Ceviche, founded by
Martin Morales, started life as a supper club in London. Following some regular pop-up events and having talked about the dearth of good Peruvian restaurants in the UK, in February 2012, Martin packed in his job within the music industry and opened Ceviche on Frith Street in Soho. Quickly becoming the hottest ticket in town, the restaurant and more importantly the food, has won many accolades.
I've been meaning to go to Ceviche for sometime now, having heard of the bold, vibrant flavours, confident cooking and friendly atmosphere. As is often the case, when in London, it can be difficult to pack in everything you want to do and how to choose? Lucky for me, instead of going to Ceviche, Ceviche (kinda) came to me.
As part of their mission to spread the word about Peruvian food and also promote their new cookery book, Ceviche are currently on tour. Their third stop and day of book launch happened to be at
The Ethicurean. Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson with delicious photography by
Paul Winch-Furness, the book as well as containing many a recipe, is part memoir, part culinary portrait of Peru.
I imagine it must be a little strange to hand over the reigns your kitchen to a different team but, The Ethicurean seemed to take it in their stride. They took a rare break from running their own restaurant to join in with the feasting -whilst Martin and the Ceviche crew played genial hosts.
After sipping at a wonderfully frothy slush of a pisco sour, made in a Thermomix, we ate some ceviche. The national dish of Peru and the signature dish of the restaurant, ceviche is a simple way of 'cooking' fresh seafood in citrus juices. Don Ceviche -slices of fresh seabass cooked in Amarillo chilli tiger's milk was fresh, vibrant and clean. With chunks of caramel sweet, sweet potato and slices of pungent red onion, it packed a punch but also felt very cleansing.
It was followed by Arroz con Pato, a tender, rich confit of duck leg, served with dark beer and Amarillo chilli green rice. Alongside this, a portion of quinoa salad with avocado and butterbeans, generously doused in lime, chilli and coriander. To finish, a chocolate and coffee mousse pot which certainly hit the chocolate spot and a fitting end to a wonderful meal. Sadly, it was only one pisco sour per person, so instead I had to sup at an Ethicurean Negroni -a real hardship!
If you have tickets for a Ceviche pop-up tour venue, you're in for a real treat. If you don't, do get yourself to their restaurant on Frith Street, with flavours this good, you won't regret it. Now then, let me drool into my pillow whilst I dream of leche de tigre and alfajores and the many delicious recipes that I've just read about.
