Ceviche Fan? Enjoy Freshly Caught Fish in Cusco

Freshly caught fish is plentiful in the Andes, if you know what to look for. Silverside, carp, and trout from the rivers of Cusco’s Sacred Valley of the Incas are great options that lend themselves to Peruvian specialties like ceviche.

You might think that fresh seafood can’t be found in the Andes, but truthfully, it’s plentiful if you know what fish to look for. Although seafood arrives daily from the Pacific Ocean and the Amazon, you should choose locally-caught fish from the rivers of Cusco’s Sacred Valley of the Incas if you want the freshest catch. The options include silverside (pejerrey), carp (carpa), and trout (trucha).

Trout is an excellent choice for one of Peru’s most iconic dishes, ceviche. (In Peru, it’s often written cebiche.) Cubes of fresh fish are briefly marinated in lime juice alongside red onion and diced hot pepper. Acidity denatures protein in much the same way as heat, although by preference the fish is removed before it can ‘cook’ completely. As the lime softens the fish, you can see the color change from light pink to a milky white. The ceviche is traditionally served with sweet potato and toasted Andean corn, as well as a shot glass full of the leftover fish juice and lime marinade. It’s a spritey accompaniment known as tiger’s milk, leche de tigre.

A lesser known variant is the elegant trout tiradito, which shows the imprint of the country’s sizeable Japanese-Peruvian population in the sashimi-like trout slices. These are marinated in lime and the blanketed with a creole yellow hot pepper sauce. Peruvian food has heavy Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and African influence, and this dish epitomized the mix of cultures in the country’s cuisine long before the Andean Fusion trend took off!

At Pirwa Restaurant in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco, you can sample both trout ceviche and trout tiradito as appetizers, which we highly recommend! If you prefer your trout solidly cooked throughout, however, opt for the trout chowder.

Fecha de Publicación: 16/03/2015