Ceviche

• 1. Raw Fish, Cooked Look

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  Ceviche is a cold dish of raw fish or shellfish, and it travels under at least four spellings: ceviche, cebiche, sebiche and seviche. Versions of it are considered native in places as far apart as Chile and Mexico, all connected by the Pacific coast of Latin America. Yet the seafood never meets a flame. Still, the flesh turns pale and firm, as though it had been cooked. How does that happen? Who first thought to do it, when so many peoples claim the invention? And how did a plate of marinated fish become something a country points to as its identity? The answers run from ancient coastal settlements to a committee meeting in Botswana.

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• 2. Acid Without Fire

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  Sashimi, the Japanese dish of raw fish, arrives on the plate completely unaltered. Ceviche does not. The seafood is steeped in fresh citrus juice, typically lemon or lime. The citric acid denatures the fish, which means it alters the structure of its proteins. The flesh turns opaque and firm. To the eye and the tongue it resembles fish cooked with heat, but structurally it stays raw.

  The rest of the dressing follows local habit. Some regional chili pepper is nearly always present, and mustard replaces it in parts of Central America. Sliced or chopped onions and chopped cilantro usually join in. In Mexico, tomatoes, avocados and tomato sauce may be added too.

  Ceviche is often served as an appetizer. When it becomes a main dish, it comes with starchy sides meant to balance the acidity. Sweet potato, lettuce, maize, avocado and fried plantains are common choices.

  The sour marinade, however, does not make raw fish safe. Acid will not kill bacteria or parasitic worms the way the heat of cooking does. For that reason the dish must be prepared fresh and eaten immediately, to lower the risk of food poisoning.

  The Food and Drug Administration, along with studies since 2009, names specific hazards in ceviche. They include Anisakis simplex, Diphyllobothrium species, Pseudoterranova decipiens, Pseudoterranova cattani and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Anisakiasis is a disease caused by swallowing larval nematodes in raw seafood dishes such as ceviche.

  The Latin American cholera outbreaks of the 1990s may have been tied to raw seafood infested with cholera and eaten as ceviche. The American Dietetic Association urges women to avoid the dish during pregnancy, because improper preparation makes it risky.

  Some of the oldest versions of the dish, however, relied on something other than citrus altogether.

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• 3. Roots Before Limes

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  The archaeologist Ruth Shady has investigated the Caral civilization, which developed in central Peru between 3500 BC and 1800 BC. According to some Peruvian sources, her work shows that the people of Caral ate raw Peruvian anchovy with chili and sea salt. Researchers use the term Proto-Ceviche for this kind of predecessor of the modern dish. Peruvian researchers and the archaeological evidence strongly favor a pre-Hispanic origin on the coast.

  Another theory points to the Moche, a coastal civilization that began to flourish in present-day northern Peru nearly 2,000 years ago. Lemons and limes had not yet reached the region, so the Moche used the fermented juice of the banana passionfruit, known locally as tumbo. Recent investigations add that under the Inca Empire, fish was marinated with chicha, an Andean fermented corn beer. Chronicles also report that along the Incan coast, before the Spaniards came, fish was eaten with sea salt and ají, the South American chili peppers. They describe this acid-cooked fish as a staple.

  Ecuador makes its own claim. It shares the Inca heritage and a rich variety of fish and shellfish with Peru. The Ecuadorian position traces the dish to the harvest of the Spondylus shell, between 3500 BC and 1500 BC, in the Valdivia culture.

  The origin has also been attributed to places ranging from Central America to Polynesia. Some theories place it in Spain instead, with roots in Moorish cuisine. The Peruvian historian Juan José Vega supports an idea from Fernando Rueda García, a historian of Málaga and a member of the Andalusian Ethnology Commission. He suggests that Moorish slaves created ceviche by mixing local and foreign ingredients arriving on the Iberian Peninsula.

  Archaeological records and many researchers still support a pre-Hispanic beginning. They say foods resembling ceviche may have existed in western South America as early as 2,000 years ago. The version eaten around the world today, though, took shape under Spanish rule.

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• 4. Fusion And The Name

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  In the 16th century, Spanish colonial rule brought New World ingredients together with Old World cooking techniques. Historians agree that the modern dish emerged in colonial times in present-day Peru. The key arrivals were limes, onions and vinegar. Spain also brought escabeche, the technique of macerating raw fish and meat in vinegar, citrus and spices. Macerating means softening a food by leaving it in liquid. The technique is linked to the Moorish, or Muslim, heritage in Spanish cuisine.

  The Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio points to the role of Lima. For four centuries it was the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which at one point covered most of western South America. That dominance let popular dishes such as ceviche travel to other provinces. There they became local cuisine, blended with regional flavors and styles. Long popular mainly along the Pacific coast, ceviche has spread widely across North and Central America with the help of globalization.

  The first documented use of the word is from 1820, in the patriotic song "La Chicha." That song is considered the first Peruvian national anthem. Where the word comes from is still debated. The Royal Spanish Academy says it might share an origin with escabeche. That term comes from Mozarabic izkebêch, from Andalusian Arabic assukkabáǧ, and from Classical Arabic sakbāj, meaning meat cooked in vinegar. The trail ends at the unattested Middle Persian sikbāg, built from sik, meaning vinegar, and bāg, meaning soup.

