Lomo a lo pobre

Lomo a lo pobre (or perhaps bistec a lo pobre) at a restaurant in Chile. The onions are served underneath the eggs and are not visible in the photograph.

Lomo a lo pobre, in Peruvian and Chilean cuisines, consists of a cut of beef tenderloin (Spanish lomo) topped with one or more fried eggs and generally served with French fries and fried onions. Unlike steak and eggs, lomo a lo pobre is almost always eaten as a lunch, never breakfast.

There are several possible origins for the term "a lo pobre", one being that it was named so 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 members of Lima ate meat combined with carbohydrates, eggs, and rice, while higher class individuals were associated with eating meat alone along 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 today may refer simply to the addition of a fried egg, and is used in other dishes besides steak, such as grilled chicken breast (pechuga a lo pobre), rice (especially arroz chaufa), lomo saltado, salchipapas, or even hamburgers.