Living in an Inside Cabin

Lima Produce Market

Lima is a huge city.  In traffic it can take 5 hours to cross.  There are lots of areas where a tourist should not venture.  Having said that, I really like the city.  It has a plethora of wonderful museums where you can spend a week exploring the fabulous artifacts from throughout the country.  The Gold Museum is a treasure trove of items from the many cultures of Peru’s past including the great Incan civilization.  The Larco Museum is housed in a beautiful white building and has some lovely art work plus a side building with ancient erotic art.  The gardens are as worthwhile  as the artwork here.

My tour here was a “Taste of Peru”.  We went to one of the large local markets and it is LARGE.  Rows of fruits, vegetables, meats and fish make for a long morning of sightseeing.

They grow things big in Peru

Produce can grow to immense size in this country, quite impressive to say the least.  There are  thousands of different kinds of potatoes here, ranging in color from white to black – red, blue, purple, really beautiful.

Despite being one of the largest fish producers in the world the locals eat more meat than fish.  That doesn’t mean there isn’t a wide variety of freshly caught fish and shell fish for sale.  Peruvians eat more chicken than anything else and the many chicken stalls prove that.  No part of the chicken is unused so you see feet, heads and the rest of the bird displayed and purchased.

From the market we went to a local restaurant in Miraflores, the upscale section along Lima’s waterfront.  A local chef did a cooking demonstration for us using local fish for cerviche, then potatoes and tuna fish and avocado in a timbale style dish.  Lomos saltoma is a beef and onion dish served in a spiced gravy along with rice and potato.  The next day we found the same beef preparation in an empanada that was also excellent.  The pisco sours that accompanied the food were a fine reminder of the interesting cuisine from this country.  From the demo we went upstairs to a full course lunch of the same dishes that we had tasted in the demo.

Peruvian donuts!

Our next stop was near the National Archeological Museum where we visited an old local bar started by an Italian family over a 100 years ago. It is a lovely building with high

Long standing watering hole in Lima

ceilings and its of wood serving local families a mix of Peruvian and Italian food along with the coal beverages.  One of these beverages, chilcana, is made with the grapes that are grown in the family’s vineyards and is quite refreshing on a summer day.