"In one life, you can not try all the dishes Peru has to offer.”- Luciano Vanini, Harley House

¡Buenos días!

Something to ponder: isn't it interesting how your "weird" is someone else's lunch? In Peru cuy, or guinea pig, is as common as Vegemite in Australia. What's stranger: eating yeast extract or a marinated animal on a spit?

HIDDEN GEM » Melbourne’s Doyenne of Peruvian Food Cooks for Strangers in her Garden

We’ve all heard the adage that it’s never too late to start, but when you talk to Evelina Alarcon, you get the feeling she’s never going to stop. Some 40 years after moving to Melbourne from Peru, she completed her Certificate IV in Commercial Cookery.“Most of us were in our fifties and sixties, so they said instead of having a big restaurant that you run every day, start cooking at home,” says Evelina. “I really liked that idea.”In 2014 she set up La Cholita, feeding around 30 people home-style Peruvian food in her Endeavour Hills garden on weekends, with the help of her Ecuadorian husband.“Peruvian food in Melbourne is too gourmet. It’s made for the Australian palate in order to make it more easy for them. But for Australian people that have been in Peru, they know the difference,” she says.

Lockdown laws permitting, La Cholita is usually open from late spring to March.“When you come to eat in my place you will eat the authentic food,” promises Evelina. “I cook the old way. I don’t open a can of chicken stock; I make my own stock. People say, ‘I’ve never tasted anything like this except from Peru.’”Customers adore her arroz con mariscos (Peruvian seafood paella), tamales, alfajores and causa rellena – a layered, mashed potato and fish or chicken terrine flavoured with aji amarillo chillies and mayo that’s topped with olives. It looks like something from an ‘80s-themed dinner party, but the history runs deeper.“Causa is a legendary dish form Peru because of the Pacific War that we had,” explains Evelina. “It was created by the women in Lima for the men in the army. The reason of the name causa is because in Spanish, causa means ‘cause’, so the families selling it would say it was for the cause.”Evelina grows hard-to-find chillies and herbs, like huacatay, Peruvian black mint. But when her family arrived in 1973, it was impossible to find now-common ingredients that are fundamental building blocks of Peruvian cuisine.“There was no coriander, no chilli, no avocado, no red onion. Australia didn’t know nothing about that, so we had to compromise with the stuff that we had,” she says.

The name La Cholita comes from a derogatory word for mixed-race women with indigenous Andes heritage, though these days South America's cholitas, dressed in bowler hats and aguayo (colourful carrying cloths), are symbols of national pride. Evelina’s great, great grandmother was an African slave, and her great, great grandfather was that slave’s legal owner.“A lot of the dishes are an infusion of that,” says Evelina. “On my father’s side it’s such a mix. In our family tree we call it coffee and milk; some can be very white and some can be very black as an olive!”Although Evelina can't feed people from home right now, when Stage Four restrictions lift she can't wait to get back to it. “I’ll be up and firing,” she tells me. “I’m getting bored as anything!” Until then, you can purchase traditional dishes for pick up. Now in her sixties, the only thing higher than Evelina’s ambition is her energy.“I wish I had the money to buy a food truck. I’m still wishful thinking. I’m not going to stop. We Latin Americans don’t tend to retire; we always want to keep going. It keeps us alive.”

Evelina takes orders for a minimum of five dishes, available for pick up within 5km of Endeavour Hills. When restrictions lift, she’ll deliver orders of $100 or more. Call her on 0425 748 419 or send a message via Facebook. Peruvians know what she makes, but for the rest of us, I've put her price list into a menu here!

DISHCOVERY » You Can Literally Thank Christ for this Spiced Afro-Peruvian Fairy Bread Cake

If you happen to be in Lima in October, you might catch the city in a purple haze during Mes Morado, purple month. It's when the procession of Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) takes place, with people dressing in purple to celebrate an image of Señor de los Milagros, or Cristo de Pachacamilla, painted in Las Nazarenas Church by an Angolan slave in the 17th century that survived multiple earthquakes dating back to the 1600s. People make pilgrimages to the church every year, seeking its healing and protective powers, and they eat Turrón de Doña Pepa while they’re at it. Here in Melbourne, you can order it year round from only one place.

