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I am an etymology nut and spend way too much time researching the origins of words and phrases. So, perhaps, you can help alleviate my frustration with the Guatemala expression Cevichón Pérez, which I understand as a ceviche feast, but I have been unable to find its inception.

Can you help me resolve the mystery behind Cevichón Pérez?

Last week Jonathan Gold from LA Weekly and Evan Kleinman host of KCRW’s Good Food program did a review of La Cevicheria, a Guatemalan owned ceviche restaurant in Los Angeles. In the podcast Jonathan declared the Guatemalan ceviche the best of all ceviches and was surprised since, in his opinion, Guatemala does not posses a ceviche tradition.

Huh? That’s exactly what I thought!

I am certain now that the only dishes that you can find everywhere you go in Guatemala are Ceviche and Chow Mein. That, in my humble opinion, should be enough to declare them Authentic National dishes, don’t you think so?

Right after listening to the podcast I decided to create the Ceviche category to collect all the different articles I have published about the ceviche. Guatemala does indeed have a strong ceviche tradition and that’s why ceviche stands, trucks and restaurants are one of the most often food offerings.

Guatemalans love ceviche so much that now one is begining to find Mexican and Peruvian ceviche trucks and restaurants as part of the ceviche options. There are at least three places, that I know of, where one can find Peruvian style ceviche in La Antigua Guatemala and Ubi’s Sushi version of ceviche is pretty darn good. Ubi’s ceviche is very Peruvian although the presentation looks more like a Thai seafood salad (another of my favorites).

I take this opportunity to thank our loyal and long-time reader Santiago for forwarding me a copy of his Peruvian recipe, which I now prepared at home in a regular basis.

Below you can listen to 3:20 minute review of La Cevicheria by Jonathan Gold of KCRW’s Good Food.

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The best Guatemalan ceviche has to be ceviche of concha and camarón. Concha is sort of a shell clam known in Mexico as “Almeja pata de mula” which is sort of a mixture between clam and oyster plus dark ink (blood).

Camarones are, of course, shrimps. Mix conchas and camarones with diced plum tomatoes, chopped onion, yerba buena (mint), culantro (cilantro) and chiles, all cooked and marinated with lemon juice (limón or lime) you have the authentic Guatemalan ceviche. Guatemalan ceviche is normally served along with soda crackers and/or tamalitos and always goes well with a cold Guatemalan beer.

Bon appetite!

How do you prepare your Guatemalan ceviche?

You can tell Ceviche is my favorite Guatemalan Cuisine dish if you search for the word ceviche or just browse the five photos of ceviches posted thus far. But I am not the only one, Guy from Inner Diablog, has as many entries dedicated to ceviche as I do. Both of us have even describe how to prepare ceviche:

Here’s what I wrote back in May 2006:

The Guatemalan ceviche is based on roma/plum tomatoes, onions, garlic, mint, cilantro, soy sauce, English sauce (Worcestershire sauce), lemon juice, hot peppers (chiltepe), seafood (shrimp and Guatemalan clamshell especially) and is usually served with cold beer (Gallo Beer)

Guy’s approach is dictated by the ingredients he can find in London.

Guatemalan ceviche, (Shrimp, juice of three limes, chopped onion, garlic and chillies, fresh coriander, dried oregano and plum tomatoes.) I skipped on the salsa inglesa (Worcestershire sauce) and you can’t get chiltepes in the UK. (continue reading…)

He’s so clever that he has even come up with a vegetarian’s ceviche that he calls ‘Naked Ceviche‘; in his words, “‘naked’ ceviches, which contain everything except the main ingredient, meat or seafood.”

By the way, I am sure that Guy will have something to say about today’s photo. In the picture above, you can see the small serving ceviche de concha for Q50 at Hugo’s ceviches, which can be found at their mobile locations of Alameda Santa Lucí­a (one block south of Pollo Campero), on the corner of Tanque de la Unión and at their restaurant located in the parking lot of the gas station on the Road to Ciudad Vieja road; right across from the Soleil hotel.

If you are interested, I can update this entry with my recipe for home-made style ceviche and even my own version of naked ceviche. Ceviche is one of the few recipes that you should be able to prepare anywhere in the world. Ten requests for the recipe and I will post it here.

Okay, all my dear ceviche-loving friends (you know who you are), I have already placed the order for the shrimp ceviches and bought enough of the Guatemalan brews known as Moza and Brahva Beats. I know Manolo is bringing Stella Artois and Steam Whistle; Guy is bringing New Castle and Guinness; Jerry B is bringing a micro-brewery sampler from AleSmith; Edgar and Carmen are bringing Cubas Libres and whatever beer Edgar likes; El Canche is bringing himself out of piles photo memory chips and Guatemalan slavery-work schedules. Everyone is invited to this huge ceviche party, but you better hurry because the lady is putting the final ingredients on the Mexican shrimp ceviches available in La Antigua Guatemala. If you don’t like the Mexican ceviches, we can alway go to La Naranja Pelada or Blanqui Sevicherí­a for the sacred dish.

Don’t take too long… the ceviches won’t last forever, you know!

This is the Vuelve a la vida seviche (Come back to life ceviche) from the Blanqui Sevicheria in Escuintla City, a town about 40 minutes from La Antigua Guatemala. I know Manolo, Guy, Pirata Cojo, El Canche and others will have fond memories and things to say about this ceviche photo. Let their comments come…

If you would like to learn a little about the ceviche fascination of yours truly, please, do read the following entries: Ceviche from La Naranja Pelada and Shrimp Cevice in Antigua.

It was last year, on May 14th, that I showed a photo of Shrimp ceviche. If I am not mistaken, it was the shrimp ceviche photo that brought me to the attention of Guy from Inner Diablog and viceversa. Interestingly enough, I also met Sompopo [virtually] through a photo of a sompopo back in May 2006.

Anyhow, much has been said about ceviches and there are almost as many spellings [seviche, cebiche, sebiche] as there are recipes from all the different countries of Latin America. But three ceviches styles are the most widely known: The Mexican, The Peruvian and The Guatemalan Ceviche. All seviches have their own twist and I have to admit that the Guatemalan cebiche with conchas (shellfish with dark, almost black, ink) is the least appealing of all. Yet, for those brave enough to have tried it, the Guatemalan conchas ceviche is a total delicacy. Guy from Inner Diablog has spent enough ink talking about ceviches and since he’s a total connoisseur, I rather you go to his blog and read about ceviches there.

There are many great places to eat ceviche in Guatemala and La Naranja Pelada is one of them. It is a habit among Guatemalans and foreigners who enjoy ceviches to share the information of where to get the best ceviche; everybody knows where to find the best ceviche and it is not the same place for everybody. Esperanza and I, for instance, know that the best ceviche can be had at La Blanqui restaunrant-bar in Escuintla.

Okay I’ve done my part. Now it is up to you, can you share with us where to get the best ceviche?

Ceviche is very popular food in America. There are many ways to prepare it and there are many recipes per countries. The Guatemalan ceviche is based on roma/plum tomatoes, onions, garlic, mint, cilantro, soy sauce, English sauce, lemon juice, hot peppers (chiltepe), seafood (shrimp and Guatemalan clamshell especially) and is usually served with cold beer (Gallo Beer).

I leave you with a slideshow of the different kinds of ceviche found in Flickr.

I am posting this photo for a friend who is in Paris at the moment.