Peruvian cuisine, considered one of the most privileged in the world, inherited from history its ingenuity, its miscegenation and its flavor. The fusion of its cuisine is due to the cultural exchange through time, where Spanish, African, Chinese, Japanese and Italian immigration stand out. The variety of their dishes was born as the miscegenation grew or while the migrants arrived at the port of Callao.
Miscellany highlights the matchless anticucho of heart, while the tacu-tacu and the carapulcra have an African heritage. The nutritious pastas arrived by Italian migrants, whose adaptations resulted in homemade dishes such as green or red noodles. The ceviche, Peruvian flag dish, is born by the fusion with Japanese cuisine. Finally, the Novoandina current shows the native ingredients served in white cloth, in this way the national flavor is recovered from which we feel fully identified.
What food do they eat in Peru?
Peruvian gastronomy is a symbol of pride for each of its inhabitants. It is one of the most extensive and exquisite in the world without a doubt. Every day, representatives of our cuisine create new techniques and variations of dishes that definitely delight the palate of their lucky guests. A country blessed with a privileged kitchen, which costs much to decide which is better than another. However, there are 20 typical dishes of Peru that you should not stop eating:
Ceviche
The most internationally recognized Peruvian gastronomic representative. Reason for pride and national identity symbol. It is so much its success that it is served with different variations in other Latin American countries. This delicious seafood dish is mainly made from pieces of fish, onion, chili, lemon juice and salt. However, depending on the presentation, you can add sweet potato, corn, mountain range and seaweed.
Grilled chicken
This typical flag dish is the most consumed in Peru, its exquisite flavor makes it a favorite when Peruvian families come together. The macerated chicken is cooked to the embers in a special oven, causing it to turn on its own axis. This must-see restaurant in Peru is accompanied by a good portion of crispy potatoes and salad. This succulent dish is so important in Peru that the -Day of the Grilled Chicken- is celebrated on July 16 of each year.
Causa Rellena
Normally you can find this dish in 2 presentations: Causa stuffed with chicken and Causa stuffed with tuna, both of which are extremely delicious. Prepared on the basis of yellow potatoes and green chili pepper, you can add different ingredients such as Peruvian corn, mayonnaise, avocado, hard-boiled egg, olives and lettuce. It is presented in a circular and decorated according to the taste of the chef.
Huancaina's style potato
It can be consumed as an entree or as a background dish. This exquisite dish has its origins in the city of Huancayo, department of Junín. Milk, soda crackers, white cheese and chili are poured into a blender. Next step pour the huancaína cream into yellow potatoes, decorating finally with lettuce and an olive.
Chili pepper
It is a fusion dish of Quechua and Spanish ingredients. This delicacy typical of Peruvian cuisine consists of a thick cream made with shredded chicken, bread, green chili, milk and broth. Served with rice, Peruvian potatoes and decorated with olives, hard-boiled egg and lettuce. Its spicy taste makes it one of the favorites in families.
Barbecue
Made based on heart of beef, although it does not sound very appetizing, it's really delicious! Skewered in sticks of cane and seasoned with ají panca, the anticuchos usually are served accompanied by choclo, golden or sancochadas potatoes and chili. Its usually taken with the traditional Peruvian chicha morada.
Lomo Saltado
A traditional creole dish from Peru. Made based on pieces of meat, onion, tomato and potato chips. Particular for its different preparation technique, placing all the ingredients in the pan very hot and seasoning with pepper, ajinomoto and cumin. Usually, the lomo saltado is accompanied by rice.
Rice with Chicken
Rice grated with parsley and spinach (which gives it the color green) and cooked with peas, carrots and chicken prey. Usually accompanied with Papa a la Huancaína and be decorated with onion.
Pachamanca
One of the most traditional dishes of the Peruvian mountain gastronomy. The way to prepare is quite particular, all its ingredients are cooked in preheated stones placed in the ground. Pork, cow, guinea pig and chicken, together with potatoes, sweet potato, corn, pods and cassava are essential for a good pachamanca.
Roasted Guinea Pig
Of quite peculiar and delicious flavor, the Roasted Guinea Pig is fried in abundant oil, usually in a kitchen made of stones. Accompanied with parboiled potatoes and salad, this dish is rich in proteins and minerals. Enjoy this tipical dish in your tour in Cusco.
Peruvian Juane
One of the most representative dishes of jungle cuisine. Although there are several types of Juane, the ingredients of the original are cassava, rice and chicken. These are wrapped in banana leaves or Bijao leaves. It is traditionally accompanied by Chicha de Jora.
Tacacho
Another dish representative of the Peruvian jungle. The tacacho is a dough made from a plantain base, while the cecina and chorizo is pork. It is usually prepared on the grill. It is prepared with different traditional spices from this part of Peru, which gives it that characteristic local flavor.
