301937 Wed Apr 26 22:59:40 -0700 2006 16 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1686809 Hi, what does this food usually consist of? I'm going to Peru in a couple of weeks and am wondering what kind of "traditional" food to expect. Thanks Wed Apr 26 22:59:40 -0700 2006 0 Laurie 1 1686818 Cuy-three times a day. ;-P Thu Apr 27 00:44:47 -0700 2006 1686809 0 Chimayo Joe 2 1686823 Cui for breakfast? Really? I only got it for lunch and dinner. Plus the four basic starch groups: potato, rice, yucca, and that other stuff. Thu Apr 27 01:44:35 -0700 2006 1686818 0 Jef 3 1686825 Nah, I was just messing with someone who seemed like she might be in for a surprise when she found out guinea pig was on the menu there. I don't know much about Peruvian food other than it's fairly spicy. Thu Apr 27 02:16:34 -0700 2006 1686823 0 Chimayo Joe 4 1686828 It was pretty difficult to find Cui. But if you do see it, probably roasting on spits outside a restaurant in a mountain village, definitely try it. It doesn't "taste like chicken" exactly, but there's a nice roasted meat flavor. One time I had it in some sort of lemony cream sauce over rice and there was almost no taste besides the sauce. The texture is very special. Somewhat like cuttlefish sushi without the fish part. RW's dismissals aside, most meals will consist of chicken soup, fried potatoes, boiled yucca, rice, and some other starch -- plantain or yam or corn. An egg maybe. With more than 50% of the population living below the poverty line, food is a basic fuel -- prepared with love, certainly, and with care and expertise -- and not an art form. As soon as you get away from the beach, the resort, the tourist trap, and the chichi part of town, you're in a land of subsistence eating. Thu Apr 27 03:47:39 -0700 2006 1686825 0 Jef 5 1686831 hola, well put. My only food experiences in Peru were in the highlands, town of Puno, around lago Titicaca and the Bolivian border, and it was much as you say. Foods you won't find here in Peruvian restaurants (in addition to the cuy) include the freeze dried form of potatoes, especially the purple (which have found a new home in California) that turn black, and the home brewed maize beer (fermentation initiated with spit).Another grain eaten there, which has found cachet here, is of course quinoa. The "chifas" (Peruvian-chinese) often provide a pleasant alternative to the other inexpensive eateries,spicy in a different way than the chinese-american hunan or szechuan spicy, and are sources to get more veggies in one's diet, given the multi-starch and boiled meat with spicy sauce repetoire of the local fare. If the o.p. makes it down to Titicaca, there's good and cheap fresh fish cafes. salud Thu Apr 27 06:04:14 -0700 2006 1686828 0 moto 6 1686854 Peruvian food is a blend of a whole lot of influences. The chifas are one of them. Some dishes date back to the Incas. Freeze dried potatoes are one of them. It's cold in the mountains and to freeze them, people simply left the potatoes outside. As they did everywhere they visited, from Mexico to the Phillippines, the Spanish left another strong influence. That's more prevalent in the big cities, the Inca stuff is found in villages. Thu Apr 27 12:40:44 -0700 2006 1686831 0 Brian S 3 1686826 Cute, but not very helpful. Cuy is guinea pig, although from my understanding it is not the same thing as the pet. This was an interesting article about someone's trip to Peru with pictures of cuy. http://www.peru-travel-adventures.com/peru-articles-11-5-2002.html However, it's not all cuy and alpaca. My limited experience comes from eating at local Peruvian restaurants in the SF ares. So, far from an expert, but here's a little of what I learned. First of all, what part of Peru will you be traveleing to? There are four regional differences. Also, how adventurous are you? There's lots of potato-based dishes in Peru since that is the birthplace of the potato. They have over 4000 varietes. Ocopa is boiled potatoes with a sauce of cheese and nuts. The odd thing about this is that it is cold. The olopa I tried was thick slices of boiled potato covered in a creamy green huancaina cheese sauce, garnished with two salty black olives, a hard cooked egg and a romaine lettuce leaf. The sauce had a nice hot pepper kick to it. Also alot of seafood. Ceviche is big. For breakfast, if you see pan con chicharron (pork and sweet potato sandwich), I highly recommend it. The one I tried had a layer of sliced fried sweet potatoes, a layer of fall apart tender slices of deep fried pork, topped with thinly sliced red onions and served on a crusty roll. Alfahores, a cookie with caramel filling. Picarones are light as air donuts made from sweet potatoes. The hot fritters are served with a sweet thin syrup. Chica morada, is a purple corn punch is made by boiling purple corn and the outside of a pineapple with cinnamon and cloves. If you get a chance to try fresh passion fruit juice, I recommend that too. This site has some of the more common foods, easily described. http://www.questconnect.org/peru_food.htm You can get specific restaurant info for the places you are traveling by posting on the Internationl Board. Some info can be had by googling international "Peru" site:www.chowhound.com Replace the word Peru with the cities you are visiting will bring up more hits. This is a nice wikipedia article on Peruvian food explaining the different regions. The link at the bottom to the wiki cookbook has other good info. Other than the wiki cookbook, the other external links are mostly in Spanish, but there are a few in English to check out. Hope people with more expertise will post as I would be interested also. Have a fun trip and I hope you will report about it on the International Board. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peruvian_Cuisine Thu Apr 27 02:32:09 -0700 2006 1686823 0 rworange 4 1686847 Thanks, rworange. Your chicha morada description sent me googling. According to Wikipedia, chicha refers to a whole set of drinks from the Andes, chicha morada being one of them. There's also a slightly alcoholic drink made from yellow corn, chicha de jora, one made with strawberries (frutillada), and chicha made from quinoa. