I Thought We Were in Peru...

Imagine our surprise when we found Moe's in Peru. For a second there we thought we were in Springfield. (Maybe we spent too much time at Moe's and that's why this post is so late).

I won't blather on about how wonderful Machu Picchu was or how wonderful the Amazon was (which they were), instead I'll blather on about how wonderful the food was. This is a food blog after all. All of the food was so fresh. There were many farms around and we assume most of the food was grown locally.

We stayed at El Albergue Hotel in Ollantaytambo (the Sacred Valley). They had an organic farm and used the produce for their meals. They had this fabulous mint tea (Andean mint of course) and also Chamomile. Just some fresh leaves thrown into boiling water. It was some of the best tea I've ever had.

We stayed at Machu Picchu at the Sanctuary Lodge (basically took a second mortgage on the house for this - but it was worth it. We got to see sunrise at Machu Picchu). The food was good but I could have gone without them addressing me by name in the restaurant.

There was lots of fresh fish to be had. The trout was delicious - although it was very pink looking. It almost looked like salmon. I guess it was the fish meal that they fed them. The ceviche was absolutely delicious. They recommend that you don't each essentially raw fish in another country - but how could you not?? Peru is known for ceviche. Hey we were loaded up on probiotics and felt confident. We also ate alpaca - which pretty much tastes like meat with whatever seasonings were used. We did not try the cuy (guinea pig) although wanted to. It was not available at every restaurant and when we went to one we just were not that hungry that night.

We went to Cicciolina in Cusco. Where I had simply the best pasta and as an appetizer grilled octopus. The octopus was so perfectly prepared - no rubberbands here. We did not have a reservation so we sat at the bar, which was fine by me since we had a birds-eye view of the open kitchen. It seemed like it was a woman running the kitchen (probably why the food was so good) but the bartender wouldn't address me at all - so much for progress. For dessert I had the chocolate mousse and the lucma mousse. The lucma was an interesting taste - it looked like a mango or sweet potato color. It was not as sweet as the chocolate so it made a nice contrast.

In Cusco we stayed at Inkaterra La Casona - talk about beautiful. The bathroom was bigger than our living room. We only ate breakfast there and it was quite good - the usual suspects - eggs, french toast, quinoa pancakes. I assume the restaurant for dinner was good too.

Then it was off to the Amazon on the Delfin II. The food on this cruise  was not only beautiful but delicious (yeah I know everyone says that). I was a very bad blogger and did not take photos of each meal - what was I thinking?? They had beautiful (different) table settings for each meal. Most of the flotsam and jetsam on the table were seeds from the jungle - different ones each time. All of the animals, decorations, and most of the place mats were made by the local village woman from things in the jungle. They were absolutely beautiful. We ate breakfast on the skiffs one morning and it was so surreal. They donned white gloves and proceeded to give us place mats, napkins, and regular plates.

So those were the food highlights.