Peruvian Fast Food

Like looking for different flavors of potato chips, we need to discover what kind of fast food concoctions the Limeños have come up with.

Peruano at El Chinito

For instance, we could go to Sanguchería El Chinito,  a few blocks northeast of the hotel. It has  "Los más ricos chicharrones y sánguches tradicionales de Lima".  Sanguches??  I think they mean "sandwiches"...  And it is not "chinito" as in a little boy but "chinito" as in Chinese so you can get sandwiches with Pollito Pekín and cha siu.  Chicharrones in Peru are not pork cracklings but a meatier pork belly. A Peruano is a sanguche with pork belly, sweet potato, and an onion relish.  They also have chicken and pork (chanchito) tamales.  Worth checking out...
There's a lot of influence from the Chinese.  Chinese restaurants are chifas.   Arroz Chaufa is Peruvian stir-fried rice.  Lomo Saltado is a Peruvian stir-fry with beef and soy sauce but also with tomatoes, peppers, onions, cilantro and French fries, served over rice.

Chicharrón with camote and salsa criolla

Travel and Leisure Magazine has a review of La Lucha Sanguchería, a location of which is about 5 blocks northwest  of our hotel in Miraflores.  The New York Times 36 Hours in Lima, Peru also featured this sanguchería that uses "algarrobo wood to grill meats and native huayro potatoes to make thick-cut fries."  The sanguches also come with a variety of dipping sauces.  Although the sanguches at El Chinito look a bit more tempting with more of the fresh relish on top, I'd like to try those huayro potato fries.  Peru has lots of different kinds of potatoes but some are really different tubers not part of the potato family, like oca, hibias and cubios, and the camote (sweet potato).

Fast food at Salchipapería

Chorizo and frankfurters seem to be a big favorite (as in choripan).  At the left are some selections from La Salchipapería where hot dogs are served with french fries (salchipapas).  Evidently dishes "a la pobre" come with a fried egg on top (and sometimes a couple of strips of fried platano).  You can get a fried egg sanguche for only 2.50 soles or 75¢.  La Salchipapería also serves almuerzos (lunches) from 11am -5pm and these are more traditional Latin meals with rice, most of which are 12.90 soles ($3.88), a pretty cheap meal.  You can choose from Pollo a las Finas Hierbas, Salchichaufa Clásico (fried rice with frankfurters), Pollo Saltado (stir-fried chicken), Lomo Saltado (the classic Peruvian beef-stir-fry with french fries and rice), Mostrito (a combination of fried rice, french fries and fried chicken - pollo broaster), and Chaufa con lomo (a combination of fried rice, french fries and stir-fried beef).  With all that fried food, what's not to like?

UPDATE:  If you want to see what Peruvian Comida Rapida (fast food) looks like, check out this video by a Peruvian/Canadian couple that go to eat 1) sandwiches at Lucha Sanguchería, 2) Pollo a la brasa at Pardo's Chicken, and 3) Peruvian hamburgers at Bembo's.  It is in Spanish and the subtitles are laughable but hopefully you can understand some of it.