A (touristy) Peruvian Restaurant
Thursday was Julie’s last night in the house and as is the custom she picked out a place for us to go have dinner. I had lent her my travel book earlier in the week when we were discussing possible places. There were several interesting restaurants mentioned in the book that featured Peruvian food and also that had a floor show with local music and folk dancing. She ended up picking one of those and so last night a bunch of us headed out to a place on the Plaza des Armes called La Retama. We got there about 7:15 and when we walked in the place was absolutely empty although many of the tables were reserved. It was a small place, probably capable of holding about 60-70 people maximum. We were lucky- they had enough open space to accommodate our party of seven. As we walked in the door I glanced to the right and it appeared that they were setting up for a buffet. It looked pretty good with a variety of unknown and colorful foods on display as I went for a closer look. We sat down and once handed the menus took a look at what was in store for us. The menu featured many local specialties including various kinds of potatoes, alpaca, trout, quinoa, ceviche, soups and various forms of chicken. Since Cusco is far from a shoreline usually the featured fish on the menus is a local trout which is found in the many rivers that flow through the surrounding mountains. It was really hard to decided what to taste so I asked about the buffet and after listening to the selection decided to go with that. I figured it would give me a chance to try a whole bunch of new types of foods.
The salad/appetizer plate. My taste buds were having a great time. It was all good.
No sooner than we ordered than a very large group entered the restaurant, large enough to take up half the open seats available. They looked like North American tourists and their guide was clearly in evidence as he shepherded them to their tables and made sure they had the right type of water or drinks. They had just gotten settled when another, smaller group, came in and sat at the tables near us. Matt, who had also ordered the buffet, and I looked at each other, the buffet was going to be a popular place and we had no desire to get caught up in that chaos. Luckily since we got there first we got to start before the mob. Wasting no time, we headed over to make our selections.
There was a salad and appetizer section, an entree section and, yay, also a desert section. I picked up one of everything from each to maximize the variety of foods I could taste. The photos included document the food. On the appetizer/salad plate were a variety of new things. The dark objects are figs of some sort. There was also ceviche (very good), a pate of some kind, a crepe with apple, celery, and onion with a slight lemon flavor, a caprese salad (yay!). Those were the highlights. After tasting the ceviche I am definitely looking forward to the ceviche in Lima!
The entre plate. Again, it was all good. I was stuffed but still had to try desert!
The entree plate had trout in a lemon type sauce, potatoes with cheese, sweet potatoes, quinoa with some kind of pesto like sauce, chicken rolled with raisins and cheese, rice, an alpaca stroganoff of some type, and lots of veggies. It was all good although the potatoes were a bit dry. The trout was excellent and tasted very fresh. (Another reason to look forward to Lima and other types of fresh seafood!).
The deserts available consisted of a really yummy, moist and gooey coconut cake, which was my favorite. Also included was a chocolate cake that had a nice flavor -not too sweet, a mango pudding-like thing and an apple cake. I have found that no matter where I have traveled around the world included in every cuisine is some kind of desert or pastry consisting of baked apples. Whether it is a cake, a roll with apple on the inside, a strudel type concoction with flaky pastry or a layered cake, apples are ubiquitous. Everyone has them and everyone adapts them to the their local version of sweet tasty treats. I imagine a study of apples, their origin, and how they managed to find themselves drifting all over the world would yield some insights into human migration!
The band.
The floor show started just as Matt and I were getting to desert. The band consisted of four guys, dressed in local costumes, some of which we had seen during the Carnival celebrations during the last week. They had several of the flutes and pan flutes that are typical of the region, a few drums and a small instrument that looked like a baby guitar but produced much higher notes. The music was very enjoyable and we all sat back to watch the show. Yes, it was clear the whole set-up was specifically for tourists, but, heck, that is what we are… After a bit the dancers came out, four in total. They had different costumes for each different kind of dance. The dancing was very dramatic and extremely energetic. At different points they pulled out people from the audience to participate. A couple of people from our table were selected and they each came back out of breath. Not for the faint of heart are the folk dances here in Cusco at 11,000 feet!
One of the costumes for the dancing.
All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and a great way to say good-bye to Julie, who after seven weeks here volunteering, is heading back to the United States, and to work.
One of the more dramatic costumes displayed.
This weekend I am traveling to the Sacred Valley with Carrie to Urubamba. We are going horseback riding on Saturday and then on Sunday she is remaining in Urubamba and I will travel to Pisac to visit the market there and meet up with some of the others from the house who will be hiking in the vicinity. Therefore I will not be posting again until Sunday night when I get back to Cusco. This trip has lots of potential for adventure since we have to figure out which combi (or local min-van based bus) to use to get from point A to point B. I am also looking forward to the horseback ride! In addition, rumor has it that there is another Carnival celebration this weekend, sort of as a follow up. I have no idea if I will run into that either in Urubamba or Pisac-maybe!
Sounds like you’re having just the adventure you wanted! Thanks for all the great posts; it’s fun to live vicariously through you!! Sorry to hear about the ankle – how did you sprain it? Ugh, hopefully it won’t get too much in the way of your plans. Not much new in Houston, but lots of much-needed rain this month. Rodeo started today, parade ongoing now, though not sure if we will take part. Trying to decide on visiting Tucson next month for hot air ballooning if work schedule allows. Looking forward to hearing about your weekend…… Hi from Stu too!