We ate our way through Lima, from street food to the world's best restaurants

Boston Globe

2 days ago

We met Blanca Silva, a local resident and food guide, at the San Isidro Market, a bright and clean market filled with vendors offering local organic fruits and vegetables, as well as fish, meat, eggs, dairy products, and more. It's one of many markets in the city. There are 43 neighborhoods in Lima, and most have their own mercado.
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'Look at this!' Silva exclaimed with a sweep of her hand, pointing out stalls chock-full of mangos, avocados, bananas, berries, and more. 'From the Amazon and the Andes,' she said. We tasted a sweet and creamy lucuma fruit, called the Gold of the Andes, and often used to make ice cream. Next, we tasted a small glossy orange-colored cocona, dubbed the Tomato of the Amazon. It was tart and earthy. There were piles of peppers, corn, mangoes, avocados, and several types of berries. We tried an intensely sour limon, used in Peru's famous pisco sour drink, and maracuya used in juices and dessert. There were hanging racks and stacks of different kinds of bananas, and mounds of potatoes.
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Peru has more than 4,000 types of potatoes.
Pamela Wright
'We have more than 4,000 types of potatoes,' Silva said. 4,000! She pointed out the oblong-shaped bullhorn potato grown on high-altitude farms at 3,800 meters elevation, and tubers, like the oca, used for chips, and the mashua tuber, often used to aid in digestion. Peru, Silva said as we walked through the market, has 52 varieties of corn, about 350 varieties of chili peppers, and more than 600 varieties of native and continental fruits (though many are not commercially available).
'The Amazonian rivers, the Andes lakes and lagoons, and of course the Pacific Ocean also provide an overwhelming number of water species, more than 2,000,' she said.
We checked out poultry, meat, egg, cheeses, and other local products, before heading into the bright Peruvian sunshine.
The homemade sandwich de Chicharron, made of pork belly and served with homemade bread and sweet potato slices, is popular for breakfast in Lima.
Pamela Wright
'Everybody knows this place. They don't advertise, but everyone talks about it, so we know,' said Silva. We were at El Chinito, a tiny spot, with a line outside the door. Known as huariques, these are small, family-run places found all over Lima, serving traditional Peruvian cuisine. According to the locals we met (including Silva), El Chinito is one of the best, known for its homemade sandwich de Chicharron, which Peruvians often eat for breakfast. It was 10 a.m., the perfect time for a fried pork belly sandwich! We grabbed a seat and minutes later were served fresh bread and a heap of crispy fried pork belly, with a side of cooked sweet potato slices. We made our own sandwiches, dressed with salsa criolla, a traditional Peruvian red onion salsa. Our other favorite huariques included La Lucha Sangucheria Criolla, which was much larger and more modern but good, and Kio's Chicharroneria, another small neighborhood joint serving an excellent pork sandwich.
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The famous Isolina restaurant, named one of Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants, is known for its traditional Peruvian cuisine, like the massive, gooey stuffed pepper pictured here.
Pamela Wright
We were in Miraflores, one of Lima's most popular and upscale districts, known for its beaches, parks and shopping. We strolled through Parque Kennedy, nicknamed the 'cat park' for its dozens of well cared for street cats that live there, and bought picarones from a food cart. These Peruvian donuts made with sweet potato and squash, drizzled with chancaca syrup. Another day, we'd trek over to Dulces Limenos Anita, one of the best places for homemade picarones, arroz con leche (rice pudding) and mazamorra morada, a purple corn pudding.
We strolled a section of the Malecon near the cliff of Lima, watching the surfers below and the paragliders above, and stopping at the Parque del Amor, famous for its large statue of a man and woman kissing. Along the way, we drank slushy cremoladas, made with fresh fruit.
You'll need help eating this giant osso buco served at the famous Isolina restaurant in Lima.
Pamela Wright
After a few hours of exploring, we'd worked up just enough of an appetite for lunch at the famous Isolina restaurant, named one of Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants. Located in a historical mansion, the well-loved restaurant is known for its old-fashioned, authentic Peruvian dishes, once written in notebooks and handed down for generations. Dishes — including plenty of offal specialties — are served family-style in large portions. There was a group of us, and we shared cau cau, a traditional tripe stew, chaufa with lomo topped with fried eggs and bananas, a hot ceviche of boiled and fried duck with onions and pepper, a large rocoto relleno, tacu tacu, a large, richly flavored beans and rice patty, and the biggest serving of osso buco we've ever seen. We enjoyed purple corn pudding for dessert.
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San Isidro Market, a bright and clean market filled with vendors offering local organic fruits and vegetables, as well as fish, meat, eggs, dairy products, and more. It's one of many markets in Lima.
Pamela Wright
We tried to get into dinner that evening at Maido, named one of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World. Maido specializes in Nikkei dishes, a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cuisines. There are several Nikkei restaurants in Lima, as well as Chifa restaurants, a blend of Chinese and Peruvian cuisines. Maido was full, but we did get into Shizen, also a World's Best lister, serving Nikkei dishes. The space is contemporary, the food fabulous. We dined on robata Penshell, a slow-grilled mollusk with algae butter, dashi, and Peruvian chili kimchi; tusan maki with fried shrimp, torched with oyster sauce; and amai maki, with crabmeat, fried fish, and avocado torched with spicy garlic and eel sauce.
We planned our next two days around food, according to advice from locals and Silva's best hit list. We had churros at Manolo, butifarra, a Peruvian ham sandwich with salsa ciolla, at San Antonio, and anticuchos, skewers of grilled beef heart, at Grimanesa Vargas. We dined on Amazonian dishes — like tacacho con Cecina, mashed plaintain balls, seasoned with pork rind and lard serviced with dried smoked pork — at the colorful Huambra restaurant.
'Did you try cuy?' our Peruvian friends asked, when we were saying our goodbyes. Well, no. We had them as pets growing up. Fluffy and Piglet. We just couldn't.
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The historic Country Club Lima Hotel is an elegant and stately 1927 Spanish Colonial-style mansion in Lima's upscale San Isidro neighborhood.
Pamela Wright
If you go . . .
Lima is a large city, covering more than 1,000 square miles in the metropolitan area, with 43 neighborhoods.
Miraflores is Lima's most popular tourist neighborhood; we decided to stay in the quieter San Isidro neighborhood at the historic
Other things to see and do include the Larco Museum, with an impressive collection of pre-Colombian art and artifacts, the Basillica de San Francisco and its underground catacombs, which served as the city's cemetery during colonial times, and Plaza Mayor, the public square in the city's historic center. For more information, visit
Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at