Making Peru Ugly

It's that time again! Dave chooses photos from a recent trip and uses various iPad apps to make them "artistic". Other examples are:

British Virgin Islands 2012 (2011 on Tumblr)

Colorado






Apps used:

    Photo frameSnapseedPixlromatic

PhotoWizard

Dave just purchased PhotoWizard and he thinks it's a good all-in-one tool for regular editing and artistic effects. You can mask and overlay images creating some fun results.

Basic

Mostly black & white

Just for fun

Sorry if this page took forever to load........

For more from our Peru trip use this link.

Chain Livin': Boat Picnic

We live in the Northeast corner of Illinois. Milwaukee and Chicago airports are both an hour away from our house. During the winter this can be a very cold and miserable place to live. But in the summer, it's fantastic! Our town, Fox Lake, is known as "The Heart of the Chain o' Lakes".

11 lakes are connected via The Fox River.  It's one of the busiest inland waterways in the U.S..... When we first moved here, and didn't own a boat yet, we'd ask neighbors how to get to a restaurant by car. They had no clue because they only visited some restaurants by boat. 10 years later we've found ourselves in that position once or twice. Just yesterday we were driving with friends to a lunch spot we've been to by boat many times and had to remind the driver to make the turn.

Our typical boat outings on Saturday entail going somewhere for lunch, then head to Blarney Island for the afternoon band. We hardly ever just anchor somewhere and sit for hours. Why do all that work to prep the boat just to sit in the water? We had an experience that has made us change our tune.

Dave had a few days off around July 4th and was able to shop and prep. When Holly finished work for the day we loaded up the boat, moved it about 200 feet, and threw the anchor. We brought the Standup Paddle Board out and played with that for awhile. We also just sat on our noodle chairs for long periods of time in the lake, taking breaks for a few courses of a picnic dinner. The last time we picnicked on the boat was probably seven years ago to watch the July 4th fireworks. Some drunks drifted into us and caught our anchor line on their prop. That was our last fireworks trip.

First course: Shrimp cocktail kept fresh in crushed ice. At this time we were drinking New Glarus Totally Naked. That's the beer's name and not a description of our state of attire.

Time for a little more swimming. While in the water we saw our friend Bill leave his house and jump in the lake. At first we thought he was coming to join us for a drink or two. He was actually swimming out to us with a bottle of wine and a set of glasses on a tray. The wine was even uncorked. He wasn't able to hang out with us since his son, a chef at a high-end Chicago restaurant, was cooking dinner.

Perfect timing since we were having a cheese course next. We used the shredder asiago blend we already had at home to sprinkle over fig spread on a cracker....like a little pizza.

Main course. Chicken with peanut dipping sauce and Thai cucumber salad.

We've always wondered how to make this and it seems the simple recipe is just equal parts sugar and rice vinegar. The recipe Dave found included jalapeños which added heat we don't experience at our Thai restaurants.

Dessert: homemade (can't you tell?) chocolate covered strawberries rolled in Kichiwa Pops. The Pops are cereal we brought back from Peru. These were good, but not pretty.

Now that Holly has the Standup Paddle Board we've been spending some more time after work on the lake.

Short Video from Lima City Tour

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Here's a short video from our city tour of Lima.

 

Peru Part 7: Lima and Malabar

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This was our last full day in Peru. Our only scheduled events were a city tour staring at 2:30 and dinner at Malabar at 7:30. This left our morning pretty free. After a late breakfast at the hotel we walked a few blocks to take in a local site: the supermarket. Not too different from a U.S. market. The produce section was awesome. Lots of variety and seemed cheaper than our produce in Chicagoland. The beef and other meats weren't kept behind glass or wrapped on the styrofoam pallets. They were stacked unwrapped in the doorless refrigerator. That was the only big difference we noticed.  We bought a couple bags of Kichiwa Pops, Inca Kolas, and a few other snacky items.

After the market we dropped our purchases back at the hotel and headed to our lunch destination. We had asked our local travel agent where to go for cerviche (fish cooked in lime juice - Peru's national dish) within the area. We needed to be sure to be back at the hotel before 2:30. She suggeseted Panchita. It was about a 20 minute walk one-way. No biggie. It was also owned by Gaston Acurio, the celebrity chef, so we knew it would be good.

