Peruvian Food Glossary for Travelers: Menus Decoded

Updated Date: September 24, 2026

Author: Luchito’s Cooking Class Editorial Team

Quick Summary: Peruvian menus assume a vocabulary most visitors do not have, and the gap is wider than in most cuisines because so many terms are Quechua or Japanese-Peruvian rather than Spanish. This glossary covers the dishes, ingredients and cuisine names that actually appear on menus in Lima, grouped so you can find what you are looking at rather than reading alphabetically.

The terms that unlock a Peruvian menu

• Ají means chilli, and it is under almost everything. Learn amarillo and panca first.
• Chifa and nikkei are not dishes but whole cuisines — Chinese-Peruvian and Japanese-Peruvian.
• Causa, tiradito and ceviche are three different cold dishes, not variations of one.
• Saltado means stir-fried; a la brasa means spit-roasted; anticucho means skewered and grilled.
• Chicha morada is a soft drink; chicha de jora is alcoholic. Worth not confusing.
• Lúcuma, chirimoya and aguaymanto are fruits you will meet in desserts.

Chillies and seasonings

Ají — chilli, the single most important word here. Ají amarillo is the yellow-orange one, fruity and moderately hot, roughly 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville, and it underpins ají de gallina, papa a la huancaína and much else. Ají panca is dark, mild and smoky, the base of anticucho marinade. Rocoto looks like a small red pepper and is genuinely hot; treat it with respect.

Huacatay — Andean black mint, tasting somewhere between mint, basil and tarragon. Central to ocopa, a sauce of huacatay, fresh cheese, ají amarillo, onion and garlic.

Sillao — soy sauce, borrowed from Chinese cooking and now standard in Peruvian kitchens. Worth knowing if you avoid gluten, since it is usually brewed with wheat. Our gluten guide covers where it hides.

Leche de tigre — literally tiger’s milk, the citrus and ají marinade that cures ceviche. Often served on its own in a glass.

Cold dishes

Ceviche — raw fish cured in leche de tigre, served with sweet potato and corn. Peru’s national dish and usually eaten at lunch rather than dinner.

Tiradito — the same idea with a different cut and no onion: fish sliced thin like sashimi, sauce poured over rather than tossed through. The Japanese influence is visible.

Causa — a cold terrine of mashed yellow potato seasoned with ají amarillo and lime, layered with a filling such as chicken, tuna or avocado. The name comes from the word for mashed potato. Served cold, which surprises people expecting something like a gratin.

Hot dishes

Lomo saltado — beef stir-fried with onion, tomato and ají, served with both rice and fried potatoes. The emblematic chifa dish.

Ají de gallina — shredded chicken in a thick, mild, creamy ají amarillo sauce. Comfort food rather than a spicy dish.

Papa a la huancaína — boiled potato under a sauce of fresh cheese and ají amarillo. A starter, served cold or at room temperature.

Anticuchos — skewers marinated in ají panca and grilled, classically beef heart (de corazón). A pre-Columbian Andean dish and one of Lima’s great street foods.

Pollo a la brasa — charcoal spit-roasted chicken, the most eaten restaurant dish in the country and not remotely a tourist dish.

Tacu tacu — leftover rice and beans pressed and fried into a crisp-edged cake. A dish born from thrift and now a menu staple.

Rocoto relleno — rocoto stuffed with spiced meat and cheese, from Arequipa. Genuinely spicy.

Pachamanca — Quechua for earth oven. Meat, potatoes, corn and beans cooked underground on preheated stones. A rural, occasion dish rather than a restaurant one.

The two fusion cuisines

These two words describe entire culinary traditions, and not knowing them is the most common reason a Lima menu stops making sense.

Chifa — Chinese-Peruvian cooking, from the Cantonese chi fan, to eat. It arrived with Chinese labourers in the nineteenth century and is now thoroughly Peruvian rather than a foreign cuisine. Lomo saltado and arroz chaufa (fried rice) are chifa dishes that most Peruvians would not think of as Chinese at all.

