Crocodile Nuggets, Anyone?

Amazonian cuisine, with its jungle game meats and off-color local dishes, is truly far-out. Try chicharron de lagarto (crocodile nuggets), venado a la Loretana (Loretan-style venison), paiche (a giant lake fish), or suri (palm-tree grubs). Sarapatera is a turtle plantain stew cooked in the turtle's shell. Ensalada de chonta (hearts-of-palm salad) is also quite popular.

Fruit and fish preparations evoke neighboring Brazil more than the high-mountain cuisine found elsewhere in Peru. Try pataraschca (steamed fish wrapped in banana leaves). Timbuche is a tasty catch-all fish soup made from the catch of the day. Try tacacho, bananas baked over coals and spiced up with a bit of pork and onion, and top it off with the ubiquitous juanes (rice cakes). Brazil nuts, locally called castañas, make a tasty snack, and by purchasing them you'll be helping to support a sustainable ecofriendly use of the southern Amazon rain forest.

Sadly, some city restaurants incorporate endangered turtle species into their offerings. You'll see sopa de motelo (turtle soup served in the shell) and muchangue (turtle eggs) on the menu. Don't support further elimination of an already vanishing species by ordering them.

Chapo, a sweet banana-milk-and-sugar drink, is popular, as is masato, a beverage prepared by chewing yuca and then fermenting the saliva. For a thirst quencher that also packs a punch, look no further than cashasa, a liquor concocted from sugarcane. Other local drinks include siete raizes (seven roots), said to be a potent aphrodisiac.