Peruvian Cuisine & Pisco Mixology in San Francisco
Ceviche Mixto
It happened again, as soon as the weather turns warm and the sun is out, like a Peruvian Pavlovian response, I start craving ceviche. But which one to make? The traditional Ceviche de Pescado or Japanese-Peruvian Ceviche Nikkei made with firm flesh white fish are a great introduction. But did you know ceviche can also be made with shrimp, squid, and scallops? We call this family of ceviches “mixto” or mixed.
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Wings of Cherubs
The Pisco Punch is the most important cocktail in San Francisco’s rich mixology history. I talk about its origins during the Gold Rush Days of The Barbary Coast in the “Born in San Francisco” post, and I have always included the Pisco Punch in my Pisco cocktail classes. But for those wanting the full-story, including how its once secret recipe was rediscovered, a must-read is Toro-Lira’s “Wings of Cherubs.”
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Peruvian Pop-up Dinner at 18 Reasons
Last Tuesday, 18 Reasons hosted Pisco Trail’s first Pop-up Dinner of 2012 and to celebrate Spring I prepared a traditional Peruvian Lamb Stew — Seco de Cordero. Slow cooked with a lot of love in a cilantro sauce and sofrito with aji amarillo, it was savory, warm, hearty, and a little spicy — the perfect meal for a rainy night in SF.
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Cocomo Derby
If you’ve been following Pisco Trail for some time, it should be clear by now that two of my favorites things are drinks and dessert, in that order, and often with a dinner in between. So when Cocktail Lab announced their Elements of Cocktail Class, I jumped at the chance to learn about the art of crafting the perfect cocktail.
The workshop started with a punch to get us warmed up, and then we divided into teams groups to visit different stations throughout the evening. At each station, we learned about the elements that make a cocktail, such as spirits, modifiers, syrups, and bitters. It was fascinating that just a few elements could produce so many diverse, complex, flavorful, and quaffable cocktails.
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