Behind the scenes of the best restaurants in Lima
21.07.2023 - 08:01
/ roughguides.com
Co-author of The Rough Guide to Peru and Lima resident Greg de Villiers gives us an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the city's best restaurants.
Beto is a big man, whose big man hands nearly swallow the spoon he’s using to ladle fish out of a beat-up blue cooler. He is famous in his area, his restaurant an unremarkable double-story hall in a not entirely savoury part of the seaside neighbourhood of Chorrillos, standing out only because of the constant flow of people that fill it every single day.
Ceviche’s the simplest thing, he reckons, and grins a big man’s grin. Fresh fish, cubed and kept cold till the last moment, red onion, plenty of lime juice, chilli and salt – he scoops as he talks, his oversized spoon turned into a precision measuring instrument by years of making this dish. A quick stir, a wedge of sweet potato on the side and it’s done. It’s perfect; acid, fire, fish and the giving crunch of onion – this is the flavour of Peru that will live in your food memory for many years.
It’s not so simple, as any foreigner who has tried making ceviche for the first time will tell you, and that’s why we come here, to this city on the edge of the Pacific. Everywhere, from a little hole-in-the-wall in the chaotic centre, to a stall in a market, to a lady with a bicycle cart on the street, to the slickest restaurants whose names are muttered and chewed on by the global food elite, there are so many amazing things to eat that even locals have no chance of trying them all.
There’s a passion for eating and a certain gastronomic democracy unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been. The taxi driver, art director and the construction magnate talk of food – eating it, making it and where to get the very tastiest – before politics, crime, football or even sex. And it’s not unlikely to find them sitting shoulder to shoulder at a little counter in a market, “because this guy, this guy’s just the best.”
Currently considered comfortably among the best restaurants in the world, chef Virgilio Martinez creates
that showcase the biological and geographical diversity of Peru.
Every evening, little charcoal grills are wheeled out onto street corners and parking lots all over the city to serve up one of Lima’s favourite street foods –
anticuchos
(slices of beef heart, marinated in cumin, garlic, dried chilli and vinegar and grilled on a skewer).
, which sees hundreds of thousands of visitors come flocking to sample the best dishes from all over Peru. The
chancho al palo
, whole barbecued pig, is one of the most popular, with queues of up to four hours at peak times.
, Tsumura has elevated a simple meeting of cultures to fine dining, and his elaborate tasting menu is one of the unmissable culinary experiences in Lima.
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