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Gourmet Latin America
Nicholas Gill July 28, 2008
Top foodie cities south of the U.S. border
There were days when tourists would visit Benito Juárez market in Oaxaca only to take snapshots of the buckets of dried grasshoppers being sold. Now they're lingering—searching for specific chiles, scouting out the quesadillas from El Topil, sipping mezcal in the cafes and, yes, even tasting the chupulines, or grasshoppers.
Sorting through the Michelin stars in a place like Lyon, France, or attending a cooking school in Tuscany is what normally conjures an image of a foodie vacation. But the regional gastronomy of countries like Argentina, Peru and Mexico are slowly creeping into the palates of North Americans and Europeans.
See our slideshow of Gourmet Latin America.
“It’s healthy food keeping traditional techniques and local flavors,” says Pilar Cabrera, who runs the Casa de los Sabores Cooking School in Oaxaca. “There is great food, markets, good restaurants, cooking classes and tradition.”
On Calle Mina, barrels of cocoa beans can be seen in every storefront. Chocolate is melted down in milk or water, spiced with chiles and served in a mug for 10 pesos. It is also the main ingredient in Oaxaca’s mole negro, a sauce that combines chocolate with chiles, onions and garlic. In sidewalk cafes a few blocks away others are sipping artisan mezcal, a spirit distilled from the agave cactus with a pronounced smoky flavor. The finest batches are comparable to a single malt Scotch.
“Our food is authentic Mexican food, not Tex-Mex,” says Cabrera. “It’s a combination of pre-Hispanic cuisine and Spanish influence that uses unique ingredients native to this region.”
See our slideshow of Gourmet Latin America.
In 2004, the Economist proclaimed that "Peru can lay claim to one of the world's dozen or so great cuisines." Now visitors are skipping Machu Picchu and heading directly to Lima and Cusco to explore the cevicherias and visit Andean markets. It’s also catching on around the world. Limeño celebrity Chef Gaston Acurio is expanding his contemporary Peruvian and cevicheria empire across Latin America and now into Europe and soon North America. At renowned restaurants like Nobu (Matsuhisa himself grew up in Peru), the ceviche-like tiradito and kebab-ish anticuchos are showing up on the menus.
“Peruvian food is so rich because of its influences,” says Penelope Alzamora, who with her sister Brisa Deneumostier runs A Taste of Peru culinary tours. “It is a fusion which began in the 16th century with Spanish, Moorish, African, Chinese and Japanese, as well as Italian and French. Its history and variety of produce is reflected in our dishes. It is a food which is sensed with great surprise in every bite you taste.”
Adds Deneumostier, “Also we have a broad variety of produce because of our geography… Peru has the Pacific coast, with cold and warm sea currents—the Humboldt and El Niño—giving a great variety of seafood and fish. Then we have the Andes, the Sierra and Amazon rainforest. These three major regions give birth to the most microclimates of the world.”
Buenos Aires, a city often called more European than Europe, has the most vibrant culinary scene in Latin America. The crash of the Argentine peso several years ago led to prices that are still affordable, even to those of us traveling with wan American dollars in our pockets. It's a perfect time for the culinary traveler to dig into the thick slabs of red meat and fine wines that appear on nearly every restaurant menu.
Mendoza is in the heart of Argentina’s wine country, 600 miles from Buenos Aires. Here, as in Buenos Aires (just as in Madrid, for that matter), if you go out at 8 p.m., you may find yourself in the restaurant alone. Only after 10 p.m. will you find crowds of diners waiting on their appetizers, glasses of Malbec in hand. The city is benefiting from the growing sophistication of South America’s wine culture. Take the Cavas Wine Lodge, for example. The $400-per-night boutique hotel on a 35-acre vineyard is more than worth a detour for its underground cellar and spa, where red wine baths and wine therapy treatments are part of the experience.
The cuisine is more exotic in Bahia, where the Portuguese first set foot on Brazilian soil—and then immediately began importing slaves to work on the sugar plantations. While designer eco-lodges have sprung up around along the coast and boutique hotels in the historical centers, the best food is still found in the street. Baianas, the street vendors, dressed in white lace and white headscarves, emphasize African techniques and ingredients in spicy stews like moqueca de camarão, which includes shrimp, lime, cilantro, coconut milk, onion and tomato. Acaraje, deep-fried mashed bean fritters that originated in North Africa, are the eponymous snack food, including during Candomblé rituals.
Such is the gustatory charm of taking a culinary trip through Central and South America. The influences are far more varied than many expect. Not sure where to start? We’ve taken out the guesswork for you.
See our slideshow of Gourmet Latin America.
Cisco
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