Picarones are Lima's ring-shaped fritters of sweet potato (camote) and squash (zapallo) dough, deep-fried in vegetable oil and served warm with chancaca (raw cane syrup).
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Picarones descend from Spanish-colonial bunuelos adapted in Lima with native sweet potato and Andean squash, recorded as far back as the 1600s. They were the dessert of the African and indigenous Andean communities of viceregal Lima; the Sunday-evening picarones cart is a Lima tradition unbroken since.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. The dough is meant to be sticky; if it's stiff enough to roll, the picarones turn dense. Wet hands let the ring shape form cleanly.
Picarones Mary at Parque Kennedy in Miraflores Lima is the family picarones cart of 25-plus years, the canonical Lima dessert fry-cake with chancaca syrup.
Try: Picarones with chancaca syrup
Order: A plate of six picarones with chancaca and a chicha morada.
Tip: Opens 15:00; the cart at Parque Kennedy is the original Lima outlet, Surco branch opens 12:30.
El Tio Mario at Jr. Zepita 214 in Barranco is the 1987 anticucho and picarones stand beside the Puente de los Suspiros in Lima, the Sunday classic.
Try: Anticuchos and picarones beside the Puente de los Suspiros
Order: Three anticuchos with choclo and papa, then a plate of picarones with chancaca syrup.
Tip: Sister shop one block away on Av San Martin 99; queue past 20:00 on weekends.
El Bolivariano on Pasaje Santa Rosa in Pueblo Libre Lima is a criolla institution in a republican casona, far quieter than the Miraflores tourist axis.
Why locals love it: A republican casona in mid-city Pueblo Libre, off the Miraflores-Barranco tourist axis, with criolla tradition dating to the 1780s.
Tip: Open from 07:30 for breakfast tamales; Sunday lunch is the family-table service.
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