English strawberries in season are one of the best foods in the entire world.
Shiny, juicy, red, sweet and delicious – like little sparkling jewels, only edible ones. Continue reading
Strawberry Fields
fruit
Homemade Fruit & Nut Granola
Granola is a great way to start the day. Like a crumbled up cookie for breakfast.
Dessert. Breakfast. Happy times. Continue reading
It’s Pimm’s O’Clock
It’s officially summer and what better way to celebrate than with a cold, fruity glass of Pimm’s & Lemonade.
Dining at the Beach at La Casa de Gloria
La Casa de Gloria is my absolute favourite place to eat when I’m in Punta Hermosa (one of the beach towns south of Lima), and to be honest I crave their food at least once a week. I’ve genuinely been begging my boyfriend for the last couple of weeks to drive us down so I can get my fix. Luckily, the warm weather is here, which means a beach trip is definitely on the horizon… Continue reading
Saturday Mornings at the BioFeria
On Saturday mornings the BioFeria sets up on 15 de Enero, a road that runs alongside Parque Reducto No 2 in Miraflores. It’s an organic and eco market selling everything from fruit and veg to items made from Peruvian cotton.
There are dedicated fruit and veg stands where you can buy your weekly groceries, stands to buy different kinds of flours (purple corn, maca etc) and grains, stands for oils (sacha inchi, olive, coconut etc), and stands that sell wooden toys and cotton bags and clothing. It’s the place I go to buy proper oats as you only normally get the instant kind in the supermarket. I try and visit every few months and stock up on at least that! Continue reading
Copacabaña Lodge
Copacabaña Lodge is located in a valley up from Marcará, in the small town of Copa Grandé, under the gaze of the snow capped Cordillera Blanca mountains.
Peruvian Desserts – Lúcuma
Lúcuma.
Some of you might say “That’s not a dessert”, or even “What the hell is lúcuma?”, but I assure you that this is the main ingredient in some of the tastiest desserts here in Peru. So, yes, technically not a dessert in itself, but a major player in the dessert arena, and I could not make a list of Peruvian desserts without it.
Lúcuma is a fruit native to Peru and I have not noticed it to be eaten commonly as a raw fruit. It has quite a burnt taste about it, but when mixed with ingredients for ice creams or mousses, it lends a caramel note to the dish, which is just beautiful. The colour is a deep yellowy-orange, not that far removed from an egg yolk or a sweet potato perhaps. Which is a coincidence because a sweet potato also gives a sweet, caramel flavour to dishes when cooked. When sliced in half, the lúcuma looks like an orange avocado, due to its green skin and large brown seed in the middle.
The fruit is most commonly used mixed with dairy ingredients to make ice cream, smoothies and mousses, and it also partners very well with chocolate.
Where would I recommend in Lima to eat a lúcuma dessert?
El Pan de la Chola
El Pan de la Chola is a bakery and café all-in-one and it is one of my favourites.
I first visited about 6 months ago, but my friend Vanessa had never been, so I took this opportunity to introduce her to the wonders of the freshly baked bread here.
Jonathan Day, the owner, honed his baking skills whilst living in London after finding breads there that were not like those to be found in Lima. He brought his knowledge back with him to Peru, eventually opening El Pan de la Chola, home to amazing bread, coffee, extracts and sweet treats.
His bread is made just using flour (ground on site), water and a starter. No yeast, just the natural starter to help it rise and it is left to do so for 24 hours.
The Little Edition 