Lima:
Best food: The small cafe in the Barranco barrio that we walked to along the water. From the street it looked almost like the entrance to the courtyard of a house, but when you walked through there was the counter and a bunch of tables outside. There was frozen lemonade that I still dream about, an almost-solid-chocolate brownie, and a milkshake made out of lucuma (eggfruit, I think). The lemonade was a little like a slushie, and really tart and flavorful; the brownie was a chocolate injection; the milkshake tasted a little like cherries and was better than the actual fruit, which has bizarre texture.
Worst food: Chinatown. We were walking around the Centro for a few hours, were hot, tired, thirsty, and had heard about the brilliant Chinese food. Eventually we made our way over there, found a restaurant, waited in line for a while, and when we got in it was wet, slimy, and tasteless.
Ollantaytambo:
Best food: The small restaurant Puka Rumi, at the far end of town. There was a huge stone pizza oven, and they had the best cream of mushroom soup and guacamole.
Worst food: When we past through again, after the Lares trek and on the way to Macho Picchu, we got ice cream on our way to the train station. I was creative, and tried a new flavor called 'Crema de Cielo'. I assume that that doesn't translate literally but the closest I could think of as a translation was 'Cotton Candy', the really sickly sweet kind that's blue. As the worst food goes, this wasn't so bad.
Cusco:
Best food: This was our first kitchen. I think the only time we ate out was when we went to an Indian buffet, and the food was really spicy and good. Unfortunately I don't remember the names of the curries, but they were yummy.
Worst food: Ramen, after the 6th day
Manu trip:
Best food: None. It was all bland and nutrionless.
Worst food: See above
Puno:
Best food: The pizza dinner we walked to. It was some sort of veggie pizza, the first one we had on the trip, and it was cheesy and yummy.
Worst food: Breakfast. There was a breakfast that came with the hotel and it was a fine breakfast, but since we only had one night there there were only two meals so, by default, this was bad.
Copacabana:
Best food: Cheese fondue at the restaurant of the hotel next to us. We splurged a little and it was... very very cheesy, and there was bread that you dipped into it. Pretty standard fondue, but it was the first time I had it and it was fun.
Worst food: Garlic bread at the small internet cafe we went to on our last day. They wouldn't give you the password unless you bought something and our bus left a few hours after we were kicked out of the hotel so we had some time to kill.
La Paz:
Best food: Here we dined in again. There was this french-like bread that wasn't very good but was crusty baguette-shaped and we made big sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cheese, vinegar, basil, and hotsauce. Messy, but delicious.
Worst food: I don't think we ate out at all when we were here. There was some cereal that came with the hotel, though, that was sugared and inedible. Probably, by cereal standards, it wasn't half bad, but I've grown up eating (sugarless) oatmeal.
Sucre:
Best food: A jar of pickled jalapeños we managed to track down!
Worst food: This wasn't actually bad, but I had really been craving taco salad and it was a big disappointment. Not great markets and stores here, but somehow we found enough of the ingredients and some suitable substitutes to to make a passable taco salad. For those of you who have never had this, go out and by some/make some lettuce, crumbled tortilla chips, beans, yogurt, salsa, and cheese and assemble it in that order. Heads up: don't substitute Bolivian sour cream for the yogurt, crisped and crumbled tortillas for the chips, wilting spinach for the lettuce, and tabasco for the salsa.
Salt flats trip (Tupiza to salt flats to Uyuni to Tupiza again):
Best food: There was a not-halfway-bad lasagna that we had towards the end of the trip. Way salty, but at least we could eat it. Remember, this is the trip with Lucia as chef, and I think I might have understated the awfulness of the food.
Worst food: None of it was good, but the worst was anything cooked with that awful cheese. I have no idea what kind it was, but I could barely choke down a spoonful of anything with it so, of course, if had to be plentiful in our meals. Nuff said.
Salta:
Best food: Ahhhh, a kitchen again! And a supermarket that has imported noodles (a must-have)! For the first time we were able to make cold sesame noodles, one of the joys of life. I could wax poetic about them but, in the interest of not alienating all my audience, will refrain.
