Lima Part Dos: Chilling in the Barrio Chino and chowing down Pollo la Brasa

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Bad Spanish and subpar mandarin lead to a hilarious time in Barrio Chino

Mercado Centrale Lima

I was only in Lima for a short time which is a pity because there are so many places…ok not place more like eats that I wanted to visit and eat. I visited the Central Market in Lima which is always a pleasure to see and do. Similar to the Central Market in Cusco, each area was separated from seafood, meats and fruits and so on.


I went there really early so it was a pleasure to see and walk around as fishmongers were cleaning scallops and fishes and butchers breaking down sides of beef and deboning chickens.

The Meat Aisle

Seafood

Butchering with precision

One of the impressive pictures that I got was a poultry guy that was burning the hair off of a skinned turkey using a fire in a wok. It was a spectacular site as well as a clear fire code violation. After awing at all the food, I decided to give my stomach a break from me constantly challenging it with market food and headed to Barrio Chino, the Chinatown in Lima. 

Burning off the hairs of a turkey

Food Porn after Jump!

Hop Sing and Surviving Chinatown Saturday Morning Shopping

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: Chinatown on a Saturday morning is like running a gauntlet, its every man/woman/child for himself.

Like many Chinese families that grew up in New Jersey, my family would have the hankering for that taste of the homeland and make that trek out to Chinatown and stock up on that taste of comfort. I remember waking up early and missing my morning cartoons as my parents would load me and my sister up in the car along with coolers for the bounty and cargo we would be hauling back. Growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, walking down the streets of Mott or Elizabeth was a bit daunting and clueless experience. For one, seeing dried shitakes hanging up in the middle of the street or pots of crab and beds of fish lying out in the middle of the street was a far cry from what my other “white” friends were doing on their Saturday mornings. . I went to an elementary school were there were like, 6 Asian kids and that number included my sister and I. I was transported to another country within the country; it is like Inception without pretentious douches.

We would stop off at the bakeries and our go to spots for congee (rice porridge) and fruit and one of the spots that we went to was Hop Sing on 9 Chatham. It is a dim sum joint and they have a dining room but a bulk of their business is take-out. Hop Sing had a brief health department hiatus and reopened recently with a fresh “A” grade displayed proudly on the door, it was back to the usual for them. I recently came back here with my parents and it is noticeably cleaner (I do not let the health department dictate by the way, I rather judge it by volume of customers) it still had the same charm after all those years.

Running errands and shopping from place to place in Chinatown is not like picking up a gallon of milk and maybe some I don’t know, a bag of pasta from Dean & Deluca, this is a straight up gangster. 

 They want their food now.

You do not lollygag when you step into a place like this; it is like Mao’s Great Leap Forward: focus on what you want and get to it. That is the goal of everyone here, to get the tasty goods that you want before it runs and get out as quick as possible. The goal of a place like this is to get you what you want as quickly as possible, and get to the next person as quick as possible. Here are the quick tips for surviving and getting want you want as quickly as possible so you do not stand with a “duh” look on your face:

Tips and Food Porn after jump!