The story goes that Josefa Maraminillo, a slave living just outside the plantation town of Cañete, came to Lima to ask Señor de los Milagros to cure her of paralysis. He did, and she was so grateful she created turron de Doña Pepa to give gracias. Turron de Doña Pepa is a traditional layer cake with dough made from lard, egg yolks and spices, stacked like sponge biscuits in a tiramisu or trifle, and then drizzled with panela syrup called chancaca. The finishing touch is a confetti of sprinkles. Some historians say turron de Doña Pepa is a Peruvian adaptation of alba nougat, a Spanish dough made from nuts and sweetened with honey.Although it’s more popular in October, you can find turron de Doña Pepa in airports, as well as kiosks and pastelerías along Avenida Tacna near the church. Can’t get there? Try this recipe from Food52, one of the few in English, or place an order with Evelina from La Cholita, who sells them by the half and full kilogram ($18 and $30 respectively) to Melburnians.

TLDR » Where to Order Peruvian Food in Australia

I acknowledge that not everyone is as much of a food nerd as me, so for those who would rather eat first and learn later, here are some more places to order Peruvian food if you're in Australia.

Citrico Cocina, Fitzroy North, Melbourne I'm pretty sure Citrico's Peruvian fried chicken is classified as "essential" in pandemic terms. The pollo Chifa features master stock drumettes with ranchero sauce and salsa pebre, a Chilean condiment. The lomo saltado is also a winner and comes interspersed with chips, plus there's wood-fired scotch fillet with chimichurri and empanadas, which are also available frozen. Pick up or delivery to the inner north. Check the website for suburbs when you order online.

Pastuso, CBD, Melbourne City restaurant Pastuso has introduced Peruvian bowls during lockdown. At $16 to $19 for protiens like smoked beef brisket and cured salmon on quinoa, they're great value. For something heartier, try the costillas de ternera, half a kilo of beef short ribs braised in aji marisol (dried aji amarillo yellow chillies) and black carob syrup served with fries. Order online for takeaway and delivery (check postcodes on website).

Nikkei Bar & Restaurant, Surry Hills, Sydney Australia’s only dedicated Nikkei restaurant is open for dine in with a seven-course set menu for $80 per person. If you don’t want that much commitment, there’s also a snack menu at the bar for walk-ins between Thursday and Saturday from 5pm. Think spiced alpaca salami, salchipapas smoked sausage and kingfish ceviche. Leaving without trying the Nikkei cocktails would be like visiting Peru and skipping Machu Picchu. Book online.

Nikkei's swordfish ceviche. Image by Bruno Stefani.

UMA, CBD, Perth Alejandro Saravia's UMA combines the best of Western Australian produce with Peruvian cuisine. It's currently open for dine in with a three- or five-course set menu ($49 and $69 per person respectively). Highlights include anticucho de ternera (beef rump cap skewers), ceviche made with local prawns and desert limes, and chupe de mariscos (Shark Bay fish, cuttlefish and cassava in a creamy, spiced traditional sauce). Book online.

LOCKDOWN ORDER » Beef Heart Skewers & Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken

Thirty kilometres southeast of Melbourne CBD, Inti Gourmet is an unassuming Peruvian restaurant wedged between cafes and a pharmacy along the Nepean Highway. It’s developed such a loyal following that regulars have taken to ordering delivery via Uber Courier when they fall outside the Uber Eats delivery range. Along with the usual menu, Inti has introduced weekend specials such as pollo ala brasa, Peru’s much-loved rotisserie chook.“Here in Australia you eat fish and chips, in Peru we eat we eat pollo ala brasa, charcoal chicken with chips and salad. You have to have that with your Inca Kola, a Peruvian soft drink made with lemongrass,” say owner Gaby Vucetich.

