The restaurant can be found on an average looking sidestreet in Barranco, in a space that operated as a puerta cerrada for decades. If you weren’t looking for Amor Amar, you wouldn’t stumble on to it. In typical Lima cevicheria fashion the restaurant features a large courtyard with mostly open-air seating. It’s surrounded by tall walls that give an air of intimacy to the locale. A Republican era mansion occupies about forty percent of the compound; inside it are an art gallery and meeting space. Rustic it is not. What they have done with the space is impressive. Think of Pescados Capitales and update it 20 years into a green future. Contemporary furnishings and a sleek bar are matched by a collection of brightly colored orchids and leafy green trees.

The cocktail menu isn’t as long or exciting as Malabar or Mayta, though they do have a few interesting creations such as an excellent Aji Amarillo Pisco Sour, which is as well executed as they come. The food menu is long and varied, though as you might expect from the name, seafood is the central theme. Inside is a one-page list of classic dishes: saltados, causas, ceviches, tiraditos, and arroces. These are the standard recipes using high quality ingredients and not overpriced. You will get exactly what you pay for and exactly what you should expect. The more interesting part of the menu are the other dishes; the several dozen original plates and appetizers that showcase Sacilotto’s range that dabbles in southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, and Argentinean gauchos. There’s Duck Magret served with an Aji Amarillo risotto. The underutilized and delicious Charela, a seabass from the north of Peru, is found throughout the menu. A wood-burning oven that slow roasts suckling goat and lamb. Desserts are a strong point here. There are house made ice creams and sorbets of mostly native flavors. A Sopa de Frutas and Caldo de Maracuya pairing sounded intriguing, but the waiter encouraged me towards the Milhojas stuffed with lucuma and chocolate mouse and sided with pistachio ice cream that was as rich as it sounds.

One aspect of high end dining in Lima I am not appreciative of is the cubierto, the cover charge. It’s a mandatory 10 soles per head added on to the bill, which should be done away with in every restaurant that ever existed. To be fair, however, Amor Amar adds enough extras beyond bread to make it worthwhile: an amuse bouche before the meal plus a half shot of pisco and small chocolates/alfajores at the end of the meal.

Amor Amar
Jirón García y García 175 (near cuadra 7 of Av. Bolognesi)
Barranco, Lima
Peru
Tel: 651-1111
www.amoramar.com

RESTAURANTS

Vera: Vera’s chef is Daniel Castaño, a Mario Batali protégé who is also the head chef at Bogotá’s popular Emilia Romagna and co-founder of the Brooklyn-based supper club social experiment A Razor, A Shiny Knife. He’s talented. The coastal Italian dishes fit right in with the fashion forward hotel and the beautiful crowd that frequents it. (Inside the Tcherassi Hotel + Spa,
Calle del Sargento Mayor 6-21, Centro Histórico, Tel: 575-664-4445,
www.tcherassihotels.com/dining.html)

La Perla: This is tiny, yet an uber trendy restaurant in the historic center opened in November. Roberto Carrascal who is considered the top mixologist in Colombia for his work at Scirocco Bar in Bogota, turns to Peruvian-Mediterranean fusion. The cocktails are quite adventurous and most involve Pisco (plus there’s homemade Limoncello). Try squid ink risotto, ceviches, tiraditos, causa, and wahetever specials they have lined up. (4 – 42 Calle de Ayos, Centro Histórico, Tel: 575-664-2157).

El Pulpito: Part of Colombia’s rapidly expanding cevicheria scene. This is rather small and informal and the cebiche is served in Styrofoam cup, but you cannot deny the quality of the flavors. It’s quite cheap, there are just small servings prepared with your choice of seafood (octopus, shrimp, scallops, fish, etc) and choice of sauce.

El Santisimo This perennial favorite moved locations in 2009 and has since re-energized itself. The creative Colombian-Mediterranean fusion restaurant is as well executed as they come. Opt for the excellent small plates such as Chango (Red Snapper stewed in coonut milk) or entrees such as Mahi Mahi slathered in octopus curry. (Calle del Torno 39-62, Centro Histórico, Tel: 575-660-1531, www.restauranteelsantisimo.com):

La Vitrola: This was one of Cartagena’s best restaurants well before it had a selection of fine dining places. The food is slanted toward Cuban and Caribbean with stand bys like Ropa Vieja and grouper Carpaccio. Rickety ceiling fams and black and white tile floors keep the feeling of Old Havana alive. (Calle Baloco No. 2-01, Centro Histórico , Tel:575-660-0711).

8-18: This all white trendsetter opened in 2008 and has yet to lose its luster. Seafood, with a Caribbean/Spanish vibe is what’s on the menu. (Calle Gastelbondo No. 8-18; Tel: 575-664-61-22, www.restaurante8-18.com).

Juan del Mar With three namesake restaurants, Juan del Mar is like the Jean Georges of Colombia. The menu is a little bit like Vera – it’s very coastal Italian – but it’s extremely long and they have a ton of pizzas. A good place to come with a group and drink and chat for hours and hours. (Centro Plaza San Diego; Tel: 575-664-5862).

