Mistura 2014

If any of you are Facebook friends with Mitchell you would have seen on Thursday that he said he had his favorite day so far. For the past five years Lima has been host to the largest food festival in South America and I believe the world. It is in the beginning of September each year and has HUNDREDS of different food booths and restaurants, each offering one or two different dishes. It was split up into 16 different "worlds"; bread, brasas, cevicherias, Norteno, Chifa & Nikkei (Chinese and Japanese), Criollo, Andino and Amazonian, Sweets, Sanguches, Del Sur (south), Liquids, Bars, Pisco, Beer and Free Areas.

Llama Bread

 We arrived at about noon, and since we were saving our appetite for Mistura we went straight to the bread world to buy some breakfast and then off to search for a coffee booth. Both were amazing and a great start to our experience.

Cooking the meat

 Following breakfast we went to the world of Brasas, which is grilled meat. It is something that is very popular and we went to the booth that had the longest line. We figured if people were willing to wait then it had to be good. From this stand we had the pork, but the way in which they cooked the meat was more impressive than the meal itself. We were both pretty full after that and decided to walk around and see what else there was.

Our next stop was Chifa and Nikkei. Being huge sushi fans, we decided that we had to try Peruvian sushi, and it was amazing! It had a hispanic flare to it, nothing that I can describe, but I can say that it was amazing. We are both looking forward to going out and trying more. We walked around the "Gran Mercado" and looked at some of the stands and made our way over to the Andino world.

Juanes

When Mitch was in the Amazon rain forest he was served a meal called Juanes and said it was delicious. It was something that I had really wanted to try. We went to the booth that had the best looking serving without all the extras and went to try it. It is a rice dish with chicken and hard boiled egg served in a banana leaf, and it was Delish! This specific one came with fried plantains.

Mmmm Beer

By this point we were pretty thirsty, so of course the next logical step was the world of beer to see the different Peruvian beers they had to sample. It was a pretty impressive set up. A couple we had already tried, so we decided to go for the brand that we knew we liked, who brewed a quinoa beer. Quinoa is widely used and extremely popular in Peru. It was very good, but due to how much food we had eaten and wanted to still eat, we probably should have shared one.



Staying on track with drinks we made our way over to the world of Pisco and Wines to try a Pisco drink. Fanny told us last weekend that ceviche and pisco go together so naturally we went to find ourselves some ceviche to go with our Pisco drink (this one we were smart enough to share). We were worried about the ceviche. Usually made with a white fish, this fish was grey/silver and we were expecting it to be REALLY fishy. We were wrong, it was great like everything else we had tried. By this point we were pretty stuffed (and I was a little buzzed) so we decided to try one more thing from a different world before making our way over to the Sweets. Of all the stands we decided to Sandwiches. It has been ages since we have had Greek anything and we saw one stand that was serving falafel. It didn't disappoint.

Sushi and Pisco

Mitch getting Falafel

Chocolate Sushi

Our second to last stop of the day was Mundo Dulce. We of course had to have arroz con leche, we also sampled some chocolate and bought a bar of chocolate that had aji, a local pepper of Peru, and chocolate sushi (it doesn't include real fish!). We then did another loop around Mistura looking for picarones. Traditionally served with honey, we wanted ours with chocolate and we knew we had seen them somewhere. We were able to try the traditional one and one made with quiona. Both were very good but we liked the traditional better. They are similar to donuts or funnel cakes, but the dough is something different. I am not sure what.

Last but not least, we had to try pizza on a cone. When doing our research on what we wanted to make sure we tried we saw this stand and it was something too interesting to pass up. Most of the pizza in Peru has ham on it, and while it is not our favorite on a pizza, it wasn't horrible. Nothing I would get again, Especially after all the other good food we had that day.

Picarones

Our goal was to try something from each world, but that didn't happen. We could have wasted food or stuffed ourselves sick but we had such a great time and tried some amazing food we were happy with what we did get to try. We had a blast and it was such a beautiful day we even flirted with the idea of going again before they closed, but decided to be responsible instead and do things like homework, update the blog and of course watch Sunday Night Football.

Lots of Love.

Hasta Luego!

One Month Down

In Central Lima

So I really wanted to get this post done last week, when we really hit our one month mark but I just didn't get around to it. I feel like we are really starting to settle in to our schedule this week. Mitch is finally registered for all of his class, officially.  ( If you wanna hear about what a headache that was I think you e-mail or Facebook him and pressure him into updating something on here! ) I am organized with all classes and homework coming up AND caught up on it all. I have my schedule for IML in order and my hours all worked out for my internship and we are slowly getting comfortable in our new home.

Eating Chifa in Chinatown

Last weekend (you know, the weekend when I really wanted to get this blog updated again) we went out to Central Lima to try to find workshop supplies I could buy to bring to IML for the girls, I started teaching a workshop this week and I am so excited! I have something else I am working on to but more on that later. I had Thursday off, did homework, had to go into work Friday and then Saturday was spent cleaning up the room and wandering around our neighborhood. It was a national holiday, el dia de Santa Rosa, and we decided not to brave the crowds that were out and about. We wanted to get our letter in the well before the 30th but we still plan on doing it while we are here. On Sunday we went into Central Lima and spent time walking around the shop and looking for things to do. I couldn't find what it was I was looking for but we had a fun day walking around, went to Chinatown for food and made our way home before the sun went down.

Our new favorite Chifa place by our house

Speaking of Chinatown, we have heard, as I am sure you have, that Lima is famous for their food. I will admit, everything we have had so far is amazing but our go to food at the moment and I think safe to say our favorite is Chifa. Peru, Lima specifically, has a large Chinese population and the food that they make is amazing!

Arroz con mariscos

Ceviche

Today however I was able to spend some time with our Peru family and learn how to make some meals, The boys went to the fish market this morning (we will go eventually) and brought home some fish for dinner. I spent some time in the kitchen learning how to make ceviche and arroz con mariscos. Both turned out AMAZING! I am so excited that I have the opportunity to learn things while I am here and that we have such a wonderful family that is willing to spend time with us.





I will leave you here since I need to prepare for my week and watch football ( I missed my 9ers win while I was learning how to cook). We have a lot of exciting stuff coming up next week and I am already setting time aside in my schedule to tell you all about it on time!

Hasta Luego!