Andean Cuisine

Cajamarca , Amazonas , Ancash , Junín , Pasco , Huancavelica , Apurímac , Ayacucho , Cusco and Puno regions

Heated in a firewood oven, earthenware of the highlands gathers odors and flavors linked to earth. Meats, tubers, grains and herbs are used in a great variety of simple but tasty dishes.

Starters include corn with Andean cheese, chochos (tarwi) salad, "mote con chicharrón" or large white boiled corn and "deep-fried" pork, "cancha" (roasted corn), "humitas" (Ground corn and enveloped in its own leaves for cooking), "papa a la huancaína" (boiled potato pieces under yellow pepper and cheese cream) and "inchik uchu" (boiled manioc with peanut, yellow pepper and coriander sauce).

Main courses: "pachamanca" (beef, lamb, pork and guinea pig cooked on hot stones with broad beans, potatoes and humitas, in a hole covered with leaves and soil), "patasca" (maize soup), "cuy chactado" (guinea pig fried under the pressure of a stone), "cecinas" (dried meat), "puka picante" (pork and boiled potatoes seasoned with hot pepper and beets), "cuchicanca" (roast pork), "olluco con carne" ("ollucos" and llama meat in a stew), pesque (quinoa stew), huatia (potatoes and "ocas" cooked in an earthen oven called "curpa", served with cheese), "huarjata" (pig head stew), "sajta" (chicken and peanut stew), "chuñu lawa" ("chuñu" and meat cream).

Soups: chochoca (corn flour), green soup (potatoes, eggs, cheese and "paico"), "kapchi" (broad beans and cheese), "lawa" (fresh corn soup plus broad beans, yellow pepper and "huacatay"), "chuño" or "moraya" (varieties of frozen-dried potatoes), "llunca cashqui" (wheat soup), "chairo" (beef, lamb, wheat, potatoes, broad beans, squash and "chuño", among other ingredients).

Desserts: chapana (manioc flour sweet), ricotta and molasses syrup, "cocadas" (coconut and molasses sweet), "tojosh api" (fermented maize custard), manjarblanco (milk flummery) and jellies (made of mulberries and elderberries).
Herbs: coriander, parsley, "huacatay", "paico", "muña", mint.

Alcoholic beverages: artisan wines and ciders, "chicha de maíz" (white maize and "jora" beer) and quinoa.

Breads: a great variety (tanta wawas, santiagos, bread rolls, water bread, three-tipped bread, semitas are made of wheat, rye, maize, "oca", anise, potato, barley and sweet potato), small breads (maize and quinoa), cookies, bread rolls baked in a ring and sweet cakes.

Useful Information:

By plane: daily flights from Lima to the main cities of the northern and south-ern highlands.

By road: depending on destination, by the North and South pan-American highway aAnd by highways to the highlands.

Content elaborated by the Commission for the Promotion of Peru - PromPeru