Surquillo Market Lima: What to Buy and How to Shop

Updated Date: October 5, 2026

Author: Luchito’s Cooking Class Editorial Team

Quick Summary: Surquillo Market is where a lot of Lima actually does its shopping, and it is the easiest place in the city to taste fruit you will not find at home. The things worth buying are fruit to eat on the spot, chile pastes and dry pantry staples to carry home, and a fresh juice at the counter. The way to shop it is to pick a vendor, say when you will eat what you buy, and ask to taste before you pay.

What to buy at Surquillo: the short answer

• Fruit to eat there: chirimoya, granadilla, lúcuma, pacay, aguaymanto and whatever is in season.
• To carry home: sealed ají pastes, cancha, quinoa, maca, cacao and coffee.
• To drink: a fresh juice at one of the counters. A surtido is a mix of whatever is ripe.
• To eat: ceviche, but only at lunchtime, when the fish is at its freshest.
• How to shop: pick a vendor, say whether the fruit is para hoy (for today) or para mañana, and ask to taste.
• Leave behind: fresh fruit, potatoes, cheese and coca leaves. None of them clear customs at home.

Where this fits

Mercado N°1 de Surquillo sits at Avenida Paseo de la República and Narciso de la Colina, just across the expressway from Miraflores. It is the market most Lima cooking classes use for their ingredient runs, and the one most visitors are pointed to first.

This guide is about what to buy and how to buy it. For opening times, the best hours to go, getting there and safety, and how it compares with Mercado Central and San Isidro, see our comparison of Lima’s food markets, which covers all of that in detail.

The fruit worth tasting

This is the real reason to go. Peru grows fruit from the coast, the Andes and the Amazon, and much of it either does not export or loses everything on the way. A market stall is the place to try it ripe.

Fruit	What it tastes like	How to eat it
Chirimoya	Creamy white flesh, somewhere between pear, banana and pineapple	Halve and spoon it out. Do not eat the black seeds
Granadilla	Sweet, mild, grey seeds in clear jelly	Crack the hard orange shell and slurp it with a spoon
Lúcuma	Dense and dry, like maple, butterscotch and sweet potato	Rarely eaten raw. Try it as ice cream
Pacay	Soft white fluff around black seeds, sweet, a little like cotton candy	Split the long green pod, eat the fluff, discard the seed
Aguaymanto	Small golden berry, tart then sweet	Peel back the papery husk and eat it whole. Also sold dried
Pepino dulce	Mild and juicy, between melon and cucumber	Peel and slice. Cream skin with purple stripes when ripe
Tumbo	Very tart orange pulp, a relative of passion fruit	Mostly juiced
Maracuyá	Passion fruit, sharp and fragrant	Juice, desserts and the maracuyá sour
Camu camu	Intensely sour, famously high in vitamin C	Juice only. Nobody eats it raw
Aguaje	Oily orange flesh under maroon scales, from the Amazon	An acquired taste. Try a little first
Tuna	Prickly pear cactus fruit, sweet and seedy	Let the vendor peel it. The spines are fine and get everywhere

Two practical notes. First, what is on the stalls changes through the year, so treat the list as what to look for rather than a guarantee. Second, the small, intensely sour limón on every stall is the lime that makes Lima ceviche what it is. If you are going to cook, buy them here. Our guide to making ceviche like a Limeño explains why the lime matters so much.

Chiles, pastes and seasonings

The chile stalls are the most useful part of the market for anyone who cooks. Expect to see four constantly:

Ají amarillo: the orange chile underneath most of Peruvian cooking, fruity rather than fierce. Ají panca: dark, mild and smoky, the base of anticucho marinade. Rocoto: round, red and genuinely hot, with black seeds. Ají limo: small, sharp and colourful, the one that goes into ceviche. Our guide to the three essential chiles covers what each one does.

You will also find fresh herbs that are hard to get abroad: huacatay (Andean black mint, the base of ocopa sauce), culantro and hierba buena.

An honest note on pastes: the market sells fresh chiles and sometimes home-made pastes in bags. Those are wonderful to cook with in Lima but poor for travel. If you want to take paste home, a commercially sealed and labelled jar from a supermarket is the one that survives the flight and the customs desk.

Potatoes, corn and pantry staples

Potatoes. Peru grows thousands of varieties, and the potato stalls are where that stops being a statistic. Look for papa amarilla, the yellow potato that makes causa limeña, and the knobbly purple and red native varieties. They are for looking at and cooking in Lima. Fresh potatoes do not go home.

Corn. Choclo is fresh corn with huge, soft kernels, served with ceviche. Cancha is a dried corn that you toast in a pan until it puffs and cracks, the crunchy snack on every cevichería table. Purple corn, maíz morado, is what chicha morada is boiled from.

Grains and powders. Quinoa in white, red and black, kiwicha, and maca powder, all usually sold packaged.

Snacks. Chifles (fried plantain chips) and bags of ready-toasted cancha make good market snacks.

What to eat and drink while you are there

A fresh juice. The juice counters are one of the market’s quiet pleasures. You sit at a counter, point at fruit and they blend it in front of you. Ask for a surtido for a mix of whatever is ripe, and say whether you want it con agua or con leche.

Breakfast. The food stalls do Lima breakfasts. A pan con chicharrón, a fried-pork sandwich with sweet potato and salsa criolla, is the classic.

