Change of Plans: Cefalù instead of Palermo

Day before yesterday we received a letter from Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) informing us that they were changing the Sicily itinerary so that we are staying in less crowded more intimate towns, specifically moving our 3-night stay from Palermo to Cefalù and moving our 4-night stay from Catania to Zafferana.  This is a health and safety measure to avoid large cities and crowds.

And here I was all geared up to explore Palermo!   Before the change, Cefalù was an optional side-trip so I had only watched a Joolz Guide to determine whether to take it.  Now we fly into Palermo and then are transported to Cefalù about an hour's drive away.  Currently we'll be staying at the Victoria Palace Hotel, a small (30 rooms) modern (2017) 4 star hotel that looks quite nice and hopefully we'll have some sort of ocean view and not be stuck at the back.  In the photo below, the town (a 10-15 minute walk away) is way in the background where you can see the Norman cathedral that is famous for its mosaic of Christ Pantokrator.  You can also see how close we are to the beach, although in November I'm not sure how the swimming will be (the hotel also has an outdoor pool).

In the photo below, you can see how nice the side rooms are with their balconies, sort of like a cruise ship.

One review said that the breakfast buffet was on the rooftop and, from the photos, it appears that the selection of items is varied enough with bread and pastries and even bacon and eggs (for the Brits?).  But probably no full English.  

If we are still hungry, there is a pasticceria about half a mile away called L’Angolo delle Dolcezze which produces all sorts of things, including a frosted panettone for Christmas, although I suppose November is a bit early for that.  Even more interesting are the cakes for prima comunione.  They look like wedding cakes!  Laina would love them!  And there's always cassata.

There are also two supermercati a couple of blocks away from the hotel, one called Gourmet Decò and the other Giardina Despar where we can hope to pick up some novello wines in November, right?  Or we can buy some aranciata di Sicilia.  There's also a salami and cheese shop, Salumeria Incognito, a little further toward town on the main highway, Via Roma.

Our first dinner in Cefalù is on our own (as is lunch the second day) so I'm checking out the restaurants.  Le Chat Noir doesn't sound very Italian but the menu lists the name of the dishes in Sicilian dialect and it is supposed to be Sicilian.  On another side street, Via Vanni, there is Il Normanno, without a website but one review says: "Good food at fair prices, definitely recommended for a quiet meal away from the main streets."  OAT recommended Kentia with a view over the ocean and it looks lovely but rather expensive.  Al Porticciolo is similar and offers an online menu with lots of seafood.  Apparently both have a few fixed price menus ranging from 25-40 €, although I don't know if we can eat that much.  Ristorante Via Roma Vecchia is similarly located so we have our pick of seafood restaurants with a view.

Sicily Unpacked

BBC Two produces an "UnPacked" series about Italy, including 3 videos on Sicily.  They are hosted by an art historian, Andrew Graham-Dixon, and an Italian chef (cook he calls himself), Giorgio Locatelli.  You can find them on YouTube and they are well worth watching.

• Episode 1 -- Palermo -- begins at the fishing town of Sciacca on the southern coast which Giorgio visits each time he goes to Italy for the seafood.  But most of the episode is in Palermo where they view some very elaborate stucco art, attend one of the famous Sicilian puppet shows, and visit the Vucciria market.  They also discuss the Mafia.
• Episode 2 -- The Spanish Occupations -- covers Noto and the Val di Noto in southeastern Sicily, gelato, Good Friday celebration in Enna, Easter Sunday in Modica and the oldest Sicilian chocolate factory (Bonajuto) in Modica.
• Episode 3 -- Modern Sicily -- also covers ancient Sicily with a visit to Mt. Etna and one of her vineyards, Pachino and its tomatoes, red shrimp at Mazaro del Vallo, and a take on a tuna burger at a modern gastronomic restaurant.  They also visit the Archaeological Museum of Aidone where a statue of Demeter had been returned to Sicily from the Getty Museum in LA.

