1.) Sugarcane, Pineapple and Guava
What a nice little start, eating little sashimi slices of guava with shaved pineapple cream off a sugarcane like a little lollipop, and then being able to suck off guava juice and gel from the sugarcane. Small, but so refreshing, so smart - like a little palate cleanser before the meal itself.
2.) Pumpkin, Shrimp and Radish
Another just little beautiful bite. These little tartlets are all the rage, but having it be pumpkin as the base, and just perfectly sauced shrimp tartare was just a brilliant combination. The radish made it look lovely, but to be honest the dish was great enough that the radish was more just a little cherry on top.
3.) Potato, Tripe and Mushrooms
The potato component was the taco itself at the bottom. The tripe was brilliant, even for someone like me who doesn't normally like tripe, but the star was the mushrooms and the flowers (of which I don't remember what those were), but those were little bits of crunch and flavor as well. This was maybe the best little bite of the meal.
4.) Carrot, Yogurt and Quinoa
Four variations of carrot, from spiced (bottom) to shaved to mixed with the best acidic yogurt, all of the carrot components were excellent. The quinoa I guess added some crunch, but was a bit of a throaway, but when the other elements are so good you don't need it.
5.) Long Beans, Avocado and Sunfo
Not sure what sunfo is, or to be honest the avocado components - the real dish was these fired long beans with an amazing dashi broth. The large leaf was some Asian herb that was starting to be grown in Ecuador. Not the best dish, but I do give them credit for having two vegetarian dishes back to back to showcase the great produce of Ecuador.
6.) Paiche, Trout and Coconut
Doesn't look like much, but this was just incredible. That fat filet mignon shaped piece of Paiche (a large Amazonic river fish, similar to the piranha), and it was cooked jsut brilliantly. If I cook a fish cut of this shape, it would be too cooked, but this was just juicy and brilliant. The broth of coconut and trout dashi was as good as well. Just a special dish.
7.) Sashimi, Mango and Orange
Another awesome one with amberjack sashimi and mango slices. Fairly simple, teh one dish I think I may be able to make a decent attempt at, but then again I don't really have sushi-grade amberjack just laying around. Anyway, really nice dish, but found it a bit odd the two fish dishes were in this order.
8.) Pork, Oca and Beet
The one miss of the meal as I found the pork a bit overcooked. The sauce was excellent, and the few pieces with some fat were nice, but I was expecting better from a place like this. Sadly, this often happens a bit in terms of these meat cuts getting slightly overcooked. The beet components of the dish were excellent. If the pork was cooked better this would have been a 9/10 - alas it was a 6/10.
9.) Strawberry, Cream and Raspberry
Those little balls of cream and bits of raspberry below were a great combination. This was just such a fresh, tasty palate cleanser. Not sure why it is, overtime my appreciation for tasting menu deserts have only increased, and this is a great example/
10.) Morocho, Penco and Mortino
No idea what any of those three terms are three weeks after the fact, sadly. But this was quite an excellent finish - a bit sour, but I like that. I love the not fully sweet desserts that places like this often have. That little bit of funk was excellent, and a memorable way to end the meal.
Merito
1.) Sachatomate
At this point I was a bit worried this would be a tomato heavy dinner, like my last time at Borago (of course, that was some weird Chilean tomato that tasted excellent). Instead, this saltier, tarter tomato frozen adn juiced was just refreshing and brilliant. Loving that both of the meals so far was a little palate cleanser type thing.
2.) Yacon, Fish and Kiwicha
Yeah, this is what I come to Merito for, and where you can see the influence of Central (where head chef Juan Luis Martinez worked). This is just something special, the purple yakon and the fish and kiwicha (little herb / spice thing) mix in teh middle. So soft, chewy and delicious, a masterpiece.
3.) Mamey, Olluco and Macambo
Not to be outdone was this art piece, while maybe slightly less good than the yacon dish, this various preparation of nuts and herbs and stuff was equally brilliant, if maybe a spot too fragile. Still, at this point I was so damn happy I chose to check Merito off my list.
4.) Scallops, Sanky and Jalapeno
Not sure if I've ever had better, fresher scallops, but the star was those thin slices of sanky film, sanky being a tart cactus fruit from Peru. The jalapeno sauce added maybe a further layer of spice that while it worked could be duplicative, but doesn't matter. The scallop and sanky was worth the price of admission for that dish.
5.) Corn Bread
Always of two minds when a place makes bread a course, but in this case the bread was pillowy soft cooked in corn, and the cultured butter was pretty special as well.
6.) Trout and Huacatay
Huacatay is a common herb in the Andes areas - effectively their version of mint, and it works so well - a bit less sharp and more tangy than normal mint. It worked here well as both the sauce and the garnish of just perfectly cooked trout. For the first real cooked protein dish, it worked beautifully.
7.) Paiche, Cacao and Tucupi
We get some yacon again, a think film of it as the taco / lettuce wrap type thing around a fried piece of paiche. What I loved about having paiche in a new way was how different it was from at Urko, if still just as good. The cacao sauce was lovely, even if it didn't have much cacao flavor. That little squishy square of tucupi (fermented tapioca) was just a lovely capper.
