Lima | Central: Digestible or Decoration?
Simply sublime, except that I was never really sure if I was eating food or if it was the table decoration.
Central is the manifestation of Virgilio Martinez's curiosity in combining Andean horticulture and nutrition. Their featured menu consists of 17 "courses" - though bites seem to be more accurate - arranged strategically to display the elevation which the ingredients were procured. The ingredients used are unilaterally unique and the presentation was close to theatrical, where waiters were clearly explaining how exactly each dish was divined from his genius. From edible cotton to river snails and tree skins, there will not ever be a menu so unique as this one.
While I consider my palette to be appreciative of the finer things in life, I remember thinking that I definitely did this wrong when I walked away, $200 lighter, might I add. I had one drink - so I can't blame alcohol for being confused. Take a look at the pictures, and you tell me what you think is edible. For most of the pictures, about 30% of what's on the plate was actually the food. Thus leading to these somewhat unimpressed scrawny descriptions:
First Course: Chinese Styrofoam [My Own Name for the Dish]
Dainty chip like the Chinese rice chips that look like Styrofoam when I was growing up. It's a little bit salty, would go well with guac.
Second Course: Bread, but actually a Rock
The plump little mounds below the actual food looks like bread, but they are rocks. This is not edible. The actual food was a cheesy ice cream and a sweet potato crispy ball. I guess this was good - apparently the taste was something like "desert velvet." [do with this what you wish....]
Third Course: The Creamy Alpaca Thing
The potato thing tasted tangy and kind of like a mix between oranges and dishwasher detergent. It apparently had alpaca in it - but who's to say? I think there's a tomato in here somewhere.
Not Sure Which Course: The Cotton Dish
Yup. I am eating cotton. Feels like a mix between the floss of cotton candy and my favorite tee shirt.
Another Course: The Green Stuff in a Lobster Head
Tastes like a Chinese dish where you suck on a little fish but the broth is the green stuff that you find when you open up a lobster head or chest. My mom calls it tamale but I don't think that's the real name.
The Dish with Tree Skins
Super interesting flavor with salty and fruity elements and a warm avocado like a buttery taste. Something like a soft shell crab.
Colors of Amazonia
Should I have eaten that? I think I just ate the decoration - the pink thing was fish apparently but tasted like fish with sugar.
And... those are all the notes that I have. I appreciated all the Chinese influences, especially considering that a large majority of Peruvian population is Chinese. However, at one point, someone at the table accidentally ate the actual table decoration because it was corn and they put it in front of us. She did do the wine pairing with the meal, but she was still coherent. I'm not sure if that's a good thing that we can't tell the difference between food and table decoration....
I hope this is a forewarning to those with average palettes like mine. It may not actually be worth it unless you're going in to complete some sort of bucket list or you can appreciate the diverse tastes that is being served. This is not "soul food." It will not leave you feeling satisfied in that heartfelt way. If anything, it's like a culinary adventure to eat things that you'll probably never eat again.