The Kitchen Dictionary

Peruvian kitchen words, explained

Every recipe on this site carries words we actually use at home — street slang you won't find in a textbook, Quechua that names half the pantry, Cantonese that arrived with the cooks who built Peru's chifas, and one word that came up from the Amazon through Portuguese. This is where they live, with what they mean and where you'll find them. We only list words we use ourselves; where a word's origin is disputed, we say so instead of picking the prettier story.

Peruvian slang

Words you will not find in a Spanish textbook. This is how food actually gets talked about in a Peruvian kitchen, market or street corner.

al toqueSlang: Right now, this second. Applied to cooking, it means food that must come off the fire and onto the plate immediately or be lost. Appears in Anticuchos, Classic ceviche, Salsa criolla, Emoliente
taipáSlang: A heaped, generous serving. The opposite of a restrained portion, and the only correct way to serve ají de gallina. Appears in Ají de Gallina, Ceviche, Salsa Criolla
bravazoSlang: The top compliment a dish can get — roughly "a knockout." Appears in Ceviche
bajónSlang: The specific, undignified hunger that arrives late at night and refuses to negotiate. Appears in Aeropuerto
con cañaSlang: Hungover. Cusco's Sunday adobo exists largely to feed people in this condition, and nobody pretends otherwise. Appears in Adobo Cusqueño
hacer una vacaSlang: Literally "to make a cow." Peru's all-purpose expression for everyone chipping in money as a group — how a whole roast chicken usually gets bought. Appears in Pollo a la Brasa
levanta muertosSlang: "A raiser of the dead." A dish served to someone who is unwell, or to a party that has gone long. Nobody says it as a joke. Appears in Aguadito de Pollo, Caldo de Gallina
manchapechoSlang: "Chest-stainer." The affectionate name for the noodle companion served with carapulcra, for what it does to a clean shirt. Appears in Carapulcra
yapaSlang · from Quechua: The little something-for-free that every Peruvian market runs on — the extra cob dropped into your bag, the skin on top of the mazamorra. Appears in Chicha Morada, Mazamorra Morada
casera · caseroMarket talk: Your trusted market seller — the one you keep going back to until she practically counts as family. It runs both ways: she is your casera and you are her casero, which is what the vendors are shouting when they call you over. Appears in Peruvian alfajores, Classic ceviche, Papa a la huancaína, Chicha morada, Ají amarillo, Native potatoes
al ojoSlang: By eye, no scale involved. How most Peruvian home cooks measure, and how the recipe was learned in the first place. Appears in Delicia de Maracuyá
bien heladitoSlang: Properly cold. Not merely chilled — cold enough that the tartness stays sharp. Appears in Delicia de Maracuyá
jaranaSlang: The long, music-driven kind of Peruvian party that outlasts everyone's plans. Appears in Algarrobina, Chilcano de pisco
de cajónSlang: A given. Something so obvious nobody argues it — rice with the stew is de cajón. Appears in Arroz zambito
mondonguitoSlang: The affectionate diminutive of mondongo, tripe. Peru shrinks the name of a cut it is fond of, and this is the one dish that earns it. Appears in Cau cau
quemaditoSlang: The dark, almost-burnt caramel welded to the bottom of the mold after a crema volteada is turned out. Bitter, chewy, and fought over at the table. Appears in Crema volteada
choroPeruvian Spanish: A mussel. It is also what Peruvians call a thief, which is why ordering a dozen at a table in Lima reliably produces the same joke. Appears in Choros a la chalaca
churuQuechua: Shell. The Peruvian word choro for mussel is usually traced back to it — one of many words that came down to the coast from the mountains rather than across the sea. Appears in Choros a la chalaca
chalacoPeruvian Spanish: Someone from Callao, Lima's port city. A dish described as a la chalaca is one made the way Callao makes it. Appears in Choros a la chalaca
chancacaPeruvian Spanish: Whole cane sugar boiled down and pressed into hard dark blocks, never refined. Sold as panela in Colombia and piloncillo in Mexico. Where the name comes from is disputed: one line traces it to Quechua ch'amqay, to crush, another to Nahuatl chiancaca. Appears in Arroz zambito, Picarones, Chancaca, Chumbeque
