Meet the Chinese-Peruvian families behind the South American country’s chifa restaurants
Nikkei restaurant Maido in Lima may be the World’s Best Restaurant in 2025, but the Peruvian capital’s chifas have been earning praise for decades
It was enough to pique my curiosity in a city enjoying a rise in culinary tourism, and one whose ties to its Chinese community remain unsung.
Chifa Titi is one of Lima’s most established and longest-running chifas, having opened in 1958 in the city’s Chinatown by a Hakka family preserving Cantonese traditions over four generations, 18,000km from home.
William Chan Chin, the second-generation chef at Titi, along with his son and marketing manager, Alexander Chan Magan, fumble along with me through their rusty Cantonese, my broken Spanish, some English and universal body language, but any stiffness soon melts into laughter, and by the time we set off into the night, we’re chatting like old friends with a newly invented pidgin.
Lima’s Chinatown is reminiscent of Bangkok’s Yaowarat Road, fading storefronts displaying traditional treats now elusive in Hong Kong. The sugar egg puffs and plastic-wrapped sesame biscuits evoke memories of 1980s snacking culture, and as we duck through narrow alleyways, the scene becomes a surreal remix of childhood memories: Cantonese uncles selling egg waffles and bubble tea, while “Sham Tseng Roast Meat” does a brisk trade alongside a selection of siu mai and dumplings.
Walking down Calle Capón, Chinatown’s main thoroughfare, a voice suddenly calls out: “William!”