If you're a fan of our Food Porn Friday series and you're not following us on Foursquare, you really should be.
If you don't know what Foursquare is, it's a social media network that allows you to ‘check in' to places you go, add a comment, a picture and leave tips for others and get points for doing so. We were originally introduced to it by Dani of GlobetrotterGirls when we met her and Jess in Chile in February, and since then we've been racking up the points! Recently, we've found it really useful for finding up to date recommendations for places to stay and eat, and the pictures certainly help!
We often add pictures ourselves of places we eat, and using the great free app PicStitch, I have a lot of fun editing them. Since we were in Arequipa for a whole month, we had time to try many of the different cafés and restaurants, so here, for your viewing pleasure, I've compiled some of the best pictures we used for our Foursquare check ins of our favourite places in the city.
Crepisimo
Set in the courtyard around the Alliance Française, Crepisimo, a restaurant and café specialising in crêpes, was our go-to Sunday brunch place. Somewhat on the pricey end of our options in Arequipa, it was more of a treat than a regular hangout, but the food was well worth it.
Details: Foursquare; website; Santa Catalina 208
Cusco Coffee
Our number one café to sit and work in, Cusco Coffee is a Starbucks wannabe, but slightly cheaper, brighter and with more reliable wifi and more power sockets than the city centre Starbucks in Arequipa. It got to the point at the end of our month there that the staff automatically knew that Zab wanted soy milk in his café latte.
Details: Foursquare; website; Calle la Merced 135
Café Connection
A place we found out about pretty late in our stay in Arequipa, Café Connection could have rivaled Cusco Coffee as a good place to work, and had the advantage of being much quieter, though the drinks were slightly more expensive. Personally, I can't recommend the frozen strawberry lemonade at this place enough!
Details: Foursquare; Facebook; Calle Bolivar 105-107, interior 1
Capriccio Gourmet
This was our place of choice when we felt like going to a café not to work, but to gorge of delicious cakes. It's also a restaurant, but we never ate a full meal there; the selection of cakes was just too enticing to ignore!
Details: Foursquare; Facebook; Santa Catalina 120
El Turko
When we'd been out in town working in Cusco Coffee all afternoon and couldn't be bothered to cook at home, we'd invariably go to El Turko to share a dürüm falafel, chicken kebab, chips and lemonade. It was fast, decent food at a good price, and we didn't have to think too hard about what to choose.
Details: Foursquare; Facebook; San Fransisco 223-225
Istanbul
Along the same vein as El Turko, but slightly more upscale, Istanbul does good humus, falafel and teas, and has a split level seating arrangement that makes for good people watching from above.
Details: Foursquare; Facebook; San Fransisco 231
Hatunpa
A little different from our usual haunts, we only visited this place once and Zab really liked it, while I thought it was just average. It's a tiny restaurant with space for about eight people at once that serves various types of native potatoes with traditional Peruvian toppings.
Details: Foursquare; Facebook; Calle Ugarte 208
