Category Archives: Food

Good start into the weekend :)

Food, Perú, Travel

Friday the German majority in our house got a bit stronger. We’re now 4 with gender equality 😀

Our traditional soccer match was scheduled for noon today, so I didn’t have to rush to the Bioféria early in the morning but instead went with a group from the house. We took a nice group picture, because there was plenty of sun after a full week of mist.

Shortly before we were scheduled to go my collegue told me he didn’t feel well so I went with Domingo, who had just arrived in Lima, to IBM by taxi. We had a really nice game and rewarded ourselves with probably the best ceviche I ever had at Punto Azul in La Molina. Before we left I used the opportunity to take some pictures of the IBM premises. It’s only one week till the national holiday of Peru (fiestas patrias) and the government passed a law that every house or office needs to have a Peruvian flag. I think with it the IBM office looks even better 🙂

Anticuchos

Food

I’ll have to introduce you to some more genuinely Peruvian food 😀

Today I was invited for dinner to a wonderful place in Barranco, the cultural district next to Miraflores. We ate anticuchos (beef hearts – very delicious) and picarones (you could say Peruvian doughnuts). Afterwards we enjoyed the view – the gigantic cross was built for a visit of the pope in the 1990s and is still illuminated every night and visible from many parts of the city.

 

Another Ceviche

Food

Today we really wanted to eat Ceviche for lunch with the collegues. We went to a small place next to the office wondering about how the Ceviche might be there, because it was incredibly cheap. When we arrived someone was just putting up a sign saying that this restaurant had failed to declare their taxes properly, but it seemed not to be too much of a problem. They had a menu for 12 soles (about 4€) consisting of a really good fish soup, a classic Ceviche (see picture) which was also very good and a plate of choice. I chose a tortilla which was perfect the others had rice mixed with chicken and fish.

When we left the soccer game Spain against Portugal had just started, so we sneaked into the e-café where they have TVs that are usually tuned to the soccer match if there is one. We ended up seing most of the game and when it was still 0:0 after 90 minutes everybody wanted to see how it ends up so the cafe got *really* crowded and there was a really good atmosphere 🙂

Also I managed to get my train ticket to Huancayo today, so I’ll use the long weekend to experience this awesome train journey and explore Huancayo, supposed to be very authentic as it is off the gringo trail (the route most tourists in Peru take including Cuzco, Arequipa and Puno).

Ceviche!

Food, Perú, Travel, Uncategorized

As always the week passed quickly. I started getting to know my neighbours in the house and we sometimes go somewhere together in the evenings. It was a really got decision to go here I guess and it really is an improvement compared to the hostel, although this was nice for the first days, as I could always ask for help in English.

Today we already started playing soccer at 10 a.m. and it was so much fun we played more than two hours and were really hungry and a bit exhausted afterwards, so our car (4 people) went to Señor Limon, a really good restaurant to have a Peruvian specialty called Ceviche. It is raw fish with a very tasty lemon souce. You can choose which kind of fish you want, I just took a mixed Ceviche with many different kinds. It was extremely delicious and obviously very fresh.

The restaurant had a pretty cool gadget which allows you to quickly call a waiter or order the bill. We made extensive use of it and it worked like a charm. The waiters have a wristband, which shows them immediately which table need their attention.

Already friday?

Food, Perú, Travel, Uncategorized

Suddenly the week is already over. Today we went to Pardo’s Chicken to celebrate farewell of one IBM student. It is three-story restaurant living up to its name. It actually matches my definition of fastfood, but since it has regular service and the food is definitely a lot better than regular fastfood, I’ll call it a restaurant 🙂

They have a coal-powered oven (truly Peruvian technology) roasting about 50 chicken at the same time (my estimate, unfortunately I had no camera) and looks quite fancy. Most of us had a menu (1/4 chicken, salad and fries + chicha morada) and a small pisco sour. My first actually – it was good, but I really have to try one at Huaringas (the Pisco bar in Miraflores I got to know the owner of, I suppose it has one of the best Piscos because it is mainly filled with Peruvians) before sharing how I like it.

Now that I’m already talking about food I can as well tell you some more. I have to admit, that I didn’t yet try Ceviche and some other famous specialties yet, but eating at the office lunchroom every day already is an interesting exerience. Like many regular restaurants the menu is about 3€ and includes everything they have (bread, starter, main dish, dessert, drink). Normally there are two different main dishes, one was always chicken, yesterday we had fish the first time. Rice and potatos (regular or sweet potatoes) are very common and the dessert is very good. I usually take local fruits I didn’t know before or cake 🙂 As you may have realized eating vegetarian is almost impossible here at work – you’d have to bring your own food or just eat rice and potatoes.

Right now I’m still at work waiting for my driver to finish his work and then we’ll hit the rushour traffic. If we don’t come in too late I’ll join the weekly LimaBabel language exchange in a café close to my hostel.

Brownies

Food, Uncategorized

I got a truly wonderful recepe for American Brownies from a collegue. It is quite easy, genuinely American, and really tasty. I tried it twice already, it’s really nice if you get some visitors because a baking tray worth of brownies can sustain 4 people for a whole day 🙂

Here’s the recepe (yes, it’s that simple):

1,5 cups = 180gr cocoa
1,25cups = 150gr wheat
0,5 spoons of salt
3cups = 675gr sugar
6 eggs
2 TL vanilla flavour
12 oz = 335gr melded butter

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly and pour it onto a baking tray. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes. Afterwards it will be very soft, just wait until it’s cold and enjoy perfect brownies!

Sightseeing

Food, Travel, Uncategorized

After another busy but very intersting week in Munich I found some time again to share some experiences. My parents took the long train ride to visit me, so we spent most of the weekend trying to see and discover as much of Munich as possible, but with a focus of indoor activities because of the bitterly cold weather.

A very nice place was the Schloss Nymphenburg which is impressive in winter but must be really awesome in summer – it’s beautiful and just huge. Even the fresh snow didn’t seem to pose any problem to the masses of runners we saw, in warmer times I can only imagine as a paradise to go running. Maybe I’ll get the chance to spend another internship here in summer, I’m sure I would take it. Right next is the Museum of Men and Nature, which was very interesting and features a lot of interactivity, so you don’t get bored.

We also saw the Transportation Exhibiton of the Deutsches Museum where we spent more time than planned on the history of transportation, old S-Bahn trains, cars, bicycles and much more, I would really recommend it for a cold winter day, especially because it has so many old things you can inspect instead of just reading about them.

Naturally we also stopped by the Marienplatz, Karlsplatz, Maxmonument and several other sights, but another highlight of the “tour” was trying quite a good variety of food including the original Hofbräuhaus, Bretzelina (which has the best Bretzen in Munich so far and I tried a lot) and Vapiano. The real highlights to me were Milchhäusl (very small place offering affordable, organic but traditionally bavarian food) right in the English Garten, Basic Buffet and Hänsel und Gretel at the Marienplatz. All those three restaurants have a quite unique philisophy which I always prefer to generic places like Starbucks – which are nice but not really a reason to visit another city for. Sadly 99% of the people don’t seem to care much about those individual places, but I hope they’ll still be able to survive.

That’s it for now, feel free to comment, I’m open for feedback and would like to hear your opinion.