We slept in until 8:30 and went down to the
dining room at nine. The dining room is quite small and can get quite crowded
at breakfast time but we managed to get a table. A whirling dervish of a
waitress tore around taking care of everyone and quickly brought us fresh OJ, a
basket of bolillos (very fresh large rolls), jam and butter, and a pot
of syrupy coffee and hot milk. We ordered tamales which were delicious filled
with chicken and a few peanuts with pickled onions and chili peppers on the
side.
We decided not to dash around Lima seeing all
the sights, but to relax and just concentrate on Miraflores. We set off, under
a rare brilliantly blue sky, towards the coast, a few blocks away, and walked
along the cliff top, first through Parque del Amor, a wonderful area
full of mosaic covered walls with quotes about love scattered throughout,
rather GaudÃ-esque after our trip to Barcelona last year! In the center is a
huge statue of two entwined people, and we saw a group of tourists trying to
imitate the figures. Further down the coast are the two glassy towers of the
Marriott across the street from a large shopping center sunk into the ocean
cliffs, where we explored and found, among the US food franchises, a nifty art
exhibit of artists’ interpretations of indigenous dresses.
We walked toward the Parque Central up
the busy Avenida Larco, stopping at a Manolo’s, a coffee shop we used to
frequent in San José, Costa Rica. Feeling a bit peckish, we went in and split a
chicken sandwich and had a Dulce de Leche-filled churro, a donut-like tube of
deep fried dough - really good!
Thus fortified, we continued to the central
plaza which is very prettily filled with flower beds and lots of healthy, quite
tame, cats! We located the restaurant, Astrid y Gaston, where we have a
reservation for tonight that we made from back home. We made our way back to
our hotel, having walked five miles already, and took naps, Brucato-style.
At 7:15 we set out again for the Central
Plaza through throngs of people out for the evening and arrived at our
restaurant in 15 minutes. Astrid y Gaston is supposed to be one of the best
restaurants in Latin America and now has branches in several cities. After
being shown to our table in an art-filled room, we decided not to go for the
21-course tasting menu, which seemed a bit much, and ordered from the regular
menu which has such whimsical language that it is sometimes difficult to gather
exactly you are ordering.
We were brought a basket of six breads, all
very different, from a very light creampuff to nut bread, to potato bread and
very thin quinoa breadsticks, and then a plate of appetizers; a tiny peach
ceviche and a meatball and sauce. We split plates of three ceviches, which were
very good, but not better than at Cielito’s in SB and one of excellent grilled
scallops.
 |
| Cuy with purple corn toritllas |
We got our mains: cuy (guinea pig) with tiny purple tortillas
for me and a slab of grilled swordfish on a bed of creamy rice and asparagus
for Bob. The fish was the best we have ever eaten – I don’t know what they did
to it - it was very fresh, of course, but just succulent and amazing! We split
a dessert of a chocolate-coated ice cream sphere doused with hot chocolate
sauce and then came the colorful filing cabinet of sweets: a small multicolored
box with drawers that you pull out to reveal different yummy treats!
We walked home through the pleasant streets
listening to music coming from bars until we reached our wonderful hotel.
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