Arequipa's Picantería Cooking

The picantería began as a house that brewed chicha and sold food alongside it, and Arequipa has kept the form: big plain rooms, wood-fired ranges, chicha de guiñapo made from black maize, and a menu tied to the day of the week. Rocoto relleno is the emblem, a fat red pepper stuffed with minced beef, olives and cheese and baked with a potato cake beside it. Chupe de camarones, a chowder of river shrimp from the Majes and Ocoña rivers thickened with milk and egg, traditionally belongs to Friday; adobo, pork marinated overnight in chicha and spices, is a Sunday breakfast. Peru has declared the picantería part of its national cultural heritage.

What you actually see

• Rocoto relleno - the stuffed red pepper baked with a layered potato cake.
• Chupe de camarones - river shrimp chowder, thickest and best on Fridays.
• Adobo arequipeño - pork marinated in chicha, eaten on Sunday mornings.
• Chicha de guiñapo - the black maize brew served from clay jars.

When to go

Lunch, and only lunch. Most picanterías open around eleven and close mid-afternoon, and an evening plan will simply fail. The day of the week decides what is cooked, so if you want the shrimp chowder go on a Friday and if you want adobo go early on a Sunday. Weekends fill the best-known houses and waits of an hour happen.

Honest expectations

Portions are built for people who have done a morning's work and one dish defeats most visitors. Rocoto is genuinely hot even with the seeds and veins taken out, and the cheese does not cancel it. The good houses are in outer districts and need a taxi each way; the ones nearest the tourist streets are the weakest versions. Chicha is an acquired taste and served warm.

Nearby

Arequipa's white stone centre, the Santa Catalina convent and the Colca road.