Food Tours · Tour

Carapulcra, Sopa Seca, Papa a la Huancaína, Off the Netflix Trail

The operator's own framing is that this is the version of Lima street food that Netflix did not film, and having read the itinerary, that is fair. Four hours on foot through the parts of the historic centre nobody puts on a postcard: the Central Market, Mesa Redonda, Barrios Altos and Chinatown. They are crowded, loud and occasionally overwhelming, which the operator says out loud rather than hiding, and they are where the city eats. On the list: anticuchos, picarones, tamales, seasonal fruit, choclo con queso, papa rellena, ceviche, chicha morada and siu mai. Three more almost never appear on a tourist route. Papa a la huancaina, the potato under a yellow chilli and cheese sauce. Carapulcra, dried potato stewed with pork and peanut, one of the oldest dishes in the country. And sopa seca, the noodle dish that is not a soup, usually served with carapulcra beside it. The Chinatown stop is not decorative. Chinese immigration from the nineteenth century onward changed Peruvian cooking permanently, and the guide explains how while you eat the evidence. Up to ten people, in English, with a licensed guide and every tasting included. A craft pisco sour at the end is optional and extra. The tour finishes around Plaza San Martin, which is a good place to pick up a car or start something else. Not recommended for diabetics, or if you are pregnant, or have a spinal injury or a heart condition.