One thing I was struck by in this series was the dearth of women in the interviews.  I don't know if it is because the hosts are male or whether there is still a separation of sexes in Sicily.  Few women vendors in the markets.  No women fishermen or fish buyers. Andrew and Giogio do mention that at the Easter Sunday dinner in Modica, the men made the ricotta (shepherds) while the women baked the bread (a household task).  Maybe a holdover from the Arabs.

Hollywood in Sicily

Currently I have 3 cookbooks on Sicily because nowadays library books are automatically renewed and evidently nobody else has a trip planned to Italy.  They are:

• La Cucina Siciliana de Gangivecchio by Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene (they have two other cookbooks)
• Cucina Siciliana by Clarissa Hyman
• Sicily from the Silver Spoon Kitchen, published by Phaidon (which means it is heavy)

But even better than cookbooks are videos and yesterday I lucked out and ran across a series on YouTube by Paul Hollywood (of The Great British Baking Show) from Tonic called "City Bakes".  In one episode he visits Palermo and tries many of the classic Sicilian dishes, like arrancine (rice balls), sfincione (Sicilian pizza), cannoli, cassata (an elaborately decorated cake), and gelato in a brioche (he wasn't impressed).  He visits the Mercato Vucciria and his Sicilian friend tries to get him to eat the famous innards but he declines (I wonder if he eats eels, pie and mash).  He does omit a few dishes like the spleen sandwich (pane con le milza), the chickpea fritter sandwich (panino con le panelle), and pasta with sardines (pasta con le sarde) and he never goes to a sit-down restaurant but he still covers a lot in 45 minutes.  He really enjoys himself and so should you!

Fast Forward to Sicily

Last Thursday we bit the bullet, called Overseas Adventure Travels (OAT) and changed our September Machu Picchu trip to a trip to Sicily in November of 2021.  Hopefully by then the Corona Virus situation will have improved, plus this gives me a reason to brush up on my Italian, which has been abandoned since Osher no longer offers Italian courses.  

Commissario Montalbano

Last night we decided to brush up on our Italian and watched the third episode of Commissario Montalbano again.  It is one of the best episodes  and in a way sets the stage for the rest of the series.  For those of you who don't know, Montalbano is a character in Andrea Camilleri's mysteries that are set in Sicily.  The TV series is in Italian and some of the characters are quite humorous so it is easy to watch.  Plus Montalbano loves good food and goes to restaurants almost daily, although he never visits a market since his housekeeper Adelina cooks for him.  We've watched him eat lots of fish and arancini but never panino con la milza (pani ca meusa in Sicilian).  That's street food (cibo da strada):   spleen sandwich.  Fernando would probably love it but I'll have panelle, the chickpea fritter sandwich, instead.

Is November a bad month to go?  It's cheaper but next to December the wettest month, however Sicily is probably as wet as Southern California.  We arrive in Palermo on November 11th, St. Martin's Day, which is the start of the novello wine season so hopefully we can polish off a bottle of wine a day like we did in Rome, except we won't be eating on our own in an apartment.  Sicily's wines tend to be red and hearty, many made from the Nero d'Avola grape.  Of course there is Marsala as well...

It is too bad that sundown will come early in November so we won't be able to wander around as much in the evening, although at our age it is increasingly rare for us to do that.  On the other hand, I hear that Sicily has very good gelato so we might stay up for that.

Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Bahamas

OK, we're going to escape from Peru and the Amazon for the moment and prepare for our weekend cruise to the Bahamas in March with Juan and Mandy aboard Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas.  It leaves from Florida's Port Canaveral and cruises to the Bahamas, stopping at Nassau and Coco Cay.  I've never really looked at the Bahamas nor realized that they were so close to the U.S. coast.  But then look how close Miami is to Havana and how many years it's been divorced from Cuba.

If you would like to see what the Mariner of the Seas looks like and see how much fun the older grandkids would have on the top level of this ship, watch the YouTube video, Mariner of the Seas - Full Tour by CruiseIt.com.  And tell them about the Arctic Zone:  all you can eat soft-serve ice cream throughout the cruise.

