I’ve taken a longer than anticipated hiatus from writing. I’d made a resolution to take up way too many hobbies and make several permanent lifestyle changes and writing got de-prioritized. I’m still eating a lot, that hasn’t changed and so I’m hoping to bring back writing every month about everything I’m eating and everything I’m feeling (ok some things..I have a lot of feelings). What better way to break the hiatus than writing about a week-long trip to Peru.
My family and I just got back from a trip to Cusco and Lima in Peru. We hadn’t taken a family vacation since before I started working so ~5 years ago. Criminally long. We had planned this trip in 2020 for just my parents and me but for obvious reasons delayed that trip and went in April 2023 with my brother in tow. I’m always amazed at the freshness of produce in most countries outside the US. The tomatoes taste like tomatoes, the variety is stunning, and they were insulted by the idea of OJ coming out of a bottle and not directly from the orange. The sights and sounds of Peru were incredible. It’s such a beautiful country and I would love to return to hike more and spend a little more time in the wilderness.
We landed in Cusco on Sunday, the 23rd. Our first meal was the hotel breakfast at the Hilton Garden Inn. The breads were crusty but so flavorful and the papayas and pineapples were glorious.
Our second meal was also at the Hilton because we were tired and sleepy and getting kicked in the head with altitude sickness and couldn’t drag ourselves out of the hotel. We’d just eaten breakfast not too long ago so I resorted to nibbling from everyone’s plates and didn’t order anything specific. Observing the menu and after some initial conversations with Alfredo, our ever accommodating waiter, we learnt pretty quickly that
- Being vegetarian was a foreign concept to most Peruvians
- Quinoa was everywhere in abundance and in almost everything vegetarian
We tried the Chaufa rice which was like a quinoa fried rice with this spicy garlic sauce, a quinoa burger that was truly just quinoa and some mild spices mashed up into a quickly disintegrating patty. The last thing we ordered was a whatberry risotto. I love a good risotto and have been enamored by it since the days of watching Masterchef Australia when they’d make the risotto every season and loads of people would mess up. I recently made an asparagus, pea and lemon risotto with a herb oil for a family dinner and I don’t know if it would save me from elimination on Masterchef but it was so tasty.
Anyway, I digress. The risotto at the Hilton was a tomato-based risotto with some sauteed vegetables on top and some kind of singular eggplant cannelloni on top. One large bite of everything together had me audibly MMMing. Meals 1 and 1.5 were devoured in record pace as my headache grew. We proceeded to a tour of the Inca ruins in and around Cusco.
On our first night, we got dropped off at La Organika / Yuka for dinner. They weren’t a vegetarian restaurant but boasted of a farm-to-table vegetable heavy menu. This restaurant popped up when I was doing my research pre-trip and was also recommended by our guide when we mentioned we were vegetarian. We ordered half of the vegetarian menu which included a corn soup that I split with my mom, a margarita pizza, Tacu Tacu (more vegetables on a rice and potato tortilla), a pesto quinoa risotto (!!)
Everything was phenomenal. We were tired and starving so I’m sure that helped but the food was still incredible. Everything was perfectly seasoned and balanced. I ordered the risotto and there was so much care given to multiple textures with crunchy banana and plantain chips, fresh and juicy raw baby tomatoes and bitter yellow edible flowers all topping the risotto. It was interesting how frequently they used soy sauce in their cooking. The Tacu Tacu was a peruvian dish but all the vegetables were floating in a soy sauce. Even something so American / Italian like the cheese pizza was crunchy and chewy and tasty. The sauce was just crushed tomatoes which worked because of how flavorful the tomatoes were. Not something I could pull off with my homemade pizza back in New York (hmm..I haven’t made pizza in a while..).
Our second day was more fruit at the breakfast buffet before heading off to Sacred Valley / Ollyataytambo. Walking through so much Inca agricultural land had me dreaming about my own herb garden in my apartment. I just planted some basil and sage before this trip and manifesting little seedlings by now. The last 2 times I tried to grow them, I failed. I’m hoping the Inca luck rubs off on me this time.
We don’t have a ton of food pictures from this day because mealtimes were always when I was super exhausted. At lunch, I learnt about Mexican corn which is so large and chunky and eaten with Andean cheese. My brother also tried ceviche and guinea pig, both delicacies of the area and both things I won’t eat.