a lo pobrePeruvian Spanish: Literally "poor man's style", and confusingly it means the most loaded plate on the menu: rice, fries, fried plantain and a fried egg piled around a modest cut of meat. The cheap things are doing the work. Appears in Bistec a lo pobre
a caballoPeruvian Spanish: On horseback — a fried egg sitting on top of whatever you ordered. It is what turns a plain plate into a full one, and it is never listed as an ingredient because everyone already knows. Appears in Bistec a lo pobre
concha de abanicoPeruvian Spanish: The Peruvian scallop, named for the fan shape of its shell. Smaller and sweeter than Atlantic scallops, and served on the flat half of its own shell. Appears in Conchitas a la parmesana
paraderoPeruvian Spanish: The roadside stop where a bus pauses. Not a station and rarely a building — but reliably a place where sellers appear at the windows with food. Appears in Cocada
queso frescoPeruvian Spanish: Fresh white cheese, mild and salty, that softens without melting into strings. It goes into soups off the heat and beside boiled corn, and a stretchy cheese is always the wrong substitute. Appears in Chupe de pescado, Choclo
sopa de cuchara paradaPeruvian Spanish: A soup thick enough that the spoon stands up in it. Said with approval, never as a complaint, and applied to chairo and chaque above all. Appears in Chairo, Chaque
chocloQuechua: From chuqllu. The fat-kerneled Andean corn: starchy rather than sweet, boiled and eaten with fresh cheese, or set beside a plate of ceviche. Appears in Classic ceviche, Choclo
mote de trigoPeruvian Spanish: Peeled wheat berries, also sold as trigo pelado. Cooked whole until they soften at the edges and thicken the pot from the inside. Bulgur is not a substitute — it is pre-cooked and dissolves. Appears in Chaque
canchaQuechua: From kamcha, toasted corn. A small dried variety cooked in a dry pan until the kernels split — crunchy and salty, and what arrives on the table before the food does. Appears in Choclo
chicharrónPeruvian Spanish: Not one dish but a technique: anything cut small and fried until crisp. Pork is the version most people know, but the coast applies the same word to fish and calamari without changing anything about what it means. Appears in Chicharrón de pescado
cevicheríaPeruvian Spanish: A lunchtime restaurant built around raw fish, and only lunchtime — most close by mid-afternoon, because the fish came in that morning and there is no second delivery. Appears in Chicharrón de pescado
guitarraPeruvian Spanish: Guitarfish, named for its shape. On the north coast it is salted and dried rather than sold fresh, and shredded into fine threads it becomes the base of chinguirito. Appears in Chinguirito
moteQuechua: From mut'i. Corn kernels boiled until they swell and split, served whole rather than ground. Distinct from mote de trigo, which is wheat treated the same way. Appears in Champús
papa secaPeruvian Spanish: Potato boiled, peeled, chopped and sun-dried until hard, then stored for months. It is not dehydrated mash and does not rehydrate into a fresh potato: it stays chewy and slightly sweet, and that texture is the whole point of carapulcra. Appears in Carapulcra, Chuño
concherosPeruvian Spanish: The people who harvest black clams in the mangroves of Tumbes, wading into the mud and feeling for the shells by hand, one at a time. Undersized clams on sale are the reason they have to dig longer every year. Appears in Cebiche de conchas negras
a puntoPeruvian Spanish: What cooks say when something has reached exactly the right stage. It names a result you check for, not a time on a clock: for the syrup in chumbeque, the moment a drop forms a firm ball you can flatten between your fingers. Appears in Frejol colado, Crema volteada, Chumbeque
lúcumaPeruvian Spanish: An Andean fruit with dry, orange flesh and a sweet, caramel-like flavor, and one of the favorite ice cream flavors in Peru. Outside the country it is usually sold frozen as pulp or dried as powder. Appears in Cremoladas

Quechua

The language of the Andes, still spoken in the highlands where we cook. Some of these are the older names for ingredients the Spanish later renamed; three come from Wanka Quechua, the variety spoken in Junín — not the Cusco Quechua that most of the internet quotes.

