The cuisine of Peru’s northern coast fits perfectly with its warm climate and offers a delectable variety of seafood and fish to the most discriminating tastes of our visitors. A delicious way to savor the varied flavors of ceviches and sudado stews is by accompanying it with a cold beer or corn-based chicha de jora. Red meat lovers can enjoy our exquisite cabrito kid meat from the goats raised in the area. This dish, among a cornucopia of both sweet and savory dishes, make the northern coast an ideal place to visit.
Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque and La Libertad
The northern regions have a warm climate and seas teeming with fish and seafood. Their most prized dishes include ceviches and sudado stews, which combine ingredients harvested from the sea with sour and spicy flavors, and aromatic herbs that provide fresh and intense flavors. Ceviches are made with fish, seafood or black shellfish, all marinated in lemon juice, hot peppers, salt, and served with onions, sweet potatoes and corn in kernels or on the cob.
Chinguirito is a special type of ceviche made with the salted and dried meat of the guitarfish. Main dishes include sudado de pescado fish stew or steamed fish. Fried cassava, clams with parmesan and chifles (round slices of fried plantain) are great hors d’oeuvres to share. All food in the north is accompanied by an ice-cold beer or chicha de jora corn beer.
Many people in this area raise goats, so seco de cabrito (stewed goat meat) is a common dish. Another dish is the seco de chabelo, prepared with grilled beef and roasted and shredded plantain. Rice with duck, flavored with dark beer, is also a classic. Sopa teóloga (Priest’s soup), a broth prepared with turkey, and shámbar, another soup prepared with beans, pork and beef, are also emblematic of northern cuisine.
The north, like any region, has its desserts: the popular quince jellies and the King Kong, a huge alfajor cookie filled with pineapple jam and white manjar (caramel).
Aside from restaurants, these flavors can be sampled in chicherias, where the cooking is done over a wood fire and with clay pots, or in “huariques,” famous for their special homemade flavor.
