This morning Willy and I went on several-times postponed shopping trip to Chinatown. I'm cooking a luncheon for the family on Saturday and I needed some Chinese ingredients that apparently can't be found easily elsewhere - in fact wherever I had asked, people didn't know what I was talking about. Luckily, I found what I was looking for in a couple of shops on Jirón Paruro and Calle Capón.
Before shopping, however, we stopped for some breakfast.
Willy knew of a tea shop on Capón which he had been taken to 35 years ago by a friend of the family, the late Otto Perales, whose wife was Chinese-Peruvian.
Even though the selection was small due to it being yet relatively early and the kitchen having not yet fully gotten into gear, what we had was good and fairly classic -some har gow, pork and shrimp siu mai, chicken baozi, and a bao stuffed with a sweet paste including dried shrimp which was by far the best thing we ordered.
Then, having gotten our breakfast and shopping done, I invited Willy to lunch at Malabar restaurant in San Isidro.
However, we first stopped around the corner from San Francisco Monastery, and kitty-corner from the seat of the Constitutional Court, at a hole-in-the-wall shop that was a favorite of Mama Pali's, for some roasted pork sandwiches. Willy and Toti had told me about them and Willy makes it a point to get one whenever he is downtown.
The shop is literally streetside. We pulled over, idled the car, and order our two sandwiches, urging the shop keepers to hurry up before the cops came over to ticket Willy because the stoplight ahead had changed and it was a no-parking area. They laughed and assured us that the cops were their pals, to which Willy muttered "that's fine, but it's me they'll give the ticket to."
Anyway, the sandwiches were delicious, with bits of crispy skin and moist meat in a crusty roll. Perfect to eat while sitting in stopped traffic, and at just s/.2 each, a bargain.
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