Fish Ratings – Lima – 29 January 2020:
Fish Ratings has upgraded Ceviche de Corvina’s Long-Term Foreign and Local Cuisine Fish Default Ratings (FDRs) to ‘A-’ from ‘BBB+’ and Long-Term National Dish Scale rating to ‘AA+(peru)’ from ‘AA(peru)’. Simultaneously, Fish Ratings has withdrawn the Short-Term National Scale rating at ‘N1+(peru)’ due to the expiration of that batch of Ceviche. The Rating outlook has been revised to Stable from Positive.
The upgrade of Ceviche de Corvina reflects its delicate flavor, which derives from an artful combination of zingy lime juice, piquant chili peppers, fresh kernels of crunchy corn and raw Sea Bass (BBB; Stable Outlook), of which it is a bankruptcy-remote, non-recourse subsidiary.
Fish Ratings also factors into the Long-Term FDR and Rating Outlook the likelihood that the dainty appetizer will gain in popularity among hip young urbanites as an offbeat alternative to Tuna Poke (A+; Positive Outlook).
“The traditional leche de tigre marinade is a bright and precise cocktail of lime and ají chilis,” said Gustav Creosote, Senior Ratings Analyst and Chief Restaurant Critic at Fish Ratings. “Though you might wish that the ají had been applied with a little more restraint.”
Scholars are divided on the origin of the word ceviche, suggesting variously (and plausibly) that it derives from either the Latin word for food, cibus; the unattested Middle Persion *sikbāg, meaning vinegar soup (via Andalusian Arabic, of course); or the local Quechua word siwichi.
The rating includes a two-notch uplift as a result of the implied support of the Government of Peru, of which it is a national dish (although its origin is hotly contested by other Latin American sovereigns).
Furthermore, the use of traditional Sea Bass in this recipe lends the dish an air of authenticity that can be lacking in some peers, such as Red Snapper Ceviche (‘A-’; Negative Outlook), which was placed on Rating Watch Negative in November 2019 following the departure from Dick’s Ocean Grill of long-standing head chef Jaques Shiraz the previous August (see related research).
Photo by Picanteria karol (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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