Mistura is Latin America’s largest food festival held in Lima every September, and if you consider yourself a foodie you have to be there.

UPDATE: Pictures posted. See the Mistura 2015 album on the Lima City of Kings FB page.

Info

Mistura is hosted by Apega, Peru’s culinary society. This is the eighth annual edition which starts tomorrow and continues ten days through next weekend. See Mistura on Facebook.

Apega expects 500,000 visitors this year. Last year, almost 10% of visitors came during the last two days. I noticed this phenomenon at the Lima book fair as well – everybody goes on the last day or two just before they miss the event. So if you want to avoid the crowds, go early in the week.

Entrance for Monday through Wednesday is 16 soles ($5) for adults and 8 for children. Prices go up to 25 and 10 for Thursday through Sunday ($7.80 and $3). Tickets can be purchased at Wong Teleticket and Metro.

Estimated costs of food and drinks, as estimated by RPP, in soles (3.20 = 1 US dollar):

  • Non-alcoholic drinks — S/. 4 to 8
  • Desserts — S/. 3 to 5
  • Half portions — S/. 7 to 8
  • Full plates — S/. 13 to 16

Food

Over 180 food stands will offer everything you could possibly desire from Peruvian cuisine: ceviche, pollo a la brasa, anticuchos, chifa, traditional criollo platters as well as regional delicacies, desserts, craft beers and pisco sours.

Mistura brings the best restaurants from each corner of the country to sell its version of each regional specialty. La Benita’s rocoto relleno and ocopa from Arequipa, El Celoso in Sullana makes fried pork with mashed plantain, etc. So if you live in Lima, Mistura might not be the right time to try a chicharron sandwich from El Chinito. However it’s a great opportunity to sample foods difficult to find in the capital.

This year the fair has organized the stands by category with “streets” named for regions, desserts, drinks, bread, etc. There is also the Gran Mercado farmer’s market where you can buy foods unique to each of Peru’s regions from the coast, highlands and jungle.

See the restaurants participating in Mistura 2015 organized by category.

Mundo Cervecero presents a quinoa beer from Backus as well as the craft beers which have sprung up from across Peru: Melkim from Arequipa, Sierra Andina from Huaraz, Barbarian and Cumbres from Lima.

The Salon de Pisco has over 20 award-winning distillers of Peru’s signature liquor from around the country.

We’ll be posting plenty of pictures and reviews during the week. Stay tuned.

Entertainment

In addition to food and drink, Mistura also features live music. Perkucina, Peru’s military band and Estampas Tradicionales perform every day. See the Mistura concert calendar to catch the following acts:

See a schedule for when the following celebrity chefs display their skills at Mistura:

Apega will hold contests for best young cook, best dessert cook and the fourth annual Teresa Izquierdo (of El Rincon Que No Conoces fame) award for women who use their culinary prowess to help the family.

How to Get There

After initially announcing the 2015 event in downtown Lima’s Parque de la Exposicion, new construction projects forced Mistura to return to the Costa Verde in Magdalena del Mar, which despite the coastline is not the most convenient location. But you can tell any taxi driver “Mistura!” and he’ll get you there.

Lima’s Metropolitano bus system will have feeder buses leaving from the Estacion Central station downtown to Mistura for S/. 1.50 with stops all along Avenida Brasil in Jesus Maria. There is also parking for cars, motorcycles and bicycles at the fair.

Commercials

Apega put out a slew of commercials for Mistura. Here they are, from the Apega YouTube channel:

If you can’t make it this year but want to continue torturing yourself with images of Peruvian food, see the Lima Food Porn album on the Lima City of Kings Facebook page 🙂

One comment

  1. Pingback: Colin’s Mistura review: Part II - LimaCityKings.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *