In search of cheap labor to work the fields and the extremely profitable guano-producing islands, the Peruvian government looked to China.
The first arrivals
In 1849, the first group of workers arrived on the coasts of Peru, followed by another 90,000 over the next quarter-century.
Once freed from their contracts, many opened small grocery stores selling ingredients from their homeland in Asia, as well as restaurants replicating their dishes (mostly) Cantonese with any Peruvian products they could find.
Peru’s culinary scene was transformed forever.
Fusion of techniques
Naturally, Chinese culinary techniques blended with Peruvian ones, especially since most ingredients were local, such as yellow chili peppers in the Stir-Fried Sirloin.
Thus, with a very hot wok, marinated beef, and rice in hand, Stir-Fried Sirloin was born.
Many Chinese-Peruvian dishes have become so popular over the decades that they migrated to creole buffets, cevicherías, and chicken roasts.
Go to any Peruvian restaurant and make sure to find chaufa on the menu. This fried rice dish gets its name from the Chinese "chao fan" (literally "fried rice") and is not very different from the original Chinese version, at least superficially.
Stir-Fried Sirloin transcends all class divisions, racial tensions, and migration history to present itself as an ideal vision of what Peru could be.
