We had arrived in Lima the previous night, and were met by our friends who immediately whisked us away from our hotel for to begin the race to fill our short time in the city with as much food as possible. High standards had been set by our first Pisco sours, some barbequed seafood and beautiful quails egg toasts at la Gloria, a late-night bar in Miraflores. The first full day started with a walk around the neighbourhood, which ended at the newly opened El Mercado where we were to dine - amongst Lima's trendiest, it seemed.
El Mercado simply means 'the market', and was supposed to be a laid back, pared down offering from one of Lima's most prestigious chefs, Rafael Osterling. It was nicely informal
- the whole restaurant was separated from the street by only one wall, so dining was almost open air. We were presented with some very real-looking potato chips and different dips: one with aji amarillo (yellow pepper) and 'Huacatay', a kind of local mint, and 'Huancaina', made with white cheese and more aji. Washed down with a Cusquena beer, these were a fantastic example of local ingredients being used so cleverly in simply things.
Jonathan and Carmen had taken charge of the ordering, which we were grateful of as more delicious plates arrived. Octopus with tomatoes and potatoes was char-grilled and absolutely fresh from the sea. We forked up mouthfuls straight from the hot plate until it was gone. The ceviche was perfectly limey - probably one of my favourite flavours. It was nice to try it with lightly fried calimari as opposed to raw fish; the crispy tentacles made for interesting texture, especially combined with chunks of sweet potato nestled in the pile. The juice left at the end is deliciously sour and fishy - it is called 'tiger's milk', and apparently it is common procedure to ask for it to be brought back to your table, mixed with pisco in a shot glass.
The selection of scallops was probably the most exciting dish we had - Bloody Mary flavour was fantastic, tasting as you would imagine it to with a teeny chunk of avocado. It was the first time I'd eaten raw scallops, and having wallowed in juices in their shells, they melted in the mouth.
Last on our list was Jalea, a typical dish of deep fried seafood, here served with a sort of creole sauce and lime. I loved how colourful and fresh everything was. The concept of the restaurant, as a local 'cevicheria' was so brilliant it's a shame this kind of Peruvian food has not been introduced to London, when so much other world cuisine has taken off. Although, as we lamented, to have such good fish this fresh would be double the price, so the idea of a casual 'market' restaurant would be lost.
Finally, for dessert, variations on the classic Suspiro - the 'Limenian sigh'. It is a sticky cream made from condensed milk, eggs and cinnamon, topped with a port-flavoured egg white foam. It was interesting that the three looked almost exactly the same, although were quite different - aside the 'classico' we had custard apple and lucuma, a tropical fruit that tastes like maple and sweet squash.
Once we had finished, Jonathan pointed out that although we were stuffed full, most people would have had this as a selection of starters, before moving on to mains. It would have been nice to have had the capacity to eat more, but for now we were satisfied with our first real taste of Peru lingering for the rest of the day - until the next meal.
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