During lockdown there are new dishes every weekend, including packs for two with homemade sangria. For Father’s Day tomorrow, Gaby is pulling out the caja China, literally “Chinese box” – an upside-down barbecue where coals placed above the meat result in extra crisp crackling on smoked pork belly. The contraption supposedly first immigrated to Cuba with Chinese workers in the mid-19th century. Others say the term doesn’t refer to Chinese people at all and is instead an old-fashioned reference to the exotic."In Peru we’ve got people from everywhere, all around the world. We’ve got the stir-fry (lomo saltado) that’s made with soy sauce, and the carapulcra, for example, comes from Africa. We’ve got a big story about our culture and our food,” says Gaby.Gaby and her husband Milton Chung drive to suburbs like St Kilda and Port Melbourne, but some dishes are better straight from the kitchen, like ceviche and anticuchos de corazon (beef heart skewers), both of which Gaby recommends to new customers.

“Some people are curious and want to try different things, so I offer anticuchos. You have to eat it warm; when it gets cold, it gets chewy,” she says.Gaby was born in Melbourne after her parents emigrated here from Cusco in the 1970s. When she was 10 years old, Gaby returned to Peru and lived in Lima after her grandfather died in a tragic car accident. She was always fascinated watching her grandmother cook, which led to a career catering for the wealthy at a restaurant attached to a private beach resort. It wasn’t until she had a family of her own that she moved back to Melbourne, just seven years ago.“If you eat Indian food they always have curry. People want to know about what is Peruvian food. They ask, ‘What’s the most traditional?’ All the dishes that we have are traditional. There’s no fusion or any of these things,” says Gaby. “What you’re going to eat in the street or your mum’s place or your grandmother’s place, it’s what you’re going to eat here.”Inti Gourmet is located at 414 Nepean Highway, Chelsea. Check the Facebook page for details.

LONG READ » Don’t call it Fusion: Japanese, Chinese & African Food is Ingrained in Peruvian Culture

In Peru, tourists bite into cow’s heart skewers unaware they’re a street food born from African slavery. Local families visit restaurants on weekends specifically for Chinese fried rice. In the early 1900s, the Japanese blurred the line between ceviche and sashimi. All of these are traditional Peruvian dishes, but this is not fusion – it’s evolution. From ancient ingredients through to waves of migration, this deep-dive into the history of Peruvian cuisine is an insight into the country’s worldly flavours and passionate people.

Tracing the origins of Peruvian food is a culinary Robinson Crusoe adventure with only slightly less colonialism and far fewer religious references. Perhaps the best place to start is with potatoes. They were domesticated thousands of years ago in modern-day Peru, which now has an International Potato Centre that’s documented 4,000 varieties of edible ‘taters. Along with corn and chillies, potatoes are the cornerstones of the cuisine. When the Spanish took over from the Inca Empire in 1533, Peru’s ingredient repertoire broadened, and then continued to do so with the arrival of Chinese workers in the 1800s and Japanese immigrants at the turn of the following century.

Afro-Peruvian: Slave Food to Street Food The Spanish introduced rice, wheat and new sources of protein to Peru, and also ignited South America’s love affair with dulce de leche. They didn’t only ship over ingredients; they also brought African slaves. These slaves had to be resourceful, turning less-desirable ingredients into palatable food. “The Spanish only ate the good quality meat, they gave all the insides to the slaves. They started putting spices and chillies, and now anticuchos (beef heart skewers) is one of the most famous street food you can find,” says Peruvian-born chef Luciano Vanini, co-owner of Harley House in Melbourne.If you’ve been watching Netflix’s Street Food: Latin America, you would have also seen Picarones Mary, a Peruvian doughnut cart selling hot, syrupy picarones to people queuing in a park. These sweet potato and squash doughnuts are another creation of the African slave trade, who shaped dough into rings and tossed them in hot lard. Another of Luciano’s favourite Peruvian street foods is tacu tacu, a simple dish of rice and beans shaped into a pattie, that was once reserved for the poor.“It’s everywhere and there are so many varieties, and that’s thanks to the Afro-Peruvians,” he says.

