PERU’S FABULOUS FOOD SCENE
Lima is the epicentre of Peru’s trailblazing cuisine, but remember to venture beyond the capital to the nation’s more far-flung defining culinary destinations.
WHY IT’S SPECIAL
With its sharply contrasting topographical zones of coastal desert, chilly mountains and sweltering rainforest, each of which produces its own independent ingredients and recipes, Peru easily boasts three nations’ cuisines rolled into one. So, tempting as it is to tarry in Lima with its food scene thriving thanks to restaurateurs such as Gastón Acurio and Virgilio Martinez, this nationwide forage for Peru’s tastiest fare necessarily heads elsewhere.
First: the rainforest. Dive in at the deep end in jungle metropolis Iquitos, where juanes (bijao leaves stuffed with steamed rice and meat) hearten the hungry and bizarre Belén Market stockpiles Amazon treats such as sikisapa (fried leafcutter ants) and juices made from fruits you have never heard of.
Fly to Tarapoto then bus it to coastal Chiclayo, northern Peru’s culinary capital. Fill your boots on tortilla de mantarraya (stingray omelette) and save indulging in ceviche, Peru’s lush limemarinated fish dish, for cevicherías (ceviche restaurants) here: consider city speciality ceviche a la brasa, served seared in corn husks. Fly via Lima to the Andes at Jauja, near which Huancayo is the place to taste cuy (guinea pig), papas a la Huancaina (boiled potatoes doused in cheese-and-egg sauce) or trout, enveloped in banana leaves and baked in the mud of a local lake.
Still starving? Continuing south, Ayacucho is the proud progenitor of puca picante, beef-and-potato hotpot in feisty pepper-and-peanut sauce. And finish off your feast in Arequipa with rocoto relleno (spicy stuffed peppers) followed by queso helado, a frozen city dessert jazzed up with cinnamon and coconut.
YOU’LL NEVER FORGET…
Belén Market. This bizarre floating shanty town in Iquitos vends the trippiest Amazonian produce imaginable: larvae for lunch, tree-bark tonics, herbal aphrodisiacs, you name it…
INSIDER TIP
Explore the essence of regional cuisines in Chiclayo at Fiesta Chiclayo Gourmet (restaurantfiestagourmet.com) or in Huancayo at Leopardo (Huanuco 766).
HOW TO DO IT
Fly Lima-Iquitos, Iquitos-Tarapoto, Chiclayo-Lima and Lima-Jauja with Latam (latam.com), Star Peru (starperu.com) and Viva Air (vivaair. com).