What to Eat in Arequipa: Our Top 5 Local Dishes

Arequipa boasts Peru’s most recognizable and prized regional cuisine. The city’s traditional local restaurants, known as picanterías have been officially honored by congress as part of the country’s cultural heritage. If you visit Arequipa, you cannot, cannot leave without sampling at least its 5 most iconic dishes:

Arequipa’s signature dish is stuffed spicy pepper, rocoto relleno. Although the local peppers are the same shape, color, and size as a red pepper, do not be fooled- they pack a spicy punch! Although they can be boiled several times prior to assembling the dish in order to tame the heat, you still have a chance of receiving a very spicy meal. They they stuffed with a creamy filling that includes beef, ground peanuts, raisins before being topped with cheese and backed. They are almost always accompanied by a sliced potato casserole.

Adobo is a pork stew served only on Sundays (if you are desperate to try it on another day, head to the restaurants along the perimeter of the main square of the Cayma district). At first glance, citizens of the United States might find it quite similar to New Mexican posole, as it boast a good deal of spice red pepper, cumin, garlic and other spices along with the pork, but adobo is distinct in that it incorporates the home-fermented Peruvian beer known as chicha, which gives the stew an intriguing depth of flavors. With a few pieces of the mysteriously tasty fresh local bread, you’ll be set for a memorable meal.

Arequipa has a steady source of large, fresh shrimp from the fertile Majes Valley, and it makes the most of them with the local version of shrimp chowder, chupe de camarones. The sprimp are never de-shelled, which means the dish is a bit of work for the diner. You’ll be removing shrimp shells and shucking the giant kernels from a slice of Andean corn cob. The milky shrimp broth makes it worthwhile, however.

Vegetarians on the road may not find much nourishment in South America aside from rice and potaoes, but Arequipa provides some respite. Among the options available to them, there’s a salad known as soltero de queso, which combines diced cheese and vegetables such as lima beans, tomato, kernals of giant Andean corn, potato and onion in an olive oil, vinegar and parsley dressing. Another vegetarian option, and a dish unique to the city that any traveler would enjoy, is ocopa. Slices of boiled potatoes and eggs are bathed in a spicy sauce made with spicy yellow pepper, Peruvian black spearmint, milk, and cheese and thickened with peanuts.