Mercados and Supermercados

Mercados

Mercado Santa Cruz

In 2015, the New York Times featured Lima in one of its 36 Hours and recommended walking along the Malecón, a 3 mile promenade on the cliffs above the ocean.  If our guide takes us to the Parque del Amor, we could keep on walking north along Malecón Cisneros and Malecón de la Marina, all the way up to the Mercado Municipal "Santa Cruz".  Of course, by walking along the Malecón there won't be any window shopping but the views should be spectacular, as long as it isn't a foggy day, which is how, I hear, Lima gets all its precipitation.

There is a Peruvian, Roberto Viajero Vlogs, who has YouTube videos on the various markets, including Santa Cruz and also the Gran Mercado Mayorista de Lima which is a wholesale market like Corabastos in Bogotá and Central de Abasto in Mexico City.  The Gran Mercado Mayorista has loads of different kinds of potatoes.

Mercado 1 de Surquillo

A market closer to the Casa Andina Select hotel is Mercado #1 de Surquillo, a permanent indoor market, to the northeast of the hotel on the other side of the Via Expresa Paseo de la Republica.  We would walk east on Calle Schell and then turn left (north) on Avenida La Paz, walk 5 blocks to Ave Ricardo Palma, turn right (east) and cross the Via Expresa to Avenida Paseo de la Republica, turn left (north) and go about a block.  That's not too far, is it?  Roberto Viajero Vlogs in his Youtube video says that Surquillo is favored by chefs for ingredients they can't get elsewhere.  Our fast-talking Peruvian chef, Luciano Mazzetti, even has a YouTube video on Surquillo, although he is more interested in the food stalls than he is in the produce.

Lulú

However Luciano does try a lulú, which is not a lulo (also called naranjillo, related to a tomato and common in Colombia) but a small granadilla or passion fruit that is a bit more acidic than the larger sweeter granadilla.  I've tried to look up the scientific name but have had no luck.  We'll have to keep an eye out for it.  In the same segment Luciano tries Panky, (tuna verde in the supermarkets?) which is a cactus fruit high in vitamin C and obviously very sour so it is mainly used in juices.

Cocona

If we are lucky we might be able to find the cocona, Solanum sessiliflorum, which is related to the lulo that you find in Colombia.  It belongs to the same family as potatoes and tomatoes but grows in the Amazon rainforest rather than in the Andes.  We might have better luck finding the cocona in Iquitos and maybe the Explorama Lodges will offer some for breakfast, or at least its juice as many of these tropical fruits are too acidic and seedy to eat straight.

Lúcuma

I should also mention the lúcuma, a very popular Peruvian fruit that smells like butterscotch and that they make into ice cream.  We shouldn't have troubles finding that in Lima.  If you watch this AgroTV video about a lúcuma grower, you will see that lúcuma is not a jungle fruit but is grown along the coast in very dry conditions and belongs to the Zapote family (so it can grow in California!  Here's a video to show you how.).  Remember how the zapote that grew in Fillmore was custard-like without any acidity?  I imagine that is how lúcuma tastes.

Supermercados

We can also check out the fruits at the local supermarkets in Lima.  Sam and Audrey pay a visit to the Wong Supermarket in Miraflores and show us that we can get mate de coca in tea bags to help us with our altitude sickness.  They also have rotisserie chicken ready to go as well as tamales (in banana leaves) and humitas (in corn husks) -- does the hotel have a microwave?  We can wash it all down with Inka Cola.  And then for dessert we can pick up some lucuma ice cream and a box of alfajores!

Do you think I dare bring home some jars of Peruvian chile pastes?  Or some of their packets of instant sauces like Huancaina and Ocopa?  That way you don't see that they are made with evaporated milk and saltines, unless you still have to add those ingredients to the mix...
Perusing the fruits and vegetables on the Wong Supermarket website, everything looks pretty much the same as the U.S. except you can also get granadillas, aguaymanto (uchuvas/ground cherries), maracuyá, papaya, olluco (one of those Andean root vegetables),  yuca, caigua (an Andean vegetable that they stuff), mango, chirimoya, pepino melon (Solanum muricatum from the Andes), lúcuma, and the list goes on and on.  The meats, poultry and fish look the same as in the U.S. except you can get sangrecita.  Hm.  I wonder if they have hot foods to go!