8.) Andean Curry
I love that they gave no real esplanation on the menu of what Andean Curry would be, and it turns out it was a river prawn dish featuring river prawns from Arequipa (which we would soon learn is very much a thing). The green curry sauce was lovely, if a bit traditional. The fried dough thing was a graet way to sop it all up. For a dish taht read really heavy, it was delicate and delicious.
9.) Beef, Arracache and Mango
Another masterful dish, my only quibble being I wish the main piece of beef was a bit bigger - but they used the beef in those beautiful little arracache (another type of tuber) ravioli things. The mango was in the sauce. Lovely stuff - and if it seems I'm praising everything from Merito... well... just wait to see where I rank it on my Top Tasting Menu list.
Okay the mashua and lemon verbena parts of the dish were whatever. Let's talk about this insane thing represented as "cocona". At first it looked like a heavy slice of cake, which if that is what it was I'm sure it would've been tasty. Instead, when you take a bite, that thing just collapses like a cloud and vaporizes into this insanely tasty thing. It was a magic trick, it was incredible. I still think of it.
11.) Papa Valadora, Coffee and Lucuma
All tasted well but to be honest, kind of wish the meal ended with the pillow magic trick cake. Anyway, for this dish, the main cracker of stuff was excellent. The two round discs were fine little nibbles. It was their form of petit fours, but again kind of wish we could've just gotten another slice of cocona to finish off an incredible meal.
Maido
1.) Bahuaja Nuts, Regional Chorizo and Yacon
Well, that was about as good a start as you can possibly have, with a tartlette that packed more flavor than anything I've ever had. Yacon and the Chorizo was the star for something that was just so filled with sweetness, umami and a hint of perfect bitter from the nuts. Just special.
2.) Smoked Paiche Ham, Aji Dulce Emulsion, Melipona Honey and Karashi
Another just amazing little bite - it is amazing how the flavor can come from all these things with being such little actual parts of the dish - like it looks like a mini paiche ham burger (which itself is so crazy a thing to type) but all those other elements are still in there.
3.) Scallops, Clams, Sea Collagen and Ponzu Tapioca
Speaking of packing a lot into a small thing, this was like four different lightly cooked seafoods and a bunch of other things in a little clam-shell-shaped cracker. Just divine - so complex, so fresh, so bright. It is little bites like this that make Maido so magical.
4.) Catch of the Day, Squid, Snails, Pistachio Cream and Leche de Tigre
I should've taken a "before" picture of the beautiful cuts of seafood before they poured over the leche de tiger and pistachio cream foam. I mean, it still looks great and those added components tasted amazing, but doesn't photograph as well. I guess who cares though - it still tasted amazing with these little pieces of random seafood limpets, barnacles, squids, etc., that are all so chewy and delicious. The pistachio foam was also so smooth.
5.) River Prawns, Limpets, Coral, Huacatay and Chicha
Yeah, I guess the negative side would be to say that this is the third straight dish featuring a mix of semi-cooked seafood, this time a tartare of river prawns (again from Arequipa) and limpets, but it was once again just lovely. Oddly the best part may have been the salted chicha cracker that made it all the better - easily the best tartare I've ever had.
6.) Suckling Pig, Mashua Paper, Pickled Onions, Asparagus and Rocoto Verde
This was somethign special. Maido is for sure a seafood restaurant first and foremost, but there's always these 2-3 meat dishes and they are generally just amazing. This was one of those - the suckling pig here about as well cooked, with that combination of crispy skin and soft tender middle, as I've ever had. The paper cracker made for a graet little taco. This was just a stupendous dish.
7.) Toro, Uni, Cured Egg and Shari
This is the second time their main sushi dish starts with them live slicing pieces of o-toro of a giant tuna in front of you, which is a lovely way to start. The dish itself was fantastic, but I do think it was better the prior time when it became just two nigiri. Maybe it's that I'm just not that fond of uni.
8.) Chilean Seabass, Nitsuke, Sekihan, Fukujinzuke and Cocona
If there was any less-than dish, it was this one. Much like my main complaint of a dish at Urko where they slightly overcooked the pork, here I would say the same about the seabass, which is just a crazy thing to admit about a dish at Maido. That said, the sauce was incredible, like truly out of this world. It just deserved a better cooked fish.
9.) Veal Cheeks, Macambo and Tucupi
My complaint about not being able to see the dish doesn't work this time because of that art piece of a macambo paper put on top of some audaciously cooked veal cheeks, which I didn't even conceptualize as a thing (my fault completely). I forget at this point what the tucupi element was, I just know breaking taht cracker into the veal cheek curry resulted in something brilliant.
10.) Mangos, Wasabi, Basil and Oxalis
Hard to top this as a palate cleanser, mixing mango and wasabi which somehow worked wonderfully together. I assume Oxalis are those little black things. Whatever it was, it all worked incredibly well.
11.) Plantain Ice Cream, Shoyu, Coconut, Tobiko and Camu Camu
Crazy dish - the plantain ice cream was perfect in the middle, melting into that other liquid. The flavors worked perfectly together. Another cracker on top just as delightful as the other one. These were just some amazing combinations of sweets, tarts, yumminess and ice.
12.) Little Bites
Once again, I kind of wish it didn't end with fairly traditional petit fours. I mean they weren/t traditional in that it included some pretty crazy random Peruvian delights, but just visually a fairly traditional, if still tasty, end to another glorious meal at Maido.
