Peruvian food 1 - General

One of the things Peruvians pride the most about is their food. Do you want to engage into a long and nice conversation with them? Start on the food topic. Different areas of Peru(Jungle, Coast or Mountains) will have diferente types of typical food.

In this post, I want to show you some general food. Somethings you will be able to find in most of the country.

1.     1. Ceviche – the national dish

The first Ceviche I ate in Peru. Fish with sea food.

Ceviche is a mouth watering way of preparing diferente types of fish. The base of it is fish, very accid limes and spice(ají limo). It is usually accompanied by sweet potato, corn and onions. The fish is cooked only in super accid juice of their “limón criollo”. It has a raw-ish kinda of texture,

When I think of ceviche the first thing that comes to my mind is someone during summer time saying: "This heat is asking for a fresh ceviche and a cold beer". And the funny thing is that just a few days ago I heard exactly the same thing coming out of a Brazilian friend´s mouth who is a big fan of peruvian food.

This dish can also be prepared with other types of seafood and I confess I like this more than only fish.

If you go to a Cevicheria, usually they will ask what level of spice you want. No spice, medium spicy or what I would call freaking hot. In case you go to a restaurant and they don´t ask, make sure you ask for the level of spicy you want, otherwise they will assume is peruvian stile, which is usually quite hot.

2. Papa a la huancaína

Mise en place for my first huancaína

Peru has this very flavourful and versatile pepper that is called “escabeche”. A long and Orange pepper wich can be used only for the taste or also do add some spicyness. This is one big condiment into peruvian cuisine. Lots of dishes will have this as a base especially in the north of Peru.

With this pepper they make this sauce named Huancaína that, even though it has origin in the city of Huancayo, is prepared everywhere in the country and served as a starter, before the main meal.

Papa a la huancaína is made out of a boiled potato topped with the yellow sauce, lying in a leaf of lettuce and that has a piece of boiled egg and a black olive.

The first time I prepared papa a la Huancaina, also fried some coxinha(a brazilian snack)

You can buy it ready made in the suppermarket, but everyone who has eaten this dish will agree that a fresh homemade huancaína sauce will be the best you can ever get. People can dose how much more of cheese or the pepper that they prefer.

  3. Lomo saltado

A lomo saltado - picture I borrowed from my Friend Vanessa

Lomo saltado would be translated as sauteed beef, which is sliced beef sauted with  tomato, the scabeche pepper in slices and red onions condimented with soy sauce and some people will put some of their national drink(Pisco). The latter adds an amazing extra flavor to the dish. This is mixed with fried potatoes(I am trying to avoind the Chips x Fries controversies) and has white rice as a side.

The cut which is officially used for this dish is a bit expensive, so in daily meals it would be prepared with different/cheaper cuts of beef and will be called “Lomito Saltado”.

There are versions of this dish with chicken and one of the tastiest versions I ever had was prepared with pork. 

    4.  Pollo a la Brasa

I need to start already apologizing to peruvians for what I am going to write about their Pollo a la brasa, because I know how much they proud themselves of this dish. The problem is that, personally, it is basically a roasted chicken. My friends would usually not invite me out to eat this because I would much rather have chicharrón or Broaster(which are some crunchy versions of the chicken).

Pollo a la brasa is usually served with fried potatoes and a salad of crunchy lettuce and tomatoes topped with lemony very flavourful dressing.

If you ever go to Peru and you want to try it, my suggestion is: Ask advice for a local! They will usually know a place that has a good and juicy pollo a la brasa.

   5. Causa rellena

At first sight, Causa looks like mashed potato with some fillings. However it is not prepared with plain mashed potatoes, they mix with a kind of sauce prepared with the scabeche pepper blended with a few other condiments. In a daily bases, this will be prepared with chicken or tuna. In more special ocasions and places you can find it filled with avocado and basically any kind of animal protein, being more common fish, chicken or sea food.  My favorite version of it would be with prawns and what they call “salsa acevichada” which is a lemon and mayo based sauce.

Usually it is made round and small, bur once I made for friends so I made a big one.

Even though these dishes can be found in most regions of the country, every place and every cook will have their own peculiarity. They will add more of on ingredient or will put some different condiment. No matter what differences there are among the preparations, the food is always prepared with love and pride, which makes it even tastier.

Soon, I will publish some few other posts about food, but the next posts will have  diferente dishes you can find only in specific areas of Peru.