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Pisco and Chincha

What to Eat in Ica

Written by the Peruvify team in Lima, from the catalog of 205 dishes, drinks, desserts and fruits. Last updated .

What to eat in Ica is pisco, the candies called tejas, and a coastal lunch if you reach Paracas. A short ride north, Chincha serves sopa seca and carapulcra as a pair. Ica is a desert stop on the way to Huacachina more than it is a second Lima. Do not expect the Arequipa pepper or an Amazon leaf.

Three stops, one region

Ica the city, Huacachina the oasis, and the bodegas in the valley are the usual loop. People come for sand and for pisco. Eat on that loop, then decide if you have an extra meal in Chincha or on the Paracas coast. Those are different kitchens inside the same region.

Pisco is a grape brandy. Ica is one of the places allowed to make it, and it is the valley most short trips actually visit. The town named Pisco is on the coast nearby. You can drink the brandy in Lima. Drinking it here, next to the vines, is the reason to stop.

Pisco, and the candy next to it

You can do this stop without drinking. The tejas still make sense. The five drinks explain the cocktails in more detail.

  • Pisco #142

    CommonCoast (Costa)

    A small glass of pisco, neat, is the bodega order. Smell it before you turn it into a cocktail. It is alcoholic and it is not sweet wine.

    Peru's grape brandy, served neat.

    Ingredients: Pisco.

  • Pisco Sour #127

    CommonCoast (Costa)

    The sour: pisco, lime, sugar, egg white, bitters. Fine at a bodega in the afternoon. Do not drive a dune buggy afterward.

    Pisco, lime, egg white and bitters.

    Ingredients: Pisco, Lime, Egg, Sugar.

  • Chilcano de Pisco #130

    CommonCoast (Costa)

    Pisco and ginger ale. Lighter than a sour. Still not a driving drink.

    Pisco with ginger ale and lime.

    Ingredients: Pisco, Ginger ale, Lime.

  • C贸ctel de Algarrobina #138

    RareCoast (Costa)

    Pisco with algarrobina, a carob syrup, plus milk and egg. Sweeter, and very much an Ica flavor. The carob trees are a desert crop.

    Pisco with carob syrup and milk.

    Ingredients: Pisco, Algarrobina, Milk, Egg.

  • Tejas #120

    RareCoast (Costa)

    Tejas are the local candy: manjar blanco inside a fruit or nut shell. Buy a small box. They are a food, and also the thing everyone carries onto the bus.

    Ica fruit candies filled with manjar.

    Ingredients: Manjar blanco, Pecans, Sugar.

  • Chocotejas #121

    CommonCoast (Costa)

    A teja dipped in chocolate. Same idea, messier in a hot car. Eat one before you pack the rest.

    Chocolate-covered tejas.

    Ingredients: Chocolate, Manjar blanco, Pecans.

Chincha and Paracas

Chincha is Afro-Peruvian cooking on the same regional map. Paracas is the marine reserve and the fish lunch.

  • Sopa Seca #13

    RareCoast (Costa)

    Sopa seca is not a soup. It is a dry noodle bake with basil, from Chincha. The name traps people. It arrives as noodles.

    Chinchano dry noodle bake with basil.

    Ingredients: Noodles, Basil, Aj铆 panca, Chicken.

  • Carapulcra #12

    RareCoast (Costa)

    Carapulcra is a dried-potato stew with pork and peanuts. Chincha serves it with sopa seca. Order the pair if you eat pork. Skip both if you do not.

    Dried potato stew with pork and peanuts.

    Ingredients: Dried potato, Pork, Peanuts, Aj铆 panca.

  • Chicharr贸n de Pescado #31

    CommonCoast (Costa)

    Crispy fried fish with yuca, the right Paracas order when you do not want another raw ceviche. Eat it by the water, at lunch.

    Crispy fried fish bites.

    Ingredients: Fish, Yuca, Red onion.

  • Ceviche #1

    CommonCoast (Costa)

    If you do want ceviche, Paracas is a fair place for it. Same rule as Lima: lunch, busy room, fish cut that morning.

    Raw fish cured in lime with chili and red onion.

    Ingredients: Fish, Lime, Aj铆 limo, Red onion, Sweet potato, Corn.

If you are not drinking

Tejas, chocotejas, a fish lunch in Paracas, and the Chincha noodles if you eat pork. The desert is also full of people who only came for the oasis. You can join them and still eat.

This is a weak city for a vegetarian on the stew side. Carapulcra has pork. The candies and the fruit are the easy yes. Check the vegetarian guide before you assume a menu del d铆a is meatless. For a bigger criollo spread, eat in Lima on the way in or out.

Questions

Is pisco from Ica?

Ica is one of the regions that produces pisco, and it is the one most visitors tour. Other coastal valleys make it too. A bodega visit here is about seeing the brandy, not about claiming no other place may distill it.

What are tejas?

Candies from Ica filled with manjar blanco, often with pecan or dried fruit, sometimes covered in chocolate and then called chocotejas. They travel well. A hot backpack does them no favors.

What is sopa seca?

A Chincha noodle dish. The name means dry soup. You get basil noodles, not a bowl of broth. It is traditionally served with carapulcra.

Can I visit Ica without drinking?

Yes. Eat tejas, walk the oasis, and have fish in Paracas if you go to the coast. The bodegas will still offer you a taste. You can say no.

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