Peruvian cuisine
The four traditional staples of Peruvian cuisine are corn, potatoes and other tubers, Amaranthaceae (quinoa, kañiwa and kiwicha), and legumes (beans and lupins).
Many traditional foods—such as quinoa, kiwicha, chili peppers, and several roots and tubers—have increased in popularity in recent decades, reflecting a revival of interest in native Peruvian foods and culinary techniques.
By this time, sophisticated agricultural techniques had been developed that allowed the local inhabitants to grow and cultivate crops in the challenging terrain of the Andes Mountains.
Peru is considered an important center for the genetic diversity of the world's crops: The sweet potato is native to the Americas and was domesticated there at least 5,000 years ago.
The varieties of chili peppers, potatoes, tomatoes and maize that the Spanish brought back to Europe, however, were native to Peru: Many foods from Spain are now considered Peruvian staples, including wheat, barley, oats, rice, lentils, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), broad beans, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, artichokes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, celery, lettuce, eggplant, wine, vinegar, olives, beef, pork, chicken, numerous spices (including coriander, cumin, parsley, cilantro (green coriander), laurel, mint, thyme, marjoram, turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, anise (fennel), black pepper and oregano), bananas, quince, apples, oranges, limes, apricots, peaches, plums, cherries, melons, figs, pomegranates, honey, white sugar, almonds, walnuts, cheese, hen eggs, cow's milk, etc.
Andean ingredients like tubers and quinoa (kinwa in the indigenous language Quechua) have also been promoted by members of Peru's Ministry of Culture and received international endorsements from celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and NASA as a new type of superfood.
While Peruvian state actors and celebrity chefs argue that these efforts have created economic opportunity for rural farmers and built international cultural awareness, the commercialization of Andean ingredients has decreased crop biodiversity on indigenous lands.
As important as the Pacific is to Peru's biodiversity, freshwater biomes such as the Amazon River and Lake Titicaca also play a large role in the ecological make-up of the country.
Ceviche marinade consists of Andean chili peppers, onions, and juices from an aromatic lime variety brought by the Spaniards.
Before the Spanish colonists came to Peru, the Moche marinated seafood using fermented juice prepared from local banana passionfruit called Tumbo.
Lima hosts a wide variety of international cuisines, with Italian and Chinese (known locally as chifa, a Chinese-Peruvian fusion) being the most popular.
Offerings of Arabic, Thai, Mexican, French, English, Argentine, Brazilian, and Indian cuisine can also be found in multiple locations throughout the city of Lima.
Many bakeries sell white bread sprinkled with bran for health conscious customers as whole wheat flour is extremely hard to find.
Anticuchos are brochettes made from beef heart marinated in various Peruvian spices and grilled, often with a side of boiled potato or corn.
This combination of being cheap to make, yet favored by chefs, has helped Papa a la Huancaina become popular across all classes of Peruvian society.
Creole style is made with strips of previously cooked tripe, seasoned with a mixture of sauteed onions, garlic, yellow aji, a pinch of turmeric, salt and pepper and cubes of boiled potatoes.
The widely different climates between Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Cajamarca and San Martin contributes to the variety of dishes in these areas.
Cebiche de Conchas Negras (ceviche with black shells) is a dish of Piura and Tumbes is also popular along the southern coast of Ecuador as the territory previously was under Ecuadorian jurisdiction.
Nowadays, festive dishes are consumed every day by urban dwellers, while rural diets tend to be light on meat and heavy on lahua gruel.
Because of its tedious preparation it is normally only made for celebrations or festivals in the Andes, though recent years have seen the appearance of many "campestre" restaurants in rural areas outside Lima, such as in Cieneguilla.
Olluco is a yellowish tuber (Ullucus tuberosus) domesticated by pre-Inca populations, and is visually similar to colorful small Andean potatoes, but with a distinct crunchy texture when cooked.
The dish is a stew of finely diced ollucos with charqui pieces (traditionally alpaca, or less frequently llama meat, though today it is also very commonly made from sheep), served with white rice.
In this dish they are stuffed with spiced beef or pork, onions, olives, and egg white, then cooked in the oven with potatoes covered with cheese and milk.
The soup consists of black chuño, aji panca (red chili pepper), sweet potatoes, sheep tripe and chalona.
It consists of boiled and sliced yellow potatoes covered with a sauce of made of aji (chili pepper), the Peruvian herb Tagetes minuta (called huacatay; the herb gives it a vivid green color), ground peanuts, and fresh or white cheese, with sides of lettuce, boiled eggs and olives.
Peru is one of few countries in the world where the third most popular ice-cream (after vanilla and chocolate) is not strawberry, it is in fact the "nutty" flavored, orange colored lúcuma, which is an exotic fruit grown in quantity only in Peru, and only in recent years being exported in very limited quantities as an exotic flavor (for ice cream and savory sauces) to the US, and available in Europe essentially in food shows.
Peruvian Picarones are made of squash or pumpkin dough and sweetened with chancaca, raw cane sugar melted into a syrup.
This dessert is a kind of fried pastry and a type of quick bread that is usually prepared during breakfast time and contains cinnamon in its recipe.
The presence of the various altitudinal floors of the Andes mountain range in Peru and its proximity to the geographical equator allows the existence of a series of microclimates and species, from areas of usual snowfall to tropical forests; With 84 of the 104 climatic zones on the globe, it is one of the 12 countries in the world with the greatest mega-diversity.
[23] According to Elias et al (2022),[24] the emergence and appearance of Peruvian gastronomy in the international market was produced through a reconversion that combined the local with the foreign.
