Peru: Cafe Haiti
I'm back! And I'm bursting with stories from my trip to Peru. Now the problem is getting all these stories posted before I forget them. (Which is a definite possibility because let's face it, I have horrible memory. Comes with getting old.)
Anyway, just some basic info first.
Fellow travelers: my sister, CK, and CK's husband, AG
Location: Peru
Time: 2 weeks
Goals: eat everything, see Machu Picchu, make it back in one piece
We arrived in Lima very late at night. So late that we didn't get to our Airbnb apartment in the Miraflores district of Lima until almost two in the morning. It felt like I barely got any sleep before I was rudely awakened by continuous honking from the early morning traffic. The other members of our group weren't as bothered, so it was another few hours before everyone was up and ready to go.
Though we had a general itinerary in that we booked all the transportation and lodging prior to arriving in Peru, we didn't really have anything concrete planned for each city except for three things. We had tickets to Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. We had reservations for Astrid y Gaston. And we had reservations for Chez Wong.
Notice how two of those three things were restaurants. Priorities, man.
Our reservations for Chez Wong weren't until 1:00pm, so to kill time, we walked around Kennedy Park, gawked at all the wild cats, found an ATM to withdraw much needed soles, oogled at the McDonald's menu through the window, and then stopped for coffee at Cafe Haiti:
Cafe Haiti had a very European feel with its awning and row of outdoor tables facing the sidewalk. Given the late morning hour on a weekday, it shouldn't have been surprising that we were the youngest people there. All the other tables were taken up by elderly gentlemen enjoying a cup of coffee and their newspaper.
CK and AG couldn't start their day officially without a cup of joe. They each ordered a cafe con leche:
I'm not a coffee person, but they seemed to like it.
With lunch on the horizon, we didn't want to overstuff ourselves. We decided to play it light by ordering dessert. We got the pie de limon or lemon pie (S/.16 or around $5):
And the crema volteada or milk and egg pudding (S/.12 or $4):
The lemon pie was rich and tart and delicious. The pudding was basically flan, a really dense flan. Both were kind of expensive (definitely on par with American prices), but it was worth it to have a place to sit, people watch, and...wait for lunchtime to come around.
I should mention that even though the original plan was to take it easy and leave stomach space for lunch, AG (rebel that he is) bucked the plan by ordering a full-on breakfast entree of an egg sandwich with fries. No regrets though, because that sandwich was amazing. Sometimes, the simplest things are the most enjoyable. What I do regret, however, is not taking a picture of it.
Cafe Haiti may not be the most "Peruvian" of experience, but we enjoyed our time there. Our server was this cute elderly gentleman who was extremely patient with our broken Spanish. The food was good (albeit on the pricey side) and the atmosphere casual and relaxed. It's definitely a place where people can go to sit for hours and hours without feeling rushed.
Cafe Haiti
Diagonal 160, Miraflores Lima 18, Peru
+51 1 4450539
http://www.haitimiraflores.pe/
Anyway, just some basic info first.
Fellow travelers: my sister, CK, and CK's husband, AG
Location: Peru
Time: 2 weeks
Goals: eat everything, see Machu Picchu, make it back in one piece
We arrived in Lima very late at night. So late that we didn't get to our Airbnb apartment in the Miraflores district of Lima until almost two in the morning. It felt like I barely got any sleep before I was rudely awakened by continuous honking from the early morning traffic. The other members of our group weren't as bothered, so it was another few hours before everyone was up and ready to go.
Though we had a general itinerary in that we booked all the transportation and lodging prior to arriving in Peru, we didn't really have anything concrete planned for each city except for three things. We had tickets to Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. We had reservations for Astrid y Gaston. And we had reservations for Chez Wong.
Notice how two of those three things were restaurants. Priorities, man.
Our reservations for Chez Wong weren't until 1:00pm, so to kill time, we walked around Kennedy Park, gawked at all the wild cats, found an ATM to withdraw much needed soles, oogled at the McDonald's menu through the window, and then stopped for coffee at Cafe Haiti:
Cafe Haiti had a very European feel with its awning and row of outdoor tables facing the sidewalk. Given the late morning hour on a weekday, it shouldn't have been surprising that we were the youngest people there. All the other tables were taken up by elderly gentlemen enjoying a cup of coffee and their newspaper.
CK and AG couldn't start their day officially without a cup of joe. They each ordered a cafe con leche:
I'm not a coffee person, but they seemed to like it.
With lunch on the horizon, we didn't want to overstuff ourselves. We decided to play it light by ordering dessert. We got the pie de limon or lemon pie (S/.16 or around $5):
And the crema volteada or milk and egg pudding (S/.12 or $4):
The lemon pie was rich and tart and delicious. The pudding was basically flan, a really dense flan. Both were kind of expensive (definitely on par with American prices), but it was worth it to have a place to sit, people watch, and...wait for lunchtime to come around.
I should mention that even though the original plan was to take it easy and leave stomach space for lunch, AG (rebel that he is) bucked the plan by ordering a full-on breakfast entree of an egg sandwich with fries. No regrets though, because that sandwich was amazing. Sometimes, the simplest things are the most enjoyable. What I do regret, however, is not taking a picture of it.
Cafe Haiti may not be the most "Peruvian" of experience, but we enjoyed our time there. Our server was this cute elderly gentleman who was extremely patient with our broken Spanish. The food was good (albeit on the pricey side) and the atmosphere casual and relaxed. It's definitely a place where people can go to sit for hours and hours without feeling rushed.
Cafe Haiti
Diagonal 160, Miraflores Lima 18, Peru
+51 1 4450539
http://www.haitimiraflores.pe/
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