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Written by the Peruvify team in Lima, from the catalog of 205 dishes, drinks, desserts and fruits. Last updated .
If you try seven Peruvian dishes and then go home, make them these: ceviche, lomo saltado, ají de gallina, pollo a la brasa, anticuchos, rocoto relleno and tacacho con cecina. The first five are easy to find on the coast. Rocoto relleno is Arequipa. Tacacho is the Amazon. Together they stop the trip tasting like one city.
Numbers are catalog IDs, the same ones the app stores. A longer rarity edit lives on the best food page. This one is the week-one shopping list.
CommonCoast (Costa)
Day one, at lunch. Ask which fish they cut this morning if the menu offers a choice. Skip it as a late dinner.
Raw fish cured in lime with chili and red onion.
Ingredients: Fish, Lime, Ají limo, Red onion, Sweet potato, Corn.
CommonCoast (Costa)
Share it if the portion arrives looking like two meals. You want the salty tomato edge and the fries in the same bite as the rice.
Wok-fried beef with tomato, onion and fries.
Ingredients: Beef, Tomato, Red onion, Soy sauce, Potato, Rice.
CommonCoast (Costa)
Order this when the table wants comfort, not heat. Yellow chili, shredded chicken, a black olive and egg on the side are the usual plate.
Creamy shredded chicken in yellow chili sauce.
Ingredients: Chicken, Ají amarillo, Bread, Milk, Pecans, Rice.
CommonCoast (Costa)
The easy dinner. A quarter chicken feeds one person. Use the green sauce. A pollería is the right room, more than a hotel restaurant.
Rotisserie chicken with fries and green sauce.
Ingredients: Chicken, Potato, Ají, Salad.
CommonCoast (Costa)
Night food from a grill. It is beef heart. Decide before you smell it, because the smell is persuasive and the answer is still offal.
Grilled beef heart skewers.
Ingredients: Beef heart, Ají panca, Potato, Corn.
RareAndes (Sierra)
Leave the coast for this one. The pepper is hot. Sin picante means the cook cleans more of the vein out. It does not mean a bell pepper.
Stuffed hot rocoto pepper with beef and cheese.
Ingredients: Rocoto, Beef, Fresh cheese, Egg.
CommonAmazon (Selva)
Green plantain, smashed and fried into rounds, with smoked pork. Order it in the jungle. Cecina is that pork, not a garnish you can ignore.
Mashed green plantain balls with smoked pork.
Ingredients: Plantain, Smoked pork, Pork lard.
Then the list shrinks to ceviche, lomo saltado, ají de gallina, pollo a la brasa and anticuchos. Rocoto relleno and tacacho will be on some Lima menus as guest dishes. Eat them where they are ordinary if you can. The Lima guide has the chifa plates this seven leaves out on purpose, because a list of seven cannot also be a list of twenty.
If you do not eat meat, this seven is the wrong list. Four of them are beef, chicken, heart or pork. Use the vegetarian guide or the pescatarian guide instead of forcing this one.
Eat ceviche at lunch, lomo saltado or ají de gallina the next day, and pollo a la brasa one night. Add anticuchos if you are out after dark. Leave rocoto and tacacho for a later trip unless a cook from Arequipa or the jungle is clearly the one in the kitchen.
Rocoto relleno is the hot one. Ceviche has chili and is bright more than it is burning. Ají de gallina is mild. Anticuchos are seasoned, not a chile-eating contest.
Ceviche, lomo saltado, ají de gallina, pollo a la brasa and anticuchos are common catches in the catalog. Rocoto relleno is rare. Tacacho con cecina is a common jungle plate, which still means you need to be in the jungle.