Food & Dining

Peruvian ‘Viagra’ Soup: Does It Hoist Your Sail or Is It Just a Crock of Chupe?

“I can attest it works,” Taste of Peru co-owner Julie Izquierdo says of the restaurant’s Sopa de Viagra.

Yesterday’s post on the medicinal powers of chilcano de pescado led to my discovering a Peruvian restaurant in Chicago that’s serving up a traditional fish soup as a wonder aphrodesiac.

Taste of Peru in Rogers Park is touting its seafood-crammed “Sopa de Viagra” as a “natural elixir to jump-start the love life,” reports the Chicago Sun Times. And at $25 a serving, the lovers’ soup competes with U.S. pharmacy prices for the little blue pill:

“The reason we call it Viagra is it has 14, 15 types of fish and crustaceans in it and so much iron, so much phosphorus, once you drink it, it makes you very tired. But once you wake up, it makes you very alive,” says Cesar Izquierdo, owner of Taste of Peru. “You’re full of life — put it that way.”

Sopa de Viagra gives the ladies a special boost, too, says Izquierdo’s wife and co-owner, Julie Izquierdo.

“I can attest it works,” she says. “The saying goes that you usually take a nap and chase your wife around.”

No wonder foodies have declared 2009 the big year for Peruvian cuisine.

The Izquierdos’ Sopa de Viagra has been on the menu for nearly a decade, a variation of the famous yet simple Peruvian parihuela — essentially seafood soup in a seafood broth.

The soup combines traditional ingredients — shrimp, oysters, clams, snow crab, blue crab, king crab, calamari, conch meat, bay scallops, corvina, grouper and other seafood — with non-traditional evaporated milk, which adds silkiness.

By now, Peruvians reading this post are probably having a big laugh at the gullibility of American consumers, who can be suckered into laying out 25 greenbacks for the promise of a Latin-style libido-booster.

People in Peru would never pay that much for a chupe or parihuela. Fresh fish is so plentiful in the Peruvian capital that area restaurants serve up delicious bowlfuls of the stuff for less than $5 a serving.

And restaurants don’t make Viagra-like claims for their soup, either.

I’ve never heard of locals eating parihuela as the cure for a sagging love life, but maybe I haven’t been talking to the right people. This deserves some discussion.

What do you think? Do Peruvian fish soups (chilcano, chupe, parihuela) make men and women horny? Or is this just some clever Peruvian expats’ way of making a buck in gringolandia?

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.

8 Comments

  • Stuart

    Every now and then I have come across something that is claimed to be viagra-like. Conchas negras stand out as one of these that I can remember. Go to an Andean market and you will be directed to a few dozen things too.

    What would be funny is if you asked when pointing to a substance “does this work like viagra?” as if that would make you buy it. Then, when they say yes, as they undoubtedly would to make a sale, say: “in that case no thanks then” and walk away.

    Well, to me that would be funny anyway 😐

  • Paul Cox

    I don’t know about this soup, by my mother and all my aunts swear that the juice from ceviche (leche de tigre) gets your love life going, as does dark Peruvian beer.

    I ordered both ceviche and dark beer in Callao once and the laughed and warned my girlfriend that she was going to have a LONG night 🙂

  • Barb

    I’ve heard about the supposed power of leche de tigre (also good for hangovers) but not about dark Peruvian beer.

    What a good reporter you are, Paul, ordering the double dose in Callao. 🙂

    The thing with both you and Stuart is that you are young men, so you’re really not the ideal candidates to attest to the aphrodesiac powers of these foods/drinks. Meaning that you probably don’t need them or wouldn’t notice their effects as much as would a man of 50 or more.

    We need to hear from, uh, mature guys as to whether fresh seafood concoctions really meaure up to Viagra standards.

    Anonymous postings welcome since this isn’t the sort of topic most men would want to comment on with full identity disclosed.

  • Pico

    Hi Barb,

    Last time in Lima I went to the restaurante Conchas Negras in Surquillo and ordered a tiradito de pulpo. I was with a few relatives among them my sister and her husband. I had her try the tiradito and she started laughing and telling her husband: “Mellizos! Mellizos! We are making twins tonight!”

    I only know that I walked out with a bounce in my step but don’t know if it was because the tiradito was SOOOOOO good or what.

    Now I am getting hungry. Saludos

  • Barb

    Your sister’s remark is priceless.:)

    Mmmm. For readers who don’t know, tiradito de pulpo is octopus marinated in lime juice and aji, and sliced thinly. Any pulpo dish is a real test of a chef’s skills since raw octopus is tough and chewy and can end up the same way in the finished plate.

    I’ll have to try Conchas Negras one of these days — and the tiradito de pulpo on your recommendation. 🙂

  • Rachel

    Conchas Negras is the “Viagra” of Peruvian soups. My husband becomes intoxicated and “I can attest it works.”

    RC (Rompe Calzon) is also a libido booster and works equally as well as the Conchas Negras.

  • Barb

    Mmmm. It appears that conchas negras does have a reputation that it lives up to. Maybe those chefs in Chicago are justified in advertising their soup as “Peruvian Viagra.”

    Rachel, I had no idea what “rompe calzon” (panty ripper) is, so I searched on Google and discovered that it is an Amazonian liquor made with herbs, roots and sugarcane juice that supposedly boosts sexual potency.
    Here’s a recipe: http://www.gastronomiaperu.com/recetas.de.cocina/receta.php?d=4220

  • Eleonn

    Maca is supposed to have the same efect as ceviche de conchas negras, dark beer, rompecalzón and/or a few other examples that escape from my mind right now.