While we were in Miami, Lisa had some other things to attend to. My Dad and his girlfriend spend half their year in Florida. So, I arranged to meet with them for lunch. I read reviews for a few seafood places that were being considered. I knew I had the place to try when the reviews for Divino Ceviche raved about their signature dish. Can you guess what it is? Yes! Ceviche! Miami is a very culturally diverse area. Luckily, that means there are a wide variety of food choices from many cultures available. While visiting Miami, we enjoyed Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Puerto Rican cuisine. So, why not add Peruvian while we were at it? Divino Ceviche is Peruvian fusion cuisine, a delicious blend of fusing modern local cuisine with traditional Peruvian cooking techniques that result in a bright, modern cuisine.
I recently told Lisa I had a craving for ceviche. However, little did I know I would be having this restaurant’s ceviche an additional two more times on this trip!
Peruvian Cuisine
But, before I go into the specifics of this fantastic ceviche, let me pause here to share my history with you of my prior Peruvian experience. My grandparents traveled the world extensively. When I was in my early teens, they brought me with them on a trip to South America, including Peru. I didn’t have a taste for much back then fancier than a cheeseburger. On that trip, I don’t have any specific memory of ceviche, because I’m sure I would not have liked it at that time of my life.
Some of the popular foods in Peruvian cuisine run the gamut from a stir fried beef dish, ceviche, creamy chicken, and even guinea pig! I may have tried some of these dishes when I was a teenager, but I know I didn’t eat guinea pig. I wasn’t and still am not interested in eating an animal we consider a pet. And that is another topic for another time: the reality that what is a pet in one culture is food to another culture.
In Peru, I do remember three drinks though: Inca Kola (a lemon cream soda), the pisco sour (a cocktail), and coca tea (a narcotic tea to help with altitude sickness). This young teenage boy traveling with Baptist tea-totaling grandparents has some interesting tales! So, stay tuned, because I’ll be sharing more about these beverages in another post.
Menu Description: “Fried wonton filled with one of the best Peruvian dishes “Lomo Saltado”: Sauteed beef with onions, tomatos, cilantro and a touch of Peruvian yellow pepper served with Huancaina sauce.”
What is Ceviche?
Now, let’s get back to Ceviche. Ceviche originated in Peru as small pieces of raw fish that are not cooked in the traditional sense. They are “cooked” by marinating in an acidic citrus juice mixture. In this case lime juice.
I ordered the “Ceviche Divino” dish from this restaurant. It contained white fish with avocado, mango, onions, cilantro, sweet potato, and giant Peruvian corn called choclo. The fish was firm, yet soft, with all of the fresh ingredients being distinctive yet melding together to create a harmonious union. The dish is fresh and bright from the acid of the lime juice, with a little bit of spiciness.
Our Return Visits and Delicious Crunchy Corn Nuts
I raved to Lisa about the phenomenal ceviche and she expressed that she would love to try it also. We went the next day and she was equally impressed.
While we waited for our “Ceviche Divino”, the server brought us some cancha (corn nuts) as a welcoming snack. They are a toasted or deep-fried kernel of corn and were well salted. Cancha taste like popcorn, but the kernels easily give way while chewing. They are not hard like unpopped popcorn kernels. We enjoyed them so much we bought extra to take with us. In addition, Lisa also inquired about how to make them and where we could buy the ingredients to make our own. We were told about a grocery store to visit to buy the Chulpe corn to make the cancha.
Corn and Take Out
As a side note, we did stop at the grocery store and after we looked in all the places we could think of for the dried corn, we finally asked and were brought to the correct location (with the dried beans). Besides the bags of Maiz Chulpe (Chulpe Corn) to make the corn nuts, they also had bags of dried choclo. We bought two bags of each to take home with us.
The day we were leaving, we called in our take-out order for the “Ceviche Divino” and shared it in the car before we drove to the airport. That really makes us die hard fans of their Peruvian fusion cuisine.
Locations
Divino Ceviche’s Doral location is located in a strip mall and is surprisingly spacious and contemporary. It has an upscale modern vibe, but it’s not pretentious. They have two locations. The second location is in Coral Gables.
Information and Menu can be found on their website. Divino Ceviche
Have you had ceviche? Would you try it? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Interested in a Cuban Sandwich? Read our post about it.
