Picantería
The picantería is a traditional Peruvian eatery, mainly in the Andean south, where people eat lunch and drink chicha de jora. It matters because it was a basic social space of Peruvian cooking, and it is now recognised as part of the national cultural heritage.
History
The word appears in Ricardo Palma's Papeletas lexicográficas, published in 1903. According to the sources, field workers recognised a house offering food by a post hung with a red cloth. From the 20th century, picanterías gradually replaced chicherías, the places that sold chicha, as the main venues in the southern Andes.
In Arequipa the places were once called chicherías, because they served guiñapo chicha made from black corn; selling full meals became common later. The Ecuadorian chaplain José María Blanco described those in Cusco and Arequipa in the 1830s. Many have since disappeared or turned into modern restaurants.
Culture
The picantería worked as a meeting place for conversation, where even strangers talked to one another. Diners often walked through the kitchen to see what was being cooked. In Arequipa the emblematic meal is the almuerzo, a set lunch whose dish changes by weekday; chupe de camarones, ocopa, rocoto relleno and cuy chactado are among the usual offerings. In Cusco a green flag marked chicha de jora and a red one, frutillada chicha. Arequipa's picanterías were declared national cultural heritage in 2014, and those of several northern and southern departments in 2015.