At the start of every year, and indeed at most other times of the year, there is someone who wants to eat salad. I was asked to do a posting about salad which I took to be about salad with lettuce. So, let us eat lettuce!
Cosme: “Col” salad at Cosme. This large (larger than most main courses) salad is served on a ten inch wide plate and is large enough for a main dish or to be shared as an appetizer. It is listed as an appetizer on the menu at Cosme. The salad has raw shredded red cabbage, alfalfa, cashews, hearts of palm, artichoke, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, avocado, and the dressing is a yogurt based dressing so you feel healthy when eating it.
Matria: Also has a decent salad. It’s pretty and actually makes you want to eat salad.
Osso: Although Osso is a steak house, there is a selection of salads including an attractive wedge salad (in real life, in the close up above, the wedges rise like the Andes covered in mint green and dusted with bacon and candied pecans). The second salad mentioned, “salad #3” contains tiny deep fried cheese balls. I recommend keeping the dressing on the side, and foregoing the song and dance of the waiter pouring and tossing, so that you can enjoy the fried cheese “croutons”. The salad is called #3 because on the old menu, it was the #3 (at least, I think that’s why).
Cafe Mozart: Located in San Borja, this cafe has an all-you-can-eat salad bar. The salad bar has a full selection of cooked items including pasta salads and many other salads to put in the salad.
La Mora: They have several salads. They also use a classic European mustard vinaigrette. Because the olive oil is whipped/emulsified in, the dressing has the thickness of an aoli (mayonnaise in plain language).
Cafe A Bistro: The head salad is like an iceberg wedge salad, but you get all and not only the wedge (the photo doesn’t do the salad justice as the salad is more impressive when viewed in profile).
Antica: One of the salads uses butter/bib lettuce and has wedges of oranges among other things making it a decent salad.
La Panka: This chain restaurant has large salads. The one below is with roasted veg and chicken. The salad is the size of small hot tub.
La Linterna: Also has a decent house salad with ham and pecans.
Taller Razeto: Has good salads (melted cheese on a bed of lettuce in the photo below), but the restaurant is out in La Punta so not a daily destination unless you live there.
Pardos Chicken: Has a lettuce salad but I like their “cooked salad” with cooked carrots, beets, beans, and avocado. But, we were talking about lettuce.
Poke Pacifiko: As you can order exactly what you want, I imagine you can make your own salad. I’m sure you can get it without fish.
Plus, I would guess that most of the vegetarian and vegan restaurants have lettuce salads.
Carla Leon and her brand, Kaleydo, is in her second year as a shoe designer. For now she’s got a shop in San Borja, here in Lima, Peru. She makes fashionable handmade shoes made-to-measure for $112.
Oddly, I got added to a fashionista group… and when Kaleydo was recommended to me, I immediately nixed the idea saying that I’d given up on bespoke shoes because after having them made in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Colombia, I no longer believed that anyone could make me a shoe that I could use. Apparently, Carla takes this as a challenge and will not stop until the customer is satisfied. So, I gave her a try.
Carla’s showroom/shop is on a third floor walkup beside a pharmacy at Avenida San Luis 2033, apartment 204, San Borja. There is no indication that it’s a shop so you have to know where you are going. Carla doesn’t really speak English so it’s best to have some Spanish skills or take a friend with some Spanish skills when you go. Buy by appointment only.
Vegan food in Lima? Yes, apparently. I asked some vegans for their list of places to eat. This blog posting is cribbed off of their list (though, I think you can ask at any place and then can probably make it vegan for you.)
San Borja:
Folks told me that Lima’s Chinatown was not that exciting. I’m glad that people played it down. When I saw it for myself, I was pleasantly surprised.
Chinatown consists of a small pedestrian street with requisite arch and aura cleaners… and many shops and mini-malls in the surrounding streets. Chinatown is actually very close to Lima’s central square, the Plaza de Armas.
I was pleased to see that the Chinese stores also sold Thai curry paste and other rare items here in Peru.
In almost every shop, there were items that I did not recognize. That’s part of the fun of exploring.
Considering that the Chinese (mostly from Canton) got to Peru a bit after they got to California in the 1800s, in many ways, lots of Peruvian food is Chinese food. For example, the Peruvians love fried rice, “chaufa,” and eating Chinese food from a “chifa” is a normal part of life.
As I was checking out at one store, I noticed that a last minute “temptation” like chewing gum or candy, were snack packs of chicken feet (three, which I thought an odd number).
When I went a restaurant to get some fried rice and wanted to make sure that their recipe did not involve soy sauce, the owners of the restaurant TOLD me that I’d have it with soup (what is a meal without soup?) and they tried to teach me how to order “chaufa” without soy sauce. In Chinese.
Thankfully, I may have found my mani-pedi person here in Lima. Just as I left Bogota, I found 
Here’s my recommendation for a massage place in Arlington, Virginia. It’s called the 
This I found out when I casually told our guide that I had a bite. Never have I seen anyone move that fast. I didn’t even see him move. One minute he was across a pool of mud. The next right next to me! Then he took out a small plastic bottle and rubbed my ankle. This was the sap from the “blood tree” and it’s a magical potion. My ankle no longer hurt and there was no bite. I wish I had some of that Amazonian jungle blood with me now. Then I’d have the remedy to all bites. Will a company start selling this some day? Will all the secrets go the way of the dodo?
I’ve stood crossed leg in many a bathroom in Bogota (photo is from the U.S.), waiting for the lady in the stall as she frees herself of the “body” (pronounced “bow-dee”) so that she can relieve herself. These are also called “faja” (“fa-ha). Actually, some women wear more than one spanx-like corset: one for the waist, one for the bust, one for under the bust, one for the rear, one for the overall… and maybe there are more. Just as there are many ankle specialists (from the combination of platform shoes and rough sidewalks), there are also many “body” shops. The shops also have “body” for men.
Her name is Reiko, she’s Japanese, and she speaks very good English. Plus, I have seen the hair that she colors and I would never have guessed that the hair was anything but natural.
Very typical… as I’m on my way out of Bogota, I finally meet the best mani-pedi (and waxing, apparently) ladies in town. The word for nails in Spanish is “