Ceviche

Ceviche at home...

It's funny how sometimes certain words or ideas seem to suddenly pop up everywhere. I remember one of my highschool teachers said that even though it can seems like a series of 'coincidences', it's more likely that you just weren't paying attention before.

I only heard of ceviche for the first time this past December, when I tried it at the Taste of Christmas food fair in London. There were a few pop-up restaurants to choose from, so I chose Lima, a Peruvian restaurant, and this dish: "Sea bass ceviche, white tiger's milk, glazed sweet potato, Inka corn". It was delicious and a very interesting combination of flavours (as well as much much better than the duck burger I had from a French place later on...). Tiger's milk (or Leche de Tigre), as compelling as the name is, is just a marinade of lime juice, chili and red onion that 'cooks' the raw fish.


The next place I came across it was in a book my sister sent me for Christmas, "The World's Best Street Food" by Lonely Planet, which by the way is amazing because not only does it have descriptions and photos of around 80-100 dishes from around the world, it also has recipes. With a recipe for 'Ceviche de Corvina' from Peru, I decided to make it for dinner sometime.

Then this week I came across two articles in the space of 5 minutes also mentioning this dish. Thanks to  "The hipster food glossary: from French dip to burnt ends" in the Guardian, I learned that it isn't a coincidence that I've been seeing this dish everywhere, it's actually just because it's the next big thing :) The London restaurant Lima is actually mentioned in the article, so I guess it's quite well-known.

And after reading this very inspiring article by Guidepal, "Foodie Destinations for 2012", I not only want to visit Peru, I also have even more encouragement to make the dish thanks to the "How to make a perfect ceviche" slideshow attached.

So, the logical finish to this story is that I finally tried making the dish myself. But no, not yet. Instead, I was happily surprised to come home and find that my boyfriend had made it for dinner today after hearing me talking about it (see photo above!). And, once again, it was absolutely delicious. Actually, even more delicious that the restaurant version because our accompaniment was fresh pineapple!

So, if you haven't ever tried it, now's the time :) Here are a few interesting recipes:

• Peruvian Ceviche
• "How to make perfect Ceviche" from the Guardian
• Hawaiian Ceviche with Pineapple Salsa