Miniature Golf

While Fernando is relaxing in the jacuzzi, the grandkids could play miniature golf.   Even Louise and Silas can have fun here as the water isn't real or deep...

When the kids get hungry they could run over to the Dog House and pick up a hot dog, which, like the Arctic Zone, is included in the fare (complimentary they call it).  Oh Oh.  Where are the vegetables?  Ketchup, onions, relish, and sauerkraut?  Don't worry, there's plenty of fruit down in the Windjammer buffet on Deck 11.

Perfect Storm Water Slides

But Deck 13 has all the activities for the big kids: a climbing structure like the one at the Boston Children's Museum, a basketball court so the kids can stay in practice, a climbing wall and a Sky Pad bungee trampoline like the one at the Carnegie Science Center.  They even have some swings for Isabel.  But the greatest attractions will probably be the Perfect Storm dual waterslides and the FlowRider surf simulator.  A pair of grandkids can each choose a waterslide (blue or yellow) and race each other down to the finish.  I'm assuming kid-hearted adults can do the same.  Old people like Papi and me will watch and take videos...
Oh.  And I completely forgot to mention the Laser Tag...

Lots of fruits and desserts for the kids

While the kids are exhausting themselves and their parents, what are Papi and I going to do?  Papi would say "go to the Casino" but I'd rather walk around the running track -- it's complimentary :-) or I could plan what I was going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner or I could go down to the Windjammer buffet and do a taste test.  I don't know how I'm going to try every dish they put out.  The kids would have a field day, of course, being able to see and choose their own meals.  Naturally they would prefer the buffet to the Main Dining Room but for dinner I prefer formality and meat that hasn't been sitting around getting cold and overcooked.

Teatime scones and biscuits

To prepare myself, I've been watching YouTube videos of Royal Caribbean cruises, of which there are a surprising number - maybe one for every person who's taken a cruise!  TravelTouristVideo has videos of the meals, both the Windjammer buffet and the Main Dining Room.  They sailed on the Liberty of the Seas, not the Mariner of the Seas, but the menus look pretty standard.  They had a tea time as well as a lunch at the Windjammer but that might be reserved for the days the ship is at sea and not in a port like Nassau or Coco Cay.

Aged Prime Rib of Beef

We don't have to prepare for the buffet because it is all there for the taking, but at the Main Dining Room they have "classics" that are always on the dinner menu, and specials of the day that are not.  Below is one of the dinner menus and I might have to order two starters:  the crispy calamari and the Caesar Salad.  Fernando can have the Duck a l'Orange and I can have the Beef Tenderloin.  If you want to see what a lot of these dishes look like, check out TravelTouristVideos' Cruise Ship Dining Room Food - Dinner by Royal Caribbean.  They liked the prime rib, lamb shank, rack of lamb and duck a l’orange (definitely meat eaters).  Hopefully our cruise will have some of those.  As for the desserts, they liked the Royal Cheesecake but not the Creme Brûlée.

If none of the entrees or desserts appeal to you in the Main Dining Room, you can hop on over to the Windjammer buffet, which has themed dinners (Asian, TexMex, Indian etc), a salad bar and lots of desserts (jello, cakes, cupcakes, mousses, cookies etc).  TravelTouristVideos will take you on a tour in its Royal Caribbean Buffet Dinner Food on Liberty of the Seas.    And of course they also have a tour of Royal Caribbean Buffet Breakfast Liberty of the Seas so that we can start our gourmandizing at 6:15 in the morning.

Stay tuned.  We might actually get out of the dining room and off the ship in the next episode.

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!

Amazon Food

Maracuyá

I couldn't stay away from this topic for long, especially when it involves tropical fruit.  One of the best things about Colombia was its various passion fruits (maracuyá, curuba, granadilla, badea), lulo (naranjilla in Ecuador), and tomate de arbol.  Most of these were made into juices so there is some processing involved (including adding water, cross your fingers).  It seems that maracuyá is fairly common in Peru but the others less so, although I read somewhere that before the Spaniards arrived, the Moche people along the coast made ceviche with fermented curuba, called tumbo in Peru (Passiflora tarminiana or banana passion fruit).  But the Amazon has a whole new collection of fruits for us to explore.

