Lomo saltado, Lima's wok dish

Beef, onion, tomato, and fries in the wok

Lomo saltado is Peru's best-known stir-fry. Strips of beef tenderloin are seared hard in a wok with red onion, tomato, ají amarillo, soy sauce and a splash of vinegar, then served over white rice with French fries on the plate, sometimes tossed in and sometimes on the side.

It's the clearest example of chifa, the Cantonese-Peruvian cooking that's been part of Lima since the 1850s. The wok and the soy sauce came from China. The ají, the fries and the rice-plus-potato double carb are Peruvian.

The dish every kitchen in Lima makes

For a first-timer it's the easiest way in: hot, cooked through, familiar in flavor, and on the menu almost everywhere, from the corner menú del día to the white-tablecloth rooms of San Isidro.

That also makes it a good test. A kitchen that gets its lomo saltado right is usually worth eating at.

Ordering, and the fries question

Just say "lomo saltado". On the same menu you'll often find:

• Lomo saltado de pollo, with chicken instead of beef, and cheaper.
• Tallarín saltado: the same wok technique, over noodles instead of rice.
• Saltado de pescado or de mariscos, with fish or seafood.

If the fries keep arriving soggy, ask for them "aparte" (on the side). Most cooks won't mind.

The smoky, charred taste Peruvians call el sabor del wok comes from very high heat and a fast toss. A lomo saltado that tastes like beef stew came out of a wok that wasn't hot enough.

Price, from menú to steakhouse

The S/15 menú version is one of the best deals in the city; our menú del día guide explains how to find one.

Rice, beef and a fry on one fork

Load a forkful with beef and tomato, a bit of rice and a fry. The fries are there to soak up the wok juices.

Drink chicha morada, Inca Kola or a cold beer.

From the chifas to every home kitchen

Lomo saltado comes out of cocina chifa, which took shape in Lima in the second half of the 19th century, when tens of thousands of Cantonese laborers arrived to work on the coastal plantations and railroads. They brought the wok, soy sauce and the stir-fry; here they found Peruvian beef, ají amarillo, red onion, tomato, and a local habit of serving everything with both rice and potatoes. By the early 20th century the dish had crossed from chifa restaurants into criollo home cooking, and it never left.

Where to eat one

Have it at the first decent menú del día you find, then again at a mid-range restaurant a few days later, and you'll taste the gap between good and great. Miraflores and central Lima are full of solid versions, and if you want the dish taken as far as it goes, Doomo Saltado builds its whole menu around it.