Hi folks! Wow, it’s been a busy year full of food and adventures! I’m just now getting around to blogging photos and stories from my latest (all the way back from April) Foodie Travel to Peru, so thanks for checking in. I had a wonderful time soaking up the scenery (we made it to Machu Picchu) and tasting everything I could find—I have so much to share!

Okay, I have so much to share that I decided I really need to narrow it down to the highlights, or else this post could go on forever :-) So here they are, my Top 3 “foodie moments” from my springtime travels around Peru:

Making Chocolate from Scratch at the Choco Museo

When I think of Peru, I don’t always think of chocolate first, and vice versa. Well, the hands-on chocolate-making workshop I attended in Lima totally changed that! “From Bean to Bar,” hosted by the Choco Museo in Lima covered everything from picking the cacao fruit from the tree and removing the pods, to fermentation and drying—and that’s just to get to the bean, which is far from a chocolate chip at that point!

My fellow students and I roasted some beans and pounded them with a simple mortar and pestle to extract the butterfat. We then placed them in a mechanical processor that separated the butterfat from the cocoa powder. Finally, we got to fill our chocolate molds. I made somewhat of a mess in my haste to get to the final product ;-) It smelled and tasted so good!

Tasting the Rainbow of Classic Peruvian Flavors

Okay, so this is more of a collection of satisfying moments I had with Peru’s most popular local ingredients :-)

First up, Ceviche. Now, I will admit that I am not a big fan of raw fish. (I come from the Philippines, where most food I grew up with was fried, dried, or stewed for hours.) But when in Peru, you gotta have Ceviche. So I did! It’s like our Filipino “kinilaw na isda”!

Next, Pisco Sours. Okay, so one would think, with a name like that, it would be…really sour, right? I imagined it would taste so tangy, like lemonade, or even better, like calamansi (Philippine lime) juice, but no. I decided I would go ahead and try a different Pisco Sour every day we were there anyway, in search of “the sour.” Hmm, no luck. Just saw a lot of stars ;-)

Now here’s something you really could have everyday in Peru if you wanted to: Quinoa! It’s everywhere and in everything.

Corn is also plentiful in Peru and is used so creatively in the cuisine. For example, they make drinks and sweet syrup from black corn. The drink tasted like Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream, and the syrup rivaled the black cherry reduction I usually make for my chocolate budino—so delicious!

This corn was gigantic! A kernel was as big as my thumbnail!

Peruvians also make good use of their hundreds (thousands??) of types of potatoes. These unfortunate-looking tubers (cellulite, anyone?) got turned into something delicious and much prettier…

Meeting Michelin Star Chef Gastón Acurio

As a last-minute foodie surprise, we found one of Chef Gastón’s restaurants in Lima! We first heard of this famous culinary pro when we watched “Finding Gaston,” a documentary we found on Netflix (so many good food documentaries and movies there!).

FINDING GASTON. OFFICIAL TRAILER [SPANISH W/ENGLISH SUBTITLES] from FINDING GASTON . THE MOVIE. on Vimeo.

I was so enamored with his story that I knew I had to track him down, or at least his food, while in Peru. It was not easy! Our tour guide told us that we would likely need to book reservations at least 60 days in advance for Chef Gastón’s Michelin Star-ed restaurant. My heart sank. But not to be defeated, on our very last day, I decided to go for a visit around less-busy lunchtime and just poke around anyway :-)

No one was really stopping us, so we actually made our way into the kitchen and into the basement level of the restaurant, where I overheard Chef Gastón was having a meeting (I’m so curious!). I spotted him briefly and waved at him like we were old friends! Then we decided to at least stay and have some cocktails (more Pisco Sours!) and appetizers, which were excellent. We stretched out our little meal all the way until they opened up for lunch, which they couldn’t refuse us since we had already claimed the table (he he).

Good thing we stuck around, because after lunch I finally got to meet my hero Chef Gastón! He’s a busy man, as you can imagine, so I just asked him one question: Do you grow your ingredients here? He said, Yes, of course! And then I made him take a picture with me for evidence :-)

And that wrapped up our Peru trip with a very satisfying meal and moment! I loved everything about our trip–all the flavors and adventures (and lots of exercise!). Let me know in the Comments if you are thinking of going to Peru and have any questions for me!