Hello dear friends who visit the Blog, are you in Arequipa and don’t know what to eat? Come with me to this Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA to finish fat and blessed. ;D
First of all, let me tell you that as a good Arequipeño, I am going to show you in my personal experience what would be a good Gastronomic Tour in Arequipa.
And take it for granted that you will not be able to stand up after eating, much less walk.
And if you are Vegetarian, and you heard that here we eat raw animals almost alive ajjajja, do not be afraid that you can also have vegies options.
So, here in Arequipa there is something for everyone!
Let me also tell you that I am doing this work with my new friend Aliki, you can follow her journey on YouTube and all her networks!
Well, let’s eat!
Let’s start with breakfast.
ADOBO
Carnivore Option:
I’m going to assume that you’re on vacation and you went out partying the night before, maybe you didn’t even sleep.
Nothing like a good adobo after a binge ;), even though it’s an unhealthy recommendation, you should do it at least once in your life.
And if you are not in that plan, you should try the adobo anyway, because if you don’t try it, it is as if you didn’t come to Arequipa, it had to be said and it was said.
Where to eat Adobo in Arequipa?
Well in my house the best adobo! hahaha but as it will not be enough for everyone I will recommend a restaurant of yesteryear, adobo specialists! this is where you should come.
It is called “Sabor Caymeño” and is located in the district of Cayma, 10 minutes from downtown Arequipa.
Sabor Caymeño
It is so good that sometimes it is full and you have to order to take away, but you also have more options very close, you have to choose in fact, about 7 different options to try adobo around the square of Cayma.
ADOBO CAYMA
You can come walking or with a Taxi, approximately from the Plaza de Armas it costs about 6 Soles.
This adobito is like a powerful Soup that is eaten with bread, lots and lots of bread, the more bread the better.
Here you don’t need a spoon, the adobo is eaten with the bread until it runs out, it’s like soaking the bread in the adobo and eating it.
ASI SE COME EL ADOBO AREQUIPEÑO CON PAN. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
It also comes with its Chancho, it is super tasty, you have to try it!
PLATO DE ADOBO AREQUIPEÑO. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
With this powerful meal you will be satisfied until lunch, but as it is full fat it is also good to try a Shot of Anisado mixed with tea at the end!
TE PITEADO EN SABOR CAYMEÑO. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
Vegetarian Option:
Easy my friend, the above I know it was hard to watch, but now your time to eat something tasty has come.
And for you I have decided that the best option would be to try a delicious escabeche!
It is a salad that contains: carrot, cauliflower, marinated tomato with a special sauce of herbs and seasonings.
You can accompany it perfectly with a whole wheat hamburger, one of those finger-licking hamburgers, and of course to drink an orange juice or the fruit of your choice.
ESCABECHE WITH HAMBURGER AND ORANGE JUICE. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
But where do I find this escabechito, relax, you can taste it in Omphalos Vegetarian Restaurant.
It is located on Bolivar Street, one block from the main square of Arequipa, so you will find it very quickly.
Omphalos Vegetarian Restaurant. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
This will put your mind at ease, but we will continue to eat more throughout this beautiful day.
SNACKS BETWEEN MEALS.
Iced Cheese – Queso Helado
For this traditional dessert, which if you eat meat or vegetables is adequate in my opinion, it will bring down the heat of the strong Arequipa sun.
Nothing like eating an iced cheese sitting in a little shade, or better yet contemplating the great San Camilo market.
Why this market? Well, this is where you can find the best ice cream cheese and you have a couple of options in case one is full. Both are very good and very well known locally.
The Doña Estelita or Doña Rosa stand, on the second floor of the market. Here you can taste the most delicious ice cream cheese in Arequipa.
Doña Estela’s place. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
Doña Rosa’s place. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA.
This is a dessert that contains cow’s milk as its main ingredient, and no, it does not contain CHEESE, hahaha.
It is called Queso Helado (ice cheese) because it is served in thin slices just as the cheese is sliced, slice of cheese so to speak. Hence the name.