Carapulcra
Typical Peruvian traditional dish prepared with dry parboiled potato and accompanied by pork or chicken. The carapulcra is seasoned with spices such as ají panca, ají mirasol and garlic. Stuffed potato
Stuffed hot pepper
The most representative of Arequipa's cuisine. Rocotos are stuffed with ground beef, peas and cheese. Next step, seasoned with cumin and chopped parsley. Although it is traditional of Arequipa, it can be found in Lima without problems.
Peruvian Chaufa Rice
Created by the fusion of Chinese and Peruvian food. It consists of fried rice accompanied by pieces of chicken, egg omelette and different types of meat. A classic of Peruvian cuisine, being able to find this delicious dish in the famous Chifas.
Tacu tacu
Based on a mixture of grained rice and beans from the previous day (beans, lentils, pallares, etc). It can be accompanied with pieces of chicken, meat or fried egg. A little olive oil will give a special touch.
Tamales
Used as a starter in most Peruvian stews. Prepared on the basis of corn, it is stuffed with pork, beef or chicken. You can also include pieces of hard-boiled egg, olives and peanuts.
Traditional Peruvian Breakfast
Most breakfasts in the world tend to be simple between daily, some more than others. However, on holidays, since there is more time to enjoy a good breakfast, they are more elaborate and more plentiful.
This happens in Peru and, depending on the region, the traditional breakfast ingredients vary but, in general, it is usually eaten as the first tamale meal, a corn dough with or without filling cooked between banana leaves; bread with fish or pork rinds, similar to bacon but golden and very spicy, with chopped onion and fried sweet potato (sweet potato), broth of chicken and fruit.
The markets are perhaps the best places to get a good and typical Peruvian breakfast. The yuquitas, are a perfect fritanga that can be found quickly, fried masses made of yucca, which with a fresh fruit juice are a classic to start a morning in the streets of Lima. The meat-filled empanaditas are also a great dish, as well as the chicharrón sandwich stuffed with pork.
The variety of breakfasts is extensive, a tamalito of those who also sell in the streets, a filling accompanied by fried sweet potato and Creole sauce, sausage, bread with sausage huacho (pork) and egg, or French bread with jam, butter, cheese or avocado among other various ingredients that you can choose from.
For lovers of superfoods this country has many to offer, from the Peruvian highlands there are foods that have proven to be really nutritious and healthy, such as maca (root), kiwicha (amaranth) and cañihua (seeds), all wonderful to add to a good plate of fruit or in a smoothie and feel great all morning.
In Cusco, you can enjoy a delicious breakfast in San Pedro´s Market, that you will visit during a City Tour.
The Peruvian Place
The tradition of picanterias revives in the streets of Cusco. The season of a time that barely glimpsed the existence of restaurants to meet the kitchen in improvised dining rooms in private homes. It was enough to knock on the door, wait for the owner or owner to open and ask if there was anything to eat. It could be a source to share, a stew or a spicy with which to distract the hunger and accompany the chicha. The meeting of all ended up turning the moment of a culinary event in which the popular kitchen dressed in their best clothes.
The ladies of the picanterías and chicherías of Peru resemble each other, with their hair tied always tight and the austere smile, because they are matriarchs who govern their kitchens and vindicate the woman in her leading role. Their giant pots smell like hot peppers, strong lemons, fresh fish, rocotos, ribs, grains and local supplies that can not be missed. The picanterías and chicherías are easily reached, to get to know the authentic regional cuisine whose dishes and experience are forever stuck in your memory.
They are worth the stories of these ladies with their chicha in the pitchers in the North and the chombas in the South, fermenting as before, with the different types of corn, and the piqueos, picados or picaus, according to the denomination in each locality.
In a tour along the Sacred Valley, you will have the opportunity to visit a traditional peruvian restaurant, and taste the most delicious and traditional dishes of Cusco.
Fusion Peruvian Restaurant
In Peru there are two types of fusion food. The first is that which originates from a foreign recipe that is replaced or include Peruvian ingredients, or vice versa, ie Peruvian recipe with some foreign ingredients.
The second form of fusion is that which arises from the creativity of contemporary Peruvian chefs or chefs, inventing exquisite dishes using Peruvian and foreign ingredients.
The most popular fusion food is based on Chinese, Japanese, African, Italian, French and Spanish meals.
From the time of the Spanish conquest, Peru received foreign influence for food. But it was from the nineteenth century that this trend increased. This was due to the large number of immigrants who arrived in Peru in those years.
The chifa food
In Peru, the largest food merger has occurred with the Chinese, mainly from the Canton region, who arrived in Peru from the year 1849, and were known by the name coolies.
The food fusion with China is known by the name of Chifa, and is also called the restaurants that sell it.
The chifas appear for the first time in Lima in the year 1920. It is so popular that they have reached, that there are more chifas than cevicherias (restaurant of marine food) and chicken restaurants.
