Breakfast to Midnight: Eating Your Way Through Lima

Lima is one of the few cities where the food is the reason to go rather than a benefit of going. Peruvian cooking layers Indigenous Andean ingredients with Spanish, West African, Chinese and Japanese influence, and Lima is where all of it lands at once. Eat by the clock and you will get the best version of it.

The quick facts

• Capital of Peru, on the Pacific coast, with Miraflores and Barranco as the main visitor districts
• Ceviche is traditionally a lunch dish, and classic cevicherias often close in the afternoon
• Lima restaurants regularly appear at the very top of the World s 50 Best Restaurants list
• Book the famous tasting-menu restaurants months ahead; walk-in tables are rare

Breakfast: pork, bread and coffee

The Limeno breakfast worth getting up for is pan con chicharron: crisp fried pork in a soft roll with sweet potato, sharp salsa criolla and lime. It is a weekend classic and it is filling enough to carry you to lunch. Order a tamal alongside if you see them steaming, and drink the coffee strong.

Mid-morning: the fruit you have never met

Peru grows produce that simply does not travel well, so this is the moment for it. A market stall will sell you lucuma, chirimoya, granadilla and half a dozen kinds of potato you cannot name. Mercado No. 1 de Surquillo is the classic browsing market, and juice counters there will blend whatever you point at.

Lunch: ceviche, and only ceviche

This is the meal the whole day is built around. Fresh fish cured in lime juice with chilli, red onion and salt, served with sweet potato and giant Andean corn, plus a shot of the leche de tigre marinade on the side. Tiradito is the sashimi-thin, Japanese-influenced cousin. Eat it before mid-afternoon: cevicherias buy fish in the morning and traditionally serve while it is at its best.

Afternoon: sweet things and a sit down

Picarones are ring-shaped squash-and-sweet-potato fritters served hot in chancaca syrup, and they are the best street dessert in the city. Suspiro a la limena, a caramel cream capped with meringue, is the formal version. Churros with a cup of thick chocolate are a Lima habit of long standing.

Evening: the grill and the wok

Anticuchos, skewers of marinated beef heart grilled over charcoal, appear on street corners as the light goes. Sit-down alternatives include lomo saltado, a stir-fry of beef, onion, tomato and chips that shows the Chinese-Peruvian chifa influence outright, and aji de gallina, a gently spiced shredded chicken in a walnut-and-chilli sauce. Pollo a la brasa, the national rotisserie chicken, is the family option and it is genuinely good.

Late: pisco in Barranco

Finish in Barranco, where the bars run late and the pisco sour is made properly, with fresh lime, egg white and a shake of bitters. If you planned far enough ahead, this is also when the tasting menus at the internationally famous kitchens begin.

Tip: Pace the tasting menus and the cevicherias on separate days. Lima rewards a long lunch and a light dinner far more than it rewards two big meals.