Arequipa’s Iced Cheese. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
So if you already have your ice cream cheese, you can sit and contemplate the great San Camilo market, this same one that was designed by the same person who designed the Eiffel Tower, my friend Gustavo Eiffel. Did you know? Now you do.
Surtidos and Extracts!
If the Queso Helado was not enough, you can also add your delicious juice or vegetable extract at the San Camilo market, just go to the juice shop area and you will have many options to taste
Juice ZONE in San Camilo.
Here I recommend you try the Jugo Surtido, this juice is a mixture of various fruits, such as banana, papaya, apple, guava, pineapple and you can add more. A very tasty and refreshing blend.
Surtido in San Camilo. Arequipa Gastronomic Tour.
But if you are allergic to any of the fruits, you can opt for a single fruit juice, the one you want, or you can choose to take a vegetable extract, this super healthy extract is great to have energy all day and it is also delicious.
Extract in San Camilo. Arequipa Gastronomic Tour.
And since we are tasting fruits! and healthy things, especially for you vegetarian friend 😉 you should take a walk through the fruit section, here you can buy and taste a variety of fruits that grow in these beautiful lands, such as:
- Granadilla
- Pitahaya (Dragon fruit)
- Aguaymanto
- Strawberries
- Papaya Arequipeña
- Custard apple.
- Among others…
Tasting the fruit in San Camilo. Arequipa Gastronomic Tour.
With this, we are filling our stomachs, but just a little, right? Since we still need space for the rest of the day.
After visiting this great market we go to visit a picanteria for the main meal.
Lunch!
To eat good and tasty food, one of the best options is to go to a picantería;) it is a typical place in Arequipa where you can eat traditional spicy food, hence its name. In addition to typical local drinks such as the delicious Chicha de jora.
In Arequipa there are many of these picanterias, but I am going to recommend “La Mundial”, where is it, very close to the general hospital, on filtro street.
To get a better location I leave you this little map, you will see that it is very close to the historic center and you can get there walking.
MAPA LA MUNDIAL.
Once at the place, you will be assigned a table for you and your companion if you have one, and you will be able to see the menu.
Let’s imagine that your companion is a vegetarian and you eat meat.
Well, to start the meal, something that would suit you both very well is an escribano.
This escribano is a simple but powerful dish, made of boiled native potatoes with tomato and sliced rocoto, marinated with a special sauce.
It’s delicious but I’m warning you that it’s spicy. It is so delicious that you have to endure the spiciness to keep tasting it.
Escribano. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
I hope you liked the Escribano and may your tongue forgive me, but you can’t deny that it was good.
Now let’s go for the main dish and here we have several options.
Carnivorous option!
You are at an advantage, you have more options and some of them very extravagant. First of all I am going to make a list of foods that I know you will like, so you can be sure when ordering and then I am going to recommend one of them.
- Chupe de Camarones (Shrimp Soup).
- Chicharrón de Chancho.
- Cuy Chactao .
- Malaya Dorada.
- Sarza de Senccas.
- Sarza de patitas.
- Rocoto relleno.
- Pastel de papa.
- Caldo de Lomos (Sopa).
- Pancita frita.
- Chuleta de Chancho.
- Escabeche de Pollo.
- Ocopa Arequipeña
- Soltero de Queso.
And of all these options I recommend you to try the TRIPLE dish.
This is a presentation that combines 3 of these delicacies that I mentioned above, For example I show you what we chose with my friends: “Triple de: Soltero de Queso, Ocopa Arequipeña and Sarza de patitas.”
“Triple de: Soltero de Queso, Ocopa Arequipeña and Sarza de patitas.”
You can see the magnitude of that dish so you could easily share it with someone else.
How much is a dish like this worth, about 40 soles, which is about 12-13$.
The most exuberant thing here is the zarsa de patas, which is boiled pig’s feet with a special salad of onion and tomato, crazy but delicious.
Then the Soltero de Queso, which is a mix of vegetables ideal for vegetarians.