Worst food: Nothing's coming to mind. This was another one of those cities we didn't eat out in at all, so (obviously!) it was all delicious :). I might have to go with the orange jam we used to make cookies (it was so hard picking just one 'best food' for Salta!). It was good on the sweet cookie dough, but I don't recommend eating a big spoonful of it by itself. Bitter!
Buenos Aires:
Best food: The dinner at the dubiously capitalized closed-door restaurant of Ilatina. First course, small spiced pineapple chunks, small melon chunks, roasted fennel, topped with some sort of sprout. I'm not usually a fan of fruit salads that don't even pretend to try and be sweet but this worked brilliantly. Second course was spicy beans on a fried plantain with mushed (pureéd, if you will) mango on the side, followed by an avocado ceviche and a corn patty. I've never come close to trying real ceviche before but my parents were in raptures about this so I'm sure that it compared will. As an in-between courses thing there was a ginger-something sorbet, that might have been mango but might not have. Fourthly there was an aesthetically pleasing mound of sweet quinoa, followed by a cheesecake that was the only disappointment of the evening. It wasn't bad, but it didn't compare to my mom's.
Worst food: Last night, the night after Ilatina, we were very excited in finding one of the few vegetarian places in Buenos Aires. Glowingly reviewed on trip advisor, Bio had a bunch of items on the menu that sounded amazing. Spicy seitan, anyone? But, unfortunately, it didn't nearly meet expectations. I didn't sample either of what my parents had, but they dubbed it 'inedible' and my dad said that it turned his stomach. That was probably because they used the same cheese that Lucia used in many of her creations.
Speaking for my own dish, the mushrooms were tough and lumpy and the texture was awful and they were, since I've been using the word 'indeible' too much, 'unpalatable'.
Bariloche:
Best food: About a block from where we were staying there was an ice-cream store that had a bunch of flavors, most that were impossible to translate, but I had a raspberry and lime one that was delicious. I think the lime gave me hives, but it was worth it! On second thought, maybe the chocolate I posted about was the best... *Rereading this I might think that I've been eating junk food for the past three months but, while most not the epitome of healthiness, the junk is really not a big part of our diet.
Worst food: More bad pasta here, but not particularly outstanding in its badness.
Purito Mureno:
Worst food: Chinatown. We were walking around the Centro for a few hours, were hot, tired, thirsty, and had heard about the brilliant Chinese food. Eventually we made our way over there, found a restaurant, waited in line for a while, and when we got in it was wet, slimy, and tasteless.
Ollantaytambo:
Best food: The small restaurant Puka Rumi, at the far end of town. There was a huge stone pizza oven, and they had the best cream of mushroom soup and guacamole.
Worst food: When we past through again, after the Lares trek and on the way to Macho Picchu, we got ice cream on our way to the train station. I was creative, and tried a new flavor called 'Crema de Cielo'. I assume that that doesn't translate literally but the closest I could think of as a translation was 'Cotton Candy', the really sickly sweet kind that's blue. As the worst food goes, this wasn't so bad.
Cusco:
Best food: This was our first kitchen. I think the only time we ate out was when we went to an Indian buffet, and the food was really spicy and good. Unfortunately I don't remember the names of the curries, but they were yummy.
Worst food: Ramen, after the 6th day
Manu trip:
Best food: None. It was all bland and nutrionless.
Worst food: See above
Puno:
Best food: The pizza dinner we walked to. It was some sort of veggie pizza, the first one we had on the trip, and it was cheesy and yummy.
Worst food: Breakfast. There was a breakfast that came with the hotel and it was a fine breakfast, but since we only had one night there there were only two meals so, by default, this was bad.
Copacabana:
Best food: Cheese fondue at the restaurant of the hotel next to us. We splurged a little and it was... very very cheesy, and there was bread that you dipped into it. Pretty standard fondue, but it was the first time I had it and it was fun.
