IT’S OBVIOUS THAT Peru – which celebrates its National Day today – has a lot going for it. People from all over the world have migrated there over the centuries, lured by the gorgeous Pacific coastline, the magnificent Andes Mountains, the magic of the Amazon rainforest and the lively rhythms of Lima.
And all those immigrants arrived with the foods of their native lands, which over the course of time have melded into a cuisine unlike that of any other country.
You can’t blame Ambassador Felix Denegri for getting a bit boastful, and certainly no one was complaining when he helped to promote a veritable Peruvian feast recently at the posh Oriental Bangkok’s restaurant Lord Jim’s. To say that chef Diego Oka did Peruvian cuisine proud would be an understatement. It was superb.
“Peruvians don’t forget their backgrounds,” Denegri explained. “They’re proud of it, and that makes our food the best combination of traditional gastronomic cultures that come together and influence each other.”
The Chinese food you get in Peru is “very different” from its cousins back home or elsewhere, the ambassador said, “but it’s still very much Chinese at the same time, and it’s the same with Japanese or Italian cuisine – they all have a Peruvian flavour.
“Obviously we have Peruvian food per se, and there are some dishes we don’t know how they came into being. But we definitely have a certain taste.”
Lima and Bangkok are 19,000 kilometres apart – a 23-hour odyssey by air – but they’ve maintained warm diplomatic relations for 50 years. Maybe there’s something to the fact that they’re within one degree of each other in latitude.
Despite the distance, around 3,000 Thais visit Peru every year, mainly to take in the wondrous mountaintop Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, a World Heritage site, or to fly over the vast and similarly ancient Nazca lines in the country’s south.
And then there is the food. Peruvians grow 3,000 different kinds of potatoes – not top of the Thai dining list, but then there are also 300 different varieties of hot chillies cultivated there. The grain quinoa is exported to Thailand, along with “Red Globe” grapes, squid, asparagus and chia seeds.
Like Thais, Peruvians eat rice every day, though they cook it with oil and garlic and prefer it “more al-dente”. Peruvian-Chinese fried rice, known as arroz chaufa, is among the most popular dishes. Fish always has to be eaten with lime.
At the Mandarin, chef Oka, who trained at the award-winning restaurant La Mar in Miami, claims that Peru’s cebiche barrio is his favourite dish. Easy to cook, it tastes similar to Thai spicy salad.
“It’s made with fresh raw fish marinated in citrus juice called tigers’ milk,” Oka said. “You blend lime juice, celery, red onion, chilli pepper and coriander and then strain it and serve it with sweet potato.
“We used to marinate fish in lime juice for many hours, but the Japanese showed us how to treat the fish and cut, eat and serve it raw. Peru has the second-largest number of Japanese immigrants in Latin America, and many of them open Japanese-Peruvian restaurants.”
Another traditional dish is papas a la huancaina, which has a spicy, creamy sauce.
Causa is a dumpling of mashed yellow potato mixed with lime, onion, chilli and oil. “We love yellow potatoes, which are impossible to find here,” the ambassador lamented. “You can get potatoes here, of course, but the texture and flavour just aren’t the same.”
It’s not difficult to cook Peruvian dishes or even open a Peruvian restaurant anywhere in the world because local ingredients can be can adapted, he said, but the taste will always be different. “The best Peruvian food is always in Peru,” Oka agreed.
Denegri noted that Bangkok and Lima differ in the fact that most |foreigners here – apart from the |expatriates – are tourists, whereas the Peruvian capital itself doesn’t draw that many tourists, but people |came from all over the world many decades ago and stayed to become Peruvians.
That is why, “If you go to Peru and can speak Spanish fluently, everybody would think you’re Peruvian,” he laughed.
In a country where indigenous natives comprise the majority of the population, “we’re happy with our skin”, the ambassador said.
“Beautiful skin has no colour. Peruvian culture has very strong, very deep roots. Nobody is a stranger. Our society is much open. People have been keen to explore Peruvian culture over the years, and our cuisine is a way for people to get to know us.”
Peruvian cuisine is on offer at:
? Above 11 on the 33rd floor of the Fraser Suites on Sukhumvit Soi 11. Call (02) 207 9300.
? The Blue 36 Peruvian Bar and Restaurant off Sukhumvit Soi 36 (Napasap Soi 2). |Call (02) 361 5448.
? The Familia Chicken & Grill at 66 Rama IX Road, Soi 41/1 Seri 4 in Suan Luang district. |Call (02) 115 7788.
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.