Lima, fine food by the sea and the deadly sins!

So, it turns out Lima, in deepest darkest Peru has a beach! Who knew? Well I guess anyone who has looked at their map, however I hadn't really been paying attention. I think this was mainly because I saw Lima as just a stop on the way to Quito and the Galapagos rather than a destination in its own right.

This was wrong because we found Lima to be a pretty darn good destination city. We were staying in up market miraflores, which is a pretty affluent neighbourhood full of embassy's and sea food restaurants. This was pointed out by the owner of our hostal, Miraflores house, who from his substantial girth clearly loved a good meal. He spent a solid hour marking every type of food and restaurant on a map for us as it quickly became clear we probably hadn't scheduled enough time for Lima if we wanted to eat all of the cuisines that were on offer.

On the first night we decided to go for a Chinese as it was close to the hotel, I was expecting a chifa, which is a budget style of Peruvian Chinese we've eaten a lot, usually costing at most a couple of dollars for a dish which is enough for two. However Wa Lok was a more traditional Chinese (the sort of dishes you would find in London's china town) but the prices were (for Peru at least) sky high (12-15 pounds a main course) and a little disappointing (the salt and pepper squid certainly was) and we promised ourselves we would do better the next day.

It is important to learn from you mistakes so at lunch the following day we went for the very traditional option of Ceviche. This is mainly served at lunch time at restaurants near to the sea. We went for a restaurant called Punta del Sal seafood, which is a three story place on the waterfront overlooking the beach.

The Ceviche for 2 people that we got was around 55 Soles (15 pounds), don't be fooled by the labelling of it as "snacking" in some menus English translation, the actual Spanish is more literally translated as "for sharing" and if you order this a main course is probably not necessary (if you are still hungry order more food after you have finished). The ceviche there had 5 dishes, raw white fish served with the traditional sauce of chilli, lemon, red onion as well as a more unusual thick orange creamy sauce. There was octopus served with avacado and tomato covered in a wonderful olive oil dressing and some boiled vegetables. The final dish and centre piece was a crab, potato and avocado cake topped with a boiled egg.

All of it was amazing, if you like sea food I really can't recommend something like this enough.

Our evening meal was also fish based, with all of the dishes having a theme from the seven deadly sins and various virtues. Pescardo Capitales is also one of the few restaurants to offer ceviche at night, which was why, a few days earlier, we'd booked in online (It was also recommended by the excellent fodors which for us is now very much a badge of honor). One thing to mention is that the restaurant is right on the (slighty dodgy) edge of Miraflores, so rather than walk it may be an idea to get a taxi.

Having had excellent ceviche at lunch we decided to go for something a bit different now we were here. We started with the 'little sins' which were prawn wantons. The batter isn't quite the same as the uk (different flour i think) but it is pretty good none the less.

I followed this up with another sin (a deadly one but not sure which), a really very good swordfish steak while my fiancée enjoyed a virtuous (can't remember which one either) seafood linguine which she described as the best pasta she'd had in South America so far (although this may be considered damning with faint praise).

Price wise this was not exactly within our budget, with the main courses costing between 50 and 70 Soles (12-18 pounds) but as a splurge I would recommend it.

Pictured below are the lunchtime cerviche, the wantons, the pasta and the swordfish.