The Lima Tokyo Connection

The day started as days should, with a trip to the cafe. On this occasion, the previously mentioned Viejo Indecente was the place in question. I had a salad (yes they do haev salad in this country) and the "wok de pollo" and Drumm had a sandwich with lomito (pork loin) eggs, cheese, ham, and I believe tomatoes.

Afterwards we headed over to a spanish school in the neighborhood to inquire about classes, and indeed signed up for two hours a day for at least the rest of the week. The class is just the two of us, so we should be able to accomplish a lot over the span of two hours every day. The school is right around teh corner from Plaza Cotrazar and in the same general neighborhoos as our apartment.

In search of a wireless router for the apartment we headed towards the centre, where after dodging lines of teenage girls and gay men lined up to see Ricky Martin we were able to acquire the mechanism.

Since we were in the hood we headed over towards La Cumana, where we had a solid lunch our first day in BA. This time we got there in between meals when the only things they serve are the ubiquitous drink Mate and empanadas. Empanadas in our stomch we sampled Mate for the first time in Argentina. Mate, for those who don't know, is a tea type drink. You mix the hot water with the ground up plant and then drink it through a metal straw with a screen inside it. For the unitiated it can be a bit shocking at first, but byt the end of your first cup you're ready for the next one.

The idea of steak was a bit frightening, so we headed off to find something that might provide a change of pace. After striking out at a sushi restaurant we headed to Osaka, a popular Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant in Palermo Hollywood that also has branches in Lima and Punta del Este. Living up to the neighborhood's moniker, there were plastic-enhanced blonds at the bar, and people's heads swiveled around to see who else was in the place.

They were out of virtually everything, with only salmon, octopus, and shrimp still available at the sushi bar. We had a small plate of sashimi, but the highlights came in the other dishes. We had two half-portions of their signature dishes, both of course made with salmon. They were a lot like Sushi Samba in New York, raw fish with South American style citrus sauces. Both were tasty, one slightly more than the other. We had two starters, one with fried scallops that was good, but tasted more like fried food than anything else. The second starter was the highlight of the meal; something they called samosas filled with duck confit. In fact they were six small fried pockets made out of spring roll wraps filled with moist shredded duck and scallions, and served with a sweet dipping sauce. We finished the meal off with four small lamb chops ina swet sauce with chimichurri sauce served over mashed potatoes. All in all a very good meal, and we were certainly impressed enough to consider returning when they had more of the menu available.

We stopped for drink on the way home at a bar called Unico, nothing too interesting to report there, the DJ played the U2 song Yellow, I thought that was interesting.