Peru is the birthplace of ceviche, a dish that has now conquered the world.
But although it may seem like a modern creation, ceviche can trace its roots to the Incas.
Long before the Spanish introduced limes and other citrus fruits,
the Incas were marinating raw fish with acidic fruits from the Amazon, such as tumbo, a type of passion fruit.
Today’s Peruvian chefs work with seafood beyond compare.
At Lima’s vast fish market, they can choose from a catch that is unsurpassed in variety and freshness:
raw scallops on the half shell, so pristine that they are shipped to France;
giant tunas;
luminescent squid;
flounder and corvina prized for ceviche;
groupers with rosy gills that testify to their freshness;
freshwater prawns and stone crabs to make a shellfish lover swoon.
Over the last 20 years, Peruvians have modified their ceviche technique,
thanks to the influence of Japanese immigrants.
In the past, Peruvian chefs would marinate ceviche for hours.
In today’s kitchens, the freshest possible fish is flash-marinated in lime juice and served within moments.
Marinating fish any longer is considered a crime.
The key ingredient in Peruvian ceviche: fish and shellfish only hours out of the sea.
Other essential ceviche components: hot peppers, such as the aji limo and aji Amarillo:
finely slivered red onion; fragrant limes; and as a garnish: chunks of sweet potato,
plantain chips; a type of popcorn called cancha,
and nuggets of choclo, the giant Peruvian corn on the cob.
Every cebicheria ceviche includes a bonus known as leche de tigre, or “tiger’s milk:”
the spicy juices from the marinade, drawn off and consumed separately.
Hungry for ceviche?
Let’s stop at Chez Wong, Javier Wong’s eight-table establishment in Lima’s industrial La Victoria district.
Chez Wong is a huarique, or closed-door restaurant, where the chef cooks only for friends.
There is no menu.
In Chef Wong’s view, a menu would be too constraining.
But you can always count on finding ceviche here, which the chef makes to order,
masterfully slicing red onion and red aji limo, sea bass and cooked octopus,
seasoning with salt and fresh lime juice, then sending the dish on its way.
Now, that’s fast food.
Chef Wong claims that his ceviche never turns out the same way twice.
Sometimes he cubes the sea bass, brushes it with sesame oil, and tops it with aji limo,
fresh-pressed garlic and lime juice.
For people in the know, this modest cebichería supplies a quintessential Peruvian dining experience.
At Restaurant Cala in Lima, Chef Ivan Kisic prepares elegant ceviches and presents them with contemporary flair.
[Chef Ivan Kisic] This is a classic ceviche. We have just fish, red onion, chili — Peruvian chili — and lemon juice,
coriander and that's it. Salt and pepper. And you serve it very, very fresh.
The next one is mixed ceviche. You have calamari, you have calamari, octopus, fish and the lemon juice.
We mix it with chili paste.
This one it's conchas negras. Black clams. If you wanna call it like that.
This one is a different one. It's a with a coriander sauce.
This coriander paste, and we mix it with the lemon juice,
and we put some octopus and some fish. Very nice.
[Narrator] Japanese immigrants in Peru put yet another stamp on ceviche,
altering the dish with their miraculous knife skills.
The result is tiradito, similar to Japanese sashimi.
For tiradito, the raw fish is sliced thin, then dressed with lime juice and Peruvian peppers.
And unlike ceviche, tiradito does not include onions.
At Acurio’s restaurant, La Mar in Lima, the tiradito has local flavor.
The chef uses a small fish called pejerrey from the area and plentiful herbs, which are popular in that region.
[Gaston Acurio] And what we do here is like lime, chili. Always lime and chilis. It's the tiradito thing. Always, always. Lime and chili.
It depends on the type of lime, it changes or not.
But Peruvian lime — which is different from Mexican lime — a small one which has more flavor,
and chili. After that, you can put whatever you want.
The DNA of Peruvian food is a chili.
The chili is in a hundred percent of the dishes in Peru. Peruvian Chili Aji.
Ají amarillo, ají rocoto, or ají panca, or all of them....
...are what distinguishes Peruvian food from other food.
I mean if you will see a recipe for a some kind of stew....
Eighty percent of the recipe is the same in every in every culture, I mean....
In European food, in Peruvian food, the recipe, the eighty percent is the same....
....You put the onions, blah, blah, blah, and everything....
And so, if you close your eyes and you taste something, you can say for something, "OK, this is Italian. Why?"
Because you have tomato flavor, olive oil flavor, garlic or these Mediterranean flavors.
If you have like French food, you'll taste, you'll know it because you have cream or butter or something like that.
When you have a Japanese food, you taste it, because you have soy sauce and all of that....
So in Peru, this flavor that makes Peruvian.... It's the chili. The ají.