We cut through Central Park and arrived at the location at 11:35. It was closed. We could see commotion inside so figured it would be a noon opening. At 12:00 the doors opened up and we were shown to a table and handed menus. No cerviche. Panic time. We've been told you are supposed to have cerviche in Lima. It's almost a law. We thought maybe it's a special each day depending on the catch. No one came by to give us water or take an order. The restaurant was holding its daily staff meeting until 12:30 - the actual opening time of the restaurant. What to do?

12:30 our waiter comes over. He confirms there's no cerviche. We were over it by then and ordered a corn empanada to share and the aji de gallina to share. Aji de gallina is chicken served with rice, potatoes, onions, eggs in a creamy pecan sauce. The concept at Panchita was family-style and they encouraged one entree for two people.  Good thing - It was huge!

We made it back to our hotel in time for the tour.

Our tour experience wasn't our favorite. As Thumper's father used to say, "If you can't say something nice don't say nothing at all".

We were picked up by a jitney for a ride to our transfer point - into a large tour bus. Our tour started at Huaca Pucllana, a 1,600 year old ruin. After that we started the forty minute drive through Lima's traffic to the city's center. Lima's traffic is horrible and rules-of-the road are non-existent. The guide pointed out sites along the way, but there weren't many.

The first stop was in St. Martin Plaza (360 image). This was a square with buildings around it built over 100 years ago. Had a european feel. The most exciting thing about our stop was watching a car fire. The square is also the start point of a 9 block pedestrian way built in 1535 as a main boulevard of the city.

 Next up was the Plaza Mayor (360 image), the birthplace of Lima. Here you have a cathedral, the Presidential Palace, the Mayor's Mansion, etc. Since it was Saturday the Cathedral was off-limits. They gave us 15 minutes to walk around. We needed 7 minutes at-most.

From here we walked a few blocks to the St. Francis Monastery. This was the coolest part of the tour, but photos were prohibited. The monestary had a lot of murals and intricate wood ceilings that were starting to show their age. It's also home to the catacombs. For over 200 years 25,000 people were buried (or better put, stacked) in the cellars of the church.

At 5:30 the tour ended. We were being picked up for dinner at seven. Panic set in. No way we will get back, shower, and change by seven. Long story short: in the hotel at 6:40. Dave made a bar stop before coming up to the room.

Malabar was about a 15 minute drive away and was located in the San Isidro District.  The area was filled with other nice restaurants and shops.  We didn't know much about Malabar beforehand.  Our travel agent suggested.  We were happy to see it was in this year's Top 100 Restaurants of the World rankings.  We arrived at Malabar a little before 7:30. Like the night before, the door was locked.   This seems to be a tradition here..... Malabar also had a bar area and separate dining room.  Their tasting menu looked a little too adventurous for us with 12 hours left until our flight back to the states so we stuck with the a la carte menu.

Amuse Bouche and Appetizers: On the amuse the details escape us.  One had anchovies the the other might have been pineapple-banana.  Dave ordered the shrimp presented as lettuce wraps with a nice flavorful sauce.   Holly had the Amazonian escargot.  These things were big!  Both were very good.

Entrees:  Dave had the rockfish.  There were lots of different textures in this dish which had a broth sauce with it.  Holly had the filet mignon which was encrusted with micro herbs.   Very flavorful.

 Dessert:  More chocolate balls.   This one had more chocolate on the inside with the ice cream served on the side.  The petit fours were fantastic!  Roasted Marshmallows, chocolate cherries, and those good caramel cookies.

Malabar did not disappoint!    What did disappoint was having to go back home the next day.  We had one last hurrah glass of wine in the hotel bar then went upstairs to sleep and await our 3am wake-up call and 4am departure.   One the way to the airport we saw the streets of Miraflores filled with people.  The bars had just closed.  Our driver was also pulled over for a random police check.  The Lima airport is a decent place to kill time before a flight because most of the businesses are open 24/7.  You could shop, eat, and drink at 4:30 in the morning.  Can't do that at O'Hare.

This concludes our detailed overview of our trip.  A few more related posts may pop up so be sure to check back!  Thanks for following along!

Video - Pisac Market and Cuy

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Here's a quick video from our tour of The Sacred Valley. Includes our guide Rony showing us around the Pisac Market and stopping to see how cuy is traditionally prepared.

