Beaches Near Lima: San Antonio

05/19/2013

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I have already previously written about different beaches located near Lima: Asia, Punta Hermosa, Chilca, Pulpos, Pucusana...

This weekend I went to San Antonio beach, located at the km79 on Panamericana Sur. It is a private beach that belongs to Lima's Regata's Club: the access is only for members and their guests. Apart from the beach, the location has a few swimming pools, restaurants, sport facilities, water park for kids, gym...I had been there many times before, but usually just for a day. This time we were there to celebrate a birthday and we stayed two nights (the club offers different kind of housing options and there is even a camping area).

It's already autumn here, so the weather was unpredictable: on Saturday, it was sunny until lunch time and we could take advantage of the beach and the pool...
But then, the afternoon looked like this:
We did not let the changing weather conditions to ruin the party!


It's the off-season now, so San Antonio's restaurants were mostly closed. The birthday lunch was therefore a picnic style BBQ with homemade fish ceviche as a starter...
...lots of meat from the grill: lomo, chorizos...
...and salads, including  an exotic combination of potato and peach (not bad!)...
I had made this cake with bananas, Brazil nuts and rhum, with Nigella Lawson's recipe (I left out raisins and frosting with chocolate chips was my own addition. It's called Forgiving Banana Cake, because it forgives you for modifying the recipe!):
Sunday was mostly cloudy, but it did not matter. It was nice to walk at the beach and watch the (big!) waves -and we even saw some dolphins!
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Food for Thought

04/01/2012

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Today, when I was reading The New York Times online, an article on Style section caught my eye.
It discussed the opening of a new, chic, Peruvian restaurant on Madison Square Park, Cebicheria La Mar, by Peruvian top chef Gastón Acurio. There is one in Lima too, but I have not tried it (yet).
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Ceviche at Las Brisas de Pacifico, Lima
Cevicherias -or cebicherias, if you wish - are restaurants serving Peruvian/Latin American fish plate ceviche. I have mentionned this plate in many of my previous posts as it is one my favorite plates, and also because earlier this year I was writing a short article on hidden cevicherias of Lima.

Why do I like it? It's fresh, simple, spicy (you can make it mild too, if you want), healthy and does not make you fat.

Luckily, you don't need to be in Peru or New York to eat this plate, it is easy to do at home wherever your location, provided that you find the ingredients. 

One of the best plates we ate on our trip to North was ceviche we made ourselves from fish bought from the fishermen. If you google for ceviche recipes, you will find many variations, for example combined with other seafood.

I am giving you this very simple and easy-to-make recipe, the same one we tried in Zorritos, with Nicole and Eric, a North American couple we met in an eco resort in Tres Puntas beach.

SIMPLE BUT GOOD CEVICHE RECIPE:

1) Choose some white, fresh fish. We used needle fish, but sea bass and sole are commonly used.
As a thumb rule, choose the freshest and whitest fish you can find.
2) Chop the fish filet in chunks.
3) Squeeze some limes. 8-9 limes for four persons. Keep the juice for marinating the fish.
4) Peel one red onion and cut in big pieces (see the picture above).
5)  Cut some red chili pepper in very tiny pieces. Here the variety used is called aji limo, but you can use other varieties too. If you want spicy, put more, if you want it mild, put less.
6) Salt the fish according to your taste. If you have no personal taste, then use two teaspoons.
7) Mix the fish chunks with onion, then add chili.
8) Mix it well, then pour the lime juice over the mix.
9) Add some fresh coriander for decoration.
10) Leave it for about 10 minutes to marinate, serve with sweet potato and yellow corn, and then - ENJOY YOUR MEAL!

And back to that restaurant topic. While doing some background research for a Peruvian food article, I found some interesting reflections by sociologist Raul Matta in Anthropology of Food (in French). The article provides insights to the success modern Peruvian cuisine currently enjoys, both abroad and in Peru, and it explains how the indigenous, native Peruvian ingredients have gained value through the gastronomy boom of past ten years. 

One particularly interesting point he brings out is that the cuisine currently known abroad as Peruvian, is, strictly speaking, not essentially Peruvian, as all the well known chefs obtained their education abroad. Hence, they combined the savoir faire of European and North American chefs with the great diversity of food products and culinary traditions that existed in Peru.

And voilà, new Peruvian fusion cuisine was born!



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