Top Peruvian cuisine in Buenos Aires

Sipan opens in Palermo Hollywood

There has been an international boom in regards to Peruvian gastronomy. Over the past years, talking about Peruvian food has been something very common. At present there are over 70 Peruvian restaurants in Buenos Aires. These restaurants cover the entire market spectrum, from the most exclusive Palermo Hollywood to the eateries in Once and Abasto.

About Sipan

Since its opening in 2007, Sipan is one of the top names in Peruvian cuisine in Buenos Aires. In 2011 opened its second store in Palermo, inside the boutique hotel The Palermitano, adjacent to the restaurant Casa Cruz.

Discreet and elegant, offers a varied menu of drinks and dishes like ceviche, tiraditos, chalaquitas (a sort of Peruvian tapas), rolls and wok dishes, all carefully prepared and presented. Due to its high quality the Government of Peru named it as the best Peruvian restaurant in Argentina. But it has two key differences from its first location.

Firstly, being a cevichería, it offers a brief menu, which emphasizes on cold dishes as appetizers, Nikkei rolls, ceviche and tiraditos. Secondly, appearance is impeccable. A bar at the entrance, long sushi bar and lounge with open kitchen and lovely heated patio (with its own cocktail bar), with four living rooms for ten people each.

As for the decor, contrasts prevail: a wall bears a huge photograph of a Spondylus (oyster lucky red) and the other colourful posters of aesthetics bailantera (brought from Lima), announcing quartet music shows and tropical.

Handmade glass tableware spotless and very good service: more than 40 employees to serve a maximum of 98 people.

Seafood is at the heart of Peruvian cookery. It is from the Pacific that Peru's two greatest dishes come. These are ceviche (spelled ceviche or cebiche in Peru) and tiradito. The former is fresh, raw fish, often sole, cut into chunks and "cooked" in lime juice; the latter is fresh, completely raw sole or a native fish called corvina, thinly sliced and covered with one or more of Peru's innumerable sauces, many based in aji or another hot Peruvian pepper, rocoto.
For entrées, you can choose a "ship" to try different appetizers and rolls. The ceviche made of sole, the shells with parmesan cheese, the “empanadas” and especially the “aji de gallina with prawns”. Yummy!
Among the main courses, I highly recommend the Sipan tacu tacu with shrimps. The rice with Nikkei seafood, anticuchos and the sole “a lo macho” are fabulous. The portions are large ( good to share ).

The suggestion of the house is to request one entry per person and share a main dish.

The best tasting dessert in Sipan is “degustación de suspiros” (Sighs ).

As a bonus the restaurant has a pisco bar. Its cocktail menu offers a wide variety of aromatic sours ( with with ginger, passion fruit, coca leaves, etc ). Also you can choose an elegant Piscotini Dry (Martini with classic pisco), a real Piojito ( similar to mojito) and many more options. All served in sleek glasses.

The cost ranges from 100 to 130 pesos. The diversity that is felt and lived is so important, and besides that…it is delicious.

Important Tip! Porteños eat late, so you can arrive at just about any restaurant by 1 p.m. for lunch and 8:30 p.m. for dinner and be assured of a table without a wait. Virtually all restaurants that specialize in fresh seafood -- cevicherias -- are open only for lunch, usually between noon and 4 pm.

A New Museum in Buenos Aires

Today I visited the “Bicentennial museum in Buenos Aires". This museum opened on May 24, 2011. It is located where the fortress of Buenos Aires (1580) and the old customs house (aduana Taylor, 1855) used to be. That is, right behind the “pink house”, our Presidential Palace.

We are speaking about a building that was refurbished and recuperated, not only from the architectural point of view but, also, from an archaeological one. It is possible to walk among the old walls and arcades that, in the old times, used to house the customs.

You can trace two hundred years of argentine history, from the revolution against spain in 1810 to the present administration of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, our current president.

To my surprise, I discovered excellent paintings by very well-known painters, like, Luis Felipe Noe, Octavio Fioravanti, Aberto Schwartz, Luis Benedit, among others.

There is a huge painting of Juan Domingo Peron and Eva Duarte painted by Numa Ayrinhac (a French-Argentinian painter). All the paintings belong to the presidential collection

There is a special place dedicated to the refurbished mural of David Alfaro Siqueiros, called “Ejercicio Plastico”. Siqueiros, an active communist, Siqueiros (1896-1974) was a strong advocate of public art. He, Diego Rivera and Miguel Clemente Orozco were among Mexico's most famous muralists.

Moreover, being you in Buenos Aires, there is something you cannot miss “a very nice café” to enjoy lunch or a good expresso.

The museum opens from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm. Admission free. Bear in mind that all explanations are in Spanish and there are no English or French translations. If you want to learn more and visit this hidden gem , contact us, ideas turisticas, the best private tours in Buenos Aires.

I am looking forward to seeing you in our beautiful city, Ana Lia Cecchino.