Nikkei — Japanese-Peruvian cooking, from the term for Japanese emigrants and their descendants. Japanese precision with raw fish meeting Peruvian ají and lime. Tiradito is the clearest example, and much of Lima’s fine dining reputation rests on this tradition.

Fruits, drinks and desserts

Lúcuma — an orange-fleshed fruit tasting faintly of maple and sweet potato, used mostly in ice cream. Chirimoya — custard apple, creamy and fragrant. Aguaymanto — the small tart golden berry sold elsewhere as physalis. Camu camu and granadilla appear in juices.

Chicha morada — purple corn boiled with pineapple, cinnamon and clove, served cold. Non-alcoholic and drunk with lunch by everyone. Chicha de jora is a different drink entirely and is fermented, so the two are worth distinguishing before you order.

Pisco sour — pisco, lime, syrup, egg white, bitters. Chilcano — pisco, lime and ginger ale, lighter and the easier one to drink with food. Our guide to what makes Peruvian pisco different covers the spirit itself.

Suspiro a la limeña — caramel custard under meringue, very sweet. Mazamorra morada — purple corn pudding, often served alongside rice pudding. Picarones — squash and sweet potato doughnuts in fig syrup.

Ordering words worth knowing

Menú — confusingly, not the list of dishes but the set lunch, usually excellent value. The list of dishes is la carta.

A lo pobre — “poor man’s style,” meaning topped with a fried egg and served with fried plantain, which is not poor at all.

Al ajo — with garlic. A la plancha — griddled. Apanado — breaded.

Picante — spicy, though Peruvian heat is usually served on the side as ají sauce so you control it. Ask for ají if it does not arrive and you want it.

Learning the words is one thing; cooking the dishes fixes them permanently. Our guide to which dishes you can learn in Lima covers what a class teaches, and Luchito’s sessions cover ceviche, causa, lomo saltado and the cocktails between them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between ceviche and tiradito?

Both are raw fish cured in citrus, but the cut and the assembly differ. Ceviche is cut into cubes, tossed with onion, and served with sweet potato and corn. Tiradito is sliced thin like sashimi, served without onion, with the sauce poured over rather than mixed through. Tiradito is the more visibly Japanese-influenced of the two and belongs to the nikkei tradition.

What does chifa mean in Peru?

Chifa is Chinese-Peruvian cuisine, and the word comes from the Cantonese chi fan, meaning to eat. It arrived with Chinese labourers in the nineteenth century and has been absorbed so completely that most Peruvians would not think of it as foreign food. Lomo saltado and arroz chaufa are chifa dishes. Nikkei is its Japanese-Peruvian counterpart, and much of Lima’s fine-dining reputation rests on it.

Is chicha morada alcoholic?

No. Chicha morada is purple corn boiled with pineapple, cinnamon and clove, served cold, and it is what a great many Peruvians drink with lunch. The drink to distinguish it from is chicha de jora, which is fermented and does contain alcohol. They share a name and nothing else, so it is worth being specific when you order.

What does menú mean on a Peruvian menu?

Not what an English speaker expects. Menú is the set lunch — a fixed two or three course meal at a fixed price, usually very good value and what many people eat on a working day. The list of individual dishes is la carta. Asking for the menú will get you the deal of the day rather than the thing you can read.

Is Peruvian food spicy?

Less than its reputation suggests, and the heat is usually under your control. Ají is fundamental to the cuisine, but it more often provides fruit, colour and body than aggressive heat, and chilli sauce is typically served on the side so you add what you want. The genuine exceptions are rocoto, which is properly hot, and dishes built on it such as rocoto relleno.

Limitations

Definitions here describe how terms are most commonly used on menus in Lima. Peruvian cuisine varies considerably by region, and a dish named the same way in Arequipa, the Andes or the Amazon can differ substantially from the coastal version described. Preparations also vary between kitchens, so ingredients listed are typical rather than definitive — which matters if you are avoiding something for dietary or allergy reasons, in which case ask rather than relying on a dish name. Scoville figures are indicative and chilli heat varies between batches.