A vlog-style Lima food tour led by guide Erica of Delectable Peru in which hosts Kara and Nate Buchanan explore markets, restaurants, and kitchens across Miraflores and Barranco. They taste unique Peruvian fruits (granadilla, orange banana, chirimoya, tuna/cactus fruit), participate in a ceviche-making demo, try grilled scallops, plantain and yucca chips with sauces, sample drinks (pisco sour, pinazzo/chicha-like sugar-cane cocktail), and eat traditional dishes including lomo saltado, seco, cao cao (cow stomach) and blood sausage. The hosts praise Erica's passion and the private, personalized nature of the tour.
Chapters
It is our first full day in Lima. We don't know anything about this place. We haven't been exploring yet. The only thing I do know is that Lima is the culinary capital of South America.
So needless to say, we have booked a food tour. Since this was, like, such a big food city, we wanted to make sure that we picked the right one. So we talked to a lot of people. We ultimately went with Delectable Peru, and Erica, the owner, is picking us up to take us around the city today, and we are so excited.
She seemed the most excited and passionate like we are. Can't wait to meet her. Hey, Olafella. Erica. Yes. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I'm Kara. Yeah, I know. This is our guide, Erica. She told us to come hungry, so all I've had today is a big cup of coffee. Perfect.
Yes.
We just got a tour of the whole local market. We're buying lots of fruits, and we're trying an orange banana, which is only in Peru. It has so much taste.
We're gonna eat it like a dessert, because I want you to try something that you never tried before that is like the granadilla.
Yeah.
Ah, there's his ey.
Abel is pretty much famous here. He's on all the local shows, and he met Anthony Bourdain, who came and interviewed him. The market is right next to the ocean, so we're getting our first views of the Pacific Ocean.
We told Erica that we just got in last night. We hadn't seen any of the city, so we made a detour on the way to ceviche, and she's taking us to one of the best viewpoints to overlook the entire city. Lima is so impressive. I had no earthly idea it was in a desert.
And I'm loving this sunny weather and blue skies. We've basically been in rainy season for the last month and at altitude, where it's been cold, so it's just making this day even better.
We are at Lamar. It is officially ceviche time.
Turns out we get to go in the kitchen and help prepare the ceviche.
The title is the Chef a Houston chat show for ceviche. And he will show us how to make the ceremony.
Oh, it's so citrus.
Lots of lime.
We've done a lot of food tours, and we've never actually gotten to go in the kitchen and help prepare the food. This is so cool.
Peruvian ceviche.
That is bursting with flavor. Seriously, it is so delicious. I love it. We also got a bucket full of plantain chips and yucca chips with these three different Peruvian sauces. And they are all delicious. That was amazing. Now they're cooking something for us in the oven, and then we're getting a drink demonstration.
Oh, my gosh.
Our new friend Juan Lopez has worked here for 10 years, and he whipped up this dish in about two seconds. It smells and looks so delicious. They're his specialty, grilled scallops. I can already tell you I'm going to love this.
I don't even feel like I have to say that. It's the best I've ever had.
No Peruvian food tour would be complete without a pisco sour.
This restaurant has been so much fun. We got here, and before I knew it, I was behind the counter making ceviche, and then over in the smoking hot grill with Juan making the scallops. It's just been crazy, but so good.
We just drove to the bohemian town of Barraco. All the buildings are a lot more colonial looking than in Miraflores, where we're staying. It's super pretty, and it's Erica's favorite part of town, so I'm excited.
This is one of the top 50 restaurants in Latin America. And we just met the chef. He seems awesome, and he reminds me of Anthony Bourdain. We got another traditional drink that is called Chicano. It's amazing.
So this restaurant is called Isolina, which is the chef's mom's name, and all of his recipes are her recipes, which is just so sweet. Salud. Okay.
Kara told me I had to try this because she's tried everything else today. Silverfish on bread with onions and tomatoes and toast.
There's some kind of, like, white tartar sauce in between the fried fish and the bread. It's almost like fried ceviche on a piece of bread. The perfect appetizer.
Okay, ready? So dish number two is cao cao, which is the stomach of a cow, and on top is blood sausage. This one's a little crazier than all the other things that we've eaten today.
Texture's a little weird, and they're better than I thought they were going to be. Blood sausage is very, like, grainy, and the cow's stomach is very, like, mushy. So they're kind of a good combo. I know that sounds really gross. This dish took five hours to make, so I feel really special that we get to eat it.
The meat is so tender. It really reminds me of something that my grandma would make in the crock pot, like, all day long. I love it. The one that we're eating is seco de espado de tira con arroz y frijoles, which is beef with beans and rice. Our next dish is the famous Peruvian lomo saltado. This looks the best out of all three. It smells amazing. It's beef with onions and potatoes and tomatoes and carrots. Some kind of herb. It just looks incredible. I'm just gonna try the beef.
M.
So good.
I'm glad we're walking. So I'm getting full. Yes.
Now we're eating all the fruits that we bought at the market this morning. I'm definitely filling up, though. What is this called? This is chilimoya. I want to write it in a paper. With chimoya, picahaya, and granaria. It seriously tastes like candy. This is called tuna, but it's not like a fish. They call that autun. This is tuna, the cactus fruit. So apparently there is a cocktail that you make out of the green cactus fruit that we tried, and we're about to get a demonstration.
So everyone's heard of a pisco sour in Peru, but there's another traditional drink that's very similar, but instead of pisco, it's made with this rum. This one is made in cusco. It's called pinazzo, and it's made with sugar cane juice. It's very similar to a pisco sour, but it has a lot of other little fancy things in it. And look how pretty the top is.
We just said bye to Erica and got dropped off at our place. I'm not gonna lie. I had super high expectations for our food tour in Lima. I've basically been looking forward to doing this since we got to Peru, and she did not disappoint.
We made a fantastic decision going with Delectable Brew. So first private food tour we've ever done, and it was amazing.
Much different than all of our other food tours. But so cool how she only does private tours because she wants it to be, like, as personal as possible. And so, like, a few times she would say, what are you in the mood for? Like, no two tours are the same for her.
And she kept telling us, like, this isn't what we normally do. But then it was like, there's never a normal. I also think she's the most passionate food tour guide we've ever had, and she knows everybody.
Yeah, we got to meet the chef at every restaurant we went to. She's friends with all of them.
We stopped at places just to say hey to her friends so that we'd know to go back later because she was just, like, telling us it was a good restaurant or, like, it was the best bread in town.
Yeah, it was awesome.
I think we're gonna go slip into a food combo right now. Thank you, Erica. And delectable bur.
Who knew Lima had such good sunset?
You imagine, like, going in there, and it's a bathtub. Yeah.
Is that what they make the tea out of?
Exactly.
Can you believe it?
Everyone's so nice here. Our next dish is the famous lomo saltado. Our next dish.
