Still in Lima and still sweating up a river.

I spent the past two days walking around the Miraflores neighborhood, looking for bike shops and deciding what I should do in terms of biking around. Specialized Bikes has an actual store here.  A couple other shops have Treks and even a couple Kona mountain bikes. I want to get a basic bike, but apparently the cheap bikes have totally turned cheap and look like a step down from my cheap Trek that I bought in Thailand, though priced higher. The components have been downgraded and I have suspicions that this could cause problems for me somewhere down the road (literally). I am also thinking I should go a little higher-end because I will be packing more weight on it and the Peruvian terrain is a bit more challenging than Thailand´s landscape.

Aside from my biking quandry, I have been on the search for great food.  On my first night in Lima, I walked through Kennedy Park and locked onto my first streetcart of food.  A man had piles of roast pork (leche) and was making sandwiches on a hot grill for less than $3. The pork was piled high and topped with mustard, mayo, red sauce (not really spicy) and thinly sliced onions. A great find!  I went back a couple days later and saw that he was also grilling/caramelizing onions, too.  I already had a sandwich, but instead got what I thought was soup.  It was, but not really - it was hot apple soup with some apple chunks.  Not too sweet, though.

What sandwich did I have that didn´t make me want to get the leche again?  A sandwich stand served up chicharonnes for me -  deep fried pork skin with tender slices of fatty pork on a bun with same sauces as the street cart.  Very delicious and double the price, but worth it.

I did go big and went to a restaurant called Rafael (http://www.rafaelosterling.com/intro.html  the website could be better designed).  It is supposedly one of the best places in Lima and just happens to be a few blocks away from my hostel. Great place!  My first course was ´Chicharon de conchillo con crujiente de comote - crispy pork belly squares with cream atop a sweet potato puree and wonton chip.   The main course was milk-fed baby goat braised and topped with a madeira syrup and served with crisp fried rice with mashed butter beans to form a cake and topped with toasted bananas. Each bite was soooooooo tender and sweet. A glass of Malbec to wash everything down for a grand total of $35 after tax and 13% autogratuity. Equivalent price in America- $75 is my opinion.

An interesting thing about fancy restaurants here (that don´t cater tourists) is that they don´t open until 8pm.

At one of the restaurants in an alley was a simple rice and seafood dish with small pieces of shrimp, calamari, one mini-clam and some octopus!

Another dinner was a rice dish that I have made at home-  arroz con carne paruana-  rice simmered with pureed spinach and cilantro with a chicken leg. I looooove dark meat and I didn´t even know it was a Peruvian dish!

Today´s lunch was a delicious fish ceviche and a dish called taku taku - fish simmered in a red stew with beans topped over rice with a chili pepper.  The pepper was not too spicy, though I was warned by the waitress. I would rate it above a jalapeno, but below a serrano. The taku taku was GREAT!  It was like a thick bouillabaisse with beans over rice.

I need to find one more high'end restaurant (maybe tonite...)