10 Things to Eat in Arequipa

Posted on 13. Nov, 2012 by Colin in peru

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This article is about regional cuisines from the southern department of Arequipa. For the most famous Peruvian food, see Peruvian Food: Best in Latin America.

Arequipa is unique in that it’s a small city of 1 million, but it’s produced enough dishes that it has a bona fide regional cuisine. Arequipa restaurants are called picanterías. Few small cities can boast a lineup like this. Before moving to South America, I was looking for work anywhere. Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, anywhere. I’m only realizing now how lucky I got in landing a job in Arequipa.

Rocoto Relleno

Photo credit: Peruanos en USA

The top dog in Arequipa, the most revered plate, the source of Arequipeño pride, is Rocoto Relleno. Rocoto is the spicy pepper in Peruvian cuisine. It’s the shape, color, and size of a red pepper. It’s de-seeded and de-stemmed, then stuffed with finely cut steak, cheese, black olives, ground peanuts, various Peruvian spices, sometimes raisins, then baked. The cheese oozes out from the top. I’m not much of a stuffed peppers guy, but rocoto relleno is amazing. It’s served with pastel de papa - potato cake. Layers of thin sliced potato baked with cheese and eggs. If they skimp on the cheese and eggs, it’s dry. But when they’re generous with cheese and eggs, pastel de papa is the perfect compliment to Rocoto Relleno.

Rocoto Relleno

Rocoto Relleno

Rocoto Relleno & Pastel de Papa

Adobo

Photo credit: Recetas Gratis

Adobo is an Arequipa soup and standalone meal. It’s only served on Sundays, but some of the more touristic Arequipa restaurants serve it every day. You can’t walk far on a Sunday in Arequipa without passing a sign advertising pork chop soup, making it an Arequipa tradition.

According to true Arequipa tradition, adobo is hangover food. The restaurants in the center served it starting at 4 am early Sunday mornings. So all the rumberos and party people finishing their Saturday night benders could finish the night off with a hearty soup chock full of pig fat. Adobo restaurants are open all morning, and usually run out of adobo soon after the real lunch hour.

Adobo really is the perfect hangover meal. The pork chop is simmered with onions, rocoto (the spicy one from above), the cob of purple corn (not the corn), peppercorn, garlic, cumin, and Peruvian spices. It’s tangy with a hint of spicy. Served with bread to sop up the lard-laden juice. If you like to throw down on swine, you’ll love adobo arequipeño. The best adobo soups I’ve found are on Daniel Alcides Carrion avenue on the first block south of the general hospital. It’s a district of Adobo spots.

Adobo, beer, and chicha

Adobo & bread

Arequipa Sunday soup: Adobo

Chupe de Camarones

Photo credit: Viaje Jet

I always shake my head in disbelief when Colombians are proud of their soups. Ajiaco is the only good one. Changua’s different and cheap. Caldo de costilla, mondongo, and sancocho are OK but not worth bragging about. Aside from those, most Colombian soups – the ones that come with lunch – aren’t worth eating. I often tell waitresses not to bring it. Just keep it if it’s rice soup, pasta soup, plantain soup, or cream of mushroom. Don’t even put it on my table. No bullshit, they have pasta soup. Chupe de Camarones is Shrimp Chowder, another Arequipa soup, one of many that couldn’t get squeezed into this list because there are so many delicious regional plates. When family came in for my wedding two of the gringas were enthused to hear about a local shrimp chowder and ordered it. They weren’t happy at all that the shrimps came out whole. In American cuisine, shrimp are always shucked before serving. Neither lady finished her plates. When the subject came up in front of Milagros, she protested you lose flavor if you remove the shell. My old man agreed, but also conceded it’s an insurmountable culture gap with gringos. So if you don’t want to shuck your own shrimp, don’t order chupe. That’s part of an overall phenomenon in Peruvian food that I haven’t seen anywhere else – they almost never remove bones from anything. Even in estofado de res and arroz con pollo, the bones are left on. Peruvians love to suck the bones, the juice, the marrow, give it a chew. It doesn’t bother me.

