Lima foods: ceviche, lomo saltado and menu descriptions

Fresh raw fish cured in minutes in lime juice with onion, chilli and coriander, served with sweet potato and toasted corn. Bright, clean and fiercely fresh, it is Peru's national dish and Lima's coastal pride.

Strips of beef stir-fried with onion, tomato and soy in a screaming-hot wok, piled over fries and served with rice — delicious proof of Peru's Chinese 'chifa' heritage.

Shredded chicken in a creamy, gently spicy sauce of yellow ají pepper, bread, nuts and cheese, served over rice and potato with olives and egg. Mellow, golden and deeply homey.

Skewers of marinated beef heart grilled over charcoal until smoky and charred at the edges, brushed with ají panca and served with potato and corn. Lima's favourite street-corner barbecue, born of African-Peruvian cooking.

Chilled layers of lime-and-ají-spiked mashed yellow potato stuffed with chicken, tuna or avocado, sliced like a terrine. Cool, tangy and beautifully built, it is Lima's most elegant potato dish.

Boiled yellow potatoes blanketed in a silky, mildly spicy sauce of fresh cheese and yellow ají, served cold over lettuce with olives and egg. A starter found on nearly every Peruvian table.

Whole chicken marinated in spices and soy, slow-roasted on a charcoal rotisserie until the skin is lacquered and crisp, served with fries and ají sauces. Peru's Sunday-dinner ritual and most-eaten dish.

Sashimi-thin slices of raw fish bathed in a citrusy ají sauce with no onion — ceviche reimagined through a Japanese-Peruvian 'nikkei' lens. Delicate, sharp and pure flavour.

Chicken cooked with rice tinted green and fragrant from blended coriander, peas and carrots, served with a tangy salsa criolla. Comfort food found in every Lima home and menú del día.

Airy rings of squash-and-sweet-potato dough deep-fried to order and drenched in spiced chancaca syrup. Lima's beloved street dessert, descended from Spanish buñuelos.