Food

Astrid & Gastón

| Emma Louise

Last week a friend of ours was playing with his band in Astrid & Gastón.

We’ve been lucky enough to have eaten there 3 times before (once in their previous location in Cantuarius), but we couldn’t  pass up another opportunity.

Astrid & Gastón is the brainchild of Gastón Acurio, the super famous Peruvian chef and businessman, and Astrid Gutsche, his wife, partner and a pastry chef in her own right. The restaurant is ranked at number 2 out of all of the restaurants in Latin America and is ranked at number 18 in the world. Peruvian restaurants are being ranked higher and higher on an international scale, which for me is a reflection of how good the cuisine is in Peru. Don’t get me wrong, I believe the cuisine has always been good, but over recent years it has been getting the recognition it surely deserves.

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Midweek Maki & Sake at Hanzo

| Emma Louise

I’ve never tried sake before.

Never.

But last night I did and it was a beautiful thing. It was like a warm, alcoholic, savoury herbal tea.

And after all those maki, it was just what the doctor ordered!

setting

Hanzo is a Peruvian Japanese Restaurant serving up a fusion of both cuisines. Their menu includes – among others – sashimi, sushi, main plates and desserts

But the maki are what I come for.

the meal

Aren’t they just beautiful.

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Sunday Lunch // Tanta

| Emma Louise

Sundays are days for relaxing.

Days for Skype-ing. For eating. For drinking. And then later, for lying in bed with Netflix.

I love Sundays. And I love Tanta.

Tanta sign
tanta entrance

 Tanta is one of Gaston Acurio’s restaurant chains, with a few branches within Lima and Peru, and then the rest dotted across the globe, even as far afield as Barcelona. For those who may not know, Gaston is an ambassador for Peruvian cuisine and has helped to promote it, alongside other chefs, all over the world. He has been a big influence in Peru gaining worldwide accolades for their incredible food scene, both in the restaurants and the raw ingredients that are produced here.

Tanta serves typical, traditional Peruvian (or Peruvian fusion) cuisine, but often in a modern way. However, just because Tanta was started by Gaston and is very fresh and modern, does not mean the restaurant is overly fancy or expensive. The dishes here are not tiny morsels in the middle of large plates, which is obviously perfect for me, and the prices are so reasonable (main dishes are between S/25 and S/50).

tanta inside

Due to the fact that it is summer in Lima, restaurants are normally fairly empty as everyone heads to the nearby beaches. However, arriving at 2pm, we found Tanta its normal, popular, busy self.

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Trekking and Camping near Obrajillo

| Emma Louise

THE ROUTE // Taking route 18 from Lima (well, from the northern Carabayllo district) we drove North East along a very bumpy highway to Canta. The roads are currently being re done so we encountered a few traffic stops along the way to allow for the removal of rubble and cement mixers unloading. If you are lucky, there will also be ice cream sellers too as it starts to get warmer. In winter you take any route out of Lima for about an hour and you hit sunshine!

THE TOWN // Heading through Canta and just down the mountain is the small town of Obrajillo, sitting alongside the River Chillon. Obrajillo is surrounded by beautiful mountains, some waterfalls and is home to quite a few horses. These horses (and donkeys) are taken up to graze in the fields high up in the mountains, and these would be the routes we would take when trekking up to the ruins of Pumakoto and to our home for the night.

The town of Obrajillo, is primarily around the main square, but one road takes you down and over the river where there is a cluster of restaurants, a place to take horse rides and a few campsites, then the road turns and takes you up to the town of San Miguel.

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Lima // Museo Larco

| Emma Louise

Museo Larco, or Museo Rafael Larco Herrera to use its full name, is somewhere you MUST visit when you come to Lima.

It has an incredible collection of pre-Columbian treasures and artefacts, and is a fantastic introduction to coastal Peruvian tribal history including not only the Incas but the tribes that came before or lived alongside them. If you don’t know a lot about the people that inhabited coastal Peru before the Inca reign, then this museum will show and inform you about the Moche culture, the Lima culture, the Huari culture, and much more.

The artefacts here are incredibly well preserved, including jewellery, ritual items, pots, vases and textiles. The main museum gallery is laid out in sections and each section is in chronological order so that you can see the evolution of different tribes and the similarities and differences between their belief systems and ways of life.

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