In Spain, the Philippines, Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, everywhere I've ever heard the word, chicharron means "deep-fried pork skin", but the comments below and wikipedia will make me pay more attention in the future to chicharron. Especially in Bolivia, where chicharron is ribs. whaaat.
In at least Lima, chicharron means "breaded deep-fried fish strips".
I was dumbfounded yesterday when i found out.
I'm found dumb fairly often. I cannot confirm whether this is a Lima-only idiosyncrasy or if there were fish strips in Cusco that I never got to try because i was avoiding "chicharron".
I like peruvian chicharron, I'm not a huge fan of pork cracklings.
In my area, there were surprisingly many. But most of the proprietors left, voluntarily or otherwise. The few who stayed are on edge.
We still have a few locally owned other shops, but they are struggling, in general. A few are doing alright.
It's nice to hear a few shops are surviving. And all the best to those who left.