Tierra Unica

Huracan de Pisco (Postre)!

via www.flickr.com

Marco GP (Busy) wrote ~ "Nuestra bebida de bandera, convertida en un delicioso postre y bajativo, todo en uno."

Restaurant Vivaldino

LarcoMar Complex on a cliff over looking the Pacific Ocean

Miraflores, Peru (South America)

Photos Of Peru's Ollas y Sueños (Cooking Up Dreams)!

A set of pictures and images from the Peruvian documentary "Ollas y Sueños" (Cooking Up Dreams) released in August, 2009 about the 500 years of fusion (mixture) cuisine in Peru. 

Peru is the birthplace of world fusion cuisine and the cultural mixture and miscegenation (marriage) of ancient native cuisines with that of several different types of cuisines of four continents. 

Ask.com wrote - "Thanks to pre-Inca and Inca heritage and to Spanish, Basque, African, Sino-Cantonese, Japanese and finally Italian, French and British immigration (mainly throughout the 19th century), Peruvian Cuisine combines the flavors of four continents.  With the eclectic variety of traditional dishes, the Peruvian culinary arts are in constant evolution, and impossible to list in their entirety.  Suffice it to mention that along the Peruvian coast alone there are more than two thousand different types of soups, and that there are more than 250 traditional desserts.  

The great variety in Peruvian Cuisine stems from three major influences:

• Peru's unique geography, 84 of the 104 possible life zones on Earth according to Holdridge

• Peru's openness and blending of distinct races and cultures

• The incorporation of ancient cuisine into modern Peruvian Cuisine"

Peru - A Food obsess Nation  

Peruvian Cuisine is one of the main driving forces of Peru’s rapid economic development in the last 15 years, and growing national pride.  Similar to France, Spain, Italy, and Japan, cuisine in Peru, and the people that make it, are respected at all levels of society.  It is the most revealing aspect of Peruvian society, more so than music, art, or futbol (soccer).   Guarango's De Ollas y Sueños, (Cooking Up Dreams), is a beautiful filmed released last year which opened to much domestic and international acclaim.  The film follows Peruvian Cuisine around Peru and around the world. 

Peru is considered one of the most important center for the genetic diversity of the world's crops:

• Choclo (corn), 35 varieties
• Tomatoes, 15 species
• Potatoes, Peru is the birthplace of the potato.  The Ancient Peruvians (pre-Inca civilizations) cultivated and domesticated the potato almost 10,000 years ago.  Of the roughly 4,500 varieties of potatoes on Earth, 3,000 are indigenous to Peru.
• Sweet Potatoes, 150 varieties
• Peanuts are native to Peru and were taken by Spanish and Portuguese merchants to Africa.
• Fruit, 650 native species

 

 

Cooking Up Dreams (Trailer) - Ollas y Sueños!

via www.vimeo.com

Cooking Up Dreams (Trailer) - Ollas y Sueños:  This excellent documentary about the Peruvian Cuisine movement and the hottest food trend world-wide over the last few years was released last Fall in Lima, Peru.  It will premiere for the first time in the U.S. this weekend in New York, Chicago, Texas and Toronto.  This movie is about the 500 years of cultural mixture or miscegenation (not fusion) of Peru with respect to it's rich gastronomical history, culture, migration, and it's various foods and cuisines within the country and abroad.     

San Francisco Chronicle's SF Gate quote - "NO CON-FUSION HERE: "The very first place there was fusion cuisine was Peru." -- Chef Patricio Gaston Herrera, relating how New World and Old World cuisines melded nearly 500 years ago with arrival of "invaders" -- the Spanish."

The premiere will take place on Saturday April 17, 2010 at the Havana Film Festival in Manhattan, New York, an important showcase for Latin American cinema.  I've seen this excellent film about Peru & Peruvian Cuisine. It is a must see!!!!