Chifa: Peru’s Chinese-Influence CuisineWhen slavery was officially abolished in 1854, there was an influx of Chinese labourers between the 1850s and 1870s contracted to work on coastal plantations and in mines. Most were male, and many ended up partnering with Peruvian women. They brought ingredients like soy sauce and ginger and introduced cooking utensils fundamental in many Peruvian kitchens today, namely the wok. People with mixed Chinese and Peruvian heritage are referred to as Tusan, while Chinese-Peruvian restaurants are Chifa. According to Luciano, the word 'Chifa' was derived from 'chow fun' and is an integral part of Peruvian culture.“Because they couldn’t say chow fun, they say, ‘Let’s go to the Chifa,’” he says. “You can find Chifa all over Peru, even in the small, tiny town you can find a Chifa – or at least a Peruvian fried rice.”Peru's fried rice is called arroz chaufa and differs little to the original, but kalu wantan, braised pork or chicken in a tamarind and aji amarillo (Peruvian yellow chilli) sauce served with fried wontons, is a better example of how Chinese migrants incorporated local ingredients into familiar foods. The most internationally iconic Chifa dish is lomo saltado, a Peruvian stir fry of beef sirloin strips and vegetables seasoned with soy sauce and served with both rice and fries.“The flame of the wok and the fire makes it what it is,” says Luciano. “You can do it in a pan, but if you don’t have the wok it’s not lomo saltado, it’s called lomo al jugo.”Without using the exact words, Luciano is referencing wok hei, the unmatchable charred aroma afforded to food cooked in a piping-hot wok.

Lomo saltado from Citrico Cocina in Fitzroy North.

At Citrico Cocina in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy North, owner Nan Kroll can’t bring herself to serve Aussies double carbs with lomo saltado.“We’ve chosen to omit the rice from the dish because it is a bit too heavy with both. Your basic Aussies don’t know, but we do have Peruvian customers who are like, ‘Where is your rice?’” she says.Head chef Daniel Salcedo has also created a take on Chinese-Peruvian fried chicken, where the drumettes are first cooked in master stock. At Citrico the dine-in menu even includes a glossary that explains the history of dishes like lomo saltado.“It’s so varied because you have foodies who already know these things, but then you have people who are like, ‘Why are you serving a Chinese stir fry in a South American restaurant?’” says Nan.

Nikkei: Peru’s Japanese-Influence CuisineIn the late 1800s during the First Sino-Japanese War, there was a surplus of Japanese farmers looking for work. It coincided with the years following the Pacific War between Chile and Peru and Bolivia, which wiped out many of Peru’s Chinese workers. This led to Peru becoming the first South American country to welcome Japanese farmers. The first boat landed in 1899, and many never returned to Japan.“When these communities started to grow, they wanted to have their own cuisine but couldn’t find certain ingredients,” explains Peruvian chef Alejandro Saravia from Pastuso, soon-to-open Farmer's Daughters in Melbourne and UMA in Perth. “For example, traditionally we don’t grow wasabi, so they replaced wasabi with Peruvian chillies.”This resourcefulness with ingredients birthed the Japanese-Peruvian cuisine known as Nikkei. Another example of a Nikkei dish is tiradito, which is on the menu at Pastuso. Peruvian ceviche is served diced and turns white after being steeped in citrus. Tiradito on the other hand is sliced like sashimi and doused in a marinade just before serving, the acidity cooking the fish only slightly.

