Travel: Acclimatise on 
Peru’s fabulous cuisine, then head for awe-inspiring Machu Picchu

As I smoothed down his fringe and straightened the coloured pom-poms dangling from his ears, I could only hope he had no idea that just a few days previously, I’d been eating his cousin.

I knew Peruvians ate guinea pigs but I didn’t know alpacas were on the menu, too. And llamas – less tasty because they’re bigger, I’m told. Baby alpaca tastes best. I could hardly look Chicon in his big, brown, trusting eyes…

Peruvian food is all the rage these days – Lima, a new Peruvian-with-a-twist restaurant in London’s Fitzrovia, has been booked out since it opened in July and has plenty of dishes to enjoy other than the aforementioned rodents.

You certainly won’t starve on a holiday to this South American country.

We started in Lima, Peru’s capital and largest city with nine million inhabitants. Also called the City of Kings, it features the grand architecture of many former Spanish colonial cities – cathedrals and churches, big squares, mansions and public buildings.

Sightseeing must-dos include the vast Plaza de Armas, a Unesco World Heritage Site, with the government’s Palacio, cathedral and town hall, plus the San Francisco Church and Monastery at its edges. The Casa Solariega de Aliaga, a colonial mansion occupied since 1535 by 16 generations of the same family, can be visited by prior arrangement.

But for your first Peruvian lunch, head for one of the city’s oldest traditional taverns, Cordano’s, for a delicious ham sandwich and your first pisco sour.

Pisco is a strong grape brandy created by Spanish settlers in the 16th century, and it’s mixed with lime or lemon juice, syrup, egg white and Angostura Bitters for this classic cocktail. Sightseeing seems a whole lot more fun afterwards, though I do have to have a small lie down at my hotel before dinner.