Details of Cooking Up Dreams (Trailer) - Ollas y Sueños:

Feature Documentary: "Cooking Up Dreams" Original title: De Ollas y Sueños

Directed by: Ernesto Cabellos

Produced by: Televisión América Latina (TAL) and Guarango Association

Format: HDV 1080i60 Release date: August 2009 (Lima, Peru)

Images of Peruvian Cuisine and the international & domestic chefs in the documentary:

"Mesa de Chefs" (The Chefs Table)

 

   

 

Picture of Teresa Izquierdo (Afro-Criollo Peruvian Cuisine), Gaston Acurio (Haute-Peruvian Cuisine), and Hector Solis (traditional Criollo Peruvian Cuisine).

Bernardo Roca Rey - restaurateur, local newspaper owner, and one of the founders of the "Novo Andino" (New Andean) cuisine movement in Peru and abroad dating back to the early-1980s.

 

Peru is the birthplace of the potato.  The Ancient Peruvians (pre-Inca civilizations) cultivated and domesticated the potato almost 10,000 years ago.  Of the roughly 4,500 varieties of potatoes on Earth, 3,000 are indigenous to Peru.  

Ernesto Cabello - Peruvian film director of Ollays y Sueños (Cooking Up Dreams)

Johnny Schuler - Pisco (Peruvian Brandy) ambassador, President of the Peruvian Pisco Association, TV personality, Pisco entrepreneur, and big investor of the U.S. Pisco market.  

In Peru, there are hundreds of variety of "Choclo" (Peruvian corn).

 

The world famous "Choclo Blanco Gigante de Cuzco" (giant Peruvian white corn of Cusco).  The delicious  "Choclo Cusco" is the biggest corn in the world, they grow abundantly around the Valley of the Incas.

 
Top celebrity chefs leading the Peruvian Cuisine world conquest movement - Peru's Toshiro Konishi (Peruvian-Japanese Mixed Cuisine called "Nikkei"), Spain's Juan Mari Arzak (haute Spanish-Basque Cuisine), and Peru's Gaston Acurio.

Peru's Gaston Acurio - The #1 celebrity chef in all Latin America, owner of La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, Astrid y Gaston, & Tanta restaurant brand, TV personality, and leader of the Peruvian Cuisine movement world-wide. 

 

Ferran Adria (haute Spanish Molecular Cuisine) - The #1 celebrity chef in the world, owner of Bulli (highest Michelin rated restaurant in the world), and now follower of Peru's Gaston Acurio and Pedro Miguel Schiaffino.  

Pedro Miguel Schiaffino - Leader of Peru's haute Amazonian Cuisine movement, chef professor, and owner of Malabar in San Isidro, Peru (Food & Wine Magazine's 4th best bar in the world).

  

Peru's Pisco Cultural Heritage - El Pisco Patrimonio Cultural Del Peru - Part 2

Here is part 2 in Castelliano (Castillian Spanish) of this impressive video called "El Pisco Patrimonio Cultural Del Peru - Parte 2" (Peru's Pisco Cultural Heritage).

There is a short interview with restaurateur, Peruvian media mogul, publisher, hotelier, and #1 Latin American celebrity chef Gaston Acurio in Lima, Peru.  Gaston is the owner of the five star Astrid y Gaston, La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, Tanta, and other top Peruvian brand restaurants.  He currently owns 40+ upscale Peruvian restaurants around the world.  He also owns the Mistura Peruvian Cuisine Expo, the largest cuisine expo in all Latin America.

Also in the video is Pedro Schiaffino, one of Peru's top young chefs and the owner of Malabar in San Isidro, Peru.  According to this month's Food & Wine Magazine here in the United States, Malabar is the 4th best lounge & bar in the world!

According to Food & Wine Magazine - "the Peruvian Pisco Sour is the most elegant of Latin American drinks.  Far superior and more refined than the Cuban Mojito, the Brazilian Caipirinha, and the Californian Margarita.  Pisco Sour made with Pisco Peruano and the Limon Peruano, the best lime in the world, has no rival."    

 

The one and only "Coca Sour Peruano" -  the mind boggling & sheer ecstasy inducing drink from the ancient Incas the Peruvian Coca Sour made of coca leaves (the raw leaves that is used to make cocaine)!!!  This is pure coca leaves not extract or coca infused Pisco.

