Restaurants classics

In the coast, including Lima, you can find some great seafood dishes. Ceviche is local favourite, with pieces of raw fish marinated in Lima juice and servies with onion and perhaps a few chillis for a kick. In a Sudado, filets of fish are poached in tomato sauce and Chicharron has pieces of deep fried and battered fish. 

 

The city of Arequipa has an enviable cuisine, partly due to its location in the Andes but closde to the coast, which provdes its chefs a wide variety of ingredients. Rocoto relleno is a local favourite with spicy peppers stuffed with a tasty ground beef. Or a Chupe de camaron is a heary crawfish chowder. 

 

Lake Titicaca is too far from the ocean for good seafood, but trout (trucha) from the waters of the lake is well worth trying.

 

Dishes in Cusco tend to rely on chicken, beef and pork. Lomo Saltado is a peruvian classic involving beef strips sautted with onions and tyomatoes. Another favourite is Aji de gallina, which is chicken in a creamy pepper sauce. Chicharrones are deep fried pieces of salty pork. Cuy or guinea pig is also appearing on a few menus, it was traditionally eaten in rural areas on a special occasion, but now a few restaurants are serving it to curious tourists. It is commonly served roast but the lack of meat found on the little animal means it is not many visitors favourite.

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Snacks and street food

Peru des not have a thriving street food cutlure, but there are a few favourites which originally were sold from stall in park and street corners, although with their growing poularity, they now also appear on many cafes and snack restaurants.  Anticuchos are tasty beef-heart kababs, seen more commonly in the evening. Hearty pork sandwiches are popular brunch item, the butifarra is a roas pork and onion sandwich, whereas the sandwich de chicharron is a fried pork version. For a sweet snack, picarones are fried doughnuts made from a sweet potato batter. You may also see arroz con leche, which is a sweet rice pudding and a cinamon and apple pure coloured with purple corn called mazamora morada. On a cold morning, you might find stalls selling a spiced tea called emoliente.

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Sweets and desserts

You can find alfaJores in most pastry shops, it is soft caramel cream or blancmange sandwiched between two soft cookies and topped with icing sugar. For a tipically local ice cream, you could choose lucuma, which is a gruit with a strong butterscotch flavour. For a super sweet mouse experience, try a suspiro limeño, which consists of a thick cream made of  milk, sugar and port topped with a soft maringue. Or you might recognize a crema volteada as peruvian version of creme caramel.

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Drinks

Apart from the ubiquitous international soft drinks, you might want to try a local soda to quench a thirst. Peruvians love Inca Kola, which is a sweet soda tasking like bubble gum, created in 1935 by a british immigrant. Or Chicha Morada is often made in each restaurant and is a lightly spiced cordial coloured with purple corn. 

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For an alcoholic option, the national drink of Peru is Pisco, a clear aguardiente or brandy produced in Peru since the 16th century. It is most commonly served as a Pisco Sour, which is a zesty lime juice cocktail. Or for a more refreshing option, you could choose a Chilcano, which is Pisco with ginger ale in a long glass and plenty of ice. In many restaurants and bars, you can get many version of sours and chilcanos flavoured with local exotic fruits. For a beer, Cusqueña is the best mass produced option, with options including a lager, red ale and sweet stout called malta. But craft beers are becoming increasingly common, so look out for artesanal beers in bars and restaurants. For a gin & tonic, try one of the excellent local brands called Ginca or Amazonian. Even though Peru has some of the oldest vineyards in Peru, for years they produced unsophisticated sweet table wines. But now, a couple of vineyards are making more comtemporary wines, Intipalka is particularly worth trying.