For dinner, we stopped at a plant-based restaurant and brewery called Greenpoint that was also on my list pre-trip and recommended by our guide. I still had an awful headache from the altitude and unfortunately couldn’t drink. I ordered a falafel wrap that was a little too “healthy” for me. The falafel wasn’t that flavorful but the sauces were delicious. A cat did jump on to my brother’s lap for some pets which was the highlight alongside these Andean fries we ordered which tasted better now that we knew Peru grew 4000 varieties of potatoes and were served with a tamarind chutney that was giving a chaat vibe.
The next day, we visited the core reason for our trip – Machu Picchu. Wow. We saw it twice over two days and every second, every vista took my breath away. When we weren’t climbing up or down the mountain, we spent some time in Aguascalientes. Again, the food was scrumptious. One the first day, for lunch, we stopped at Full House and I had Papa A La Huancina (pls excuse my Spanish grammar) and Tacu Tacu. The food was so well decorated and presented, all against the backdrop of the Andes. No notes. I licked the sauce clean off the plate.
That first night for dinner (at Chef House), we were all exhausted and for once I didn’t have crazy altitude sickness so I let myself get a drink with dinner. I had a shot of Pisco, the local drink I’d heard so much about and a Maracuya sour which was a passionfruit-pisco sour. I think the Pisco sours are most definitely a top five cocktail for me. They’re so tasty and don’t feel like you’re drinking something that strong. I’ve never had a whiskey sour but I almost don’t want to try one because the bar is way too high.
We all got guac to start that night followed by pizzas. The avocados were unsurprisingly fresh and tasty and so were the pizzas that they pulled out slowly from a large wood fired oven inside the restaurant. I have such a hankering for Avocado toast following that trip but I really don’t want to pay $4 dollars for a not so yummy avocado at Whole Foods.
We decided to see Machu Picchu twice because why not so were up super early the following day and made our way up. In the early hours of the morning, with the sun beating down on us and a clear blue sky all around, it was an almost meditative experience. My family was quiet, everyone was taking it all in. We also witnessed two back to back uncoordinated marriage proposals that was adorable though I do wonder what must have been going through the second man who was waiting to propose as he saw someone else go first. They both said yes, everyone clapped and all’s well that ends well.
Before we headed back to Cusco, we stopped at another restaurant for lunch. I forgot to take pictures this time but I had a mango ceviche and fresh mango juice for lunch. On the list of things I miss the most about living in India, mangoes are up there. I’ve had some decent to okay mangos in New York but nothing compares to summer mangoes back home. Peruvian fresh mangoes brought tears to my eyes. They were sweet but sickly sweet, sour but not so tart that they sting the tongue and juicy. The mangoes were tossed in lemon juice, diced onions, tomatoes and cilantro. It tasted Indian and I didn’t say a word all through lunch as I thought back to all the mangoes on the side of the road on the drive back home from school that we’d stop and buy. We made our way back to Cusco via rail and at the Hilton that night. Had some mushroom beetroot pasta that tasted of nothing but mushrooms. Delightful.
We were nearing the end of our trip and we headed over to Lima for two more unforgettable meals. We decided to have some Indian food. As much as the fresh fruit and avocados and quinoa were loved, we hadn’t had some spicy curries and rice and naan in a very long time so we found an a cute Indian place down the street from the hotel and ate everything in sight. It was very very tasty and made for great nap fodder. We tried to get the same the next day for lunch but there was a surprise visit from with the health inspector that led to the kitchen closing down and so we couldn’t get fed in time before catching our fight out. A very Indian experience, I must add.
The last meal of the trip was at Plant Food + Wine –the Peruvian outpost of the celebrated LA restaurant. We did an 8 course vegan tasting menu with multiple vegan Pisco sours on the side and each one was delicate and beautiful. Special shout out to the last course which was a celebration of Peruvian chocolate. There was a small scoop of ice cream with what I can only describe as some crunchy bits and some chewy bits – all different types of chocolate, some dark and some milky, with a healthy drizzle of olive oil on top. YUMMY. I’m sitting on the Amtrak train from DC to New York that’s an hour and twenty minutes delayed, hungry and a little wet from the rain, drooling over that chocolate dish. I’m also pulling out some chocolates from my duffel bag that we brought back from Peru with us.
That dinner was also interesting because we met up with a pen pal of my dad’s from over 25 years ago. They met on the internet and have been in touch ever since but never met. She was a lovely woman and worked in Lima. Her daughter was the #1 para-badminton champion in the world which was also insane. Didn’t expect to meet a celebrity but managed to do that too.
We’re now all back home (except me..1.5 hours to go on the Amtrak). I will be getting $80 of groceries (#inflation) delivered and am excited to channel the energy of Peru into my salads for the week. Hope you get to go to Peru too or at least eat some fresh fruit. Summer is almost here…
Vish Eats Delish 