Peruvian Cuisine – The Culinary Tradition of Ancient Peru

The gastronomy of Peru is the result of the initial fusion of the culinary tradition of ancient Peru. Its techniques and stews with Hispanic cuisine in its variant most strongly influenced by 762 years of Andalusian presence in the Iberian Peninsula. The essential contribution of the culinary customs carried off the Atlantic coast of sub-Saharan Africa by slaves, also has a crucial influence on Peruvian cuisine.

Peruvian cuisine is one of the most varied globally; Along the Peruvian coast, there are registered more than two thousand five hundred different types of soups. Likewise, there are more than 250 traditional desserts. The great variety of Peruvian gastronomy is based on three sources: the particularity of Peru’s geography, the mixture of cultures, and the adaptation of ancient civilisations to modern cuisine.

Three Must-Try popular Peruvian dishes:

• Ceviche: This is perhaps one of the most iconic dishes in the Peruvian gastronomy; It’s a dish consisting of marinated meat – fish, shellfish, or both – in citrus dressings. Different versions of the ceviche are part of the culinary culture of various coastal Latin American countries of the Pacific Ocean where it is native. These being Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. However, in Peru, it is considered a cultural heritage.
• Grilled chicken: This is a Peruvian culinary speciality, In Peru. Grilled chicken is much more popular than ceviche or causa; since 2004 it has been considered a “Peruvian Culinary Specialty” by the Andean country’s government and has its day of tribute Peruvian calendar: the third Sunday in July.
• Papa a la Huancaína: Typical of jungle cuisine and the central highlands, this Peruvian delicacy enhances potatoes with a sauce made of fresh cheese, and yellow chilli evaporated milk and oil. There is no consensus on its origin, although the most general theory places it in constructing the Central Railroad of Peru. On the stretch from Lima to Huancayo, the women of the area, who prepared the food for the workers, made a potato stew with cheese sauce, chilli and milk that could be the origin of the huancaína potato. It is a classic of Peruvian restaurants!

Peruvian cuisine can boast of having almost five hundred typical dishes. Due to its privileged location, it is a cuisine from the mountains and the sea, which draws on tradition and incorporates the avant-garde into its pre-Columbian gastronomic traditions.