KevinG

Spatchcock Chicken with Celeriac Purée and Sugar Snap Peas for dinner last night.

WOW! Did you make that from scratch, or was part of it from a kit? The only full recipe I ever found takes 8 hours to make, and has some specific ingredients including river snails from Liuzhou. It is also made with pork neck bones and chicken feet. I have only ever had it from this kit -

Thanks Joe! Welcome to you too. Michelin has not been to Peru, so there are no stars there. However, they have the most places on the World's 50 Best than any other country.

Thank you and you're welcome! It's Happy Egg brand - Free Range on 8+ acres. They raise hens with 10x more space to roam than what you'll find on most farms. These are the blue shell eggs. They have brown too. The color of the yolk is determined by the feed. From Google AI - Happy Egg Co. hens are fed a specialized, nutrient-rich diet consisting of grains like wheat and barley, designed to promote hen health and produce high-quality, dark-yolked eggs. The diet is often supplemented with marigold and paprika to enhance the yolk color, along with essential vitamins and minerals for shell strength.

Elk Medallions with mushroom brandy sauce, grits, parmesan, & roasted carrots. Inspired by The Mill in Hershey (PA).

Black Truffle and Mushroom Pizza, and Sausage & Giardiniera Pizza - little 10" pizzas for lunch.

Eggs Royale - English muffin, Scottish smoked salmon, poached eggs, French Hollandaise Sauce, named as such because the butter came from Holland when France couldn't make its own butter during WWI. Like many food origin stories, this one has many unproven rumors that first go back to the original Eggs Benedict, supposedly originally Eggs à la Benedick after Mrs. LeGrand Benedick who wanted something different. Chef Charles Ranhofer of Delmonico's Restaurant in Manhattan created it for her in the 1860s. It is published in his cookbook in 1893. I have the book, and you can see his recipe in the photos. It is also claimed to have been invented at the Waldorf in Manhattan. As for Eggs Royale, I Googled until I reached the end of the internet and have no info on who invented or why it was named as such. My guess was that it was invented for either Scottish, or Norwegian royalty, but I just made that up.

Thank you! We loved Lima, but loved Cusco even more. Funny thing is I had no idea about the olives, but I will look for them. The best olives we ever had were in southern Italy - in Naples and Sorrento. I do not think they export them. I looked everywhere.

Btw, Peru is the global epicenter of potato biodiversity, cultivating over 4,000 native varieties in the Andes, alongside roughly 55 indigenous corn types.

Last year in June for some reason, all things pointed to Peru for our next place to visit. Our friend was traveling there and posting about it. We were scheduled to visit Miami, and another friend that is a restaurant consultant recommended the restaurant Osaka, which is Nikkei and we loved it. I started studying the cuisine and found out that it is quite varied from hearty / homey dishes to Nikkei, which is Japanese influenced from the sushi / sashimi side, and they have their own unique version of ceviche that is different than the Mexican and Spanish versions. There are also three distinct regions - coastal, Andes mountains, and rainforest. I took three courses and made many dishes from June - October 2025, and we made a 16 day visit to Peru in October. Here's my favorite dish from Osaka Miami that I replicated - first photo is from the restaurant, second is my dish. Wasabi Ceviche with Hokkaido Scallops, Red Snapper & Furikake

Yes! I'm glad it's still fun.

Roasted Cauliflower & Fennel Soup with paprika, cumin, miso, spiced chickpeas and more.

Hamachi Tiradito - delicate slices of yellowtail with orange supremes in Ajo Verde sauce with wasabi mayo. Inspired by Japonesa, a Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant in Manila, Philippines. I was quite pleased with how this came out. The orange supremes are hard to see, but they are in between each piece of fish.

Spinach and feta cheese omelette. Simple and delicious.

With refrigerated fermented sauerkraut, as long as it doesn't smell bad, you are ok to eat it. It's healthier if you don't cook it as you will benefit from the good bacteria.