In all of greater Lima, perhaps the most romantic spot is the Bajada de Baños, the natural ravine that leads from the main square of the Barranco district down to the Pacific Ocean.
Chala is located in the Bajada, in an historic adobe house with a wide wooden veranda that sits along the cobble-stoned pedestrian walkway which leads from the plaza down to the water. Overhead crosses the most famous bridge in Peru, El Puente de los Suspiros, The Bridge of Sighs.
These photos, courtesy of Peruvian food fan Rich Friedman, are from his visit to this Peruvian coastal fusion cuisine restaurant that blends traditional flavors with a contemporary style.
Rich photographed two dishes at Chala.
The first is of sesame seed-covered ají de gallina croquettes, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and served with an ají panca sauce.
The main dish is an asparagus-stuffed, pepper-seared tuna steak served over a bed of tomato concassé and diced avocado marinated in ají limo, with yuca chips on the side.
Caution: This post not recommended for the squeamish.
Yesterday's post about the Amazonian grub suri, reminded me the Third Annual Cuy Festival had just been held in the town of Huacho, about 150 kilometers north of Lima.
Or, maybe I just have bizarre Peruvian foods on my mind.
We've posted about cuy many times before at Peru Food. Shhh! It's the lowly, yet cuddly, guinea pig.
But this video of the Third Annual Cuy Festival held recently in Huacho takes cuy to a whole other level.
While grubs may not make an appearance at local restaurant near you anytime in the near future, they're certainly available in Peruvian Amazonian cities like Iquitos.
The reason is simple: they're very prevalent because their main food source is prevalent as well, the aguaje palm, Mauritia flexuosa.
In the Amazon, there are countless aguajes. In fact, because of their ubiquitousness on the Amazonian landscape, the aguaje is often considered one of the symbols of the Amazon, which is why there are so many Amazonian restaurants called El Aguaje or El Aguajal.
Aguajes thrive in flooded soils, forming a dense gathering called an aguajal. Of course, they're susceptible to many types of insects, mainly the palm weevil, called a cocotero in Peru.
The cocotero bores deep holes in the trunks of the aguaje, where it lays its eggs. When the egg hatches, the grub, suri, appears and starts eating its way outward through the spongy wood. The more palm bark it eats, the fatter, and oiler, the suri becomes. The suris are then harvested, and cooked, usually roasted.
If the suri is not harvested, it reaches adulthood and becomes a cocotero, starting the whole process over again. However, aguajes are now being grown as a a cash crop since their fruit is highly marketable. So, in a way, eating suri is a way of helping the Amazon and its economy.
In Iquitos, suri can be eaten at the Mercado de Belén, as well as the port of Nanay. Often they are prepared like anticuchos, brochettes on a skewer, and grilled over hot coals. Many tourists who come to the Amazon enjoy sampling suri.
So, what do they taste like? They're very rich-tasting, soft, mushy, and simply delicious.
It doesn't surprise me considering palm oil is also very flavorful as well as being rich in beta carotene. I've been told suri has curative properties, as well.
Usually, suri are served anticucho-style, but in conducting research for this post, I came across another recipe for suri.
If you have any grubs around, this may be a way to wow your guests at your next dinner party with this dish from Recetas Ricas de la Selva Ucayalina:
Chicharrón de Suri
Ingredients (feeds 6)
1 kilo of suri 1 tablespoon of garlic 1 cup vegetable oil 5 green plantains Salt to taste
Preparation: Wash the suri well and season with the crushed garlic and salt. Let rest 20 minutes. Fry in hot oil. Separately, boil 4 green plantains (can also be fried plantains). Serve suri with the plantains and a cocona salad.
Finally, what would this post be without a video showing suri in all its facets, alive, grilled, and ready to eat?
The following is from Enlace Nacional, and lasts just 01:40, but gives you the full effect. My translation of the transcript appears below.
Anchor: In Iquitos, a traditional food with great nutritional value is suri, a larvae found in the aguaje trunk, which due to its overpopulation is being sold by residents in the lower Belen zone. The normal price is 50 cents [of a Peruvian sol] for each one.
Reporter: Are you familiar with suri? Do you know its nutritional value and where it comes from? This morning, our cameras in Loreto [Iquitos] went to the Belen Market in search of this delicious regional food. Suri looks like a worm and is found in the trunk of the aguaje. Suri is one of the tourist attractions of Amazonian cuisine.
As we see here, we have suri prepared an anticucho, here we have fried suri ready for sale; and here,. we can see them live. This is a type of sawdust in which they can stay alive for a number of hours.
Suri is also considered helpful in fighting bronchial infections in children.
Man with child: Yes, after cooking them, you take out its fat and give it just like that, they told me to give it like that.
Reporter: We talked with Cristina, a young suri vendor whose parents have been in the suri business for a number of years.
Cristina: Yeah, there are probably 200, 250 suri here.
Reporter: 200, 250 suri. But, there are a lot of people who eat them live, aren't there?
Cristina: Yes.
Reporter: Have you ever eaten them live?
Cristina: No.
Reporter: Why not?
Cristina: Because I'm afraid to eat them alive.
Reporter: Do they bite?
Cristina:Yes, they bite.
Enjoy suri! And remember, eat suri, save the Amazon.
