Cancha: A Brief History

Photo: paramonguino

Cancha is the toasted corn that is often served at Peruvian restaurants, as something to nibble on prior, and during, your meal. Sometimes, cancha is added as a topping to ceviche, adding a nice crunchy contrast to the dish.

At my grandparent's house, where I grew up, in addition to bread, we always had hot, salty, cancha as an accompaniment for our main meal, lunch. That combination of bread and cancha on the table perfectly symbolizes the two essences of Peru: the bread, Spanish, and the cancha, Andean.

In his Dictionary of Traditional Peruvian Gastronomy, Sergio Zapata Acha, (2006 winner at the Gourmand World Cookbooks Awards, as noted at this link ), tells us a little bit of the history of this simple, yet important Peruvian food:

"[The word] comes from the Quechua cancha, meaning toasted corn, and according to Rodríguez (1875) 'is a commonly used Peruvianism.'

In the Moche language, cancha is known as quersu.

Cancha is called 'mayz tostado' (toasted corn) in the Quechua-Spanish Dictionary by González Holguín (1608).

In 1612, Luvovico Bertonio, notes the Aymara word hampi for toasted corn.

In Advertencias, a chronicle from 1545, Juan Ruiz de Arce o Albequerque, tells that in 'Tangaraya' (Tangarará, in Piura): 'They don't eat bread, they eat corn toasted and cooked, and serve this as if it were bread.'

Cancha is normally prepared as follows: In a clay pot, on a low heat, with a bit of lard, you add yellow corn with a bit of ground salt, and you don't stop moving it around until the grains are golden brown, taking care not to burn them.

Antonio Manrique Chávez, auther of El maíz en el Perú (Corn in Peru), writes: 'In the Southern regions, they use a clay pot, in which fat is heated, and when it is very hot, they add the dry corn, constantly moving it with a wooden spoon until it is evenly cooked and releases its characteristic odor. [...] In the Central and Northern regions, the cooking is done in pans, and they use oil to cook [the corn] uniformly.'

Juan de Arona calls cancha, 'toasted corn'.

According to Fidelis del Solar, in his 1876 Reparos al Diccionario de Chilenismos (Notes to the Dictionary of Chilenisms), the word cancha is 'common to all the Hispanic-American republics...', giving Juan de Arona credit for the acceptance of its use. Del Solar even mentions cancha in a poem (1876):

Viva la chicha que ensancha
los anímos apocados,
Y viva la chomba ancha,
Y viva también la cancha,
Que es pan comido a puñados.

Long live chicha (the fermented corn drink) which lifts up
Darkened spirts,
And long live the wide-mouth chomba (vessel in which to drink chicha),
And also long live cancha,
That is bread eaten by the fistful."

And you thought it was just some toasted corn at your table.


Source: Sergio Zapata Acha, Diccionario de Gastronomía Peruana Tradicional (Lima, 2006), translated by yours truly.

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TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana

On The Blogs: Peruvian Food Roundup

Since I took a break from blogging, I've missed some recent posts about Peruvian food on other blogs. Thus, this Peruvian food roundup of some recent items that caught my eye...

A while back we wrote this post regarding the food court restaurant called Lima City in Irvine, California. Now, at Monster Munching, elmomonster tells us that Lima City is no more, and its stead, there is now a Peruvian Kitchen.

Sounds like the food is still good. Describing Peruvian Kitchen's lomo saltado, elmomonster (journalist Gustavo Arellano's Edwin Goei's food blog identity) writes:

"I found a seat and flipped open the lid. When I did, a plume of hot steam carrying the aroma of cumin and soy sauce escaped. It smelled exactly right. Then I took a bite and tasted the best saltado I've had since El Pollo Inka in Lawndale."

Photo: Monster Munching

"The beef wasn't just tender, it melted. Everything that surrounded it -- the fries, the red onion, the tomato -- was wokked and seasoned perfectly. It was flavorful, crisp, and alive.

Even the rice was spot on. Cooked with a hint of chicken broth in a similar manner as Hainan chicken rice, the starch could've functioned as a standalone dish."

Sounds like its worth a trip to south Orange County.

Meanwhile, Fleetvision talks about the recent boom in Peruvian cuisine:

"With the recent addition of Macchu Picchu to the list of 7 Wonders of the World, Peru has been written about in almost every major newspaper over the last twelve months. Suddenly people all over are discovering the culinary delights and cultural richness that only the fortunate few have been relishing for decades. The tourist boom has just begun and just as exciting, the exportation of Peru’s vast menu of food delicacies is on the rise with experts calling it the "best kept food secret". Finally, a new cuisine to replace the old and tired."

Tessa Cruz is a Filipina blogger based in Atlanta who was recently in Peru, and wrote a post titled Pagkaing Peruano (Peruvian Food), with lots of pictures at her blog, Tessa Cruz. We especially liked her photo of alpaca steak, served with a potato terrine, and what looks like a stuffed rocoto:

Photo: Tess Cruz

Rani, writing from Sydney, reviews La Cocina Peruana, a Peruvian joint Down Under, at Gastranimy, but has mixed feelings about eating anticuchos, the beef heart skewers:

"I must confess to having waited for everyone else at the table to take a piece of the beef heart from the skewer before I tried it myself, not being a natural aficionado of offal. The texture is quite firm but not chewy in the way that an overcooked piece of steak would be. Again, it is the accompaniment that lifts this entrée from merely being novel meat on a skewer. In a tiny dish next to the skewers is a bright orange ground salsa that offers a big kick of chilli that fades away without taking out the taste buds."