Worst food: Garlic bread at the small internet cafe we went to on our last day. They wouldn't give you the password unless you bought something and our bus left a few hours after we were kicked out of the hotel so we had some time to kill.
La Paz:
Best food: Here we dined in again. There was this french-like bread that wasn't very good but was crusty baguette-shaped and we made big sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, cheese, vinegar, basil, and hotsauce. Messy, but delicious.
Worst food: I don't think we ate out at all when we were here. There was some cereal that came with the hotel, though, that was sugared and inedible. Probably, by cereal standards, it wasn't half bad, but I've grown up eating (sugarless) oatmeal.
Sucre:
Best food: A jar of pickled jalapeños we managed to track down!
Worst food: This wasn't actually bad, but I had really been craving taco salad and it was a big disappointment. Not great markets and stores here, but somehow we found enough of the ingredients and some suitable substitutes to to make a passable taco salad. For those of you who have never had this, go out and by some/make some lettuce, crumbled tortilla chips, beans, yogurt, salsa, and cheese and assemble it in that order. Heads up: don't substitute Bolivian sour cream for the yogurt, crisped and crumbled tortillas for the chips, wilting spinach for the lettuce, and tabasco for the salsa.
Salt flats trip (Tupiza to salt flats to Uyuni to Tupiza again):
Best food: There was a not-halfway-bad lasagna that we had towards the end of the trip. Way salty, but at least we could eat it. Remember, this is the trip with Lucia as chef, and I think I might have understated the awfulness of the food.
Worst food: None of it was good, but the worst was anything cooked with that awful cheese. I have no idea what kind it was, but I could barely choke down a spoonful of anything with it so, of course, if had to be plentiful in our meals. Nuff said.
Salta:
Best food: Ahhhh, a kitchen again! And a supermarket that has imported noodles (a must-have)! For the first time we were able to make cold sesame noodles, one of the joys of life. I could wax poetic about them but, in the interest of not alienating all my audience, will refrain.
Worst food: Nothing's coming to mind. This was another one of those cities we didn't eat out in at all, so (obviously!) it was all delicious :). I might have to go with the orange jam we used to make cookies (it was so hard picking just one 'best food' for Salta!). It was good on the sweet cookie dough, but I don't recommend eating a big spoonful of it by itself. Bitter!
Buenos Aires:
Best food: The dinner at the dubiously capitalized closed-door restaurant of Ilatina. First course, small spiced pineapple chunks, small melon chunks, roasted fennel, topped with some sort of sprout. I'm not usually a fan of fruit salads that don't even pretend to try and be sweet but this worked brilliantly. Second course was spicy beans on a fried plantain with mushed (pureéd, if you will) mango on the side, followed by an avocado ceviche and a corn patty. I've never come close to trying real ceviche before but my parents were in raptures about this so I'm sure that it compared will. As an in-between courses thing there was a ginger-something sorbet, that might have been mango but might not have. Fourthly there was an aesthetically pleasing mound of sweet quinoa, followed by a cheesecake that was the only disappointment of the evening. It wasn't bad, but it didn't compare to my mom's.
Worst food: Last night, the night after Ilatina, we were very excited in finding one of the few vegetarian places in Buenos Aires. Glowingly reviewed on trip advisor, Bio had a bunch of items on the menu that sounded amazing. Spicy seitan, anyone? But, unfortunately, it didn't nearly meet expectations. I didn't sample either of what my parents had, but they dubbed it 'inedible' and my dad said that it turned his stomach. That was probably because they used the same cheese that Lucia used in many of her creations.
Speaking for my own dish, the mushrooms were tough and lumpy and the texture was awful and they were, since I've been using the word 'indeible' too much, 'unpalatable'.
Bariloche:
Best food: About a block from where we were staying there was an ice-cream store that had a bunch of flavors, most that were impossible to translate, but I had a raspberry and lime one that was delicious. I think the lime gave me hives, but it was worth it! On second thought, maybe the chocolate I posted about was the best... *Rereading this I might think that I've been eating junk food for the past three months but, while most not the epitome of healthiness, the junk is really not a big part of our diet.