Picture of the truly unique "Coca Pisco Peruano" at an upscale restaurant in Miraflores, Peru.  This drink is illegal in the Unites States and in most countries around the world.  But in San Francisco I know a top Peruvian restaurant that serves a Coca infused Pisco Sour!  It is much diluted, so it not the same thing.  But it is the closes thing you can get to being in Peru.          

Peru's Pisco Cultural Heritage - El Pisco Patrimonio Cultural Del Peru - Part 1

Just released yesterday Friday, Feb 5, 2010 in Castellano (Castillian Spanish) by Peru's government cultural and tourism bureau is this magnificent video called "El Pisco Patrimonio Cultural Del Peru - Parte 1"  (Peru's Pisco Cultural Heritage- Part 1).

An impressive display of 30+ different types of Peruvian Piscos at a 5 star lounge in San Isidro (outside of Lima), Peru!

 

Happy Birthday Peru! - ¡Feliz Cumpleaños Perú!

Today is the 188th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Peru from Spain!  But it has over 10,000 years of scientifically verified history.  The domestication of the potato in Peru has been verified by European and American scientists to be 8,000 years before Christ!

From Alaska, USA to Tierra de Fuego, Argentina, Peru is the oldest civilization in all the Americas.  In northern Peru, Caral has been verified by European scientists to be over 2,000 years older than the oldest Mayan civilization in Guatemala and Southern Mexico.

In Latin America, Peru has no rival when it comes its archaeological, biological, historical, religious (Catholicism) and culture influence (especially in South America).  When it comes to its historical alliance to Spain, the Viceroyalty of Peru or Viceroyalty of New Castile (el Virreinato del Peru o el Virreinato de Nuevo Castilla) was the largest, richest, and most powerful viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire from the 15th, 16th, and 17th century.  Lima, Peru was capital of practically all of South America, including Brazil!                   

In world significance, Peru's ancient civilizations are as old as Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), Egypt, China, and India.

On a global scale, Peru is by far the most biologically diverse country in the world with the most animals, fishes, incests, birds, and plant species in the Peruvian Amazon (lowland & highland jungles), tropical Andes, Andean glaciers, and coastal deserts.

Here, in high-definition (HD), is the national anthem of Peru with spectacular scenery of present day Peru.  The anthem is not well known like the U.S., French, or English one; but if you hear it to its entirety you will come to the conclusion that it has to be among the most beautiful anthems.

Listen to the instrumental version in the 1st-half and then listen in the 2nd-half to the vocal version by Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez, argumentatively the best tenor in the world today and heir to Spanish great Placido Domingo.         

Happy Birthday Peru! - ¡Feliz cumpleaños Perú!

Peruvian Anthem in HD cinemascope 2.35:1 ratio - Stereo Sound.  New comprehensive English translation subtitles.   See spectacular scenery of Machu-Picchu, the Peruvian coast, Lima and other inland places.  Peru - a large Latin American republic in the mid-west of South America on the equator and south of the equator.

Map of Peru during most of the colonial era - Virreinato/Virreynato del Perú Viceroyalty of Peru - The "Peruvian Empire" so to speak.  Quote - "If Spain is the motherland of Latin America, Peru is the motherland of South American."  Originally stated by King Juan Carlos of Spain in 2007 and later used by current President of Peru, Dr. Alan Garcia in 2008.   

Present day Peru, Central and South America.
 
Juan Diego Florez and his wife, fashion model Julia Trappe.

2008 Christmas & New Years - Peru's Machu Picchu Created In Chocolate!

Video from the BBC News in London, England on Dec 12, 2008: Machu Picchu Created In Chocolate at the JW Marriott Hotel in the beach city of Miraflores, Peru (outside of the capital Lima).  160 kilograms (352 lbs) of dark, white, and milk chocolate were used to make a scaled down model of Latin America's most famous ancient ruin.     