HeNeedsFood is a blog by an Australian ex-chef who visited the Belén Market in Iquitos, the capital of the Department of Loreto where we'll be traveling.  This might be the closest we get to it since markets are not high on everyone's list, especially when the heat and humidity make them odoriferous.  The photos are interesting but few of the fruits are labeled.  Here are a few that I've identified.

Brazil Nut

Pijuayo

Sapote

Chonta

The Pijuayo (Bactris gasipaes), a palm fruit as is the Brazil nut, is called chontaduro in Colombia and is a common street food in southern Colombia, although not in Bogotá when we lived there in the 70s.  The Slow Food Arc of Taste mentions that the Amazonians in Peru make masato out of it, which is a tame form of chicha.  And in Peru, chonta is shredded hearts of palm which is a very popular salad in the Amazon, which we absolutely have to try.

Aguaje

Another palm fruit (there are many) is aguaje from the palm Mauritia flexuosa.  Unfortunately it is very difficult to do Internet searches on many of these Amazonian fruits because almost everything Google gives me are ads for dietary supplements.  Everything from the jungle is a superfood nowadays, available in pill form because it appears that the fruit itself is an acquired taste since the flesh is quite dry and tastes like carrots.

Camu camu

Camu camu (Myrciaria dubia) is a cherry-like fruit that grows on a small bushy riverside tree in the Amazon.  They make it into juices and sorbets.  It's very high in vitamin C but like many tropical fruits, it's quite acidic and you need to add sugar to the juice.

Luciano Mazzetti

Another visit to the Belén Market is done by Peruvian chef Luciano Mazzetti on his YouTube channel Taste & Travel (Viaja y Prueba) when he travels to Iquitos, the capital of the Department of Loreto and where we will land for our Amazon trip.  The photography is great but the episodes are in Spanish, Mazzetti speaks lickety split moving from one food to the next, and the background music makes understanding difficult for the non-native speaker.  Nonetheless I find his videos well worth the effort and his enthusiasm for the people and their food is contagious, even if you can't understand a word he says!

Carachama

Luciano also visits the market in Pucallpa, which is closer to Lima and accessible by road yet still in the Amazon basin.  In both of these videos Luciano eats a lot of fish and there is one curious fish, the Carachama, which is a catfish covered with an armor of gray and black scales.  It lives in swampy water and feeds on dead wood and its inhabitants.  You can read more about it in the Slow Food Arc of Taste where you can see more endangered foods of Peru.  Actually you can't "see" them because no photos are included, a real shortcoming of the site.

Paiche

Paiche is an even more famous catfish of the Amazon, partly because it is the largest freshwater fish in the world, so you can have filets and not a lot of bones so the people in Lima can eat it at upscale restaurants.  Even Whole Foods carries farmed paiche.  Me, I think I'd prefer piraña because it is a carnivore and shouldn't taste like mud.

In the Pucullpa video, Luciano also eats majas, a 9 pound rodent which is cute and is supposed to be very tasty.  It is also called a Paca, or Lowland Paca and is widespread throughout the Americas in tropical forests.  Iquitos Times has a list of Amazon creatures we can use for reference, if not for food.

Paca or Majas

Majas with platano and chonta (heart of palm) salad

The Amazon!

Since we'll be doing the Amazon trip before Machu Picchu perhaps I should concentrate on that first.  I'm reading one of OAT's recommended books:  Life in the Treetops, Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology by Margaret D. Lowman.  It is my kind of biography:  only 214 pages and no footnotes to speak of, although my inner child would have liked more photos and  illustrations.  I'm reading it to prepare myself for the Canopy Walk which is on Day 6 of the trip:  We take an early morning boat trip to the somewhat primitive ExplorNapo Lodge where we have breakfast and then hike for about an hour to the Amazon Conservatory for Tropical Studies (ACTS) and to the Canopy Walkway, a system of aerial platforms and cableways more than 1,500 feet long, the longest treetop walkway in the world.

