Chifa is a Chinese Peruvian culinary tradition based on Cantonese elements fused with traditional Peruvian ingredients and traditions. The term is also used to refer to restaurants that serve the chifa cuisine.
Chifa has spread from Peru to neighboring countries including Ecuador, and Chile.
The majority of Chinese Peruvians have origins in southern China, where Cantonese is spoken. The Comisión LexicografÃÂa de la Academia Peruana (CLAP) proposed that the word chifa is from Cantonese (Jyutping: sik<sup>9</sup> faan<sup>6</sup> laa<sup>3</sup>), lit "to eat cooked rice" ("comer arroz cocido") but usually meant "Time to eat [meal]". The term came to prominence in Lima in the 1930s, when Limeños heard Chinese people using the expression "chifan" as a call to eat in the restaurants they ran.
A similar loanword, chaufa (a chifa fried rice dish), comes from the Cantonese or chaofan (Jyutping: caau<sup>3</sup> faan<sup>6</sup>), meaning "fried rice".
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese immigrants came to Peru as workers. They came mainly from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, particularly the capital city of Guangzhou. For the most part, they settled on the coast of Peru and in the capital city of Lima.
There are different accounts on the development of chifa restaurants in Lima, such as the following:
<blockquote>Why is the Chinatown of Lima near the central market called Capon? Because on Ucayali Street pigs, bulls, sheep and goats were fattened to be made more appetizing. Near Capon Street there was a piece of land known as Otaiza, which was rented by a group of Chinese free of the [indenturement] contract, doing what they best knew how to do: cooking and merchanting (...) Capon turned into the birthplace of Chinese food and of the first Peruvian chifas, a blessing from the sky. Soon all of Lima comes to eat at Ton Kin Sen, to Thon Po, to Men Yut, and to San Joy Lao where there was dancing to a live orchestra. Chinese restaurants became known as Chifa. For some this word was derived from the Chinese ni chi fan or "Have you eaten yet". Soon later would come the dish chau fan (fried rice), and finally, chaufa, a dish that comes with almost every chifa meal. <br>â León, R., 2007 pp.134-136.</blockquote>
Peruvian chifa is distinct, influenced by Peruvian cuisine. Like most Chinese food elsewhere, rice, meat, noodles and vegetables are staples in chifa. Chifa is eaten by all socioeconomic groups, with some directed at those with more disposable income, and chifas de barrio at those with less. Lima had over 6,000 chifa restaurants in 2007.
Since at least the 1970s, Chinese immigrants have opened chifa restaurants in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Spain.