SF Chronicle Friday Dec 12, 2008: 

Candy Andes: In Miraflores-Lima, Peru JW Marriott Hotel pastry chef Edwin Solis repairs a wall in a replica of the ancient city of Machu Picchu made of chocolate.

Dec 16, 2008 on Yahoo News - Slideshow photo album of Peru's Machu Picchu Replicated In Chocolate!

 

Castellano/Espanol:

Video Desde Miraflores, Peru - Ciudadela de Machu Picchu de 160 kilos de chocolate endulza la navidad limeña

My Gastronomical Nirvana At Gaston's La Mar In Miraflores, Peru 2007!

With the much anticipated grand public opening of La Mar in San Francisco next week, here are a few pictures and images of the gastronomical nirvana I experienced at Gaston's La Mar Cebicheria and other places in Miraflores, Chorrillos, Lima, and Iquitos-Peru on Oct 8-22, 2007. 

The pictures will give you a little glimpse of the rapidly emerging country of Peru and their delicious cuisine.  According to the Economist of England, Peru is currently the fastest growing economy in all of Latin America and third fastest in the world after China and India.  In Latin America, Peru is currently all the rage - cuisine, tourism, economy, gold & silver, nightlife, history, etc.       

Looking at my 750 Kilogram (roughly 28 Oz.) Asado Argentino at El Hornero in Chorrillos, Peru. 

 

Dining at the JW Marriotts in Miraflores, Peru.

 

"Chyna", Iris, and JohnCarlos (me) at the JW Marriotts in Miraflores, Peru.   

At a super restaurant in Iquitos, Peru overlooking the Amazon River!!! 

At the main bar at the JW Marriotts in Miraflores.    

Another view of the Amazon River in low-tied from that restaurant in Iquitos.  I would like to go back to this restaurant during high-tied season. 

 

With Stephanie at a high energy club in the "El Calle Ocho" district in Miraflores. 

Enjoying a delicious "Tiradito" in a restaurant at the LarcoMar Center in Miraflores.  

At the very posh Brazilian jeweler H. Stern in the JW Marriotts in Miraflores.  That is where I got that "Phat" gold ring made of the Inca God! 

 

 

Enjoying the first night in Miraflores, Peru with Stephanie and her girlfriends at that "Calle Oche" nightclub in Miraflores.

 

Poster of the super hot 2007 Peruvian Brahma beer girl - Jessika Grau!  The Brazilian beer brand is "Gorilla Marketing" hard to penetrate the very lucrative Peruvian beer market.  They are hiring all the hot Peruvian models to help them sell Brazilian beer in Peru.  

 

Dining at a excellent local restaurant in Chorrillos, Peru.  

Looking at my "Cebiche Tumbes - Cebiche de Conchas Negras" at Gaston's La Mar in Miraflores. 

 

My drink in La Mar - Pisco Sour Classic!

 

Diving into my SUPER DELICIOUS "SUDADO"!!!  I wish La Mar in San Francisco had this super dish on the menu....:-( 

 

One of many different kinds of Cebiches we ate at La Mar in Miraflores. 

With "Chyna" at Lar Mar, Miraflores.

 

Me, Chyna, Ronald, & Iris - Having a great time at La Mar in Miraflores, Peru. 

 

A view of "La Costa Verde" (Miraflores Pacific coastline) from the LarcoMar Center, Miraflores, Peru. 

 

LarcoMar Center 

2007 - Nobu & Robert de Niro Opened NOBU In Melbourne | 2008 - Gaston Opens La Mar In San Francisco Next Week!

This past weekend I was fortunate to be invited to a couple of Gaston's San Francisco La Mar "Soft Openings".  I sampled the cuisine (more liked gorged) and I can tell you this - Gaston's San Francisco Peruvian Cebicheria La Mar is the best seafood restaurant in all of North America!!!  I can only imagine what it will be like when they open officially to the general public next week (more details later).

