Peru -- Peruvian

[ludja]

Oh, Lucuma!!

When I was little, every time I visited Peru the first thing I would do was eat lucuma ice cream- it's incredible.

Lucuma fruit is very odd. The outside is a leathery green skin, and the inside is a dense, dry, pasty pulp somewhat similar to that of a (cooked) sweet potato.

The taste is really hard, if not impossible to describe... it's not too sweet, not acidic, but it's very deep and rich and strong flavored (horrible description, ill have to eat some and ponder! my family smuggles the pulp in frozen ziplock bags, mmm). It's rarely eaten "as a fruit" because a lot of people are put off by the starchy texture and the strong flavor, but I love it.

Lucuma is most commonly used in desserts, especially ice cream (it's one of the "main" ice cream flavors, along with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry).

...

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I recently tasted Lacuma ice cream for the first time at a great old ice cream shop in San Francisco:

Mitchell's Ice Cream

(688 San Jose Ave., San Francisco; (415) 648-2300).

To my recollection it had a kind of maple syrup undertone + fruit flavor. Very interesting. (This place has a lot of interesting fruit ice creams made with fruits of the tropics and South America).

I can't find a link to it on their website, but National Public Radiio had an interesting piece a few weeks ago about a renewedflowering of Peruvian restaurants in the US. In particular they mentioned San Francisco, Miami and one other city that I can't recall. They described some of this as following from special programs/financing/schooling/exchanges sponsored by the Peruvian government with the express purpose of aquainting more people with Peruvian food by helping more chefs to be trained and restaurants opened.

[ghostrider]

I can't find a link to it on their website, but National Public Radiio had an interesting piece a few weeks ago about a renewedflowering of Peruvian restaurants in the US.  In particular they mentioned San Francisco, Miami and one other city that I can't recall.  They described some of this as following from special programs/financing/schooling/exchanges sponsored by the Peruvian government with the express purpose of aquainting more people with Peruvian food by helping more chefs to be trained and restaurants opened.

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Last night we dined at a relatively new Peruvian restaurant in NYC, called Taste Of Lima. Ran a search of eG to see if anyone else had mentioned it & turned up this thread.

Great food. We'll be back.

[Sneakeater]

Where is it?

[ghostrider]

Ooops, got name wrong, it's Lima's Taste, corner of Christopher & Bedford.

Their website

Kitchen & service were a bit stressed on a Saturday night, but overall it was pleasant. Food ranged from "interesting" to exceptional, we felt. Our standouts were ceviche mussels, shrimp causa, pollo y ensalada, and particularly the grilled ribs.

Escaveche, which was unfortunately my entree, featured a nice chicken breast in a sweet-vinegary sauce that was just too sweet for me; some may like it. Aji de pollo was tasty and rich. (For my system, alas, rich is a negative quality.)

Be aware that when they say "crispy onions," they mean flash-cooked red onions that are close to raw. I was expecting fried onions for some reason.

We definitely want to go back & I'm ordering the ribs next time - our friend gave us one rib each to taste & I was instantly jealous - nice char, vinegary & spicy marinade, very good.

Place is loud - hard surfaces everywhere, rock music over the stereo system, while Clockwork Orange with no audio played on the flat-screen TV on one wall. That was rather bizarre.

Edited August 27, 2006 by ghostrider (log)

[Sneakeater]

Thanks! (This is funny: I was just by there and didn't notice it.)

[Sneakeater]

(Looking at the menu:)

Oh man, I am THERE.

Definitely the anticuchos.

Thanks again!

[ghostrider]

You're welcome!

I'll leave it to you to start a thread in the NY Forum, assuming that you'll get there before we get back.