Tripea

The Vallehermoso market is one of the good food markets of Chamberí, in Madrid. Inside it, where you would never guess from the street, sits Tripea: a chef's restaurant with Peruvian leanings that has made the MICHELIN guide.

It is not really a restaurant at all but a market stall. A long counter, an open kitchen behind it, graffiti on the wall. The motto fits: "Comer y flipar" — eat and be amazed.

Roberto Martínez Foronda, who runs the kitchen, started catering school at seventeen, worked alongside Darío Barrio and Andrés Madrigal, then moved on to El Celler de Can Roca. After that, Lima: Pedro Miguel Schiaffino at Malabar, Mitsuharu Tsumura at Maido. Back in Madrid he opened his own stall in 2017. What he cooks is the sum of that CV — the place where Peruvian and Andean food meets South-East Asia.

There is no choosing: one menu, eight courses. It opens with the toasted corn we first met in Peru, cancha.

Artichoke, confit then fried — peanut sauce, huacatay béarnaise, cecina, pickled red onion, sansho pepper. "Carretillero" tuna ceviche in an acevichado gazpachuelo — crisp calamari, roast sweet potato, shiso, anticucho oil. Grilled octopus — leche de tigre a la parmesana, pine nuts, botija olive, Thai basil pesto, quinoa crisp. Hot mussel ceviche from the wok, the house classic — ají amarillo leche de tigre, noodles, panko crumbs, lapsang souchong, dill. Siumai filled with pork belly, in a passionfruit kam lu sauce. Steamed bao with lomo saltado inside, rocoto cream and a fried quail egg on top. Beef cheek smoked over bay leaves — a tom yum reduction, celeriac purée, hoisin pears, five spice. And for pudding, a creamy coconut-milk rice — chicha morada, candied kumquat, crispy rice, beetroot powder.

It held a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand from 2019 to 2021, won a Repsol sun in 2023, and has been named the best market stall in Madrid. You have to get in the queue for a table. Tripea runs two sittings a day, at 14.30 and 21.30, each lasting two to two and a half hours.