Netflix’s acclaimed series Street Food is set in Latin America for its second season. The show, from the same team as Chef’s Table, explores the street food of six cities around the region. Here’s who the vendors are, the food they make, and how to find them:
Lima, Peru
Al Toke Pez
This tiny, five-seat no frills Nikkei counter spot run by chef Tomás Matsufuji, a PHD in chemistry in the UK, who returned to Peru to work with his father, Nikkei legend Dario Matsufuji. Later he opened the simple Al Toke Pez, but word soon spread about his sudados (steamed fish), ceviches, wok tossed cachete (fish cheeks), and other plates. Location: Av. Angamos 886, Surquillo
Anticuchos Doña Pochita
Since she was a teen, Rosana Delta Esrpíritu Escobar, or Doña Pochita, has been making anticuchos, skewered beef hearts that are sold on streetside grills around Lima. She has become a cult figure in Peruvian gastronomy and her small cart has expanded to include a brick and mortar location.
Location: Av. Ignacio Merino 2328, Lince
Huerta Chinén
Angélica Chinén Garay has had a stall in the Surquillo market since 1984, selling a long list of criollo dishes such as patita con mani (pigs feet in peanut sauce), causa rellana (potato casserole), seco de cordero (lamb stew), and tallarines verdes (noodles in a green sauce).
Location: Mercado de Surquillo #2
Picarones Mary
Picarones are squash donuts drizzled in chancaca (sugarcane syrup) that are sold by street vendors like Pablo Valverde, who has been working this cart in a busy Lima park for 25 years.
Location: Parque Kennedy, Miraflores
Tio Candela
This huarique in the center of Lima is best known for its pescado frito, or fried fish. Local fish like cabrilla, pintadilla, and chita are kept alive in water filled cylinders right up until they are killed and fried to perfection.
Location: Jirón Angaraes 444, Centro
Oaxaca, Mexico
Memelas Doña Vale
Valentina Pacheco, better known as Doña Vale, has a stall deep in Oaxaca’s Mercado de Abastos, making memelas and other antojitos from her hand made masa on her comal. After 30 years, she has become an Oaxaca legend.
Location: Central de Abastos
El Posito
Piedrasos are day old bread that’s softened with vinegar or brine, then topped with Oaxacan cheese. El Posito has been selling them for decades.
Location: Calz. Cuauhtémoc 112-201, Trinidad de las Huertas
Tlayudas de la La Chinita
The large grilled tortillas known as tlayudas are emblematic of Oaxaca and La Chinita’s – stuffed with tasajo, chorizo, or Cecina – might be the best in town. The stall opens each night at 8pm.
Location: Calle de Nuño del Mercado at 20 de Noviembre, Centro
Empanadas Del Carmen
In the plaza beside the Iglesia Carmen de Arriba, these empanadas with mole amarillo cooked on the comal might have been Oaxaca’s most famed street fare even before appearing on Netlix. Their rolled tacos with chorizo are also featured in the episode.
Location: The corner of Calle de Jesús Carranza and Calle Garcia Vigil
Salvador de Bahia, Brazil
Ré Restaurante Dona Suzana
Just a few tables on the ocean facing patio of Suzana de Almeida Sapucaial’s house, where she does everything from cooking, to waiting tables, to cleaning, to buying ingredients. The menu for the lunch-only restaurant is centered around her moqueca de guaricema (big-eye jack), arraia (ray), or camarão (shrimp) that are served alongside pirao, rice, and beans.
Location: Solar do Unhão
Claudia Oye
The street vendors of Bahia, women dressed in white, are known as Baianas, and they are mostly sell acaraje, a mashed black-eyed pea fritter with African roots that is closely tied to the Candomblè religion.
Location: Pituba
Bar Kabaca
The hilly Candeal neighborhood has been a central point of the Bahian music scene and Bar Kabacs feijoada has become its fuel.
Location: Candeal
Abara and Purée de Aipim
On the beach in Barra, roving vendor Martinha sells abara, which are mashed black-eyed peas steamed in banana leaves, and and purée de aipim, a cassava purée topped with sausage.
Location: Barra
Bogotá, Colombia
Tolú Restaurante
Luz Dary Cogollo, aka Mama Luz, is helping transform how the world sees traditional Colombian food from her stall at the Plaza de Mercado la Perserverancia. Her ajiaco, a typical chicken and potato stew, might be the most famous in Bogotá, though her mote de queso and arroz con camarón also have a good reputation.
Location: Plaza de Mercado la Perserverancia
La Esquina de Mari
At the market for 25 years, María Renteria specializes in foods from Colombia’s Pacific Coast, such as tumbacatre, a fish, herb, and coconut milk stew.
Location: Plaza de Mercado la Perserverancia
Cositas Ricas de María
One of the oldest vendors in the market, owner Martha has been selling dishes from the highland region of Boyacá since it opened in 1949.Her specialty are tamales, which are steamed in banana leaves.
Location: Plaza de Mercado la Perserverancia
Gladys
Once struggling vendor Gladys was taken under main character Luz’s wing and has become one of the markets most popular vendors, selling dishes from the Cundinamarca region, such as arepas, caldo de costilla (rib soup), mondongo (tripe), fried bocachico.
Location: Plaza de Mercado la Perserverancia
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Las Chicas de la 3
Inside Buneos Aires’ Mercado Central, owners Pato and Romi improvise on the Spanish tortilla, making it more Argentinean, adding lots of cheese and ham. They also sell pizzas and empanadas.
Location: Mercado Central
La Mezzetta
Standing room only La Mezzetta opened half a century ago and are best known for their Argentine style pizza known as the Fugazzeta, which is topped with a mountain of cheese and onions.
Location: Álvarez Thomas 1321, Villa Ortuzar
Carmén
Paraguayan immigrant Carmén makes the corn breads known as chipás from her stall every Sunday at a fair outside of the city center.
Location: Feria de Matadores
Nuestra Parrilla
Argentina’s most beloved street food is the Chorípan, a chorizo sausage sandwich. It’s ubiquitous, but Nuestra Parrilla is one of the only with a female asado master, helping change the stereotypes in the country.
Location: Mercado San Telmo
La Paz, Bolivia
Emiliana Condori
In the heart of colonial La Paz, Emiliana Condori sells Papas Rellenos, fried mashed potatoes filled with meat, a recipe that she has been perfecting since she was a child. She now has four carts that move around the city center.
Location: Plaza San Francisco, Zona Norte
Api Orueño
For more than 30 years, Constantina Velasco and her husband have been making buñuelos, dinurts flavored with anis, to serve alongside api, a nutritious drink made from purple and yellow corn.
Location: Indaburo y Pichincha (4 blocks northwest of Plaza Murillo) villa Fátima – near Miraflores
Plaza de las Cholas #6
You’ll find the sandwich de chola, a roasted pork shoulder sandwich at vendors around La Paz, including that of Cristina Zurita, who has been working here for more than 50 years.
Location: Plaza de las Cholas, Zona Sur
Ranga Ranga
Inherited the stall from her mother, Fransi Mercado Choquea Paz continues making ranga ranga, a spicy stew made from beef belly cooked with aji amarillo and potatoes.
Location: Calle Tumusla, Zona Norte
Helado de Canela
The four Costas sisters work an ice cream stall founded by their grandparents, which specializes in cinnamon sorbet. It used to be so cold that they didn’t need refrigeration, but global warming is having an effect on their business.
Location: Cemetery entrance at Avenida Batista, behind the Mercado de Flores
Header image of the ceviche at Al Toke Pez in Lima, Peru.
