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Traditional fish and seafood restaurants
Secrets of the Sea
Six small restaurants that represent the best seafood cuisine in Lima.
Text: Martín Vargas
Photos: Walter Hupiú
Isabel Parihuela (chowder)
 It is said in Lima that this restaurant has the best "parihuela" in the country. But that rumour has not gone to Ysabel Quispe Aquino's head. Ysabel is the owner and cook of this Chorrillos-based establishment and she remains as uncomplicated and unpretentious as ever, just as she was before the municipality named her the "champion of parihuelas", and long before she opened two new outlets for her remarkable fare.
Amadeo Aguilar, her disciple and the only person permitted to work alongside her in her kitchen, says that the special flavour of the "parihuela" is due to the substance that comes out of the rice, which they boil together with rock sea bass bones. "It is a base broth which we prepare separately. Then we sieve it and add it to the main sauce and once it is in the parihuela we add the crab and the shellfish", recounts Amadeo before inviting us to eat at the end of the first ever tour of Lima's small street restaurants - known locally as "huariques" - where haute cuisine is served with attention to good service without being servile.
(Address: Alejandro Iglesias 649, Chorrillos, in Market Number 1).
Sankuay Sole Cebiche
The facade with no sign states clearly that inside sole is king. This bastion of good eating is owned by Javier Wong, the Lima sensei who is the city's most skilled exponent in the art of creating marvels from local fish.
Although the "Sankuay" menu is eclectic, the house speciality is, without a doubt, the sole cebiche, as all those who have eaten in this balcony restaurant since it opened in 1994 will no doubt gladly attest.
"Sole is a philosophical fish, generous, the right fish for making a cebiche as God intended", says Javier. It is nine in the morning, but business will be brisk within the next two hours, when friends begin to arrive as they always do.
Don't be thrown off by the Spartan furniture, for the real luxury is displayed on the plates. Small wooden tables and an old counter are this bunker's only furnishings, but according to the experts this is "the place" to eat sole.
"They say it to be nice. I prepare the cebiche as if it were for my own family, because that is how I see those who come here", says Javier, with a false modesty that belies the fact that he has served presidents, poets and honoured writers, entrepreneurs and bankers, as well as students and madmen. Under Javier's roof we are all equal.
(Address: Enrique León García 114, Santa Catalina. Between blocks 3 and 4 of Avenida Canadá)
 La Paisana Entomatado de Mero
(Grouper in a tomato sauce)
It used to be "Kilo", just another chicken restaurant around the corner from Magdalena market. Today it is "La Paisana", a sanctuary of Piura cuisine, a lunchtime bastion for entire families of diners. But that does not tell of the years of sacrifice. From the beginning, success winked its eye at Sebastiana Córdova, the plump and cheeky lady who cooks, reigns and makes out the bill in this little corner of Catacaos flavour in the heart of Lima.
With more than 23 years of service and three branches to satisfy her customers' hunger, La Paisana's fine flavours and the miracles it produces from grouper have meant that news of the restaurant has spread throughout Lima, making it the host for banquets organised by the likes of Dionisio Romero.
And although one can find on the menu dishes as diverse as the tasty "seco de chabelo", a hearty stew or Piura tamales, it would be heresy to leave without trying the restaurant's star dish: grouper in a tomato sauce.
"First we fry the grouper and then we add the onion, tomato and a good dose of chicha. After just a few minutes the fish absorbs the liquid and all the flavours become one. What more can I say?", Sebastiana told me.
But what she hid from us was revealed by her son Germaín. One of the secrets is that they only cook fish from Máncora and Cabo Blanco. White fish with a particular flavour which, seasoned by Sebastiana's warm touch, becomes an unforgettable affair.
(Address: José Gálvez 641, Magdalena, one block from the market)
El Huachano Fried fish roe
What remains of Carlos Cóndor ("El Huachano") is barely a caricature of the prosperous businessman he once was. He had three branches filled with customers and his wallet had begun to grow fat when booze and bad company combined to leave him out on the street. He was cheated out of everything he had. And so the "King of Fish Roe" became a nobody and, as happens to all nobodies, his friends disappeared.
 But now - with his vices left in the past - Carlos Cóndor is attempting to take off once more and rebuild his fame as a great cook. And so it is that in the mornings he offers cebiche and at night he serves the huge fried fish roe dishes that made him famous.
"That is all behind me now. Now I am just finishing paying for a plot of land in Surco, where I plan to build my house and my new restaurant, but for now I will have to stay on the street. Thank God my customers are loyal", says "El Huachano".
His secret? He confesses that part of the trick is not to bread the roe like the competition does. "Also, you have to choose just the big ones and from fish like charela and lengüeta. The roe from those fish is the tastiest", he tells us, before saying that enough is enough, for he doesn't like to talk much and anyway he has to get back to work. Be advised that he only sells roe from Tuesday to Friday, from six in the evening.
(Address: On Calle Palermo, half a block from the intersection with Avenida Canadá)
 Mi Perú Concentrado de cangrejo (crab)
"Kilo" tells the story of how the legend of their "concentrado de cangrejo" began by chance one afternoon when his mother, Aída, decided to vary the family menu. "We were having lunch at a table in the restaurant, when one of my father's friends (Raúl Taype) approached and asked us about the dish. And so my father decided to offer a little to all those present. And, well, the rest is history. People began to come and ask for the house speciality and that was how we became well-known outside Barranco", he remembers.
Founded on April 25 1972, "Mi Perú" has become one of the most frequented seafood restaurants in the city without investing a dollar in publicity. Fine fish, fresh ingredients and that special touch of Aída's are all part of the secret of a flavour that has captivated Julio Ramón Ribeyro and "Toto" Terry.
They are just two of the restaurants most memorable customers, but without a doubt it was the writer who was one of the most loved. Other customers include entrepreneurs, judges, journalists, sports stars, ministers and the military, all of whom have left their mark by sticking their business cards on the walls of the restaurant.
"We treat our customers like friends, and one should always give the best to a friend. Perhaps that is why in spite of the growth in the number of cebiche restaurants, we have been able to keep going for more than three decades", said "Kilo" proudly.
(Address: Avenida Lima 861, Barranco, Plaza Butters)
La Fragata Black clam cebiche
In the heart of Salamanca market, amid fierce competition from second-rate cebiche establishments, we discovered a small stall which for years now has been a favourite not only among the locals of Salamanca, but also customers from as far away as San Borja or San Luis, who come to enjoy the black clam cebiche of "La Fragata".
 The cook's name is Ciro: a small man who with his wife buys, cuts, seasons and serves his speciality to all comers. Every day one can delight in this invigorating dish served by this couple in their modest but impeccable market stall set among other stalls selling groceries and beef.
"Fresh clams well-served, so that I want to eat them myself. That is the secret", says his wife, while Ciro collects the six soles that the dish costs. If you do decide to try Ciro's fare, we recommend that you go as early as possible, for although he is big-hearted, his establishment is small. Fresh molluscs, garlic, pepper, onion, homemade chilli and Ciro's secret touch combine to offer the customer an authentic black clam cebiche. But be careful not to confuse this modest establishment with the other "Fragata", the pompous restaurant owned by his brother and located on Avenida Los Quechuas. No sir, the real flavour is to be found in the market, at a modest stall with nobody to crew it but this husband and wife team.
(Address: Salamanca market, block one of Avenida Paracas) |