Canopy Walkway

Meg Lowman is one of the advisors for the Canopy Walkway and you can learn more about the canopy in this Scientific American video.  Each July Meg Lowman takes a group of Citizen Scientists on an Amazon workshop in the Explorama Lodges to help her do research in the canopy, in case you'd rather sign up for that instead of the OAT trip.  But some of the nights are spent at the more rustic ExplorNapo Lodge and ACTS campsite.

Explorama Lodge

Fortunately we are staying at the more civilized Explorama Lodge (with flush toilets and running water) and then the Ceiba Tops resort (hot water and air conditioning), if things go as planned.  I hope they don't change the accommodations at the last minute.  Exporama has a video about its lodges and the related activities that is fairly informative and pretty much covers everything OAT has in its brochure.  Google Maps also has a lot of photos of each lodge.  Don't expect the Hilton and do expect high humidity.


Here's a map of where the various lodges are located relative to Iquitos.  If you look them up on Google Maps, there's just a lot of green and no roads.

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.

Peruvian Fast Food

Like looking for different flavors of potato chips, we need to discover what kind of fast food concoctions the Limeños have come up with.

Peruano at El Chinito

For instance, we could go to Sanguchería El Chinito,  a few blocks northeast of the hotel. It has  "Los más ricos chicharrones y sánguches tradicionales de Lima".  Sanguches??  I think they mean "sandwiches"...  And it is not "chinito" as in a little boy but "chinito" as in Chinese so you can get sandwiches with Pollito Pekín and cha siu.  Chicharrones in Peru are not pork cracklings but a meatier pork belly. A Peruano is a sanguche with pork belly, sweet potato, and an onion relish.  They also have chicken and pork (chanchito) tamales.  Worth checking out...
There's a lot of influence from the Chinese.  Chinese restaurants are chifas.   Arroz Chaufa is Peruvian stir-fried rice.  Lomo Saltado is a Peruvian stir-fry with beef and soy sauce but also with tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro and French fries, served over rice.

Chicharrón with camote and salsa criolla

Travel and Leisure Magazine has a review of La Lucha Sanguchería, a location of which is about 5 blocks northwest  of our hotel in Miraflores.  The New York Times 36 Hours in Lima, Peru also featured this sanguchería that uses "algarrobo wood to grill meats and native huayro potatoes to make thick-cut fries."  The sanguches also come with a variety of dipping sauces.  Although the sanguches at El Chinito look a bit more tempting with more of the fresh relish on top, I'd like to try those huayro potato fries.  Peru has lots of different kinds of potatoes but some are really different tubers not part of the potato family, like oca, hibias and cubios, and the camote (sweet potato).

Fast food at Salchipapería

Chorizo and frankfurters seem to be a big favorite (as in choripan).  At the left are some selections from La Salchipapería where hot dogs are served with french fries (salchipapas).  Evidently dishes "a la pobre" come with a fried egg on top (and sometimes a couple of strips of fried platano).  You can get a fried egg sanguche for only 2.50 soles or 75¢.  La Salchipapería also serves almuerzos (lunches) from 11am -5pm and these are more traditional Latin meals with rice, most of which are 12.90 soles ($3.88), a pretty cheap meal.  You can choose from Pollo a las Finas Hierbas, Salchichaufa Clásico (fried rice with frankfurters), Pollo Saltado (stir-fried chicken), Lomo Saltado (the classic Peruvian beef-stir-fry with french fries and rice), Mostrito (a combination of fried rice, french fries and fried chicken - pollo broaster), and Chaufa con lomo (a combination of fried rice, french fries and stir-fried beef).  With all that fried food, what's not to like?

UPDATE:  If you want to see what Peruvian Comida Rapida (fast food) looks like, check out this video by a Peruvian/Canadian couple that go to eat 1) sandwiches at Lucha Sanguchería, 2) Pollo a la brasa at Pardo's Chicken, and 3) Peruvian hamburgers at Bembo's.  It is in Spanish and the subtitles are laughable but hopefully you can understand some of it.

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.