Lima's Food Scene

Appetizer at Central

The New York Times has chosen Lima, Peru as one of its 52 Travel Destinations for 2020, citing its extraordinary food, so it is good that we are going to have a couple days to visit, although I don't think we can afford to eat at Central (where we could have a 17 course tasting menu for $130) or Maido which is Nikkei cuisine (Japanese-Peruvian) so you know it will be expensive. We have a day in Lima at the beginning of each trip (the Amazon and then Machu Picchu), probably to wait for tour members to arrive.  On each of these days we have the morning free, then meet up with our guide and other tour group members to have a Peruvian lunch and an orientation walk in Miraflores.  Then we have the rest of the afternoon and evening free and need to find our own restaurant for dinner.  We also have a day in Lima to visit the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History in the colonial center but have to find our own lunch and then have the afternoon free.  I'm doing research so that we know where to go, what to order and what we can afford.  Peru has its own vocabulary for its dishes so I'm going to keep a glossary of terms on my iPhone.

The Culinary Institute of America has short (2-3 minute) YouTube videos on Peruvian food.  So here's a culinary lesson and a nice overview of Peruvian food and what we can expect.

Peru Part 1: Exploring Peru: Land of Contrasts and Crossroads
Peru Part 2: Peru's Kitchen, Where Cultures Merge
Peru Part 3: Dining in Lima, Peru, from Humble to Haute
Peru Part 4: Where Ceviche was Born
Peru Part 5: Causa, An Exercise in Creativity
Peru Part 6: Anticuchos, Peru's Favorite Street Food
Peru Part 7: Pisco
Peru Part 8: Peru's Influences from China and Japan
Peru Part 9: Culinary Treasures of the Amazon (most of the sound track is missing)
Peru Part 10: Cooking in the Peruvian Andes
Peru Part 11: Pachamanca, a Peruvian Harvest Feast

I also unearthed a Peruvian cookbook that Fernando brought back for me ten years ago:  Cocina Peruana:  nuestro sabor para el mundo, a collection of contemporary recipes from various restaurants.  Ten years ago I probably felt the chefs had taken too many liberties with traditional dishes but there still is a thread of Peruviness running through the dishes.  The recipes in the book are from restaurants in Lima, some of which are near our hotel:
Segundo Muelle (in San Isidro)
José Antonio
Brujas de Cachiche (about 10 blocks from the hotel)
El Señorío de Sulco
Huaca Pucllana Restaurante (by the archeological site of Huaca Pucllana which I would like to see).
Unfortunately I don't think we can afford to eat at any of these either: they have tablecloths and require reservations, but I'm sure we can do just fine at more modest establishments like the ones below.  And we can always just have a gelato for dinner at Gelato Mío a few doors down from the Casa Andina hotel.  Or we could go out for pastries at Pasteleria San Antonio or for wood-fired rotisserie chicken at Villa Chicken.

Sangrecita

But back to Peruvian specialties.  For an introduction to the various dishes we may encounter, read the Wikipedia article on Peruvian Cuisine.  Reviewing the menu at La Vaquita, I can see that I'm going to have to find translations for some of the dinner entrées:  Entraña (skirt steak), Picaña (sirloin cap or rump cap), Anticucho (beef heart kebabs), Panceta (pork belly).  Also for the breakfast items: untables (spreads like butter), choripan (chorizo in a bun), Peruanos (a sandwich of pork and fried sweet potato that is a breakfast staple).  Fernando will want to try the Sangrecita (made with chicken blood) and the Relleno (made with pork blood).

Tamalitos verdes piuranos

Del Mar has Tamalitos verdes piuranos which are a special unfilled green tamal made with fresh corn and cilantro (culantro) from the northern region of Piura.  Also Choritos a la Chalaca, mussels with a relish on top.  And of course, variations on that national potato dish, causa, with seafood.
Panchita (with $$$ and no prices on the menu) has a fiesta del tamal for a piqueo (starter) that offers 5 different tamales:  Corn tamal, creole maize filled with pork, cilantro tamal filled with cheese, Marthita quinoa tamal, and artichoke tamal; served with salsa criolla.  Panchita also has a selection of "platos criollos de toda la vida" among which is one that Fernando should really like, called the "classico":  Sabroso dúo de cau cau y sangrecita con yuca y sarza.   That is tripe soup and chicken blood rice with yuca and salsa criolla.