La Cevicheria: This miniscule restaurant near the Hotel Santa Clara is as casual as they come, but where else will you find a ceviche with mozzarella cheese? (Calle Stuart 7, Centro Histórico, Tel: 575-664-2760).

Club de Pesca: Cartagena’s “fish club” was popular with visiting yachties and dignitaries years before a cruise ship ever felt safe enough to enter Colombia (it’s been open since 1956). You’ll find exactly what you would expect: fresh fish and lots of it. The dining area is right beside the old stone city walls and butts up against the water. (Fuerte San Sebastian del Pastelillo, Manga, Tel: 575-660-4594, www.clubdepesca.com).

FOODIE FINDS IN CARTAGENA

Portal de Dulces : This sidewalk portal beside a one time slave trading square is filled with a dozen or so vendors goodies from their jars and piles of Colombian sweets.

Boca Grande Beach: While resort filled Boca Grande is the least authentic part of  Cartagena, if you search the palm trees on the beach you can find groups of Afro-Colombians selling meals. Fish, just pulled from the ocean, is grilled wole and served with a lime, rice, and a cocktail.

Fruit Ladies:  The woman that stroll the old city carrying baskets of fruit on their head have become one of Cartagena’s best photo-ops -  for a price. That fruit they sell in their baskets, you can actually buy (it’s a little overpriced yet convenient). Try lulo or the star apple.

Arepas: These are the quintessential Colombian snack. These corn pancakes are sold form small carts all over the city, sometimes stuffed with ham, cheese, or eggs. Sometimes they are grilled alongside chorizo.

Mango Biche and Watermelon: Carts selling cut up fruit such as watermelon or mango are scattered about everywhere in Cartagena. Try the Mango Biche, a tart green mango served with salt and dried chile powder.

Cheese and Guava: En route to Getsamani form the center you’ll encounter stands selling guava paste and white cheese. Pair them up and it’s an incredible, flavorful snack.

DRINKING IN CARTAGENA

Look out for spiked Limonada de Coco (Coconut Lemonade) or Limonada de hierba Buena (Mint Lemonade), otherwise ron (rum) is the spirit of choice.

Cafe del Mar: Café Del Mar has for the past few years been Cartagena’s favorite watering hole. And it should be. It’s perched up on the old city walls and looks out over the Caribbean. The breeze is good, the drinks are better. (Baluarte de Santo Domingo; Tel: 575-664-6513 www.cafedelmarcolombia.com)

Quiebra-Canto: This true to the word local bar with two levels plays salsa music all night long. It’s simple, but you cannot argue against the authenticity. (Carrera 8B, No. 25-110, Edificio Puerta del Sol; Getsemaní, Tel: 575-664-1372)

Tu Candela: Cartagena’s it spot when everything else is closed. It’s usually packed to the brim and it’s hard to get a drink at the bar, but if you want to dance or get picked up, this is the place. (Portal de los Dulces, Centro Historico, Tel: 575-664-8787)

Café Havana: During the daytime Getsemani’s Café Havana looks like the world’s moist shuttered, decrepit old building. At night he doors swing open and salsa music carries out into the street. One of the most lively bars in town. (Calle Media Luna and Calle del Guerrero, Getsemaní, Tel: 315-690-2566, www.cafehavanacartagena.com)

In 1968 the eventual founders of Patagonia and North Face outfitters, Yvon Chouinard and Douglas Tompkins, and two other friends drive their VW bus on a whim to Patagonia. The follow the then mostly unpaved Pan-American highway from California to Chile on a trip that took 6 months. The journey would change both of their lives and begin their lifelong interest in Patagonia.

The film 180˚ South traces Jeff Johnson, a surfer and climber who finds the old footage and makes the journey on his own, though he goes by boat and stops off at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) where he picks up a friend. He visits with Tompkins and Chouinard in the region and makes an ill-fated attempt to climb the Corcovado. Johnson’s journey intertwines with that of the 1968 trip of Tomkins and Chouinard and the pair’s current conservation efforts in the region.

Today, Tompkins is one of Chile’s largest landowners. His Concervacion Patagonica owns huge tracts of land – more than 2 million acres – in Chile and Argentina that he has designated for use as national parks. The Chilean government and Spanish energy giant Endessa are at odds with Tompkins because they are actively attempting to damn many of Patagonia’s rivers, including the legendary Futaleufu and crème de menthe colored Rio Baker, and expand the Careterra Austral. Currently, Tompkins’ incredibly beautiful Pumalin national park splits Chile in half, as it runs from the sea to the border. The people of Patagonia have mixed reactions. Many, especially the gauchos, admire Tompkins for preserving the land and keeping it wild. Some don’t agree however, as the expansion of highways and power plants means jobs, though most acknowledge that it will come at a cost. Propaganda is heavy from both ends.

