What is juane?
Rice and chicken, with olive and egg, wrapped in a bijao leaf and cooked. In the Amazon it is Sunday food. Unwrap it and eat the contents. The leaf is packaging.
Amazon
What to Eat in Iquitos
Written by the Peruvify team in Lima, from the catalog of 205 dishes, drinks, desserts and fruits. Last updated .
What to eat in Iquitos is jungle food: juane on Sunday, tacacho with cecina, river fish in a leaf or off a grill, and cold drinks made from aguaje or camu camu. The city sits on the Amazon with no road to Lima. You fly or you take a boat. The pantry does not match Cusco or the coast, and it should not.
A port city, not a spice rub of Lima
Iquitos is hot, humid and built on the river. Markets sell fruit with names that never show up in a Miraflores supermarket, and cooked food wrapped in bijao leaves. Eat at markets and ordinary restaurants. You do not need a staged tour of someone else's neighborhood to find lunch.
Paiche on menus is often farmed. That is the normal restaurant fish, and it is a better expectation than a story about a wild giant. Plantain comes with almost everything, fried, mashed or in the drink called chapo.
Plates to look for
The catalog's Amazon dishes, limited to what a visitor in Iquitos can realistically order.
Juane #69
CommonAmazon (Selva)
Rice and chicken, olive and egg, wrapped in a bijao leaf and boiled. Sunday is juane day. Eat it with your hands. The leaf is the wrapper, not a salad.
Rice and chicken wrapped in bijao leaves.
Ingredients: Rice, Chicken, Egg, Olives, Bijao leaf.
Tacacho con Cecina #70
CommonAmazon (Selva)
Mashed green plantain fried into dense rounds, plus cecina, which is smoked pork. This is the other essential plate. It is not vegetarian.
Mashed green plantain balls with smoked pork.
Ingredients: Plantain, Smoked pork, Pork lard.
Patarashca #72
RareAmazon (Selva)
River fish grilled inside a bijao leaf with ají dulce. A clean pescatarian order, and a good one if you have already had pork for lunch.
River fish grilled in bijao leaves.
Ingredients: Fish, Bijao leaf, Ají dulce.
Paiche a la Parrilla #73
EpicAmazon (Selva)
Grilled paiche with plantain and yuca. Expect farmed fish. The portion is a steak, not a ceviche.
Grilled paiche, giant Amazon fish.
Ingredients: Paiche, Plantain, Yuca.
Timbuche #77
EpicAmazon (Selva)
A light fish broth. Useful if the heat has you uninterested in fried plantain. Still a fish dish.
Restorative Amazon fish broth.
Ingredients: Fish, Cilantro, Plantain.
Inchicapi #71
RareAmazon (Selva)
Chicken, peanut and yuca soup. Thicker than timbuche, and a chicken dish, so it leaves the pescatarian list.
Chicken, peanut and yuca soup.
Ingredients: Chicken, Peanuts, Yuca, Cilantro.
Ceviche de Cocona #82
EpicAmazon (Selva)
Fish cured with cocona, a tart Amazon fruit, instead of the lime-only coast style. Different ceviche. Eat it fresh, at lunch.
Jungle ceviche with cocona fruit.
Ingredients: Fish, Cocona, Lime, Ají dulce.
Ensalada de Chonta #74
RareAmazon (Selva)
Palm heart, tomato and avocado. The straightforward meatless plate. Palm heart is a vegetable. Suri, the grub, is not.
Fresh palm heart salad.
Ingredients: Palm heart, Tomato, Avocado, Lime.
Plátano Frito #99
CommonAmazon (Selva)
Fried sweet plantain. Order it beside something grilled, or on its own if you want a snack that starts no arguments.
Fried sweet plantain slices.
Ingredients: Plantain.
Suri #76
LegendaryAmazon (Selva)
Suri is a grilled palm grub. It is traditional, it is cooked, and most visitors skip it. Skipping it does not ruin the trip. The juane will.
Grilled palm grubs, the bravest Amazon bite.
Ingredients: Palm grub, Salt.
Drinks that are actually from here
Leave the pisco sour for the coast. These are the glasses the market knows.
Aguajina #136
RareAmazon (Selva)
Aguajina is a drink of aguaje, a palm fruit. Thick, orange, and sold cold. Start here if the fruit itself looks unfamiliar.
Aguaje fruit refresher.
Ingredients: Aguaje, Sugar.
Jugo de Camu Camu #144
RareAmazon (Selva)
Camu camu juice. Very tart, very famous for vitamin C, and easy to find sweetened. Taste before you add more sugar.
Vitamin C bomb from the Amazon.
Ingredients: Camu camu, Sugar.
Masato #135
EpicAmazon (Selva)
Masato is fermented yuca. It is a local drink with alcohol in it, mild or not depending on the batch. Ask before you treat it as juice.
Fermented yuca drink of the Amazon.
Ingredients: Yuca.
Chapo #137
RareAmazon (Selva)
Chapo is ripe plantain blended into a sweet drink, often with milk. Cold, and closer to a smoothie than to a cocktail.
Sweet plantain drink.
Ingredients: Plantain, Milk.
Heat, water, and diets
Drink bottled or boiled water. The heat makes that a same-morning decision, not a slogan. Eat cooked food that is still hot, and fruit you peeled yourself, if your stomach is already unsure.
Vegetarians have plantain, yuca, palm heart salad and a lot of fruit. They do not have an easy time with juane or tacacho. Use the vegetarian guide and ask sin carne every time. Pescatarians are in better shape: patarashca, paiche, timbuche and cocona ceviche, plus every meatless plate. That split is the pescatarian page.
Nothing on this list prepares you for Lima or the other way around. If Iquitos is the only city on the trip, you still have a full menu. If it is day three after Cusco, expect to reset.
Questions
Do I have to eat suri?
No. Suri is a grilled palm-tree grub. People who grew up with it eat it cooked. Visitors often do not. Juane, tacacho and paiche are the meal. Suri is optional.
What is paiche?
A large Amazon fish. Restaurants commonly serve farmed paiche. You will see it grilled or shredded, usually with plantain or yuca.
What should I drink in Iquitos?
Aguaje or camu camu if you want a juice, chapo if you want sweet plantain, and water you trust. Masato is fermented. A pisco sour is a coastal drink that happens to be on some hotel menus.
Keep reading
- The catalog, ranked by chaseThe Best Food in PeruEveryday plates, dishes worth a detour, and the five legendary ones.
- Fish, no land meatPescatarian Food in PeruCeviche, trout, paiche and the other catalog dishes that are seafood without beef, pork or chicken.
- Meatless, checkedVegetarian Food in PeruPlates, street snacks and desserts with no meat, fish or insect in the catalog ingredients.
- The whole menuWhat to Eat in PeruHow lunch works, how the three regions differ, and which city owns which plate.