Mistura 2014 & the Chowzter Latin America Awards

Chicharron sandwich from Lima restaurant El Chinito. Pork, sweet potato and ceviche-style red onions. One of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter.

Hola from Lima everyone! I jetted in yesterday on a very unglamorous 4am flight from Rio and stopped in my hotel just long enough to dump my bags before heading off the Mistura, Latin America’s biggest and best food festival. Yesterday I overheard a first time visitor to Mistura saying “This place is just amazing. I didn’t realise it was on my bucket list until I got here!”. I know exactly what they mean – if you’re looking for a huge, rich, delicious, fascinating food experience, Mistura should be on your list too.

This is my second visit and it is proving to be just as enjoyable and interesting as last time. In just a few hours I ate and drank my way through upwards of 35 dishes yesterday. I know that sounds shameful/gluttonous/amazing (depending on how you feel about excess), but I should quickly point out that many of those 35 ‘dishes’ were in fact small tastes of something delicious, rather than full-blown plates of food.

I don’t want to be down on Rio, but the recent Rio Gastronomia event has a long way to go before it approaches the heights of Mistura. I have a hard drive full of mouthwatering photos, but not enough time to show you everything, so I’ll just give you a little amuse bouche for now.

Pisco, infused with coca leaves, cinnamon and lemongrass.

Incredible hot-smoked pork, cooked in an oil barrel.

This was like a tiny piece of heaven.

The man responsible, Javier Olano B from the Lima restaurant Al Cilindro de Javi. This man deserves a medal.

Chowzter Latin America Awards 2014

And so to the real reason I’m in Lima right now. It’s the time of year that Rio’s tastiest ‘fast feasts’ go up against the rest of Latin America – The Chowzter Latin America Awards 2014. This year I’m proud to say that Rio has been nominated in 4 categories (see the full list of nominations for 2014 here):

In the Soup category: Sopa Leão Veloso from Sobrenatural in Santa Teresa.

In the Empanada and Pastries category: Bolinhos Mistos from Bar do Gomez.

In the Regional Dish category: Feijoada Completa from Academia da Cachaça.

In the Sandwich category: the Cervantes Especial from Cervantes.

So there you have it. To keep the pedants at bay, I’ll acknowledge that the Bolinhos Mistos aren’t empanadas, but short of creating a category just for bolinhos (Rio would win every year!), it was the closest category we could find. Also, take a look at the Sandwich category – Rio’s Cervantes is going up against São Paulo’s Hocca Bar (amongst others)!

The awards ceremony will be held tonight, so I hope to be telling you all the good news in the very near future.