Barranco food festival

After a sleeping in after a boys-only night out with the cousins and uncles at an Argentine-style BBQ restaurant, followed by a late night of conversation and Scotch, Diego and I spent the morning cleaning house, followed by watching the World Cup soccer match and then lazing away the afternoon.

Come evening, however, I was itching to get out and play a bit, so we headed to the seaside bohemian neighborhood of Barranco, which is home to poets, artists, musicians, good restaurants, and fine examples of Republican architecture.

Tonight, however, we found that it was also home to a craft and gastronomic fair.   Diego and I settled ourselves on stools at one of the booths and whiled away the minutes with pisco sours while we waited for cousin Juancho to join us.

We were there so long, and had so many rounds, that the young woman tending the bar got kind of familiar with us and that led to some amusement.  A while later, after she had traded out with another bar tender, she came back to the booth to get something and when she saw us, she chuckled and exclaimed "You guys are still here?!"   Diego responded with some flirty comment and she mentioned that she had actually just switched booths to one around the corner.   As we didn't like the new bar tender's touch, we decided to relocate to her booth for another round as Juancho joined us.   The young woman brightened up when we approached, and Juancho remarqued that she seemed to know us, to which she replied that of course, as we were "loyal customers."   We finished the round, then walked around and found ourselves in need of a bathroom, what with six pisco sours apiece in our systems.  We found a restaurant that let us use theirs, and when the door to the bathroom opened up, who should emerge?   Our bartender, of course!  over which we all got a laugh, with Diego swearing -truthfully- that we had not, in fact, followed her there.

We then walked around  the plaza, checking out the fair, while we again waited , this time for Jose and his girlfriend, Carla, meet us.  

There were booths selling handicrafts from various places around the country, though nothing that one doesn't find nearly anywhere else here.    The regional food booths were more interesting and we sampled some manjar blanco, and Andean cheeses, of which I ended up buying a wheel.

When Jose and Carla arrived, we adjourned to the prepared foods section for a late dinner.

We ended up ordering a bunch of dishes from which we all sampled freely until we'd had  all we wanted -save Carla, who managed dessert- and there was naught left to do but take ourselves home.   Below is some of what we sampled:

Anticuchos, rachi, and choncholines:  grilled beef heart, tripe, and chitlins.

Tacu tacu montado:  Bean and rice patty with steak and egg.
(We got a double-yolked egg!)

Rocoto relleno:  Rocoto hot pepper stuffed with spiced beef and cheese.

Parrillada de cinco sabores:  five-flavored grill, meaning it includes five kinds of meat
- chicken, beef, pork, pork sausage, and cabanossi.

Tallarin verde con milanesa de carne:  Pesto noodles with a breaded beef fillet.

Aji de gallina:  Shredded chicken in a spicy cheese and pepper sauce.
(This is one was a bit too salty.)