Worst food: More bad pasta here, but not particularly outstanding in its badness.
Purito Mureno:
Best food: I think I had a glass of water that was pretty good...
Worst food: Pasta. It amazes me that, for a country that is proud of its Italian heritage, so much of the pasta is awful. This particular batch was drowning in water and that made it completely tasteless.
El Chalten:
Best food: To get to the pizza restaurant Patagonicus we had to walk to the opposite side of the tiny town. It wasn't more than 15 blocks but the
Worst food: On our last day there we stopped at a waffle place near out hostel. It was inviting and warm and a nice respite from the gale-force wind and yes, most waffles are offputingly sweet but we decided to give it a try. Despite the awful texture and taste of the canned fruit the waffle was pretty good but the problem was that there was too much of it. Way to much of it. Now, I've never had 'eat it or wear it' parents but I have this thing about eating absolutely all of the food I have before me so that it doesn't go to waste and I was very stressed by this waffle. I appreciate the brilliance of a lifestyle, even a temporary one, where something very stressful is a waffle that is too darn big but that didn't make my parents any happier when they had to finish what I was too freaked out about wasting to eat myself.
El Calafete:
Best food: The breakfast that came with the hotel. Spice bread and lots of kinds of jam and rice pudding and eggs, which I ate for the protein but covered with tabasco for the taste.
Worst food: Caprese salad at the mostly-outdoors restaurant. I think I've said before, for a country that is proud if its Italian heritage the cheese on this was wrong. Yes, I'm nitpicking but for a salad that was advertised as having mozzerella cheese on it, the cheese looked like cheddar, had the consistency of cheddar, and tasted like cheddar. Dare I call it cheddar?
Ushuaia:
Best food: Hot chocolate at Laguna Negra. We would never have gone there if not for the hot chocolate coupons given to us by the people on the Tres Marias, but it was the best not-home-made hot chocolate. A little bitter, cinnamony, and cayenne-y.
Worst food: The one time we ate out we went to a place that wasn't a pizza place, but that served pizza. It was packed, which is generally a good sign, but the pizza the served was worse than the stuff the served at NOVA on pizza thursdays before they switched pizza providers.
Montevideo:
Best food: La Taqueria in Positos, with dark roasty spiciness and guacamole and large salads.
Worst food: The dulce de leche, which really just didn't live up to the standards of Argentinian dulce. I plan on figuring out how to make it correctly when I get home because I don't think you can get it in the US.
Piriapolis:
Best food: This is so hard. I think I have to say my birthday cake. It was meant to be a trifle and was baked in a pot, but set up really nicely and was lemony and creamy and so so so gooood!
Worst food: Dang, another place where we ate amazingly the whole time. If I had to choose, I think I'd have to go with the bag of chips we had to go with the chipotle dip. There was nothing wrong with them, but they weren't spectacular. Sorry, this feels like bragging. We just ate really well here so, please, go ahead and gloat next time you feel distinctly unjealous of what we are doing.
And then, after this, we went back to Montevideo and from there to Buenos Aires, but I won't mention them more than once so... first half of the trip done! It feel almost like an accomplishment and so merits an exclamation point, but I'm feeling a little sad about leaving South America and a little apprehensive about going to Asia. Yes, it will keep us from getting complacent here, but what's wrong with a little complacency?
I meant for this to be a food-only post but have a couple of evenings to write about here. Day before yesterday, after going to Bio, we went to a peña for a couple of hours. I got a little restless by the end, but the singer was amazing.
Last night we went to our first and last tango show in Argentina, not counting street performers. It was hard finding one that wasn't too touristy, but We Are Tango had great musicians and great dancers, and the bonus that we didn't have to listen to somebody dressed up as Eva Perón singing 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' from a balcony. There was also a tango lesson afterwards and it was with great difficulty that I stopped my parents form tangoing on the way home. Feel free to feel gloat if your parents aren't like that!
Unfortunately I haven't been photographing what I've been eating, but here's a tango shot.
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