Among the Chifa dishes we have chaufa rice, wonton soup, salted noodle, the combination is very popular (chaufa rice and salted noodle), the chi jau cuy, made with Peruvian rodent called cuy, cooked in oyster sauce, and with a slight spicy flavor due to Peruvian yellow pepper, alpaca wrapping, etc.
Nikkei food
The fusion of Peruvian and Japanese food takes the name of Nikkei, from the eighties, since before it was called Nikkei only Japanese immigrants and their descendants.
It is one of the most sophisticated and most developed meals in recent times. The habit of eating enough fish and rice, has favored the fusion of many Japanese recipes, with Peruvian grains and peppers.
Among Japanese fusion dishes we can mention the ceviches and tiraditos, the makis of different types such as the acevichado, or with the Lima cause, the inka maki, the Japanese rice tacuchaufa, tuna sachimi, the salmon sushi with creole sauce, the sudado with kion and sillao, and the famous olive octopus. This last dish is one of the most traditional, it is based on octopus cuts bathed with olive cream, lemon egg and olives.
Italian fusion
Immigration to Peru occurred mainly between the years 1840 and 1880. Mostly by people who came from the Ligurian region, departing from the port of Genoa. They were the ones who introduced vegetables such as chard, Italian zucchini, spinach, cauliflower and basil that they themselves cultivated in their gardens among other ingredients.
Among the fusion dishes we have, the chard cake that is derived from the Genocide pascualina cake, the mondonguito Italian, it is derived from the trippa to the fiorentina, the green noodles are a variant of the entrance called spaghetti al pesto, a which has been added spinach and served as a basic dish with fried egg or steak.
Spaghetti a la bolognesa is known in Peru as red noodles, with a variant in the tuco, which is prepared based on carrots and served with a chicken prey. Another very popular dish is the menestron soup that is based on the Italian minestrone, but is more forceful, as it has meat, corn, potatoes, beans, cassava, noodles and green beans. The pizzas are very popular and in recent years they have made Peruvian variants, such as the pizza of salted tenderloin or chili pepper.
Peruvian Dinner
The Peruvians eat traditional or fashionable dishes during the night, such as Japanese food, whose base is raw fish with some citrus or seasoned medium. That's because they only ate encephalic fish during the day, because it was thought that it would fall ill when eaten at night.
If we go into the Creole theme, some people are encouraged to eat stewed duck on Fridays in a crowded place, accompanied with potatoes and the inevitable rice. And not to mention the red meat, so common to the grill at night, anticuchos heart, pancita, sweetbreads and endless options, as the traditional lomo saltado that some diners request with mounted egg.
The option of grilled chicken is already tradition, typical chicken-based dish, crispy French fries and accompanying salad, the options that have been added recently are wings and grilled strip to the cylinder and brochettes on the grill, among others.
If we go to a restaurant, a choice of pizzas to suit each client, some dishes based on noodles and sauces in the style of the grandmother. To counteract the cold. we lean towards the traditional chifa, a soup of 7 flavors and since we are acclimated we add some bittersweet dish and the favorite carbohydrate of all Peruvians, rice chaufa.
The most traditional have a turkey or suckling pig with a good coffee, and if the idea is not to eat anything at night, we can do it with the typical lunch.
Another option of hot drink, an emollient, that white shirt salesman is an alchemist preparing concoctions to choose a few muffins, all around the heat that emanates from this position.
For those who like it, there is chicken broth with hard boiled egg, its rocotito and its accompanying threads. Or on the outskirts of a local some stuffed chips to complement the dinner.
If we lean for the sweets the picarones with its famous honey of chancaca and fig and its cachangas for the little ones. Or the famous classic based on purple mazamorra and arroz con leche.
So we can see, the great variety of dishes and alternatives that Peruvian food presents us only for the night. The Peruvian gastronomy shows its great diversity.
Best Tours in Peru
Many are the best tours in Peru, but none is like the Inca Trail Tours, the most famous pedestrian path in the Americas. After flying from the capital of Perú, Lima, you will arrive in Cusco to walk for four days along a path through forests and dense fog, millenary stone steps and discovering the ruins of ancient fortifications and Inca cities, and all the time enjoying majestic views.
- Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu 5 days
- Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu 5 days
- Inca Quarry Trail 4 Days
- 2 Day Inca Trail Tour
- 2 Day Inca Trail with Camping
- 3 Day Inca Trail
- Vilcabamba Hike to Machu Picchu 6 days
- Choquequirao trek to Machu Picchu 9 days
- Ausangate trek 7 days
If you want to visit Machu Picchu, we recommend you to book your Machu Picchu Ticket in advance, so you will enjoy your Vacation in Machu Picchu without any problem.
When is the best time to hike to Machu Picchu?
The best season is during the dry season, which covers the months April to the end of September. In October the rains begin and you can find Machu Picchu covered by clouds. If you travel in June, we recommend you to book the Inti Raymi 2025 Tour that takes place in June 24th, and also hike the Palcoyo Mountain Tour, which is an incredible Rainbow Mountain located in the Andes.
