Fresh ingredients
All great food starts with great ingredients and Peruvian
cuisine is no different. Even cheap corner restaurants rely on good, fresh
ingredients every day and you can quite simply taste the results! Some of the
basic ingredients which you'll see throughout your holiday in Peru include:
- Aji - similar to chilli peppers,
they are usually yellow, orange or red and are often served
in a dipping sauce. They're about the same heat as a decent
birdseye chili in the UK
- Limon - Peruvian lemons. They look
more like our limes and are kind of in-between a lemon and a
lime and twice as delicious. Used in everything from
cocktails to salad dressings.
- Papa amarillo - Yellow Potato. Peru
is, of course, the home of the potato, with over 5000
registered types! You get potatoes with every meal, usually
chipped or boiled but sometimes stuffed or mashed.
- Arroz - Rice! Usually just boiled with garlic and salt, you'll get this with
every meal as well (yes, we know - why do you have to have both? Just trust us
- you do.) but it's also often served like a pilau, with saffron, other spices
and vegetables.
Regional Cooking
Each region's cuisine is not just subtly different - it's a
whole new ball game. From the rich and sweet delights of the coast to the spicy
treats and creamy cheeses of the highlands, there's a wealth of variation in
Peruvian cooking that ensures there's always something new to try. It means that at every step on your holiday in Peru there is a new delicacy to check out. There are
also a few favourites that get repeated wherever you go and which are usually
pretty dependable. Here's our quick guide to what you should eat, and where. If
you fancy trying some of these before you go then you probably want to have a
quick look at our recipes
page!
Lima and the Coast: Criollo y
Marinero
As you'd expect, seafood plays a large part in coastal menus
and the coast is home to Peru's national dish: ceviche. This
is a dish either of white fish or a mixture of fish and other seafood,
marinaded in Peruvian lemon, coriander, aji and garlic. It's not often that you
describe a meal as refreshing but that's what it is - an absolute must-eat! We recommend you try it in Pisco.
Chinese and Japanese influences are also more obvious on the
coast (Chinese food, or chifa, is excellent here as well). This is brought to
the fore in the criollo classic of lomo saltado: strips of
beef, flash-fried with tomato, garlic, aji, red onion, red pepper and perhaps a
dash of red wine. Gorgeous! You'll find good chinese restaurants everywhere but those in Lima are probably the best!
There's just too much to mention here but we'll finish off with
a quick mention of aji de gallina. It's a creamy,
chicken-based dish cooked with walnuts and parmesan that's kind of similar to a
good korma and is an absolute classic.
Highland Cuisine
In the Andes, the food employs more vegetables and tends more
towards the 'fresh and spicy' than the rich sauces of the coastal dishes. The
seafood is usually not as good as in Lima although trout and the other
freshwater fish to be found in the lakes and rivers of the region are
excellent, as are the huge variety of andean cheeses. For fish dishes, it's hard to beat Lake Titicaca.
 Specialities
of the region include alpaca. The alpaca is a smaller, cuter
version of a llama but please don't let that stop you - it has a wonderful,
kind of venison-y, porky, beefy taste and if you can find it in a French-style
white wine sauce then you're in heaven (we can probably help you out!). Oh, and
we did we mention it only has 1% fat?
The other mountain classic, although it can be hard to find, is
a real pre-Inca speciality called pachamanca. This consists of
a variety of meats which are wrapped up (usually in tin-foil these days) and
placed in a hole in the ground together with hot stones. This has the effect of
steaming the meat in its own juices!
Also worth a mention, particularly in Arequipa, is rocoto
relleno - stuffed spicy andean peppers. It's similar to how you
might find stuffed peppers in the UK but because the peppers are slightly spicy
it gives it a bit of a kick! They are usually stuffed with minced beef and
quinua - a primitive grain that's been used in Peru for thousands of years -
but they can make a good vegetarian alternative as well.
The Jungle
Without being unfair to rainforest-based chefs, the jungle is
known more for its ingredients than its haute cuisine. Food here tends to be
simply cooked but its strength lies in the incredible diversity of ingredients.
You can eat a different fish or fruit every day - each more delicious than the
last! Of particular note among the fruits is the chirimoya which
you can find in shops up and down Peru. It looks kind of like an avocado but
(and please believe us) it tastes like strawberry-and-cream sweets! And it's good
for you!
