stuffed. I'm planning to take another tour in another region of the Lima two days later again. I can't wait!!