El Misti Restaurant

El Misti dominates Arequipa. That Andean city, located on the ancient route linking Bolivia's silver mines to the Peruvian coast, attracted numbers of Spanish settlers in colonial times, and they built dazzling white buildings from El Misti's lava. Even today Arequipa is nicknamed La Ciudad Blanca. It has its own cuisine, distinct from the Lima-style Peruvian food we're familiar with around here. It's based on the indigenous ingredients of Arequipa's high-desert setting: hot rocoto chiles, the mint-like herb huacatay, freeze-dried potatoes (chuños), dried llama meat (charqui) and guinea pigs for roasting. Even now cocina Arequipeña has a special place in the hearts of Peru's food cognoscenti