uchuQuechua: Chile pepper. The Andes had a word for their own chiles thousands of years before the Spanish arrived with ají. Appears in Ají limo, Ají panca, Anticuchos, Caldo de gallina, Ají amarillo
chuqlluQuechua: The fat-kerneled Andean corn — choclo in Spanish — that rides alongside a plate of ceviche. Appears in Ceviche
kinwaQuechua: Quinoa, under its own name. Five thousand years of cultivation before it became a health-food aisle. Appears in How to Cook Quinoa, Quinoa Soup
kulliQuechua: The old name for purple corn — the ingredient behind mazamorra morada and chicha morada. Appears in Mazamorra Morada
rukutuQuechua: The rocoto pepper — still called this in the highlands. Looks like a bell pepper, behaves like nothing of the sort. Appears in Rocoto Relleno
ch'uñuQuechua: Freeze-dried potato, made by leaving tubers out to alternate between altiplano night frost and daytime sun. The Spanish spelling is chuño. Appears in Chairo
ch'arkiQuechua: Salted meat air-dried in the cold, thin air of the highlands. The word traveled into English as "jerky" — the Andes' answer to the same problem the jungle solves with smoke. Appears in Peruvian Cecina
wakatayQuechua: Andean black mint — huacatay in Spanish. Pungent, unmistakable, and the herb that marks a soup as highland. Appears in Quinoa Soup
pacha · mankaQuechua: Pacha, earth; manka, pot. The name says exactly what the dish is: the earth is the pot. Appears in Pachamanca
t'impuyQuechua · Cusco: To boil. The same root behind timpu, the dish Cusco eats at Carnival — and Quechua is still spoken on the streets where Sunday adobo is served. Appears in Adobo Cusqueño
kausayQuechua: "That which sustains life" — an old name for the potato, and one of the two stories told about where causa got its name. The other ties it to the independence wars. Peruvians keep both. Appears in Causa Limeña
qala phurkaQuechua: Roughly "cooked on hot stones" — the phrase carapulcra's name is usually traced to, from the days before there were pots for it. Appears in Carapulcra
uchucutaQuechua: The fierce little chile sauce that sits on the table, built on ají amarillo or rocoto. From uchu, chile. Appears in Caldo de Gallina
puma maki · yawar huaycoQuechua: "Puma's paw" and "river of blood" — two of the thousands of native potato varieties, named for their shape and their color. Appears in Peruvian Potatoes
añallawWanka Quechua: How delicious. Said at the first warm spoonful, in our own valley's Quechua. Appears in Mazamorra Morada
mikushunWanka Quechua: Let's eat. What gets said when the plate hits the table. Appears in Papa a la Huancaína
miskisazoWanka Quechua: Downright exquisite. The word we reach for when a dish has gone beyond good. Appears in Frejol colado, Ají de gallina, Anticuchos, Sopa de quinua
antiQuechua: The Andes. One account traces anticucho to anti plus uchu, chile — though the etymology is not settled. Appears in Anticuchos
chupiQuechua: Soup. The root behind chupe, the milk-based chowder family that runs from the coast up to Arequipa — the word is older than the dairy that now defines it. Appears in Chupe de pescado
takayQuechua: To pound, to beat. The word most often credited with giving tacacho its name, since pounding the fried plantains is the whole technique — though the attribution is not settled and no one should state it as fact. Appears in Tacacho con cecina

Tupi–Guaraní

The languages of the lowlands east of the Andes. Most ingredient names on this site traveled down from the highlands; this one came up from the other direction, through Portuguese.

maracuyáTupi–Guaraní: Passion fruit. The name is neither Spanish nor Quechua: it reached Spanish through Portuguese, from the languages spoken east of the Andes. Appears in Delicia de Maracuyá

Arabic

One word, and an accident of naming. Spanish carried it out of Arabic and across the Atlantic, then handed it to a tree that had never seen the Mediterranean.

algarroboArabic: The Peruvian carob. The name came into Spanish from Arabic al-kharrūba, the carob of the Mediterranean — and was then given to a completely different, unrelated tree growing in the dry forests of northern Peru. Appears in Algarrobina

