28-04-2016
Erica, the owner of the best ceviche stand inside the Surquillo market in Lima
Food markets are an excellent starting point when discoverinf a city you don’t know and Lima counts 9.5 million registered inhabitants, plus a couple more that elude controls. You need to start somewhere. One imperative: avoid the polished and almost anaesthetised touristic places. As long as you have a guide who knows his stuff. The Marriott hotel in Miraflores where I’m staying is next to the border between the posh neighbourhood of Miraflores and the less respectable Surquillo, though it’s not as bad as it used to be.
The beauty of popular markets such as this is the countless number of stands, a hive with small, specialised cells. And inside each one, a queen bee that makes sure that every product attracts the buyer. All this incredibly crammed in and with micro tables where two or four people can sit and eat something. Now, while I have nothing against doing all the grocery shopping there, fruits and vegetables, fish and meat, bread and cakes, I would rather eat, and it actually happened, in one of the ceviche places, which are clean and well kept, while I’d have to think about these other rather sloppy places. Yet given my guide aims for something else, I’ll follow.
2. To be continued
Find the first episode here
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born in Milan in March 1955, at Il Giornale for 31 years dividing himself between sports and food, since 2004 he's the creator and curator of Identità Golose. blog www.paolomarchi.it instagram instagram.com/oloapmarchi