FOOD
Peruvian food can be excellent. There’s a tradition of good eating and drinking that goes back to the days of the Incas. Pedro Pizarro reported that when the Inca Atahualpa ate: ‘Ladies brought in his meal and placed it before him on tender thin green rushes. … They placed before him all his vessels of gold, silver and pottery on these rushes. He pointed to whatever he fancied and it was brought. One of his ladies took it and held it in her hand while he ate.’
Meat
You will get bored with lomo (beef loin steak) cooked cordon bleu (stuffed with cheese and ham), milanesa (beaten into a thin steak, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried), and a lo pobre (fried with an egg on top). Chicken is often cooked in these ways too, or just plain roasted. Parilladas (a mixed grill and a restaurant that sells grilled meat) are generally very good and filling, if lacking in imagination.
More interesting dishes are lomo saltado (strips of beef cooked in onions, peppers, tomatoes and soy sauce, served with rice), anticucho (heart (beef) kebabs), causa rellena (a very slightly spiced potato cake mixed with tuna or chicken), aji de gallina (shredded chicken stewed in a gently spiced cream sauce) and the artery-hardening chicharrones (deep-fried chunks of pork or pork skin).
Fish
The coast of Peru has truly excellent fish: congrio (a pacific conger eel), lenguado (sole), corvina (sea bass) and shellfish. Try jalea (fried whitebait), chupe de camarones (special prawn chowder), and especially the traditional Peruvian dish ceviche (raw white fish marinated in lemon and onion and served with two types of maize). Ceviche originated when coastal slaves weren’t allowed to cook food on fires and had to prepare their fish in another way – they invented cold cooking with lemon juice.
Other dishes
The potato was first cultivated in Peru as long as 10,000 years ago. Today, scientists have identified more than 4000 potato varieties, many of which are only found in Peru. Not surprisingly Peruvians have come up with many ways of cooking them. Some of the waxy, firm beauties you eat out here will put to shame the humble spuds you get at home. You could also try chuño, which is potato that’s been freeze-dried. Freeze-drying is a traditional way of preserving potatoes for leaner times by leaving them out in the bitterly cold Andean nights.
Peru is also home to around 35 types of maize, more than anywhere else on earth. Corn has been cultivated in Peru since at least 1200bc. You can find it on the cob, choclo (often served at markets or train stations with a hunk of fresh cheese, choclo con queso), boiled, ground, toasted or fermented into chicha (see below). Corn is also used to make cornmash, pastries called tamales and humitas, which can come in a wide range of colours (green, brown and yellow) and flavours (sweet and savoury).
Peruvians are good at replicating other country’s cuisines: pasta is often freshly made and first-class (Cusco is famous for its pizzerias) and Chinese food (Chifa) is also good.
Dessert
For dessert, there are picarones (light fried doughnuts on a plate of honey) and mazamorra morada (a sweet-tasting dish derived from purple maize), which looks like jelly.
DRINK
Non-alcoholic
Tea is usually served without milk but with sugar and lemon. Herb teas are often available. In Cusco you should try maté de coca, which is made from coca leaves and said to help alleviate the symptoms of altitude sickness. It’s available in most restaurants. Coffee is usually served as coffee essence that you add to hot water; instant coffee is better. In some places you can now get a cappuccino or espresso. Don’t drink water from taps or streams without first purifying it (see p179). Alternatively you can buy bottled mineral water. Coke, Pepsi, Fanta and Sprite are widely available. You’re going to have to try the ubiquitous home-grown soft drink, Inca Cola, at least once – the name’s too intriguing to miss. It tastes like bubblegum.
Alcoholic
Avoid Peruvian wine, it’s not very good, and drink Chilean or Argentinian wine instead. However, the Peruvian spirit Pisco (distilled from grapes) is a gift from the gods. Be prepared: it’s strong though usually drunk diluted in the refreshing cocktail Pisco Sour. The Chileans claim that they were the ones who invented Pisco, but it’s probably Peruvian.
The beer is watery lager and it all seems to taste the same; brands include Cristal, Cusqueña, and Arequipeña.
Chicha is a maize wine/beer that dates back to the time of the Incas – you can identify houses that have chicha for sale because they fly red flags or bin-bags from sticks. The historian Prescott described it as sparkling champagne, but then he’d never tasted it. Another historian, John Hemming, more realistically describes it as murky pale cider.
Different areas of Peru make chicha in different ways; the chicha from the Cusco region is made as follows: maize grains are soaked overnight, and then put in the sun to germinate. When they are part-germinated, they are boiled up, and then strained through a sieve. The liquid produced is called upi, and it’s put to one side. The maize grains left in the sieve are boiled once more, and then sieved again, which produces a liquid called seque. The seque and the upi are then mixed to produce chicha, and the residue is fed to animals. Chicha is often flavoured with cinnamon and cloves, and sweetened with molasses.
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