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Ceviche: Latin American Raw Fish
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Ceviche: tastes better with Crayola® Crayons (Photo: Jeff McNeill)Ceviche is a lemon-marinated raw seafood popular in many Latin American countries, including my own Costa Rica. It came to my attention because most people I know would never eat sashimi (raw fish), but are completely unaware that they are doing so by eating ceviche. “It’s different” is what they say, but it really isn’t!
Today’s post will be an entry for this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri about foreign food, but since foreign food is a relative term (except if cooked on say, the Moon or Mars), I thought it would be fun to relate Japanese and Latin American raw food cuisine! ^^ Keep on reading for more about ceviche!
Note: I don’t particularly endorse or promote eating crayons along with your ceviche and stopped doing so when I was 8 years old, though I sometimes miss their waxy taste (^～^)モグモグ
Update: Ceviche is traditionally said to be “cooked” in lemon (the lemon juice denaturates the proteins), but take into account that the definition of “cook” is quite ambiguous. I quote Wikipedia: the citric acid [...] pickles or “cooks” the fish without heat. However, Wikipedia also lists them on their List of raw fish dishes. I read the English, Spanish, and Japanese (yes, ありますよ！ ^^) article about ceviche, and nobody is too sure. Keep in mind that ceviche varies greatly from country to country, and some preparations do not marinate it for more than 15 minutes, so it’s up to you (I’m open to discussion) ^^; !
High-class ceviche (Photo: Tammy Green)I also noticed that googling raw fish brings up Wikipedia’s page about Sashimi and Sushi as their first entries. Apparently, any type of 生魚 is recognized worldwide as sashimi (and its Chinese/Korean similar dishes), leaving no space for my poor ceviche Y__Y. Seriously though, it seems that raw fish-based dishes are uncommon outside of Asian cultures, so I find it amazing that raw fish is also popular thousands of miles away in Latin America.
Costa Rica is surrounded by Oceans (from Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles — our video game! ^^)Central America and Costa Rica are full of coastlines (about 4 hours from the Pacific to the Atlantic coastline driving), and thus seafood is abundant (and cheap!) anywhere in Costa Rica. The same goes with Japan, ne?
Photo: Greg MaCeviche and sashimi taste quite different though. Ceviche is marinated in lemon juice for about 5 hours, and includes spices such as onion, cilantro, garlic, and red pepper. The preparation varies slightly from country to country, but the most important and key part is the lemon juice. To make ceviche you’ll need to squeeze lemons until your hands are as dehydrated as raisins.
From the picture: 40,000 limes were harmed in the making of this picture. (Photo: D’Arcy Norman)I love(d) preparing ceviche, until that day when I hosted a party and had to make ceviche for about 40 people. Unfortunately, I didn’t think I would be blogging about ceviche so I didn’t take a picture, but imagine how your hands would look like after squeezing 45 apple-sized lemons.
I. want. NOW.Ceviche around Costa Rica is served with soda crackers and ketchup, while sashimi is served with 醤油 (soy sauce). The lemon juice, ketchup, and spices make ceviche and sashimi two extremely different dishes. Now imagine what Musashi Miyamoto would do to me if I were to eat sashimi with lemon and ketchup (ﾟДﾟ≡ﾟДﾟ)
How are ceviche and sashimi related then?
The same way you and me are related:
Sashimi (Photo: François Rejeté)
Eating ceviche in Costa Rica (Photo: Philip Shannon)That’s right, Beer! I’m not a diehard fan of beer, but I do enjoy the good company it brings ^^ so if you happen to be around here, don’t forget to ask for ceviche por favor — you won’t be disappointed. However, if you’re going to England and prefer your animals cooked, don’t forget to give fish and chips a try, I promise to do so too!
So, you’ve tasted sashimi, but would you give ceviche a try? If you enjoyed today’s article, you may consider subscribing to Instant Ramen via RSS or email! ^^
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Comments for this article (8)
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Tasty~
First off – great entry! Thanks for contributing.
Now, I’d like to say that I think that ceviche is more of a cousin than a brother to sashimi. Why? Well, ceviche is technically cooked, in my opinion. Not with heat – but with acid! That is to say, it’s chemically cooked, not physically cooked. The acid in the citrus juice denatures the proteins in the seafood, which is exactly what heat does…so it’s cooked, in a manner of speaking. :-) At least, that’s how I understand it.
Have you ever had lime-based ceviche? I think I prefer it to lemon. It depends on the kind of fish, though, I guess. But it’s good stuff.
Deas: Check the update above ^^ in any case, they’re more like distant cousins as you say. My opinion is different though, ceviche for me is still raw fish, the same way I don’t think pickles or tsukemono are “cooked” just because they are [sic] pickled.
Lime-based ceviche is much more common in Costa Rica (I don’t have a particular preferred one, both lime and lemon are great). In Costa Rica, the word limón is used for both lime and lemon though :) In fact, we also have limón dulce (sweet lemon), which I don’t have an idea of how it is called in English or if it even exists (tastes great btw).
Speaking of which, my favorite is plantain (banana-like fruit) ceviche which of course does not include seafood, but tastes a bit similar. Also recommended if anyone decides to come to Costa Rica!
Cool article Hao. I never heard of ceviche before (excuse my ignorance) but now I want to try it.
Btw, do you normally cook the Crayola or eat them raw?
reesan: I’m actually amazed that most people know about ceviche, I’ve no idea if it’s popular outside of Latin America though. I really recommend it, you won’t be disappointed ^^
The crayola tastes better raw with some non-toxic glue dipping
mmmmmmm… Crayons.
I hadn’t heard of ceviche before. I’d try it, even though i don’t really like seafood unless it is deepfried and battered. However, I am open to trying (most) foods! Then I can say at least I tried it :)
i voted!
looks tasty, I would definitely give it a try
Great write up and nice photos.
I ate ceviche all the time in Miami at a Peruvian restaurant. I love it.
[...] at Instant Ramen compares sashimi and ceviche! Mmmm! Have you ever tried ceviche? The Costa Rican version showcased here looks amazing. By the [...]