Ceviche is a passion. It seduces your culinary desires. Its flavor is incredible, exotic and yet a bit spicy. Wow. Those delicate bits of fish, marinated in lime juice take you into a world of fantasy.
Wishing to share a good dish of ceviche transported my friends, Walter, Arnold, and I put us into a situation. We had to choose which cevichería to go to.
This national, iconic dish is found throughout our city, in its markets, avenues, and streets many vendors push carts where they offer this wonderful treat. But there are also well known and well recommended restaurants focusing on ceviche, such as Rio Mar, El Pulpo, El Oasis, and others.
This time, we were attracted to a restaurant emphasizing the food of Peru’s north, El Paisa, Av. Micaela Bastidas 647 in Wanchaq, Cusco. They also serve ceviches and people say they are good.
We arrived and from the door you noticed the scent of ceviche in the air. Tables were scattered in the open air, each under an umbrella. They and the perfume made us feel comfortable.
El Paisa is very comfortable and its service is efficient and good. The servers take charge to make sure all feel comfortable and are lacking nothing.
The restaurant plays the bouncing popular music called cumbia with its words of love won and lost from opening to closing. Not only do people enjoy the variety of songs, they also love the passion of the food.
The chef recommended we try the ceviche especial Paisa. We know we are high in the mountains and far from the coast when it is best to eat ceviche on the edge of the sea. But this is a national dish that is found everywhere in our country. The most important thing is that the fish arrive fresh and then everything else is the magic of the chef.
As son as we placed our order the waiter brought us some crunchy canchitas, toasted corn, which got our appetite going while they prepared the main dishes we ordered: ceviche and jalea.
With a contagious smile our server brought us our ceviche. It looked wonderful at first sight and when we tasted it, we thought it even better. With the first bite it took us to the rolling waves of the ocean, sun, beach, and sand. The dish was well presented and carried the esthetic and taste of the Peruvian north.
Our jalea contained fried plantains, fish chicharron, tomato, onion, fried yucca, boiled kernels of corn, and mayonnaise. People love to order a jalea to eat alongside the ceviche, whether it is made of jurel or corvina, two great varieties of ocean fish.
You can have your fish with chicha morada, limeade, beers, or sodas, whether at room temperature or chilled, in order to slake your thirst.
To the side of the main room in El Paisa there is a spot dedicated to serving up leche de tigre with a few small pieces of fish. It is sold in regular, disposable plastic cups, for only 7 soles.
One of the things that impressed us were the attractive phrases that speak of northern food. The captured the interest of the diners.
Eating at El Paisa is a wonderful experience and transports you to the mythical zone of the north coast of Peru with its superb food. You cannot go wrong.
