A Beginners Guide to Ceviche in Lima, Peru

The vibrant green mountains gently part and the Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru shimmers into view. A soft landing, a hustle through a fairly straight forward terminal, and the sights, sounds and chaos of Lima quickly confront every sense you have. The smells are a heady blend of car exhaust, kerosene and burning wood. The sights, a thick river of people and cars all moving in simultaneously different directions, a dizzying squall of activity careening about in front of a back drop of wildly varied architecture and pulsing neon lights offering everything from food to phones. The sounds bum rush your ears with staccato bleating of bus horns and intimate conversations swirling about. The feeling is one like an adrenaline rush, an Alice in Wonderland like fall into a pulsing heart you land in as soon as the terminal doors closed behind you. The last sense is one that will be teased and tested soon enough. It is the reason to come to Peru. It is taste, and it will have ample time to be courted by one of Peru's national dishes, ceviche.

The bus ride to the hotel in Miraflores careens you like a pinball through the city. At traffic lights, you are on display out in front of begging children and mothers breastfeeding their babies, hands held out in hopes of a tossed dollar. Jaunty wooden shacks blur by, nestled between angular modern homes, all blending together in an off beat harmony. The ride eventually draws the curtain on the teeming city and opens again in the more subdued center of Miraflores, a suburb of Lima perched on the chilly waters of the Pacific. And here is where to start the study of the many subtle, and some not so subtle, nuances of Peru's ceviche, a dish that incorporates incredibly fresh fish "cooked" with some form of acid, such as lime or lemon juice, or other ingredients, such as tomato or coconut milk, that act in the same manner. The resultant dishes offer up seafood, underscored with the myriad of flavors the acids, chilies, herbs and vegetables provide, as a well composed concerto of textures and tastes..

The streets around Miraflores offer many edible options dedicated to ceviche. From small, wooden doored restaurants with no signs and only a menu scrawled on a blackboard to a grand 3 story cebicheria, complete with a variety of tasting ceviche menus, they all offer different flavors and interpretations of Peruvian ceviche. The recipes are as varied as the people who make them. Some hot, some chilled, some raw and some smoked. Some have fine slivers of onion, a hint of fresh herbs, potato and lime, others are dotted with fresh tomato, spicy chilies, parsley and lemon. In some, artichoke hearts and corn are tossed in, with others, the fish stands alone in simplicity, an homage to its freshness and flavor. Octopus, shrimp, crab, squid and escolar are but a few examples of fresh seafood making appearances. All take on different flavors and textures with each style and ingredient that are added as undertones. A shrimp ceviche with lime, tomato and onion, will issue forth a zesty flavor reminiscent of fresh salsa. A sea bass, marinated lightly in coconut milk, cilantro, potato and fresh green chile, will hint at warm tropical flavors that gently nudge the bass into prominence on the flavor palette.

To fully appreciate the briny bounty that the Pacific provides, it is best to move from restaurant to restaurant, sampling a small ceviche appetizer or local fish soup at each. Order something that is well out of your comfort zone, perhaps a fish that sports a name you can't even begin to try and pronounce, and weigh the wait staff's recommendations heavily. Order a side, such as a local preparation of potatoes, to accompany your ceviche and add another flavor to the palette on your plate. For a temporary break from seafood, try the gently marinated beef heart skewers, offered at many small grills. The meat is sublimely seasoned and grilled, giving this rich cut of meat a hint of smoke and fire. It may be accompanied with fried yucca, a refreshingly light tuber that only adds to the flavor of the beef. If there is a way to "taste" Peru, it is through it's ceviches, though.

After you have meandered through the streets of Lima and Miraflores, tried some of the infinite varieties of ceviches and accompanied some of them with the local beers like Brahma or Chopp, or a fine Peruvian wine, the final few hours of the trip should be in repose at a small bar, recapping the flavors and fish that have been added to your palette. A Pisco Sour, the local liquor (pisco) mixed with egg white, bitters, lime and sugar water, should be planted firmly in your grip, a small bowl of salty, toasted corn kernels to snack from placed on the bar, and a sated smile should be creeping slowly across your face as you sit back and marvel at the wonderful bounty you have sampled as your "ceviched" your way through Lima, Peru.