Peru Travel Guide

Food and drink
Guinea pig (cuy) is the traditional dish most associated with Peru, and indeed, you can find it in many parts of the country, but especially in the mountain regions, where it is likely to be roasted in an oven and served with chips. In the past twenty years, however, the wave of North American interests in the country has made fast food very commonplace, and hamburgers, as well as the ubiquitous pizza, have been adopted with enthusiasm and are now more readily available than the traditional guinea pig.

All larger towns in Peru have a fair choice of restaurants, most of which offer a varied menu. Among them there's usually a few chifa (Chinese) places, and nowadays a fair number of vegetarian restaurants too. Often places will offer a cena, or set menu, from morning through to lunchtime and another in the evening. Ranging in price from US$1 to US$3, these most commonly consist of three courses: soup, a main dish and a cup of tea or coffee (which appears to count as a course) to follow.

Depending on the very different ingredients available locally, food in each of the three major areas of Peru is essentially a mestizo creation, combining indigenous Indian cooking with four hundred years of European – mostly Spanish – influence. Along the coast, not surprisingly, fish is the speciality. Ceviche  is the classic Peruvian seafood dish and has been eaten by locals for over two thousand years. It consists of fish, shrimp, scallops or squid, or a mixture of all four, marinated in lime juice and chilli peppers, then served "raw" with corn and sweet potato and onions. Ceviche de lenguado (soul fish) and ceviche de corvina (sea bass) are among the most common, but there are plenty of other fish and a wide range of seafoods served on most menus.

Mountain food is more basic – a staple of potatoes and rice with the meat stretched as far as it will go. One speciality is the Pachamanca , a roast prepared mainly in the mountains but also on the coast by digging a large hole, filling it with stones and lighting a fire over them, then using the hot stones to cook a wide variety of tasty meats and vegetables.

In the jungle, bananas and plantains figure highly, along with yuca (a manioc rather like a yam), rice and plenty of fish. There is meat as well, mostly chicken supplemented occasionally by game – deer, wild pig or even monkey.

Drinking
Beers, wines and spirits are served in almost every bar, café or restaurant at any time, but there is a deposit on taking beer bottles out (canned beer is one of the worst inventions to hit Peru this century – some of the finest beaches are littered with empty cans).

Most Peruvian beer – except for cerveza malta (black malt beer) – is bottled lager almost exclusively brewed to five percent, and extremely good. In Lima the two main beers are Cristal and Pilsen. Cuzqueña (from Cusco) is one of the best and by far the most popular at the moment, but not universally available; you won't find it on the coast in Trujillo, for example, where they drink Trujillana, nor are you likely to encounter it in every bar in Arequipa where, not surprisingly, they prefer to drink Arequipeña beer. Fruit juices (jugos), most commonly papaya or orange, are prepared fresh in most places, and you can get coffee and a wide variety of herb and leaf teas almost anywhere. Surprisingly, for a good coffee-growing country, the coffee served in cafés and restaurants leaves much to be desired, commonly prepared from either café pasado (previously percolated coffee mixed with hot water to serve) or simple powdered Nescafé.

Peru has been producing wine for over four hundred years, but with one or two exceptions it is not that good. Among the better ones are Vista Alegre (tipo familiar) and Tacama Gran Vino Blanco Reserva Especial.

As for spirits, Peru's main claim to fame is Pisco. This is a white grape brandy with a unique, powerful and very palatable flavour – the closest equivalent elsewhere is probably tequila. The jungle regions produce cashassa, a sugarcane rum also called aguardiente, which has a distinctive taste and is occasionally mixed with different herbs, some medicinal. While it goes down easily, it's incredibly strong stuff and leaves you with a very sore head the next morning.
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