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicha Thu Apr 27 12:06:10 -0700 2006 1686826 0 Spoony Bard 5 1686882 Thanks for the link. Great info as my sub hobby is trying different drinks. It reminded me I wanted to try some Russian kvas when I'm in SF tommorrow. If it's Friday it must be Brazilian, Russian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, American food. And chocolate. I'll be eating up, literally, Geary Blvd. Just have to figure in those pesky appointments. Thu Apr 27 17:47:41 -0700 2006 1686847 0 rworange 1 1686820 Howdy, Laurie! I hope I can help you out. A few weeks ago, I was in Orange County, CA visiting my fiance and we happened to stop for a late lunch/early dinner at Nory's Peruvian Restaurant. I wrote a review and there are photos as well. (see link below and the photos attached was my dinner - grilled steak, french fries, egg, rice, plantains, etc.) The food is comfort food. Very filling, very down home, very basic, but very delicious. I asked a colleague from work who was born in Ecuador and lived in Peru growing up and he said that the food we had was typical of home-cooked Peruvian food: stewed chicken, bisteck (steak) with potatoes, crusty breads, rice and plantains. I hope you enjoy your trip to Peru. Link: http://feastinginphoenix.com/?cat=15 Image: http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c208/sethchadwick/bisteck.gif Thu Apr 27 01:04:12 -0700 2006 1686809 0 Seth Chadwick 1 1686855 on one of my trips to Peru, I tried goat meat stewed in corn beer. Delicious. I also had as an appetizer a small glass of a purplish liquid which I was told was pureed sea urchin. Interesting. Not unpleasant, but very salty. Don't forget to have a pisco sour, a cocktail made from their local alchoholic specialty, pisco, which reminds me of italian grappa. But stay away from Inca Cola (called the "bebida del Peru"). Its color reminds one of a urine sample and it has a cloyingly sweet strawberry taste reminiscent of Double Bubble chewing gum or that old soda from Texas/Oklahoma, "Big Red". Thu Apr 27 13:03:03 -0700 2006 1686809 0 FarFar 1 1686859 I haven't had the pleasure of going to Peru yet, but I there are lots of Peruvian restaurants in San Francisco. It has become one of my favorite cuisines. Below is but one discussion on the SF board about the various dishes offered. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/34066#153473 Thu Apr 27 13:28:49 -0700 2006 1686809 0 nja 1 1686865 When I lived in Peru I had different dishes depending on where I was. So the answers will depend on where you are. On the coast -- shrimp and fish dishes are common. Ceviche is a specialty and the tradition is serve it in the morning or lunchtime (possibly because it pre-dates refrigeration and the morning catch would have been eaten right away?) Many Japanese live in Lima and so that cuisine & its influences are easy to find. In fact, the Matsuhita restaurant in the Larco Mar section of Lima is Matsuhita Nobu's first restaurant. His subsequent locations in the US are called "Nobu" .... In the mountains, the local fish is trout (trucha). Chicken and rice is served almost every where you look (arroz con pollo.) Many places will have a polleria serving amazing barbecued/roasted chicken. It'll be served with french fries and three sauces -- a purple one made with olives, a yellowish one made with ahi peppers, and a green one made with cilantro. Other tasty & common dishes include stir-fried beef with french fries, tomatoes and onions (lomo saltado), shredded chicken in a creamy ahi sauce served over potatoes with a garnish of hard-boiled eggs and olives (escabeche or papas a la huancaina, I forget which), and a local soup made with noodles and the broth of the day, which varies from region to region (sopa criolla). The markets will contain lots of vegetables, herbs, legumes, potatoes, fresh & dried fruits, nuts, olives. Cuy and chickens are sold live or just-killed. All parts of the pig are offered for sale; people who are not used to being so close to their food sources should take note. The roadside stands will sell a long fried dough filled with dulce de leche, fresh corn sprinkled with white crumbly cheese, skewers of barbecued beef hearts called anticucho, warm fruit or herb concoctions designed to give health & strength. Ice cream flavors will include fruits such as cherimoya, lucuma, passionfruit and banana. Like other countries that export coffee, no one drinks it locally. If you are in a spot that caters to travellers (Lima, Cusco, Huaraz) you may have better luck. I missed good-quality bread, cheese & butter in Peru -- probably made myself a grilled cheese sandwich the first day I was back. Thu Apr 27 13:58:36 -0700 2006 1686809 0 KTFoley 1 1686891 Peruvian food is one of the most varied types in the world. From what I remember of some research from an article I wrote a few years ago. French food has around 200 distinct dishes. Peruvian has around 450+. Peruvian food is derived from many cultures and their interactions. Native Indian of several tribes/nations, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and more. These are all the types of people who immigrated to Peru over the years. All their separate cuisines have slowly merged and changed becoming Peruvian cuisine. So you can expect many things you are familiar with from other cultures/cuisines... with a twist. Thu Apr 27 20:02:55 -0700 2006 1686809 0 JMF 1 1686894 wow, thanks for the wonderful and informative responses. It will be a good (and tasty) adventure! Thu Apr 27 20:35:40 -0700 2006 1686809 0 Laurie 1 1686981 USA Today yesterday had a big article about Peruvian food & spoke to (apparently) one of the country's big chefs and naming restaurants Sat Apr 29 18:25:07 -0700 2006 1686809 0 WellFedRed