Salsa Criolla

Salsa criolla or sarza criolla, by the way, appears all over the place in Lima.  It is a fresh relish with red onions, fresh chile, cilantro and lime and its spiciness depends on the chile pepper and the maker.  They serve it with tamales, on top of sanguches, along side tacu-tacu (leftover rice and beans mixed together and fried into a patty and then topped with steak and a fried egg).  I hope the Peruvian red onions are milder than the ones I find in MY supermarket...

In any case, this is just the tip of the iceberg of Peruvian food and I haven't even explored that national raw fish dish:  ceviche (or cebiche as you will often find it written).  I read somewhere that before the Spaniards brought limes to the New World, the indigenous peoples would use fermented passion fruit (curuba) juice instead.  That sounds even better to me.

Real Affordable Peru (RAP) - Updated

Penny has convinced us we need to make a trip to Machu Picchu with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT).   OAT also offers an optional pre-trip 6-day excursion to the Amazons, where I really need to go before I die.  I married Fernando expecting we'd spend time in the Amazons with his revolutionary priest and we still haven't been there.  Here's the Travel Planning Guide to Real Affordable Peru (RAP) from OAT with the day-by-day itinerary.  As usual, I need to add more links with more information for each day's excursion but right now I've got to figure out how much time we have in Lima, what OAT is taking us to, and what we don't want to miss.

Amazon Pre-Trip excursion.
Day 1: Flight from US. (9/21)
This day doesn't count since it is only the flight from the US to Lima and our flight doesn't get into Lima until 11:40 at night.  Some people might be up for carousing at a nightclub but not us...
UPDATE:  We changed our flights so that we are flying with Penny and get in earlier, at 9:35 pm (God willing).

Day 2: Lima (9/22)
We stay at the José Antonio Lima Hotel in Miraflores, a chic shopping district.  Unfortunately it is not a beach-front hotel (the beach is reserved for the Circuito).  Its breakfast buffet looks ok but I didn't see any Peruvian specialties in the photos.
UPDATE:  We are staying about 6 blocks northeast in the Casa Andina Select Miraflores.  I think their breakfast buffet looks better.
In the morning, if we can drag ourselves out of bed early enough, we can explore the area by ourselves, then our guide takes us to lunch at a local Peruvian restaurant, followed by a stroll down Larco Avenue, the neighborhood’s main street to Parque De Amor overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Afterwards we have the rest of the afternoon to explore and find a restaurant on our own for dinner, which reminds me I need to find out the exchange rate (1 sol equals 30¢ so a 50 sol plate (the cheapest) at Brujas de Cachiche would be $15).

Day3: Flight to Iquitos & Boat to Lodge (9/23)
Day 4: Yagua Village (9/24)
Day 5: Yanamono Clinic (9/25)
Day 6: Rain Forest Canopy Walk, Medicinal Gardens (9/26)
Day 7/Day 1: Birdwatching walk, boat to Iquitos, Flight to Lima (9/27)
Arriving in Lima is considered Day 1 of the Machu Picchu trip

Day 2 Lima • Discover Miraflores district (9/28)
UPDATE:  We are again at the Casa Andina Select Miraflores with a free morning, meeting with our guide for a Peruvian lunch, going on an orientation walk in Miraflores, a free late afternoon and dinner on our own.

Day 3 - Explore Colonial Lima (9/29)

Guided tour of the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History at Bolivar Square and then a walk through the colonial streets in the morning.  Lunch is on our own and so is the afternoon until we meet back up for a Welcome Dinner with the group.

Day 4 - Fly to Cuzco • Explore Sacred Valley of the Incas and Pisac Ruins (Cuzco) (9/30)
Day 5 - Raft the Urubamba River (Urubamba) (10/1)
Day 6 - Train ride through the Sacred Valley • First Visit to Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes) 10/2
Day 7 - Second visit to Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes) (10/3)
Day 8 - Train ride through the Sacred Valley • Explore colonial Cuzco (10/4)
Day 9 - Discover Izcuchaca • A Day in the Life of Chinchero village (Cuzco) (10/5)
Day 10 - Southern Valley of Cuzco • Sacsayhuaman & Kenko (Cuzco) (10/6)
Day11 - Fly from Cuzco to Lima   (10/7) UPDATE:  Now on a flight to US leaving at 10:55 pm
10/8 - Return to U.S.  

So, as you can see, we really don't have much time in Lima and it is broken up.  So we have to choose what to see carefully, or we could just wander the streets, which is also a great way to know a city.  I just have to figure out when I can get to a mercado.