Everyone has a version of meat on a stick, but this might be the first
The dish
Anticuchos, Peru
Plate up
There are certain culinary ideas so simple, so perfect, that they transcend cultural and geographical boundaries. Think meat wrapped in bread, versions of which appear across the globe. Or a basic starch used to form hearty porridge (congee, ugali, actual porridge). And then we have meat on skewers. You will find hunks of protein on pieces of wood in Japan (yakitori), Russia (shashlik), the Middle East (kebab), and Peru. Here the dish is known as anticuchos, and the classic presentation is slices of beef heart, skewered and roasted over hot coals, served up fresh at street-side stands and cheap restaurants across the nation.
The meat here is often marinated in vinegar, garlic, cumin and local aji amarillo peppers, and it doesn't always have to be heart – tour around the country and you will find various cuts of beef, though also llama or alpaca meat, and sometimes even chicken. All are tasty, and form a worthy entry to the global meat-on-sticks pantheon.
First serve
Anticuchos have been around for centuries, in fact there's a case for claiming these as the original meat-on-sticks snack. The history of anticuchos stretches back to Incan times, in pre-Columbian America. These early versions are thought to have been made using llama meat; with the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, Latin Americans began using beef hearts, as well as imported spices such as garlic. The name also stretches back to the Incas and their Quechua language: 'anti' means east, and 'kucho' means cut, so these skewers are translated as 'cuts from the east'. Though they're originally Peruvian, they're popular now throughout Latin America.
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