You can read Rani's complete review here.

Writing from Arequipa, monkeyspinner is an avid knitter and wool-spinner currently in Peru to learn new techniques, and blogging about her experiences at Wool in the Flyer.

We liked the pictures she put up of the pumpkin fritters called picarones, which we wrote about a while back at this link.

Photos: Wool In The Flyer

We also liked how monkeyspinner described the picarones:

"After lunch we went and had a tasty treat and I am grateful to Miguel for it. I think he only tells me about local sweets every few days as he fears I will go into a sugar coma. This was fried yeasted dough ( think similar to a funnel cake but not quite) covered in sugar cane syrup. TASTY. In Lima they make them from pumpkin. Bunuelos? Something like this. I’ll find out. But I had four. There are ladies there who each make them just a tad different so families have their favorite ladies."

There are many people who write blogs while traveling in Peru. One such person is Lisa Patel, who is keeping an online journal at Travel Blog and dedicated an entire post to Peruvian food, aptly titled, On Peruvian Food.

Writing from one of my favorite Peruvian cities, Iquitos in the Amazon rainforest, she tells us:

"Cebiche: I was told that it would be a crime, a shameful and unforgivable crime, to leave the country of Peru without having experienced one of the country's most beloved national foods. Cebiche is a dish of raw seafood--fish, shrimp, and stuffed crab in this particular dish--marinated with fresh onion, garlic, cilantro, and lemon juice, all sitting on top of sweet potato, yuca, potato, and my personal favorite: choclos, a type of corn seed that does not pop upon roasting--rather, the inside becomes soft and crunchy, like pop corn, only more savory and a bit saltier." Of course, she snapped a picture of her ceviche:

Photo: Lisa Patel

She also raves about Amazonian desserts and drinks:

"And the ice cream and juices. Oh sweet fruits of the Amazon--there are the typical flavors--orange, strawberry, banana--but then you have guarana, acerola, camu camu and tons of other fruits that I've never even heard of before. Guarana is one of my favorites--when added to juice, it adds a slightly bitter flavor which perfectly offsets citrus juices such as orange and pineapple."

Finally we came across this post, which mentions a Peruvian food blog, at Zuckervati Missing Links:

"Very neat blog about a guy who goes to Peru and talks about the food you can get in Lima. Our Sales rep is from Peru and promises me a bottle of pisco and a bottle of their local rum when he goes back:

I am a creature of habit, and I have a culinary tradition when arriving in Lima which I have kept during the last few years of travel here. On this trip, I was able to maintain my tradition. After checking into our hotel in the Miraflores district of Lima, we had a stroll around Miraflores' main park, Parque Kennedy, and I picked up the Lima daily, El Comercio, and headed to the Café Haiti, one of the grand old-fashioned Lima cafés to have my first Peruvian meal (lomo saltado and a frothy pisco sour) while people-watching. The waiters are definitely old-school and after so many times there, they know who I am. "In Lima again?" one of the waiters asked me, "Are you ready for your lomo saltado?" You have to love that type of service."

Which guy could that be? Oh, it's me! Until the next time, On The Blogs...

Peruvian food seems to be everywhere these days. On The Blogs is a feature here at Peru Food in which I comment and link to what other bloggers are writing and posting about Peruvian food.

Click here for the Peru Food main page.

TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana

Peruvian Food Video: Chef Wong Preparing Ceviche

I've posted about Javier Wong, whom I describe as a guru of Peruvian ceviche, at this link, but at You Tube, videographer richatperudotcom has taken it one step further by creating this video of Chef Wong preparing his classic ceviche, using the flatfish called lenguado.

In this video, you see Chef Wong expertly filleting and dicing the fish, then slicing a bit of octopus, which both go into a large bowl. He then adds some red onion, salt, a bit of pepper, mixes it around, pours in some lime juice, gives it all another good stir, and voilá! A perfect ceviche in about five minutes.

I like how the videographer describes his video:

"Chef Wong has a 7-table restaurant in Lima, Peru. It's reservation only, and pretty darn expensive. But the man is a wiz with a knife and a fish. This video shows him making a ceviche all the way from fish and pulpo (octopus) to plate. Almost worth the trip to Peru all by itself."

This video is well worth watching to see how a true master prepares ceviche:

Chef Wong - Cebiche - Lima, Peru: 05:25

One in an occasional series of posts with videos of everyday people in Peru filming Peruvian food.

There is actually a prequel to this video, in which Chef Wong chops up the red onions and ajíes (Peruvian hot peppers) to add to the ceviche:

Chef Wong - Cebiche (the Prequel) - Lima, Peru: 00:57

If that doesn't make you hungry, I don't know what will.




One in an occasional series of posts with videos of everyday people in Peru filming their Peruvian food.

Click here for the Peru Food main page.

TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana