Chifa — from the Chinese sī fan (eat rice) — is the Chinese-Peruvian culinary tradition that developed when Chinese coolies (indentured labourers brought to Peru from 1849 onward) began cooking with local ingredients. Lomo saltado is the most well-known Chifa preparation and the one that has most thoroughly entered mainstream Peruvian cooking — it is served in every Peruvian restaurant regardless of whether the establishment is a chifa or not.
Lomo saltado — stir-fried beef tenderloin with tomato, onion, ají amarillo, soy sauce, vinegar, and coriander, served over rice and alongside fried potato slices — is the most direct expression of Chifa (Chinese-Peruvian) cooking: a Chinese stir-fry technique applied to Peruvian ingredients and seasoned with both soy sauce and ají amarillo simultaneously. The wok hei principle (Chinese) and the ají amarillo's fruity heat (Peruvian) produce a flavour architecture impossible in either tradition alone.
- **The wok heat:** Maximum — lomo saltado requires wok hei conditions. The beef must sear, not steam - **The beef:** Tenderloin or sirloin, cut into strips approximately 2cm × 6cm — large enough to sear without cooking through in the wok's brief contact - **The sequence:** Beef seared first, removed. Vegetables (onion, tomato, ají amarillo) added to the ripping hot wok. Soy sauce added at the edges — the same wok-edge technique as in Vietnamese stir-fry (HS-19) - **Vinegar:** A splash of red wine vinegar added with the soy — the acid provides the brightness that the soy alone cannot - **The tomato:** Added at the last moment — the tomato's structure should remain mostly intact; it should not be cooked to a sauce - **The accompaniments:** Served simultaneously with white rice and fried potato slices (papas fritas) — a preparation where starch appears twice is uniquely Peruvian/Chifa Decisive moment: The beef sear — the same decisive moment as in all high-heat Chinese cooking. The beef strips must be dried completely before the wok. Wet beef steams and turns grey; dry beef sears and chars. The 30-second sear on each side before removal is the flavour foundation of the entire dish.
Peru (Acurio)