According to the Chinese horoscope, we are now entering the Year of the Snake. I can not tell you what that means to you, me, or the humankind, but I can instead tell you something about the Chinese New Year's celebrations in Lima's China Town (Barrio Chino).
Today, suddenly remembering that today is the big day, me and my chino ( 'chino' in Spanish means Chinese person, but in Peruvian slang it also translates into 'guy' or 'dude') jumped into a taxi and hit the downtown Lima, Capon street more specifically. Lima's China Town is not a large area, in fact it is just Calle Capon and a couple of blocks around it. The Chinese immigrants to Peru settled down here back in 1850s. You can find Peruvian Chinese restaurants known as chifas, stores, acupuncture clinics, horoscopes, pastry shops, herborists and whatnot. Today, despite the striking heat, the street was crowded as everybody was there for the parade.
Today, suddenly remembering that today is the big day, me and my chino ( 'chino' in Spanish means Chinese person, but in Peruvian slang it also translates into 'guy' or 'dude') jumped into a taxi and hit the downtown Lima, Capon street more specifically. Lima's China Town is not a large area, in fact it is just Calle Capon and a couple of blocks around it. The Chinese immigrants to Peru settled down here back in 1850s. You can find Peruvian Chinese restaurants known as chifas, stores, acupuncture clinics, horoscopes, pastry shops, herborists and whatnot. Today, despite the striking heat, the street was crowded as everybody was there for the parade.
Reporting from Calle Capon
Year of the Snake -China Town Lima
People started to gather outside of Salon Capon dim sum restaurant, waiting and waiting...
photo © Juan Martin Cabrejos
Until finally: firecrackers, smoke, clapping, whistling, noise, people pushing, drumming, police cars...The big dragon came out and everybody rushed forward to touch it, as this supposedly brings good luck for the forthcoming year.
photo © Juan Martin Cabrejos
There is of course no point of visiting Barrio Chino without eating in one of the chifas around there. Today, due to the festivities, many places had long queues outside, but we finally found two seats in Chun Koc Sen. We ordered a few plates including shrimp and mushroom siu may (in the center), ha kao (on the left), min pao filled with chicken (the white 'ball' at the bottom) and fried pork (plus some steamed vegetables, but they arrived too late to make it to the picture).
Photo © Juan Martin Cabrejos
The delicacy of the neighbourhood is a coconut bread, that is so popular that by the afternoon it had already ran out from many places. Finally we found a pastry shop that had one loaf left, to take home. I also popped into a small grocery store to buy some very healthy aloe vera juice (jugo de sábila) and pu-ehr tea.
Coconut bread from barrio chino
The Chinese New Year coinsides with the traditional Peruvian carneval month. We had to quickly find a taxi to escape children throwing paint and water on by-passers! Oh yes, that is part of the tradition and it's fun, but I was wearing a white dress...
FELIZ AÑO, CHINO!
PS. Oh, and I have some news: I am starting a new series of posts, and there are going to be some interesting interviews coming up in this blog. Come back soon!
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