A mammoth undertaking

I’m trying to think what the opposite of “haute cuisine” would be. I need my friend F. to advise, but “bas cuisine” is close enough. It’s fair to say that the food was not one of the highlights of the holiday! But then, I went there for the five-star rubble rather than fine dining, so I suppose that’s fair enough.

Unroasted cuy

Peruvian cuisine is meant to be very good – but I suspect that only really applies in the best restaurants in Lima (which were well beyond my budget). Peruvian restaurants are apparently the latest “new thing” internationally, and I’ve read recently about some opening in London. I guess however that the national dish in Peru wouldn’t translate well to London – it’s roast cuy. That is, roast guinea pig. Most families up in the mountains will have a couple of guinea-pigs living in the corner of their main room – but they’re not pets; they’re dinner! On the wall of Cuzco cathedral is a painting of the Last Supper, showing Christ and the disciples tucking into a roast guinea pig…. Perhaps fortunately, I wasn’t offered cuy on this visit to Peru – I really wouldn’t have fancied it for Christmas lunch!

While I was in Chiclayo and Trujillo, I was on half-board, which meant that a three-course lunch was included at a local restaurant. The restaurants were fine – clean, with a reasonable choice of dishes, but hardly a gastronomic treat. Cuy wasn’t on the menu, but goat was. In fact, I was offered it in several places – but turned it down each time. I’ve eaten goat before, and not been impressed – it was tough and gamey. If I could have been sure it was kid, I might have gone for it, but I really didn’t fancy eating a stringy old billy-goat! Instead, for Christmas Day lunch, I had stingray omelette. That was peculiar – very salty and fishy, but actually surprisingly pleasant. And it certainly made a change from roast turkey!

The other local speciality, which I felt I was honour-bound to try, was ceviche. That’s raw fish, marinated in lime juice, onions and chili, and served with maize and sweet potatoes. Afterwards my guide asked me what I thought of it. I said that it was “Interesting”, to which he replied “Hmmm, I know what that means!” I shan’t be having it again in a hurry……

One thing I did enjoy was a dessert at a restaurant in Trujillo. This wasn’t actually the place I was meant to be eating at – but when my guide and I arrived at the appointed restaurant for lunch it was clearly closed, with firemen standing outside. It had burned down early that morning! My guide was very miffed that nobody had phoned him to tell him the restaurant was closed! I thought that was a bit unreasonable of him – they probably had more pressing worries! He phoned his office in a bit of a panic to ask for advice, and was clearly told just to find another nearby restaurant for me, and buy me lunch there instead. So I ended up at what was really not much more than a café, clearly only used by locals not tourists, but which had churros on the menu. These are a bit like doughnuts – sticks of deep-fried dough, sprinkled with sugar, which you dip in hot chocolate. Yummy!