As far as dishes to try in the jungle go, then a good tip is
the Inkicapi - a spicy chicken soup/casserole (depending on
where you are) cooked with peanuts, coriander and yucca. Hot soup might not
sound like the kind of thing to be eating in the middle of the jungle but trust
us - it's surprisingly refreshing!
Desserts and Sweets
One word: sweet. Peruvians love their dulces, or
'sweet things' and their desserts are often incredibly sweet to europeans. If
you get the menú in a restaurant you will always get a little dessert
- it may just be jelly, it may be a flan - a kind of set custard - or it
may be a little grander. Whatever it is, you can be sure it will be very, very
sweet!
Another word: churros. In our eyes, all the other Peruvian
desserts and treats fall by the wayside when compared to the awesome churros.
Mainly available in Lima, imagine a doughnut shaped like a head of corn. Now
fill it with caramel. Then coat in in sugar. Then deep-fry it. Now coat it in
sugar again. Ready? Now deep-fry it again. Then coat it in sugar once more,
just to be sure, and serve warm: preferably in a brown paper bag on the street
for you to eat on the way to the dentists! Oh boy, it's good...
Peruvian Staples
Aside from the regional specialities, there are a number of
dishes that you can find pretty much everywhere and which are very unlikely to
let you down. Foremost among these is the classic pollo a la brasa.
You'll find pollerias everywhere in Peru and they essentially do one
thing very well: spit-roasted chicken and chips. Perhaps with a salad, but
that's about it. This jack-of-one-trade really pays off, though - it's probably
the best grilled chicken in the world and you can be in and out in 15 minutes!
This is what fast food should be about.
You'll also find common ways of preparing food such as chicharrones
- crispy, battered pieces of chicken, turkey or fish - and milanesa
- chicken, turkey or fish, pressed flat and fried in breadcrumbs. These are
both usually served with rice, potatoes and the standard Peruvian salad of raw
red onion, chopped tomato and lettuce, with a lemony dressing.
Vegetarian Food in Peru
It has to be said that Peruvians love their meat and most of
their traditional dishes are based around either fish or meat but that doesn't
mean you can't eat well if you don't like eating dead things! Most restaurants
are used to serving vegetarian customers and can provide vegetarian
alternatives, it just means that you may have to eat a more 'international'
cuisine rather than trying all the Peruvian specialities. It's also worth
remembering that the Peruvian take on chinese and italian food is very good and
rice or noodle-based traditional dishes like arroz con pollo and
tallarin saltado can easily be made (and ordered!) with vegetables
instead of meat. Just let us know before you travel and we'll make sure you go
equipped!
Brandy! Peruvian Drinks
And that's without starting on the drinks! Peru boasts several
good lagers: particularly cuzqueña and arequipeña.
Although originating from Cuzco, you can find cuzqueña throughout the country
and it is generally acknowledged as being the best in Peru. In our view,
however, Arequipeña is actually slightly better, although outside Arequipa it
can be hard to find.
Cuzqueña and some other beers are also available in a 'malta'
or 'dark' version and they are really tasty - similar to a brown ale but richer
and more hoppy although unless you're a seasoned guiness drinker you might find
more than a few sit a little heavy!
Peru produces good dessert wines, particularly in the area
around Ica but they are usually a bit sweet to drink with a main course. There
are a few dry reds (almost no whites) but you will find plenty of Argentinian
or Chilean bottles if you'd rather stick to what you know. Where Peru does
excel is in the production of Pisco - the traditional Peruvian brandy. This is
a clear brandy that is drunk neat, with mixers and in cocktails like the famous
Pisco Sour - see our recipe page
for instructions!
Pisco is currently the subject of international arbitration
between Peru and Chile as the dastardly chileans are claiming that they
'invented' both Pisco and Pisco sours. Without getting too involved, we'll just
note that the area around Pisco was where the first vineyards in the New World
were planted and that the brandy from this area has been known as 'Pisco' since
the 17th century. By contrast, the Chileans renamed their village of La Union
to 'Pisco Elqui' in 1936 by government order... Draw your own conclusions!
To download this information as a PDF file
click here
To visit our Peru recipes page
click here or
To go back to our main guide to Peru
click here
|