And finally the ocopa arequipeña that was adapted from the ocopa a la huancaína that is prepared in Huancayo in central Peru. it comes with its potato, egg, olive, lettuce and the famous ocopa.
Vegetarian Option.
If you also want to go to the picanteria, of course you can and you will also eat well.
And I am going to the point with this because here the most delicious for vegetarians, believe me, is the Soltero de Queso.
This dish is very traditional here in Arequipa and has the blessing of not containing meat.
It is a mix of carrots, corn, beans, olives, onions, tomatoes and all this marinated in a special sauce. You will lick your fingers!
Soltero de Queso.
Now if for some reason of life, you don’t want a Soltero de Queso, I can recommend you to try the delicious potato pie.
You can try it at “La Mundial” or if you like it, a good option is Omphalos Restaurant Vegetariano, which I recommended before.
The potato pie is usually accompanied with a rocoto stuffed with a meat stew, but in this case, if you stay at La Mundial you can try the potato pie better with an ocopa arequipeña.
But if you go to Omphalos you can try the vegetarian version of that stuffed rocoto and accompany your potato pie.
You can’t miss it!
Vegetarian rocoto relleno and potato pie.
Well, by now you should not even be able to get up from the table because of how much you ate.
So the best thing to do now is to walk around a bit to get the food down, take a break to make more space and put more food in!
Afternoon Snack!
For you vegetarian friend and for you carnivore friend, some snacks in the afternoon would not be bad at all, right?
For this we are going to go to the viewpoint of Yanahuara, which is about 10 minutes away from the city by taxi. It is a very busy place, surely if you did a FREE WALKING TOUR in Arequipa, you have already been there.
Anyway I leave you the map so you don’t get lost.
Picarones Victoria, Yanahuara viewpoint.
And yes, right there you will find “Picarones Victoria” and the competition next to it, so you can choose.
The thing is that you can taste some delicious picarones with honey.
These picarones are perfect as a dessert or snack between meals, they are made with sweet potato and pumpkin and accompanied with honey, sweet elixir of the gods, you must try it if you want!
Picarones. Gastronomic Tour in AREQUIPA
I can recommend you, after having your picarones, to go to the Yanahuara square and enjoy them while contemplating the volcanoes;).
FOR DINNER!
Well, let’s finish our day in this Gastronomic Tour in Arequipa.
As I know you still have space for one last dish, it is a must to try a super popular dish in Peru.
You can usually find it in the streets, with street vendors or in normal restaurants at night.
I am talking about the Salchipapa, you could say that it is junk food, yes, but it is something that Peruvians eat a lot and I can not lie with this.
Anyway there are variations of this dish, one of them is the vegetarian option and just to try it we are going to choose a strategic point to eat salchipapa.
So in the same place vegetarians and carnivores can eat a popular Salchipapa.
Salchipapas.
Let’s go to the “Casa de la Salchipapa”, 5 minutes from downtown, here you can taste a variety of versions of salchipapas, it is the specialty of the house.
Map to the Casa de la Salchipapa.
And if you still do not understand what a Salchipapa is, it is potato with fried sausage hahaha, simple right? something like the CurryWurst in Germany, Peruvian version.
sachipapa arequipeña.
In the vegetarian version the sausage is replaced by mushrooms! and it is also delicious.
salchipapa vegana.
I’m sure that after tasting those mountains of potatoes, sausage and mushrooms you’ll be satisfied.
But you can have a hot drink to lower the fat. It’s necessary, believe me.
And the one thing you must have, to end the day, is a Hot Emollient!
You can get it at La Casa de la Salchipapa or at the well known emollient carts around town.
Emoliente for sale
With this emollient you will give a little health to your body and you will warm up from the cold weather in Arequipa.
I hope you liked this Gastronomic Tour in Arequipa, remember that it is better to go to eat with company because you will lack stomach.
In Arequipa we eat well and it will always be so, hahaha you must adapt.
See you in a next adventure and don’t forget to follow my friend Aliki on YouTube and all her networks!
