A quick page for people who are looking for traditional Peruvian ingredients in London (since it took a while for me and my Peruvian wife to find them). Much of Peruvian food is based on a mildly-hot chilli-pepper paste made from one of two types of chilli: ají colorado or ají amarillo. They can both be found in London, sold in dried form. These are the places where we have found them or that we've heard that they can be found:

• In the Elephant and Castle shopping centre, on the top level, at one of the far ends (there are two far ends, and they look identical, so we almost always end up visiting both) there is a little shop run by Ecuatorianos that keeps dried Peruvian ají (both types), at 2 pounds a bag. They also keep 'cancha' (dried maize for toasting). You won't notice the shop until you're right at the end, so walk all the way.
• In Seven Sisters, close to the tube station, is Seven Sisters Indoor Market, which is full of small shops and a restaurant, mostly run by Colombians, it seems. There is a shop there that sells 'cancha' and various other types of maize, although we didn't see any ají. Still, there are various things of interest to Peruvians, for example: mote, maizena, Inca Cola, mazamorra morada, gelatinas, shampoo and aguadiente.
• We've also heard that there are various shops near the Peckham Rye train station which also keep Peruvian chilli and other ingredients, but we haven't had a chance to visit yet.
• Maria has written to say that she found a lot of Peruvian ingredients in the Sol Andino shop at 187 Old Kent Road, SE1 5NA (tel 020 7394 9203), and she also suggests visiting Tito's restaurant at London Bridge, SE1 9SG (tel 020 7407 7787) where some Peruvian products can be found.
• The proprietor of Viva Peru wrote to suggest their own UK mail-order service which keeps Peruvian ingredients.

If you know of any other place, let us know, and I'll update this page.  --Jim

These pages and files, including applets and artwork, are Copyright (c) 1997-2019 Jim Peters unless otherwise stated. Please contact me if you'd like to use anything not explicitly released, or if you have something interesting to discuss.