Peruvian

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Tacacho con Cecina (Roasted Green Plantain Balls with Cured Pork)

The Peruvian Amazon's signature plate: green plantain roasted over charcoal, mashed while hot with lard and shaped into balls (tacacho), served beside grilled cecina — salted, dried pork — and chorizo. The plantain is used as a starch, like a potato, not as a fruit, and only a green one, low in sugar, can sit over coals long enough to cook through without burning. Nothing is boiled, so no water goes in; the lard is all that loosens the mash.

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Tiradito (Sliced Raw Fish in Ají Sauce)

Peruvian white fish sliced sashimi-thin, with a spiced ají sauce spooned over it at the last second. It shares almost everything with ceviche and uses acid in the opposite way: ceviche cubes the fish and marinates it so the acid cooks it, while tiradito puts the acid on too late for that to happen. So what decides the texture is not the acid but the knife — cut at 3mm, the fish needs no marinating at all.

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Anticuchos (Grilled Beef Heart Skewers)

Peruvian street food: beef heart marinated in vinegar and ají panca, skewered and grilled hard over charcoal. Despite being sold as offal, heart is a muscle that never stopped working, so it tastes like very concentrated beef rather than anything like liver. What it has almost none of is fat, which makes the window extremely narrow — two minutes a side, and past that it is leather.

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Lomo Saltado (Beef Stir-fry)

Beef stir-fried hot with red onion and tomato in soy and vinegar, served with crispy french fries and white rice — Peru's beloved saltado. Born where Chinese wok cooking met Peruvian ingredients, its smoky sauce soaks into the fries and rice.

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Ceviche (Lime-Cured Fish)

Peru's national dish — fresh white fish 'cooked' in lime juice and tossed with onion, chili, and cilantro. A bright, clean plate now on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. It lives or dies by fresh fish, lime, and the punchy 'leche de tigre'.