Sunday, September 14, 2008

Peruvian Food Video: Street Stall Black Clam Ceviche

Peru is all about the street food.

I admit, I sometimes chicken out, but I promise: if I lived in Peru, I would be less wary (and when I did, I was).

Especially of a Peruvian food stall as tempting as this one.

In this video, elwayqui visits a street stall in the vicinity of the main entry to the Bellavista Market in El Callao (near the corner of Avenida Faucett with Avenida Venezuela),
which he assures us "is very hygenic".

If you go there, elwayqui asks we, "tell the lady you saw her on the Internet."

This street stall specializes in black clam ceviche,
cebiche de conchas negras, a true Peruvian food delicacy.

The ceviche vendor tells us how she prepares it:

First, the clams are cracked open. She then drops the clams into a dish with lemon juice made from the tart
limo limón of northern Peru. She adds salt and ají, after asking: "a lot or a little?"

Next chopped garlic, a spoonful of Ajinomoto, some diced fish, and the calamari-like
pota. Next is a bit of onion and cilantro (culantro in Peruvian).

The dish is enhanced with a
concetrado de pescado, a fish concentrate, added to "give [the ceviche] a good flavor."

Finally, a good mix, a couple of hearty cackles, a bit of the toasted corn
cancha, boiled corn, yuyo or seaweed, and a couple of slices of boiled sweet potato, and the cebiche de conchas negras from the street stall is ready to be devoured.



One in an occasional series of posts with videos of everyday people in Peru filming their Peruvian food.





Click here for the Peru Food main page.

TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía,

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rich here.

OK, NOW I'm hungry. I love ceviche de Conchas Negras. And it's 8 in the morning and I'm in Florida... damnit!

Thanks for finding and posting this.

::Alejandro:: said...

Hey Rich! I'm hungry too, and I ate Peruvian today...but it's not the same...

Anonymous said...

I was in Peru two summers ago and loved the food. I had llama, which was very good. Thanks for the video. I hope I see this lady when I go back to Peru. I ran across a new travel site, baraaza.com/ I think you would like it.

Melissa

::Alejandro:: said...

Melissa: I doubt you had llama, alpaca probably. Even though some places, they do serve llama, it's not as common as alpaca. Good job with product placement.

Melissa said...

Hehehe that is hilarious. I cant believe that I wrote llama. Yeah I had alpaca. Anyways the ALPACA was good.

Melissa

Pico said...

Alejandro,

You are right. There is nothing like carretilla food. We used to have a market across the street from where I lived and I got to have the good and unfortunately see the bad. I was daring but I would get anywhere close to some of those establishments. Some people must have stomachs made of stone!

One of my favorite street foods was the anticuchos y chinchulines were you are served on a corn husk and can't wait for the meats to cool off. Better yet when la tia offers chicha jora to go with it.

Sad part of the video is the use of Ajinomoto. MSG has been almost eradicated from the US kitchens and restaurants because of their terrible effects on high blood pressure. Besides that, I could have ceviche de conchas negras any day, specially in the morning to get me going.

Buen provecho.

::Alejandro:: said...

Pico: I feel you about caretilla food, although I'm somewhat cautious now when I travel to Peru. I admit, I eat anticuchos from the street and sometimes pay the consequences but at the moment, mmmmm...And yes, the use of Ajinomoto (MSG) is something I purposefully glossed over in the text of the post. Hopefully, one day MSG will be eliminated from Peruvian cuisine...Saludos!

Canelita said...

After looking at this video, I think I am ready for my first-ever taste of black clam ceviche! I've also had my share of street-stall anticuchos and such, but have never dared to eat seafood. This place, however, looks very clean.

One interesting thing I noticed was the title of the video: Ceviche de "agachadito". I always wondered, but now I realize that they assign that term to "carretilla" food. Customers quietly eat "agachaditos" (i.e. leaning over their food), because at such places, the food, (and not necessarily your company or a good conversation, is always the starring act.

::Alejandro:: said...

Canelita: Right about 'agachadito' (meaning, bent over or stooped over) because you eat on little stools bent over your food. I guess it's the original Peruvian fast food. And, ceviche de conchas negras is delicious, especially in the north of Peru, in Piura and Tumbes.

TITOS REMODELING said...

Hola Alejandro, felicitaciones por tu blog, es una gran muestra de mostrar y demostrar tus ferreos sentimientos a nuestro pais, tuve la suerte y orgullo de comer en tantos lugares reconditos de mi pais, que me gustaria compartir con el mundo....bueno.
por favor me puedes decir como poner tu link en my blog y en mi web, lo intente y no pude, creo que me falta un buen chilcano de tramboyo, pejesapo y borracho.....gracias por anticipado

Hans said...

buen provecho :P

Scape2peru said...

Peruvian food is the best!
Thank you for make it famous, thank you for make us feel so proud.
Scape2peru