If the opening of the much publicized Nobu in Melbourne last year is any indication, La Mar will be just as impressive because Gaston himself will fly up from his world headquarters in Lima, Peru to officially open his flagship cebicheria Peruana LA MAR next week.  They have been fine tuning the menu, drinks, service, Cebiche & Pisco bar, wine cellar, staff, and boat taxi services on their own pier with these invite only Soft Openings.  Yeah, La Mar will have boat taxi service to its pier from Marin County shortly! 

Now look at the media press conference reaction when Japan's Nobu Matsuhisa, #1 celebrity Sushi chef in the world; and Hollywood legend Robert De Niro opened NOBU in Melbourne, Australia in 2007. 

Here is what the reporter said - "De Niro has supported Nobu's style of food for over 20-years, and he believes eating at Nobu is a healthier option then the Italian style of dining."

Listen to what Robert de Niro said about Nobu's cuisine - "Nobu's great food is.....a no brainer".

Now what has this world famous and accomplished actor been eating over the last 20-years?  Well, it is not Italian food.  And what is Nobu's cuisine anyway?  Well, it is Peruvian-Japanese, Japanese-Peruvian!    

Nobu was born in Japan, but he lived in Lima, Peru for 4-years in the early 1970s.  He opened and operated a successful restaurant specializing in Peruvian-Japanese Cuisine (mixture & influence, not fusion).  In the United States, Asia, and Europe, Nobu is the father of modern day "Fusion Cuisine".  But this type of cooking has been practiced in Peru for almost 500-years (Spanish conquest of Peru).  He repackaged, marketed, fused, and added some Nobu magic to the fine Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei Cuisine. 

If you ever dine at one of Nobu's very upscale restaurants, restaurant to the A-List stars, in Beverly Hills, New York, or London; you are eating Peruvian influenced Japanese Cuisine! 

Picture of Nobu in Lima, Peru.  Quote from Nobu - "El Peru es mi segundo pais!"  Translation: Peru is my second country! 

If Nobu didn't traveled, lived, and opened a restaurant in Peru, he would not be as famous and rich as he is today.  He took the 500-year old Peruvian mixed influenced cuisine outside of Peru mixed it with Japanese style cooking and gave it an international and A-List celebrity following.

Now Gaston is taking Peruvian Cuisine to the next level with his army of young Peruvian Le Cordon Bleu graduate chef followers with an ultimate goal - Gaston Wants To Conquer The World With Peruvian Cuisine!  

Gaston at La Mar in Miraflores, Peru.

Bourdain Dined With Gaston At Toshiro's In Lima And Gets Blown Away - Peruvian Nikkei Cuisine!

Last year the Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain returned back to Peru and dined with Gaston at Toshiro's Sushi in Lima.  Bourdain gets blown away by Peruvian Nikkei Cuisine!  As you can see, Gaston speaks a little English and explains the influence that Peruvian Cuisine has on Japanese Cuisine, and visa versa.  Especially the culture and cuisine of Peruvian Cebiche.  In Peru Cebiche is not just food, they take it very serious - it is culture! 

Pictures of Peruvian Nikkei Cuisine in Lima, Peru:

Picture of Diego Oka, La Mar's Master Peruvian Cebiche Chef, in Lima, Peru.  I met Diego last week at Gaston's San Francisco La Mar "Soft Opening".  He will be the head Cebiche chef at La Mar here in San Francisco.  He is young, but looks a lot younger than he really is.

In Peru, there is an enormous population of Peruvians with Japanese heritage.  Former Peruvian President Fujimori comes to mind.  In addition, there is a bigger population of Peruvians with Chinese heritage.    

Both cultures and culinary styles have influenced modern day Peruvian Cuisine for centuries!  In the early 1970s, both Toshiro and the legendary Nobu, #1 celebrity Sushi chef in th world, came from Japan and lived in Peru for several years.  They both had success restaurants specializing in "Peruvian Nikkei Cuisine".    As you can see, Toshiro stayed in Peru while Nobu exported Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei Cuisine to A-List Hollywood celebrities in Beverly Hills, New York, London, etc.

If you ever dine at one of Nobu's very upscale restaurants, you are eating Peruvian influenced Japanese Cuisine.  With a touch of Nobu's genius...