Chifa & Cantonese

Chinese cooks arrived in Peru in the nineteenth century and built a whole cuisine here. A few of their words became ordinary Peruvian Spanish.

chifaFrom Cantonese: Both the Chinese-Peruvian restaurant and its cuisine. The name comes from Cantonese, roughly "to eat rice." There are chifas in Peruvian towns too small for a pharmacy. Appears in Aeropuerto, Chi jau kay, Chaufa de mariscos
sillaoFrom Cantonese: Soy sauce, under the name it took in Peru. It lives in every Peruvian pantry, chifa or not. Appears in Aeropuerto, Arroz chaufa, Chi jau kay, Chaufa de mariscos
kionFrom Cantonese: Ginger. Inside a chifa kitchen nobody says jengibre — it is kion, straight from Cantonese, and the word has outlived most of the restaurants that brought it over. Appears in Aeropuerto
wantánFrom Cantonese: The dumpling, and by extension its wrapper. Peruvian chifas fry it far more often than they steam it, and the fried strips end up scattered over other dishes as much as served on their own. Appears in Aeropuerto

Market & kitchen Spanish

Ordinary Spanish words that mean something specific in a Peruvian kitchen — or that mean something different here than they do elsewhere.

picanteríaArequipa: The Arequipa institution: usually run by women, the chicha is house-made, and the portions assume you walked there. Appears in Camarones al ajillo
sánguchePeruvian Spanish: Sandwich — but nobody in Peru uses the English word, and the Peruvian one covers a whole street-food culture the English word does not. Appears in Butifarra
carretillaPeruvian Spanish: The push-cart parked outside schools and offices, and the whole economy that runs on it. Appears in Butifarra, Choncholí
jamón del paísPeruvian Spanish: "Country ham" — a leg of pork rubbed with ají panca, garlic, cumin and pepper, slow-cooked and cooled before slicing. Not cured like prosciutto, not pressed like deli ham. Appears in Cachitos, Butifarra
pan francésPeruvian Spanish: The plain everyday Peruvian roll, which has nothing French about it. Lean, crusty and neutral — the container for whatever goes inside. Appears in Cachitos, Butifarra, Pan con chicharrón, Pan francés and the Peruvian neighborhood bakery
cachitoPeruvian Spanish: A little horn — which is what a rolled crescent looks like to anyone who grew up around cattle. The name is nothing more than the shape. Appears in Cachitos
lonchePeruvian Spanish: The light evening meal Peruvians eat around six or seven instead of a heavy dinner — bread and something hot to drink, and that's the whole menu. Appears in Cachitos
postres de vasoPeruvian Spanish: Desserts served in a glass and eaten with a spoon, never sliced. A whole category in Peru, and the one delicia de maracuyá belongs to. Appears in Delicia de Maracuyá
la selvaPeruvian Spanish: The jungle. Peruvians divide the country into three by name — la costa, la sierra, la selva — and the food changes completely at each border. Appears in Peruvian Cecina
de madrugadaPeruvian Spanish: In the small hours, before first light. When Cusco's Sunday adobo markets open, and they open for a reason. Appears in Adobo Cusqueño
picaroneraStreet food: The woman at the corner who fries picarones — one hand perpetually wet, flicking a perfect ring into the oil in a motion that takes years to learn. Appears in Picarones
emolienteKitchen Spanish: The word itself means "softening, soothing" — which is exactly the texture the flaxseed gives the drink that carries the name. Appears in Pan con chicharrón, Arroz con leche, Peruvian alfajores, Emoliente, Cremoladas, Pan de anís, Pan francés and the Peruvian neighborhood bakery
poroPeruvian Spanish: Leek, as we call it here. One of the three aromatics a proper caldo de gallina allows. Appears in Caldo de Gallina
caporalesChichería: The big glasses chicha is served in, inside a highland chichería — the house with a red flag or a bouquet over the doorway. Appears in Chicha de Jora
vedaPeruvian Spanish: The closed season during which fishing a species is illegal so it can spawn. Honest kitchens take river shrimp off the menu for those months. Appears in Camarones al ajillo, Cebiche de conchas negras