Peru Part 6: Lima and Astrid & Gaston

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We were picked up from our hotel to go to the airport around 9:30. We were leaving Cusco to go to Lima.

It looked like the protests were getting larger. We learned that there were riots in an area south of Cusco where the citizens were trying to prevent a large mining installation from coming into their town. With Cusco being the capital of the region the protests carried over to this area.  Lots more police in riot gear vs. the day before. When we got the airport, the gate was closed to all traffic. We walked through a security check with no hassle and had a 2 minute walk to the terminal.  Our flight was delayed 90 minutes (beyond the original delay), but we were lucky to get out. The airport closed later in the day as a state of emergency was declared.

We were picked up by our Peruforless agent and taken to our hotel (Casa Andina Private Collection) in Miraflores, a district of Lima. A good portion of the ride was along the coast. Miraflores is listed as one of the nicest areas of Lima. We couldn't tell that from the area around our hotel because of the massive amount of construction. It looked bombed-out from our hotel window. It was a different story a few blocks away.

We had everything packed and away by 4pm and had dinner reservations two blocks from our hotel at 7pm. Since the area really didn't have any tourist attractions we decided to take the 15 minutes walk to Larcomar, an outdoor shopping mall built into the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We visited only one place in Larcomar - Cafe Cafe, which is a Chili's knock-off. They had a nice deck overlooking the water. Unfortunately, it was winter in Lima so the coast is typically overcast.

We were excited for our dinner tonight at Astrid & Gaston. It's typically listed as Peru's top restaurant and is ranked in the Top 50 Restaurants in the World (#35 this year) by San Pellegrino. Gaston Acurio, the restaurant's owner, is a celebrity chef in Peru with multiple restaurant concepts around the world and tv shows. His focus at Astrid & Gaston is New Andean cuisine. There were several of us at the doors waiting to go in at 7pm. As we entered more of the people went to the bar instead of the dining room. In a lot of the finer U.S. restaurants they don't have dining in the bar (or even have a bar). In Peru it seemed commonplace to have a bar. We learned the appetizers were only a few dollars cheaper than the entrees so you could get something decent to eat at the bar without going for all the courses. Nice idea.

Going from 11,000 feet elevation to sea-level didn't have an immediate impact on bringing back our appetites. We had to forego the tasting menu. The regular menu was large and some of the translations to English kept some ingredients a mystery. Wish we took better notes about our meals because we don't remember what was in a lot of the dishes.

We started with Cholopolitans (which are cosmos made with pisco instead of vodka) and the bread service. The basket included several different types including a purple potato bread.

Amuse bouche: One was a mango tort and the other was some kind of fritter. Details on this one are gone.....They were both good.
















Appetizers: We learned why appetizers we almost the price of an entree. They were HUGE! Holly ordered the Pilgrimage of the Potato that listed having 3 different type potatoes prepared different ways. The listing did not mention two pieces of fish and octopus that comes with it.

Dave had the Tour of Peru 2012. It included four traditional Peruvian foods: stuffed pepper, papas rellena, potato and octopus, and tamale with baby goat. He expected the meat to be chopped up and served over the tamale. Instead the baby goat meat was like a lamb chop for a teddy bear, with little ribs and all. This made us sad.

Entrees: We both ordered fish. We were on the ocean so it seemed logical. Holly ordered the rockfish and Dave ordered the fish of the day - no idea what kind of fish it was. Dave's came topped with mixed seafood like shrimp, squid, and scallops. Both entrees were excellent.

Dessert: we split one. It was called The Sensitive Sphere: Chocolate shell with compote and lucuma ice cream (a local fruit). Chocolate sauce was poured on top to add to the richness. We found a video on YouTube with the presentation:

The petite fours came in a neat little spinning box. Selections included truffles, jelly candy, macaroons, and cookies with caramel.

Now time for the bill. It comes in this nice wooden box that looks like a coffin; possibly to indicate that your total may kill you. Actually, the price was very reasonable. Our check total would have been a lot higher for the same meal in Chicago.

This was truly a great meal and fun experience. After dinner we went back to the hotel and called it a night. The plan for the next day was an afternoon city tour and dinner at another top-rated restaurant.

Google images for Astrid & Gaston