Fory Fay, Arequipa, Peru

Ceviche for Peruvians is serious business and ordered only between the hours of 10am and 2pm. Just like most people’s first trip to Italy and the scorn one receives for ordering a cappuccino after 10am, same goes for ceviche in Peru. Luckily, the hotel clued us in on the local custom. When we entered Fory Fay at 11am, we sat down to a bowl of toasted corn kernels and immediately ordered a Cuzquena. I had high hopes for this place. When I suggested it to the hotel, they encouraged we not go to such a “local” place, which meant we had chosen the right place and obviously authentic.

   

Bowl of Ceviche and I do mean a bowl. Chunks of whitefish (perhaps corvina) shrimp, mussels, and one other crustacean. Plenty of thinly sliced red onion, copiousamounts of lime, and some green perhaps seaweed perhaps WaCatay an indigenous herb that’s has the flavor of both basil and mint. What shocked me was the amount of liquid used to submerge our fish. Almost a soup, the residual liquid from the cure was drinkable, of which I indulged. The addition of seaweed and sweet potato can also be seen. The sweet potato over a different texture and a bit of sweetness to contrast all the acid from the curing liquid.

 

Plate of frito misto or fried fish of the day. The same fish that was in the ceviche with the addition of calamari and an equally generous portion size. Good, clean fry job with nothing over or under done. I happended to like the onion salad a lot; it helped cut the deep fry flavor; although the batter was seasoned slightly. My comparison in recent memory was a small Italian restaurant in Noli, near Finale Ligure in Northern Italy. The fish was simply deep-fried. Fresh fish, hot oil, slightly seasoned batter that dresses the fish but doesn’t over-power it. The Peruvian’s in Arequipa are frying their fish properly.

This was our last meal in Arequipa before we board a flight to Cuzco two hours later. The ceviche and frito misto at Fory Fay was one of the best meals of the trip.