  Another hypothesis points to the Quechua word siwichi, meaning fresh fish. Peru favors the spelling with a v, which the Royal Spanish Academy accepts. Local variants such as cerbiche and serviche also exist.

  It took the 1970s to give Peru's version its present, hurried form.

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• 5. The Peruvian Reinvention

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  Dario Matsufuji and Humberto Sato, two Peruvian-Japanese chefs, helped develop the modern Peruvian style in the 1970s. Like sashimi, it marinates the fish for only a few minutes and serves it promptly. Traditional ceviche sat in its marinade for about three hours. The modern kind can be ready in the time it takes to mix the ingredients, serve them and carry the plate to the table. Earlier methods likely used longer curing times, closer to pickling.

  The classic Peruvian recipe uses chunks of raw fish in freshly squeezed key lime. Sliced onions, chili peppers, salt and pepper complete it. Corvina, a sea bass, or cebo was the fish traditionally used. Older versions were served at room temperature with corn on the cob and slices of cooked sweet potato.

  Regional touches abound. Variations include garlic, fish bone broth, minced ají limo, the Andean chili rocoto, toasted corn or cancha, and yuyo, a seaweed. Trujillo is known for ceviche made from shark, called tollo or tojo. In Lima, sole, known as lenguado, is often used.

  Many Peruvian cevicherías serve a small glass of the leftover marinade as an appetizer. It is called leche de tigre, or leche de pantera. Popular belief in Peruvian food culture holds that it restores strength and acts as an aphrodisiac.

  In his 2015 book Ceviche Power, Gastón Acurio documents a ceviche route. It runs through Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Ancash, the Lima coast, Lima, Ica, Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna. A 2022 study by the Inter-American Development Bank called this variety an example of cultural diversity at work, with fishers, farmers and chefs coming together.

  Peru has declared the dish part of its national heritage and has even set aside a holiday in its honor. It is widely seen as a symbol of national identity, reflecting Indigenous, Spanish and later Japanese influences.

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• 6. Across The Americas

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  In Ecuador, the classic ceviche is fish pickled in lemon juice, or shrimp cooked in tomato juice or in water with the shrimp shells. Sliced red onions, sliced tomatoes, salt, pepper, cilantro and oil go in with it. It is traditionally marinated for several hours. Toasted corn kernels, fried green plantain chunks called patacones, or thin plantain chips called chifles come alongside. The Manabí style relies on lemon juice, salt and the juice from cooked shrimp, and is sometimes topped with peanut butter.

  Chile often uses halibut or Patagonian toothfish, marinated in lime and grapefruit juices. Finely minced garlic, red chili peppers, and often fresh mint and cilantro are added. On Easter Island, the preferred fish is tuna, marinated in lemon juice and coconut milk.

  Colombia prepares cebiches of shrimp, oysters, crabs, squid and chipi chipi, alone or in combination. The sauce may combine tomato sauce, mayonnaise, garlic sauce, cilantro, white onion and lemon juice. Salty soda crackers go with it.

  In Mexico, ceviche is served in cocktail cups with tostadas, or as a tostada topping or taco filling. With tomato sauce in a cup, it is called a ceviche cocktail. Shrimp, octopus, squid, tuna and mackerel are all popular bases, and avocado, olives and tomatoes are often added.

  El Salvador and Nicaragua share ceviche de concha negra, or black conch ceviche, which Mexico calls pata de mula, meaning mule's foot. It is nearly black, with a distinct look and flavor. Lime juice, onion, yerba buena, tomato and Worcestershire sauce go into it.

  Nicaragua and Costa Rica usually serve ceviche in a cocktail glass, with a lettuce leaf and soda crackers. Ketchup, mayonnaise and Tabasco sauce are popular condiments, and the fish is typically tilapia or corvina. In Panama, corvina ceviche is served as an appetizer in most local restaurants. Some cooks add the spicy chombo chili pepper, or serve the dish in small pastry shells called canastitas.

  In the Caribbean, mahi-mahi is common, prepared with lime juice, onion, green pepper, habanero and a touch of allspice. Puerto Rico and other islands use coconut milk. In the Bahamas and south Florida, conch salad is popular, made from diced fresh conch, lime, onions and bell pepper. South Florida cooks sometimes add tomato juice.

  Only one of these traditions, though, has been formally placed on a global heritage list.

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• 7. A UNESCO Honor

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  In December 2023, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity met in Kasane, Botswana. It decided to inscribe the practices and meanings associated with the preparation and consumption of ceviche on the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The listing names it a traditional dish of Peru, which regards ceviche as its national dish.

  The committee gave its reasoning in a short statement. It said the preparation and consumption of ceviche in Peru "entail specific practices, knowledge and meanings at each stage, from fishing to cultivating the ingredients and preparing the dish. As recipes vary from one region to the next, the dish also strengthens regional cultural identity."

  UNESCO singled out several groups and ideas. It highlighted the dish's role in Peruvian cultural identity, the importance of artisanal sustainable fishers, and the traditional female ceviche cooks in cevicherías. It also noted the regional variations of the recipe.

  The final detail concerns how the craft survives. According to UNESCO, the knowledge of ingredients and techniques is passed down through families in Peru.

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