Shrimp Chowder

Photo: Rinconada de Azapa

Photo credit: RPP

Estofado de Res

Photo credit: Nestlé Perú

Estofado de res is beef in sauce with rice. Generous portions of beef are stewed with the infamous chicha de jora juice, carrots, peas, onion, tomato, and bay leaves. It’s almost sweet. It often comes with tough cuts of beef, roast-sized pieces. Estofado de res is the only dish I’ve seen in the world where the cow’s skin isn’t removed. If you’ve never tried to eat it, beef skin is rather tough. It’s what they make leather out of. So I don’t try, but the rest of this dish goes down great. WARNING: Before ordering it, ask the server what their estofado is like. Some versions come out dry – don’t get that kind! Make sure there’s a lot of sauce / gravy (guisoin Spanish).

Estofado de Res

Estofado de Res

Stewed beef

Soltero de Queso

Soltero de Queso

I always marvel when I meet vegetarian gringos backpacking through South America. Eating for them must be a pain in the ass, if not impossible, because there’s no salad culture. And veggie burgers or tofu – HA! Nope, just rice and potatoes for those folks. Arequipa would be a salvation. Soltero de Queso be considered a salad in the States. It’s a good one and it inspired the style of salads I make in Colombia year round. Dice up all the vegetables I can find, add olive oil and vinegar. Soltero de queso doesn’t use any and all vegetables however. It has queso campesino, lima beans, tomato, onion, corn, rocoto, parsley. Served with potato. If trying to burn fat, nix the potato and corn.

Ocopa

Ocopa appetizer from Guisos Arequipeños, served with boiled potato, boiled eggs, black olives, and fried cheese strips.

Ocopa is another vegetarian dish. It’s a spicy peanut-flavored sauce served with potatoes. It’s made with peanuts, spicy yellow ají, crackers, milk, and cheese. It’s pretty heavy. Despite it being heavy, I can’t imagine anyone ordering a boiled potato in a creamy sauce and calling it lunch. But I’m not a vegetarian. Potato with ocopa is also served on the side or as an appetizer. The #1 meal at all my Peruvian family gatherings is fried pork served with potato smothered in Ocopa. In fact, it’s #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 since it’s the only thing they serve at reunions. Not bad, especially when you get all tanked with the suegroafterwards.

Locro de Pecho

Locro de Pecho

Pecho is the chest of a cow, or brisket. It’s boiled until soft and mixed in with a mess of mashed potato, spicy ají, and mint. Another heavy one given the sauce is a mashed potato base. There are many different variations of “Locro de Pecho” throughout Latin America, some of which are soups. This is Arequipan Locro de Pecho. Many picanterías serve locro only once a week. So you may have to scope out which day of the week it’s served. Otherwise, hit the regular lunch spots and if you see it on the menu, seize the day.

Americanos, Dobles, Triples

Americano (left) & Doble (right)

Arequipa picanterías offer doubles, triples, and ‘Americans’. These are combination plates. The double has rocoto relleno, pastel de papa, and baked or fried pork. The triple has those three plus zarza de patitas(pig’s feet). The pictured double is technically a triple. However, I convinced the server to substitute an extra rocoto relleno for the zarza de patitas. And since that restaurant’s doubles and triples come with two stuffed peppers, this one has three. A super-doble. The americano is basically everything a restaurant has that day. In this shot, it has rocoto relleno, pastel de papa, fried pork, arroz con pollo, zarza de patitas, and a vegetable medley. The one pictured below has rocoto relleno, pastel de papa, fried pork, estofado de res, lentils, and chicken spaghetti. But it depends what they have that day. That’s why I always ask, so I don’t get something like mondonguito (tripe stew) or aji de calabaza (squash stew). Because I also don’t like zarza de patitas, I almost always order the doble. It’s also what we served at our wedding: doble, cold Cusqueña, Johnny Walker Red, and I think we had cake but I was wasted by then. If the pork is called chicharrón, it’s deep fried. If it’s called chancho al horno, it’s baked. It’s a cut right off the skin though, and pure fat at the edge. That makes it difficult for me to tell if it was baked or fried. Either way, I eat it all. For a good combination plate, Tradición is the most recommended to tourists. It has a classic Arequipa atmosphere, but it’s too elegant for my taste. It comes out with the taste and presentation of a chef. I prefer a more homemade flavor, which I get at Cua Cua or La Fiera.

