Central Restaurant

Lima is known to be the food capital of South America, and Central is the best restaurant of Lima, so the 17 course spread needs to have some justice done to it. So here goes:

Rock Molluscs - These are crunchy pappads served with finely chopped mussels. What's most incredible is the presentation, where the spoons to scoop the mushrooms are placed on a bed of barnacles. But things are just getting started on the presentation front.

Desert Plants - Peru is known to have over 3000 varieties of potatoes, and during the courses that followed, we tried many of them. But in this dish, we even are the leaf of the sweet potatoe. Never thought it was edible, let alone crunchy and delicious.

Mil Moray - Potatoes served with a mint that had shavings of the heart of the Alpaca. Sounds extremely exotic, and even presented so, since there is a show piece of the heart placed on the table for decor during this course.

Thick Stems - Chincho, a type of potatoe, served with a paste of Onion and mustard.

Waters of Nanay - Minced piranhas in cocona, something that tastes like besan. The piranha meat by itself was absolutely delicious, but what was most incredible about this course was the plate on which the food was served, which was itself frozen piranha heads, replete with their tiny sharp teeth.

Forest Cotton - Pacae, a type of fish, and shrimps come together in a form of molecular gastronomy to look like Cotton!

High Jungle - The first course to move to carbs. Macambo is a type of bread, served with Cassava, a type of butter, white chocolate paste, and something called air potato, which tastes just like potato, but made of a fruit that grows above the ground. As if 3000 types of potatoes weren't enough, there are forms of fruits that tastes like potatoes now.

Marine Soil - Razor Clam, which tastes more like fish than clam, served with sea urchins and seaweed.

Tree Points - Arracacha, another type of potatoe, served with Kiwicha, a type of quinoa, the other thing as popular as potatoes in this country.

Land of Corn - Turned out to be one of the top dishes of the entire course for most people on the table as there were different forms of food, from things that looked like meatballs, to things that looked like a Pappad, but all made from different types of Corn.

Amazonian Plain - compete molecular gastronomy. The dish is just froth, but tastes like pork.

Coastal Harvest - Scallops served with yellow chili pepper, which tastes like mustard sauce, and passion fruit.

Sea Coral - Fried Octopus in a froth of crab and squid. The octopus was by far the tastiest any of us have had.

High Andes Mountains - Yellow Mashwa is another type of potatoe, mixed with Kaniwa, another type of Quinoa, to form a topping for the juiciest pork belly ever.

Amazonian White - A dish that looked like the appams of Kerala, and made with coconut and lemons.

Lower Andes - Mix of mint, berries and some other ingredients to form a compete dessert.

Medicinals and Plant Dyes - And finally, a minty drink to wash down the long 16 courses that just transpired.

In summary, every dish had a distinct different taste, some that we could connect to flavors we've tasted before, but most were completely new.
And in spite of being the first time tasting them,  felt delicious, and at no point did even a single dish disappoint and got left behind without the plate being completely wiped out.