aderezoPeruvian Spanish: The slow-fried base — onion, garlic, ground ají — that starts most Peruvian savoury cooking. Nothing tastes Peruvian until the aderezo has been cooked down past the point you think it's ready. Appears in Ají panca, Ají amarillo, Cau cau, Empanadas peruanas
segundoPeruvian Spanish: The main plate of a set lunch, the one that follows the soup. A menú is soup, segundo and a drink for one price, and half the country eats that way at midday. Appears in Arroz tapado, Cau cau, Bistec a lo pobre
picadilloPeruvian Spanish: Beef chopped or minced and cooked down with onion, ají and usually raisins or olives — the filling inside papa rellena, causa and arroz tapado. Appears in Arroz tapado, Empanadas peruanas
graneadoPeruvian Spanish: Rice cooked so the grains stay loose and separate rather than clumping. It is the single thing a cook here gets judged on first. Appears in Arroz con pato
culantroPeruvian Spanish: What most of Peru calls fresh coriander — the herb sold as cilantro in the United States. But the word covers two different plants here: in the Amazon, culantro is Eryngium foetidum, a long, serrated, far stronger leaf that holds up to a long simmer, sometimes called sacha culantro to tell them apart. Which plant a recipe means depends on which side of the Andes it came from. Appears in Arroz con pato, Culantro, Ensalada de chonta
norteñoPeruvian Spanish: From the north coast — Lambayeque, Piura, La Libertad. A cooking of duck and goat, of chicha in the pot, and of more coriander than anywhere else in the country. Appears in Arroz con pato, Chinguirito, Chumbeque
piqueoPeruvian Spanish: The plate of small things that comes out with drinks — olives, cheese, a bit of causa, chicharrón. Nobody orders a piqueo to be full. Appears in Chilcano de pisco, Choros a la chalaca, Conchitas a la parmesana
empalagosoPeruvian Spanish: Sweet past the point of pleasure. The precise complaint for a dessert that beats you after two spoonfuls, and the thing every Peruvian sweet is defending itself against. Appears in Frejol colado, Bienmesabe, Suspiro a la limeña, Crema volteada
puro · acholado · mosto verdePeruvian Spanish: The three piscos you'll meet on a label. Puro is distilled from a single grape variety; acholado is a blend of several; mosto verde is distilled from must that hasn't finished fermenting, which costs more grapes and comes out softer. None of them is aged in wood or flavoured with anything. Appears in Chilcano de pisco
yemasPeruvian Spanish: The yolks, named on their own because a whole shelf of Peruvian dessert is built from them — suspiro, bienmesabe, natillas. When a recipe here says yemas it means yolks only, whites set aside for something else. Appears in Bienmesabe
dulcePeruvian Spanish: Used as a noun rather than an adjective: a made sweet, usually one that comes out of a pot instead of an oven and gets served by the portion. A cake is a torta; mazamorra, frejol colado and bienmesabe are dulces. Appears in Bienmesabe, Cocada, Champús
bosque secoPeruvian Spanish: The dry forest of the northern coast, across Piura and Lambayeque, where it barely rains and the algarrobo grows anyway. A real ecosystem with a name of its own, not scrubland by a kinder word. Appears in Algarrobina
quebrantaPeruvian Spanish: The workhorse pisco grape: earthy, barely aromatic, and the one to reach for when the drink already has a strong flavor of its own to carry. Appears in Algarrobina
hierbabuenaPeruvian Spanish: Spearmint. Stirred in off the heat at the last second, it is what makes cau cau recognizable before the tripe has even registered. Appears in Cau cau
manjar blancoPeruvian Spanish: Milk and sugar cooked down slowly into a thick caramel. It is what the rest of Latin America calls dulce de leche, a little silkier and usually thicker — which is why it holds an alfajor together instead of escaping from it. Appears in Peruvian alfajores
menestraPeruvian Spanish: A legume dish — lentils, beans or favas, stewed and served beside rice. It turns up on lunch menus every day of the week, and despite the name it has nothing to do with menestron, which is a soup. Appears in Menestron

This list grows with the recipes. If you've heard a word here used differently where you're from, tell us — regional variation is the point, not a problem.