Doble

Triple

The American

Trout

Pachamanca w/ trout, lamb, pork

This is the dark horse candidate of the crew. Most people wouldn’t think to eat fish in the desert. But in this desert run a few rivers supplied by the melting of snow on the snow-capped mountains. In these rivers live trout, so eating fresh fish in this desert isn’t impossible. Trout is the main attraction. To the left is Pachamanca, a Peruvian Andes style of cooking where they dig a hole, drop meat in the hole, cover it with rocks, and the super-hot sun at Andean altitude bakes the meat underground. This Pachamanca has trout, lamb, pork, sweet potato, white potato, a fresh salad with lemon juice, and the never-eaten-by-me tamal and habas (see below). All these shots are from Don Piero’s trout farm restaurant in Sachaca. Most Arequipa restaurants serve trucha frita (fried trout), but at Don Piero’s the trout is day fresh and there are plenty of options how to serve it. Photos below include sudado de trucha (trout soup) and trucha al ajo(trout with a garlic cream sauce). Also included are shots of live trout.

Garlic trout

Trout soup

Trout face

Trout farm

Peruvian trout

Don’t touch the trout!

Queso Helado and Alfajorillos

Queso Helado

Alfajorillos arequipeños

Alfajorillos arequipeños

Interesting dessert from Arequipa. It’s made from evaporated milk, condensed milk, vanilla extract, and sugar. Cinnamon is added on top. It’s good but I prefer real ice cream. You’ll find queso helado on street corners and outside tourist sites. Just look for an Indian woman in a hat and ankle length dress mixing up a giant drum the size of an oil barrel. Alfajorillos are a twist on classic alfajores, which are basically two dry cookies filled with honey. Those suck. Alfajorillos, on the other hand, are a soft breading filled with a generous amount of dulce de leche AKA arequipa AKA manjar. For about $0.25, these little hockey pucks are the perfect dessert. Found at any corner store.

3 Things You Don’t Have to Eat in Arequipa

Cuy Chactao AKA Guinea Pig

Cuy chactao, guinea pig

Colombia has chiguiro (which is delicious), Peru has guinea pig (which is disgusting). Cuy chactaois known as a national dish, but it started in Arequipa. Many people love cuy, excluding me. It has a very gamy, like a filthy pork. The biggest complaint about guinea pig is how much work it is. There ain’t much meat on these little fellas, and they have a ton of bones to get past. They’re so small they don’t filet them. They just cut them in half down the chest and belly, and fry them whole. They have a crunchy texture. I once saw a small guinea pig farm and realized how easy they are to keep as livestock. They don’t even build cages because they don’t run. They don’t go anywhere. They just sit in the grass waiting to get slit in half and deep fried. There are restaurants that specialize in cuy, called cuyerías. So if you’re set on getting the best experience in eating guinea pig, go to a cuyería. Here’s a shot of the little fella’s underbelly:

Gutted guinea pig

Zarza de Patitas AKA Pig’s Feet

Pig’s feet salad

Pig’s feet covered in cebollada, sliced onion and tomato covered in lemon juice and parsley. Cebollada is OK, actually a simple step Colombian cuisines could take to add flavor to their millions of flavorless almuerzo corrientes. The pig’s feet is the problem for me. Pig’s feet are actually a common American food, served pickled. It’s stereotypical “soul food” AKA black people’s food. One family reunion my uncle brought a huge jar. My cousin and I lost a bet and had to eat one. We tried and didn’t get far, and it was just one between the two of us. After our initial attempt, we tried throwing in on the barbecue. But still no dice. I don’t fuck with pig’s feet. Here’s a closeup of the pig’s feet:

Pig’s feet

Habas AKA Broad Beans

Photo credit: Mis Recetas

Habas in Spanish, boiled broad beans are like boiled lima beans but bigger. I can’t guess why, but they’re served as an appetizer or side dish in Arequipa. They come with guinea pig. But as an appetizer is the worst. Just look at them. Does that look appetizing? Stick with my favorite Arequipa appetizer, which didn’t make the list because there are too many delicious dishes), queso frito – fried cheese. The use Peruvian paria cheese, which is very sharp. Served with spicy aji. Fried cheese for an appetizer, the double (stuffed peppers, potato cake, and baked or fried pork), cold Cusqueña beer, maybe Chicha de Jora to drink as well, and an alfajorillo arequipeño for dessert – that’s my Sunday ritual. It’s also why a good layer of fat will never leave my body.

Fried paria cheese

Queso frito arequipeño

Served with spicy ají

Like this article? Read about the best Colombian food on 10 Things to Eat in Bogota.

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