Tiradito is also on the menu at Nikkei Bar & Restaurant in Sydney, though this new-age version is made with duck breast. Venue manager Marco Oshiro Giron is used to people telling him that the menu is neither Japanese nor Peruvian.“If people look at our menu they might say it’s not very Japanese, but Nikkei is not Japanese; it’s Peruvian food through and through, because it’s Japanese food made by Peruvians,” he says.Nikkei opened in Sydney in November 2019, inspired in part by Marco’s heritage and in part by the desire to showcase a new take on an underrepresented cuisine.“Growing up, the culture at home was very much South American and I still don’t know much about my heritage,” admits Marco. “You ask some fourth, fifth generations – they might not know very much about Japan, all they know is Peru.”What Marco does know is his way around a bar. Not being tied to tradition enables him to create original Nikkei-inspired cocktails, like the Morada made with pisco (Peru’s national spirit), chicha morada (a drink made from purple corn), yuzu (Japanese citrus), aquafaba (chickpea water) and plum bitters.“One of the biggest things we try to tell our customers is that Peruvian-Japanese is not fusion. Nikkei food is a cuisine that has 100 years of history. It’s an organic amalgamation of the cultures,” says Marco.

Defining Peruvian FoodToday Peru’s capital, Lima, is renowned for blending indigenous ingredients and recipes with modern techniques. Virgilio Martínez's Central Restaurante is perhaps best known for this, repeatedly appearing at the pointy end of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. With so many cultures intermingling over time, is it possible to define Peruvian cuisine? If you ask the pros, it comes down to the ingredients and the people who cook with them.In Australia, native Peruvian ingredients are costly, which is why Alejandro imports three 40-foot shipping containers every year, each filled with the pride of Peru: chillies, pisco and wine.“Here in Australia, a lot of key Asian ingredients are available in the market, so restaurants can source them with more cost-effective pricing and recreate the cuisine in an authentic way,” he says. “When I see restaurants that are claiming to do Peruvian food and not utilising Peruvian ingredients, I don’t think it’s fair.”Luciano is more poetic about Peruvian food.“If you want to do something traditional, you need traditional people,” he says. “You don’t have that taste in your mouth, what your mum or your grandma use to cook, you don’t have the last thing that makes a dish amazing.”But even if you can access the ingredients, befriend a Peruvian chef or order from a Peruvian restaurant, Luciano says that conquering the cuisine is impossible.“You have this mix from all over the world. There are a lot of flavours you have never had in your life. In one life, you can not try all the dishes Peru has to offer.”Nikkei Restaurant & Bar Images by

Bruno Stefani.

RECIPE » Alejandro Saravia’s Salmon Saltado

Peru's most prized ingredient is aji amarillo, a native yellow chilli. It features in this recipe from chef Alejandro Saravia, a salmon version of the popular Chinese-Peruvian dish lomo saltado. You can buy aji pastes from Latin delis, like Casa Iberica, or online.

Ingredients 800g skinless salmon fillet100g rice flour100ml olive oil2 bunches bok choy, leaves washed & separatedsalt & pepperspring onion to garnishrice for servingFor the sauce 2 oranges150g aji amarillo paste125g aji mirasol paste100ml soy sauce50g pureed gingerMethod for the sauce 1. Char whole oranges over stove or grill.2. Cool, then juice and pass through a sieve to remove pith.3. Add the aji amarillo, aji mirasol, soy sauce and ginger to the juice and mix until smooth.Method for the fish 1. Dice salmon fillet into 3cm x 3cm squares.2. Mix salt and pepper with the rice flour.3. Evenly coat fish with seasoned flour.4. Pour oil into a large pan. When it starts to smoke, add fish. Cook until outsides are crisp.5. Add bok choy to the same pan and cook for 2 minutes.6. Slowly pour in 50 to 100ml sauce (depends on how juicy you like it) and cook for a further 2 minutes. Store extra sauce in the fridge.7. Serve with steamed rice and garnish with chopped spring onion.

HACK » Make Dulce de Leche with One Ingredient

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