Have you ever tasted Chifa cuisine?
In the Greater Boston region, there’s about ten Peruvian restaurants, many with a couple Chifa dishes on their menus, usually Lomo Saltado and Arroz Chaufa. However, Peruvian Taste Restaurant, located in Charlestown and having opened in September 2020, has the most extensive Chifa menu of all, with easily over a dozen dishes available. But what’s Chifa?
Around the 1850s, many Cantonese Chinese left China for the U.S. while others traveled to Peru, commonly working on sugar and cotton plantations, although some moved to the cities, especially Lima. As they did in the U.S., some of these Chinese opened their own restaurants, which were initially known as fondas.
Sometime during the 1920s or 1930s, as their popularity grew, these restaurants became known as Chifas, a term allegedly derived from the Cantonese words chi and fan, which may translate as “to cook or eat rice” or to “cook or enjoy a good meal.” Chifa also referred to the unique Peruvian/Chinese fusion cuisine, blending Peruvian and Chinese ingredients and techniques, that these restaurants offered. A related term is chaufa, which refers to fried rice, derived from the Chinese term chau fan.
Chifa is still hugely popular in Peru, especially in Lima, but it’s only started making inroads into the U.S. Maybe the first reference to Chaufa in the U.S. was in the Daily News (NY), July 17, 1947, as a recipe for this dish won a contest. However, there wasn’t any mention of its Peruvian/Chinese origins. The recipe was simply presented without any context or background. The main ingredients included rice, bacon, ham, green pepper, onion, and eggs.
It wouldn’t be until the 1960s and 1970s that more American became curious about Chifa, especially due to numerous newspapers writing and raving about a Duck Chifa dish served at an annual food editors conference in Chicago in 1967. The recipe for this dish was provided by newspapers all across the country.
Restaurants specializing in Chifa cuisine generally didn’t start appearing until the 1990s but it has remained a niche. Today, Peruvian restaurants are still relatively rare in the U.S., with only 400-500 such restaurants, and the number serving Chifa is obviously even smaller. In comparison, there are said to be over 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S.
If Chinese restaurants are so prevalent in the U.S., then why hasn’t Chifa cuisine become more popular? If people enjoy Chinese cuisine, then there’s no reason why they also wouldn’t enjoy Chifa. And locally, your best option for Chifa is the Peruvian Taste Restaurant.
It’s a small spot, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, offering American and Peruvian cuisine, with numerous Chifa dishes. Like many other Peruvian spots, they have Lomo Saltado (filet mignon, onions, tomatoes, special sauce) and five varieties of Arroz Chaufa (fried rice). But you’ll also find much more, not found elsewhere in the local area.
The Wantan Frito ($5) are fried wonton, stuffed with a chicken mixture, and served with duck sauce. Tasty, crunchy treats, they make an excellent appetizer, and the chicken filling will delight your palate. For an entrée, there is Kam Lu Wantan ($18), fried wontons topped with a sweet ginger and tamarind sauce mixed with chicken, vegetables, pineapple, quailed egg, pork, and shrimp. Quite a mixture! Or try their Sopa Wantan ($8), wonton soup with chicken and quail eggs.
One of my favorite Chifa dishes is the Pollo Chi Jau Kay ($12), boneless chicken morsels battered, fried and topped with sesame seeds and scallions. This isn’t the usual Sesame Chicken dish but is elevated above its competition. The chicken isn’t surrounded in thick batter, but rather just the exterior of the chicken is fried, giving a great crispy aspect to the chicken. It’s as if they fried the exterior of the chicken and then tore pieces of meat off the bird. The sauce was more savory than sweet, quite compelling, and much thinner than what you find on other Sesame Chicken dishes.
Another compelling dish is the Aeropuerto ($16), a tasty melange of fried rice, chicken, Char Siu pork, Lo Mein noodles, peppers, snow peas and scallions. All of these ingredients worked well together, creating a delicious and intriguing dish. The Char Siu, very thin sliced pieces of barbecued pork, was especially delicious. They have also recently introduced an Aeropuerto Especial, which adds shrimp and Chinese sausage to this dish.
The Chancho con Piña ($16) has slices of Char Siu pork, stir fried with snow peas and pineapples, and topped by a tamarind sauce topped with sesame seeds. Once again, the sauce was thinner than similar Chinese-American dishes, and was sweet, though not overly so. There was a nice tropical flair to this dish, all which complemented the thin, scrumptious slices of pork.
Their other Peruvian dishes are well done too, and it has become one of my regular lunch spots. Prices are reasonable, portions are generous, and the restaurant exudes a homey vibe. I highly recommend you check out their Chifa dishes, to experience another aspect of Chinese cuisine, enhanced by its exposure to the ingredients and culinary knowledge of Peru.
For more information about Peruvian Taste Restaurant, you may read Richard Auffrey’s lengthier article on this topic here.
