Carapulcra, Sopa Seca, Papa Rellena, Off the Netflix Trail

The operator's own framing is that this is the version of Lima street food that Netflix did not film, and having read the itinerary, that is fair. The stated point of comparison is Central and Maido, and this deliberately goes the other way.

Four hours on foot through the parts of the historic centre nobody puts on a postcard: the Central Market, Barrios Altos and Chinatown. They are crowded, loud and occasionally overwhelming, which the operator says out loud rather than hiding, and they are where the city eats.

The route is counted in stops rather than in single bites, because several Peruvian pairings only work together. Choclo con queso. Ceviche at a hole in the wall, and ceviche again from a street cart. The market's smells, and the ritual stories told there. Picarones. Whatever fruit is in season.

The included list runs longer than that, and two of the dishes on it almost never turn up on a tourist route. Carapulcra, dried potato stewed with pork and peanut, one of the oldest dishes in the country. And sopa seca, the noodle dish that is not a soup, served alongside the carapulcra with chicha morada to drink. Papa rellena is on the list too, and the ceviche stop is a demonstration before it is a tasting, with a local beer to go with it.

The Chinatown stop is not decorative. Chinese immigration from the nineteenth century onward changed Peruvian cooking permanently, and the guide explains how while you eat the evidence, siu mai included.

Up to ten people, in English, with a guide who has been doing this since 2007, and every tasting included. The pisco sour at the end is optional. The route itself is fixed, but ask the guide about anything that is not on it and you will be told where to find it done properly.

The tour finishes around Plaza San Martin.

Not recommended for diabetics, or if you are pregnant, or have a spinal injury or a heart condition.