Peru, a country that has conquered palates worldwide with its exquisite and varied cuisine, also has a great variety of street food.
The reason for its renown transcends the sophisticated restaurants to be located in the heart of its streets, where culinary tradition vibrates with the daily bustle of its cities and is that Peruvian street food stands out for its rich diversity and authenticity that captures the essence of the culture of the country.
From salchipapas and papas rellenas, the offering is as vast as it is appetizing. However, among all this culinary wealth, one dish has managed to especially capture the attention and favoritism of this platform: the beef heart anticucho. This dish, with its perfect combination of flavors and its venerable tradition, is established not only as a local delicacy, but as the ambassador of Peruvian street food in the eyes of the world.
How was street food born in Peru?
When the Peruvian wants to get ahead, he knows that it is a good option to sell food on the go, investing a low budget. They say that “when the need arises, ingenuity arrives”, and that is why tourists will find a great offer of food on the streets, a little bit of everything for all tastes and at a low price.
Anticuchos and Viscera
Anticuchos are beef hearts that have already been cleaned and opened to be marinated with a seasoning based on ají panca, garlic, yellow chili, pepper and vinegar, among others.
Then these pieces are embedded in sticks and placed on the grill. This is a corner tradition that was born in the streets and, although there are restaurants that offer anticucho as their flagship dish, Peruvians will always recommend going to the street to eat agachaditos.
The same thing happens with the organ meats, they are seasoned and put on the fire, so that they have that smoky touch, it is accompanied by parboiled potatoes and chili.
Picarones
Picaron is a dessert from yesteryear, a kind of donut but shaped like a nut. What marks its Peruvian DNA is that it contains pumpkin and sweet potato.
This is another traditional case and we can find it in avenues, parks, corners of popular avenues and outside churches. And although many restaurants have it on their menu, it is quite an experience to see how the dough is fried and how it is dipped in chancaca honey.
Plus, if you eat it on the street, you can always ask for more honey.
Choclo con queso y huevo duro
The combination of this dish is simply perfect! Choclo con queso is the best and cheapest dish you will find along the streets.
Mazamorra morada y arroz con leche
Mazamorra and arroz con leche are desserts from yesteryear and are always pot neighbors or go together in the same container. Because it is such a popular dish, you can also find it on the corners of busy avenues, parks, avenues or outside the churches of Lima.
Mazamorra comes from Peruvian purple corn, it is cooked and combined with cornstarch to give it thickness and some fruits are added for taste. Rice pudding is a cooking that also includes cinnamon and sugar.
Cachangas
It is a mixture of flour, salt, anise and sugar, and in Peru we can find it in different varieties as part of artisanal and regional baking. However, what is eaten on the streets is a fried food in the form of a pizza.
Huevitos de codorniz
Although it is not frequent, it is possible to see a cart full of quail eggs passing by in the markets or bus stops. They accompany it with boiled potatoes to eat immediately or they carry it in bags to put on the home table. These eggs are considered very beneficial, especially at breakfast time, since they have many nutritional benefits. It is a street delicacy.
Empanadas
When hunger strikes, some empanadas are always welcome to eat on the go. They are generally offered in a corner or in a small stall, I don’t assure you that you will always find them warm, but you will always find them plump enough.
The Peruvian loves Add lemon and chili to your empanada, so the seller will always have these concoctions at your disposal. The most classic empanadas are cheese and ham, meat and chicken, although some inventive people have invented several more fillings.
Humitas and tamales
We will find them formed as if they were little soldiers inside a basket or in a cart with wheels, some will be warm, others will be at room temperature.
Both humitas and tamales are made of corn or corn, the difference is that humitas have a sweet version with raisins or other fillings, but they all come from the same pot. In the mornings – especially on Sundays – there are saleswomen outside the bakeries, churches or inside the markets.
Churros
Churros are not exclusive to any country, although I must give credit to Mexicans for being the ones who consume it the most and who we have heard the most about.
This sweet is quite requested on the streets, whether it is glazed with sugar or the one with filling. We can find it in different ways: in a corner inside a display case illuminated by a spotlight whose mission is not to let the churros cool down. Other times they are stacked inside a tray that is carried on the shoulders of vendors, who go from one place to another taking advantage of the traffic to satisfy passers-by. And the third, which is the one I like the most, is in a cart where you can see its preparation process, from the moment of kneading to frying and glazing.
Ceviche in a wheelbarrow
Ceviche is a very popular preparation and we will find many of the best seasonings coming from the street carts. Some prepare it on the spot, others have trays full of this preparation planned.
It is advisable to look at the hygiene of the stall to have a pleasant experience, since fish is a fairly delicate product.
The ceviche (fish in lemon and salt plus onion) is accompanied by canchita, mote, seafood chicharrón, sweet potato and extra chili.
Emollient and other drinks
The emollient is a concentrated drink of roasted barley, horsetail, linseed, alfalfa, plantain and lemon. The fact is that to obtain this preparation it is always necessary to boil everything for long hours. We find it every morning in the markets, busy avenues, parks and street corners.
This drink is restorative and, because it is hot, it contributes a lot in winter.
The merit of the master emollients is to enchant them with their recipe, since each one jealously guards the quantities that make their drink successful. In addition to the emollient, some stalls offer the famous “7 flours (wheat, barley, cañihua, kiwicha, corn and pea)”, “quinoa drink”, “oatmeal with milk (simply called quaker, in honor of the brand)”, among others.
Food 7 colors
This is serious stuff! The famous seven colors is a combination of seven types of food in a single dish: red noodles, huancaína, ceviche, chanfainita, arroz con pollo, causa, carapulcra and, if the cook feels like making more dishes, there will be more. where to choose from.
It is a highly requested option in large markets, and although some believe it is too much for the stomach, tourists may find it very curious and even fun to put together their plate with all the options of the day.
Papa Rellena
This dish is quite peculiar, because thanks to its shape it has become one of the favorite snacks. It is a potato dough plus oil and salt, this is given a round shape and filled with various stews, the most common are chicken and meat stew.
Finally, they are fried in plenty of oil so that they are crispy on the outside. Many street stalls offer them ready to go, but only some do the final frying process in front of the diner.
Chaufa al paso
Chaufa is a “chifa” (Peruvian-Chinese) restaurant dish based on rice, silao, chicken, Chinese onion and oriental vegetables. It is widely consumed in Peru and whose particular seasoning gives it the art of wok stir-frying. This dish is also eaten when passing a corner.
It is quite a show to see the chaufa rice sauté and, to achieve that smoky touch, the cart needs to have a small stove with a gas burner.
Sausages, sandwiches and hamburgers
Another way that many Peruvians found to get ahead is the sale of hamburgers, sandwiches and the famous salchipapas, which is a scramble of French fries with a hot hot dog and all its creams such as mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, golf and olive cream.
All this junk food is made in a sandwich cart with infrastructure for frying potatoes to order and a griddle to make the hamburger. There are also spaces equipped for garnishes.