Lomo a lo pobre


Lomo a lo pobre, bistec a lo pobre or bife a lo pobre is a dish from Chile and Perú. The common ingredients for both preparations are beef tenderloin topped with one or more fried eggs and French fries. The ingredients that differentiate both dishes are fried onions, as it is served in Chile, and rice and fried plantains. Unlike steak and eggs, lomo a lo pobre is eaten as a lunch or dinner.

Etymology in Perú

There are several possible origins for the term "a lo pobre."
One is that it was named because of the irony of nineteenth-century Peruvian common folk eating similar dishes with an abundance of food and at a heavy price, despite their economic situation.
Alternatively, it may have originated due to the idea that poorer residents of Lima ate meat combined with carbohydrates, eggs, and rice, while higher-class individuals were associated with eating meat alone with a vegetable.
Today it is consumed in lower- and upper-class restaurants, and there is no negative connotation associated with the dish.
The term "a lo pobre" in Lima, Peru today may refer simply to the addition of a fried egg and is used in other dishes besides steak, such as grilled chicken breast, rice, lomo saltado, salchipapas, or even hamburgers.