In 2023, when the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list of top global dining spots was announced, the city with the most entries — including the No. 1 pick – was Lima, Peru. The culinary capital is known for pisco sour bars, ceviche spots, and Nikkei restaurants. But if you ask Peruvians where they’d travel for a memorable meal, many would choose the nation’s second largest city, Arequipa.

This high-altitude agricultural hub, 630 miles southeast of Lima and sprawled beneath three fertile volcanoes, has a unique mestizo gastronomy merging Indigenous and Spanish influences. Its cuisine is wholly dissimilar from that of Lima. In Arequipa, instead of ceviche, causa, and lomo saltado, you find alpaca steaks, chupe de camarones (river shrimp chowder), and ocopa (potatoes in chile sauce).

If Limeños prize innovation, Arequipeños honor tradition. In fact, UNESCO named Arequipa a Creative City for Gastronomy in 2019 (its baroque Spanish-colonial core, built from white volcanic stones, is also a UNESCO World Heritage site). 

Many cooks in this growing city of one million people prepare dishes over open fires and grind ingredients with outsized mortars and pestles. Arequipa is also known for picanterías, traditional restaurants — typically located on the edge of town — and mostly run by women who inherit them from their mothers and grandmothers. This explains why travelers rarely find Arequipeño cuisine in Lima — much less abroad. It’s also why this intangible cultural heritage is threatened… (continue reading at National Geographic)