At stake is one of the rarest and most beautiful pieces of land on planet earth. Having traveled through Chilean Patagonia several times, I’ve come to see it’s brilliance. I’ve been lucky enough to see the region by helicopter via the boat the MV Atmopshere and by driving the length of the Careterra Austral where you see temperate rainforest, mountains dripping with waterfalls, the most charming town I’ve ever known, and unspoiled wilderness that expands seemingly forever in every direction. It’s a part of the world that should never be developed.

Click here to purchase 180° South: Conquerors of the Useless, from Amazon.com.

Ingredients

• 1 pound very fresh salmon fillets (sushi-grade preferred), thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
• 2 Tbs fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbs minced fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup minced red onion

Directions

In a large glass or plastic bowl, place the onion, ginger, and cilantro and add the lime juice. Gently mix in the salmon, then cover, and refrigerate for about twenty minutes. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve immediately. If desired, add avocado slices.

Villard is not usually mentioned in the same breath as Alex Atala and Claude Troigros outside of Brazil because he is in fact, technically at least, a corporate chef for Sofitel. In Brazil, however, the Guia Quatro Rodas has ranked him an equivalent of three Michelin stars (and even chef of the year) and he is one of the most highly regarded chefs in the country. He is the only chef in the country that belongs to the Academy of French Culinary Arts. Le Pré Catelan is also considered one of the ten best hotel restaurants in the world by Hotel World Magazine.

The restaurant serves a contemporary French-international menu, but it’s their Amazon menu that caught my attention. Three years of research went in to the design of the menu and finding the suppliers of the traditionally hard to source Amazonian ingredients. From the first course I was swept up in the magic of the experience. The Brandade – a Provençal preparation of salted cod – was transformed with tucunaré fish and coconut milk. It was served in a hand carved bowl from the Marajó indigenous group and, instead of a spoon, the scale of a pirarucu fish (paiche in Spanish) was provided. Sharing the same plate were Tapioca biju crêpes filled with flat lobster and fresh hearts of palm. A brilliantly flavored pepper jelly adjoined it. While later courses might challenge, this in my mind is the one Amazonian plate being served anywhere on the continent to beat.

Next came a pastry shell filled with Siri crab meat, tapioca and sagu pearls, and topped with bacuri (a yellowish orang fruit with a slightly sweet, slight acidic flavor) sauce. This was followed by Pirarucu fish in a cashew crust with a tucupi and jambu consommé. Jambu is a curious herb,it looks like watercress, but has mouth numbing effects and is used widely in Belém. The sensation was minimal here, however.

After a Murici sorbet to clean my palate, came the Moqueca style blinis and grilled shrimp with a savory Brazil nut cream. One of my new favorite Amazonian plates is the use of Tambaqui ribs. Tambaqui is a meter long freshwater fish that sort of resembles a giant piranha. It sometimes is called Pacu too. It has huge, meaty ribs that can be grilled and served like a lamb rib. I had it a few days before while lunching at the Fasano hotel’s Al Mare restaurant. Villard served it with smoked baroa potato purée and an herb sauce. A cashew sorbet followed, then came a breaded manioc confit of beef ribs, with the deep cherry like flavored jabuticaba sauce and terra banana marmalade with bacon.

There wasn’t any room for dessert, but I made room. Villard’s pastry chef was equally as impressive. Incorporating molecular gastronomy into the Amazon is seems to make sense. At least it did here. Out came what they called a “chocolate surprise.” It looks exactly like a Hostess Snowball in size and texture, but was filled with a rich coconut cream. Açaí, cupuaçu and taperebá sorbets ended the dinner.

During my meal, the flavor or plating of dish was not affected one bit by working with these ingredients. I would even say they were enhanced. The menu is one of the most impressive feats of a Frenchman in South America since Papillon. This is a meal I would, and probably will, order again and again. Word has it that Villard is working on a tasting menu with every dish using rice and beans. Count me in.

Le Pré Catelan
Av. Atlântica 4240
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
011-55-21-2525-1232
www.leprecatelan.com.br

Olive oil production in Argentina is still in its infancy. This year is expected to be a poor one because of the falling price of the euro and the fact that Argentineans only consume .15 liters of olive oil annually, compared with 25 liters in Greece. Still, as I discovered at Duty Free in Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza airport while loading up on wine, the country is producing some excellent olive oils. Familia Zuccardi vineyards, one of Mendoza’s best known winemakers, have recently entered the olive oil business and produce three varietal olive oils—Frantoio, Manzanillo, and Arauco. The Arauco olive, my favorite by far and what I’ve been suing with everything in the past few weeks, has been planted in Argentina since the 1500’s when Jesuit missionaries introduced Spanish and Portuguese plants. Some even call it a native Argentinean olive or the Malbec of olives. The oil produced from Arauco olives is robust, greenish yellow in color, floral, fruity, and has a nice long peppery finish that comes out of nowhere. In 2008, Familia Zuccardi’s Arauco olive oil received a gold medal in the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil competition.