The cultural melting pot of Lima presents a wonderfully varied menu, sourcing flavours from around the world. Fusing pre-Hispanic and colonial influences with Eastern and European traditions, the cuisine here is bold, brave and respectful. Brace your fork for dishes such as carapulcra (meat stew with dried potato and peanuts), papa a la huancaína (sliced potatoes covered in a spicy, creamy sauce), mazamorra morada (purple corn jelly), turron de doña Pepa (Peruvian shortcake) and, of course, the legendary seafood dish, cebiche. Whether you’re dining at one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants or a laid-back neighbourhood joint, you’re sure to experience Lima’s cultural diversity in every bite.

The volcano-ringed metropolis of Arequipa, also known as La Ciudad Blanca (The White City), has preserved the distinctive culinary customs of Hispanic America. Passed down through generations, these food traditions mean you’re likely to find the very same dishes on your plate in a picantería (traditional restaurant) as the locals enjoy at home. Typical meals in the Spanish colonial city feature prawns, spicy rocoto peppers, sweet high-altitude papayas, three-pointed bread, queso helado (local ice cream) and chicha (a fermented or non-fermented drink) drank from traditional ceramic vessels.

Piura pops up out of the Sechura Desert in northwestern Peru, celebrating incredibly fresh seafood and Spanish and Andean flavours. The pride its inhabitants have for their food traditions is well founded: think divine crayfish, soft cassava from Morrope, shellfish from Bayóvar, mangos from Sullana, plantain stew, goat’s milk custard and cebiche made with grouper or black clams. Pop your head into a traditional picantería and be rewarded with duck or cabrito (kid goat) carefully prepared using firewood, mixed with ingredients ground by hand in wooden mortars.

The Peruvian port city of Iquitos acts as a gateway to the northern Amazon and is home to an abundance of street-food stalls. No matter where you are in the city, as the sun begins to set, barbecues are fired up in doorways, ready for meat and fish skewers, ripe bananas and patarashca (fish wrapped in banana leaves). The Amazon gifts the region with fresh fish, including spotted sorubim and paiche, and wild fruit like moriche palm fruit and camu camu. Don’t leave the region without sampling one of its famous traditional dishes ¬– perhaps a tacacho con cecina (charcoal-grilled plantains with fried pork and salt-cured meat), juanes (doughballs made of rice and chicken, wrapped in leaves) or the inchicapi soup (chicken with a peanut, coriander and cassava sauce).

Take a scenic bus ride high up into the Peruvian Andes to visit Cusco, South America’s oldest continuously inhabited city, where you’ll be rewarded with a melting pot of flavours. Ranging from avant-garde cuisine to humble but delicious meals prepared in countryside kitchens, the food of Cusco is not to be missed. Experience a diversity of flavours hailing from around the world, and savour the growing trend of native elements fused with international ingredients and techniques. Think suckling pig from Huarocondo, bread from Oropesa, empanadas from Calca, guinea pigs from Tipón and fried pork from Saylla. Head to a quinta or picantería for a traditional Andean lunch of meat and tubers, softened with hot sauce and cheese. Don’t miss a stop in the Sacred Valley, the main food basket of the Andes, where the seasons dictate the local menu: feast your eyes and tastebuds on corn cobs with giant grains, wild mushrooms, golden berries and elderberries.

If spending some time meandering through orchards and vineyards sounds like your idea of a holiday, add Ica to your travel itinerary. Home to some of the country’s very first vineyards, the region produces top-notch piscos and a welcome opportunity to kick back and relax. Lima beans, green asparagus, figs and pecans all hail from Ica’s ancient orchards, which have been around as long as the pre-Hispanic canals that irrigate them, while local fishermen deliver the biggest sole and sea bass on the coast.

Seafood is the star of the plate in Tumbes, where typical dishes include cebiche made with black clams, rice with black clams or crayfish, fish or crab stew, majarisco (sauce made with shellfish and crushed banana), shrimp, lobster, grouper or cachema fish served with cassava, toasted corn and ají peppers. Andean and Spanish ingredients also make a welcome appearance, including banana (try fried banana chips or banana ball broth), lablab beans and cecina (salt-cured pork). Wash your oceanic feast down with a drop of chinguirito, a delicious combination of young coconut water and liquor.

As the capital city of northwest Peru’s Lambayeque region, Chiclayo is the gateway to key archaeological sites, but it’s also the place to introduce your belly to some key Peruvian flavours. Feast on divine humitas (corn bread), kid or chicken stew, duck with rice, or cebiche made with dried fish. The region is known for producing sugar cane, rice, lemon, asparagus, capsicum and butternut squash. Lambayeque’s sugar cane plantations have also attracted Chinese immigrants to the region, resulting in wonderful chifa restaurants offering up Chinese-Peruvian cuisine. This gallery is brought to you by Helloworld Travel and Promperú.