Ceviche, at lunch. Limeños eat ceviche at midday rather than in the evening, because the fish comes in that morning and is freshest early. The market cevicherías follow the same rhythm. A busy stall with a queue of locals is the one to choose.

“My boyfriend and I had such a fun and tasty experience! Definitely recommend! It was also a great opportunity to be creative and create not just a yummy, but beautiful masterpiece. Lucho did an amazing job as our teacher. Cannot miss this cooking class in Peru!” — Elisah A, February 2026

How to shop like a local

Lima market shopping runs on a few habits that make it noticeably easier once you know them.

Pick a vendor and stick with them. Regulars have a casera or casero, a stallholder they always buy from, and use the word as a friendly form of address: gracias, casera. Even on a single visit, buying several things from one stall tends to get you better fruit and a warmer welcome than drifting between stalls.

Say when you will eat it. This is the most useful habit of all. Tell the vendor para hoy (for today) or para mañana (for tomorrow) and they will choose fruit at the right ripeness. It is normal to let them pick rather than squeezing everything yourself.

Ask to taste. ¿Me da a probar? (can I try some?) is a reasonable question at a fruit stall, especially for something you have never had.

Buy by weight. Most produce is sold by the kilo. Medio kilo (half a kilo) is a sensible amount for a tasting session.

The yapa. Vendors often add a little extra for a good customer. That is the yapa, and a regular might ask for it with a smile. As a first-time visitor, receive it gracefully rather than requesting it.

Cash in small notes, and a bag. Bring coins and small notes and something to carry your shopping in. The markets guide covers cash, haggling and photography etiquette in more detail.

Useful phrases

Spanish	Meaning
¿Cuánto cuesta el kilo?	How much is a kilo?
¿Me da a probar?	Can I try some?
Para hoy / para mañana	For eating today / tomorrow
Medio kilo, por favor	Half a kilo, please
¿Qué fruta está buena ahora?	Which fruit is good right now?
Gracias, casera	Thanks (to a stallholder you have bought from)

Pointing and smiling also works perfectly well. Plenty of visitors shop here with no Spanish at all.

What to take home, and what to leave

Good to carry: sealed ají pastes, packaged quinoa and maca, cacao and chocolate, coffee, and dried cancha, provided your destination allows dried grains.

Leave in Lima: fresh fruit, potatoes, fresh herbs and queso fresco. Agricultural rules in almost every country stop them at the border.

Never pack: coca leaves. Surquillo sells them openly, and they are legal and ordinary in Peru, but they are illegal to bring into the United States and many other countries. Our guide to what customs actually allows covers this and the rest of the rules.

Going with someone who cooks

A market is much easier to understand with a guide. Luchito’s Cooking Class runs a longer session that starts with a hotel pickup around midday, walks Surquillo with a chef for about two hours, and then cooks for two and a half. You taste fruit you would not have known to ask for, learn which ají is which, and buy with help.

Whether the market version is worth the extra time depends mostly on how long you are in Lima. Our walkthrough of the market session covers what happens on it, and you can book it on the experiences page or ask on WhatsApp.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Surquillo Market known for?

Fresh produce, above all fruit. Mercado N°1 de Surquillo, just across the expressway from Miraflores, is where many Limeños do their everyday shopping, and it has deep stalls of fruit, chiles, potatoes, herbs, fish and meat, plus juice counters and food stalls. It is also the market most Lima cooking classes use for ingredients, which is why it is the one visitors are usually pointed to first.

What fruit should I try at Surquillo Market?

Start with chirimoya (creamy, spooned from the skin; avoid the seeds), granadilla (sweet jelly-coated seeds in a hard shell), pacay (sweet white fluff inside a long pod) and aguaymanto (a tart golden berry). Try lúcuma as ice cream rather than raw. Tell the vendor you will eat it today, para hoy, and ask to taste, ¿me da a probar?, before you buy.

Can you eat at Surquillo Market?

Yes. The juice counters will blend fresh fruit in front of you, and a surtido is a mix of whatever is ripe. The food stalls serve Lima breakfasts such as pan con chicharrón, and there is ceviche at lunchtime. Limeños eat ceviche at midday rather than in the evening because the fish arrives that morning, so lunch is the time to have it. Choose a stall with a queue of locals.

What can I buy at Surquillo Market to take home?

Shelf-stable, packaged things travel: sealed ají pastes, quinoa, maca, cacao, chocolate, coffee and dried cancha where your destination allows dried grains. Fresh fruit, potatoes, fresh herbs and cheese do not, because almost every country restricts them at the border. Never pack coca leaves: they are sold openly in the market but are illegal to bring into the United States and many other countries.

Do I need Spanish to shop at Surquillo Market?

No. Plenty of visitors shop there by pointing, and stallholders are used to it. A few phrases do help: para hoy or para mañana so the vendor picks fruit at the right ripeness, ¿me da a probar? to ask for a taste, medio kilo for half a kilo, and gracias, casera to thank a stallholder you have bought from.

Limitations

What is on the stalls changes with the season, so the fruit described here is what to look for rather than a guarantee of what any given day will have. Descriptions of taste are general. The address given is the commonly published location of Mercado N°1 de Surquillo; opening hours, best times to visit and safety are covered in a separate guide and should be checked locally. Customs rules depend on the country you are arriving in and change; the summary here is not legal advice, and the official rules of your own border agency take precedence. Class formats, timings and prices are the operator’s published details and subject to change.