All you need to Know about Nikkei Cuisine in Lima, Peru

All you need to Know about Nikkei Cuisine in Lima, Peru

Peruvian cuisine is everywhere; it’s the new thing, and for a good reason — it’s not only deep-rooted and authentic but terribly tasty!

Peru can only be defined as a land of entwined cultures. The Spanish certainly left their mark in the country’s customs, but the deep Inca traditions live on and still dictate people’s lifestyles.

Although consequential, the arrival of Europeans to the tropical country was not the only significant migration; the first of many Japanese boats hitting the Peruvian shores, the Sakura Maru, arrived in 1899 with 790 Japanese workers. The relationship between Peruvian and Japanese customs was born.

What is Nikkei food?

Nikkei is a Japanese term that alludes to ethnic Japanese people living outside of Japan. In culinary terms, it became the name for Peruvian ingredients prepared with Japanese skill and technique. Is this Japanese food made in Peru? Or Peruvian food made by Japanese? It’s neither; it’s something else.

Nikkei food is hard to describe as it has many forms, and you’ll have to visit Lima to understand it fully. 

The colonial city of Lima is a great place to start your gastronomic tour. The city is home to ten restaurants listed in the Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list, most of them featuring Japanese inspired dishes. 

Think of anticucho skewers, a popular grilled meat snack sold on the streets of Lima, with Japanese teriyaki glace; dishes that sit in the border between ceviche and sushi; thinly sliced raw fish that could be both a tiradito or sashimi; and ponzu sauce sharing the table with limes and ají chili peppers. 

Rarely are fusion creations greater than the sum of their parts, but that’s precisely the case with every Nikkei dish in Lima.

Lima; the mecca of traveling foodies.

Of course, you want to visit Peru for its impressive archeological sites, and to take selfies with the lovely alpacas. Still, the food is the reason many travelers visit the South American country.

High-quality sushi bars and traditional Japanese eateries abound in Lima, too, so you have the opportunity to try true Japanese, Peruvian, and Nikkei specialties, all a few blocks from each other, just by walking the beautiful streets of the City of Kings.

Just look at the Peruvian’s fridge and pantry: From Amazonian freshwater fish, not found anywhere else, to the bountiful treasure of the Pacific Ocean, from over fifty varieties of corn to hundreds of different potatoes. Exotic meats that include guinea pig and llama, and street food stalls in every corner from dusk till dawn.

Peruvian gastronomy is finally being considered on equal terms with the best in the world, and Lima is the center of it all.

Go to the source

Although Nikkei restaurants are opening by the hour in every major city on earth, you’ll still find the best where it all began, in Lima.

To capture its essence, you must visit, and that’s actually great because few other destinations offer such a wide variety of experiences like Lima, food-related or not, so, make it a high-ranked item on your bucket list.