Fried rice is my comfort food. As a kid, it was my stalwart favorite out of all the delicious lunches my mother packed for me. As a young adult, it was the first recipe I learned to cook on my own, and now, as a mom, it’s my go-to when I need something fast and tasty to feed my child. Through an alchemy I don’t fully understand despite cooking it hundreds of times, the stir-fried combination of meat, vegetables, and rice has an appeal that is more than the sum of its parts.
When we landed in Peru, I didn’t expect to eat a lot of fried rice. After all, the thing I love about traveling is trying new food. I was ready for ceviche and empanadas. But to my surprise, fried rice turned up on Peruvian menus almost as often.
Chinese food arrived in Peru in the mid-1800s, when roughly 100,000 Chinese laborers were brought to Peru to work on plantations, mines, and railroads. When their labor contracts ended, many opened Chinese restaurants. Over time, Peru developed its own style of Chinese food, called chifa, derived from the Cantonese word for eating food. Today, there are an estimated 6,000 chifa restaurants in Lima alone.
To try chifa for ourselves, we headed to Gran Chifa Chung Yion, a place within walking distance from our Airbnb that’s been in operation since 1923. We decided to go for a few classic dishes: fried rice, fried noodles, and vegetables with tofu. All the dishes were fresh, flavorful, and familiar. In fact, I was slightly disappointed at how similar it all tasted! I’d been hoping for something distinctly Peruvian, but as far as my taste buds could tell, I could have been at a Chinese restaurant back in the US. On the other hand, it was also fascinating that Peru’s evolution of Chinese food over a century was so recognizable to me.
It was away from chifa restaurants that I found a more overtly Peruvian take on Chinese food. Unlike in the US, it isn’t just Chinese restaurants that serve fried rice. At Tanta, a popular Peruvian restaurant chain started by famous Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio, I enjoyed a plate of chaufa amazónico (Amazonian fried rice), featuring fried plantains, chorizo, and smoked ham. It was so delicious I sought it out several more times before leaving Peru. Later, on our day-long hike to Machu Picchu, we ate quinoa fried rice as part of a nourishing lunch packed by our tour operator, Llama Path. Quinoa was a dietary staple for the Incas, so it was very fitting that we ate it while on the Inca Trail.
I’ve always loved how well fried rice adapts to different ingredients and flavors. After this trip, I have a new variant to add to my repertoire, featuring chorizo, plantains, and quinoa. I can’t wait to try cooking it at home.
