Peruvian cooking was built in three layers. The Andean base contributed potatoes — there are over three thousand varieties — along with maize, quinoa and chillies. The colonial period brought onion, garlic, lime and frying. And from the nineteenth century two waves of migration changed everything: the Chinese, which produced chifa cooking, and the Japanese, from which nikkei cuisine emerged.
The dishes to try
Ceviche is the emblem, but hardly the only one. Lomo saltado — strips of beef stir-fried with onion, tomato, soy sauce and chips, served with rice — is the perfect illustration of that Chinese-Peruvian fusion. Ají de gallina is shredded chicken in a thick sauce of yellow chilli, bread and milk. Anticuchos, marinated grilled beef-heart skewers, are sold from carts as evening falls and rank among the best street food you will eat anywhere.
To start, papa a la huancaína (boiled potato under a yellow chilli and cheese sauce) and causa. From the highlands, Arequipa's rocoto relleno, genuinely hot, and cuy, guinea pig, served whole roasted or fried and part of the Andean diet for thousands of years. In the Amazon, juane — rice and chicken wrapped in bijao leaf — and river fish such as paiche.
The chillies
They are worth learning to tell apart, because they are not interchangeable. Ají amarillo is fruity and mild, and colours half of criollo cooking. Ají panca, dried and smoky, forms the base of marinades. Rocoto is properly hot. Ají limo, small and aromatic, is the one used in ceviche.
What to drink
The pisco sour — pisco, lime, syrup, egg white and angostura bitters — is the national cocktail; the chilcano, with ginger ale, is lighter and drunk more often. Chicha morada, made from purple maize boiled with pineapple and spices, is alcohol-free and accompanies almost any lunch. And Inca Kola, yellow and intensely sweet, is an institution worth trying once.
Eating well cheaply
Look for the menú del día: starter, main and drink at a fixed price, in neighbourhood places at lunchtime. It is the best value in the country and where locals actually eat. The markets — San Pedro in Cusco, Surquillo or the Mercado Central in Lima, San Camilo in Arequipa — always have a food section that works.