Peruvian food - cebiche

Ceviche is one of my favorite local foods. It is claimed as Peru's national dish. Usually served as a lunch item, it consists of sea food marinated in lime juice and salt, sometimes with spicy pepper sauce added in. There are so many varieties of ceviche that it boggles the mind, and each area creates ceviche in its own local style.

Those are slices of rocoto pepper you see in the photo, not tomato, and it's hot enough to light your hair on fire. Handle and eat WITH CARE! Thinly sliced onions are also rinsed in lime juice and salt, and added to the mix. Garnished with lettuce and a small amount of sea weed. I personally enjoy the addition of tomatoes and cilantro sprinkled into the dish, and a sweet potato on the side. But this seems to be a more Mexican take on ceviche. A Peruvian lady here laughed at me when I put tomato in my ceviche...she said, "whoever puts tomato in the ceviche obviously doesn't know how to make it properly." But there are so many variations throughout Latin America that who can say what is the proper way?

I think almost all versions of this dish are YUMMY!!!