TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A big flame engulfed a pan of steak and onions in the kitchen at Inca’s Peruvian Cuisine on Sunday. It lit up the whole kitchen in a glow, Fatima Campos, the owner, helping her staff cook up a traditional Peruvian dish.
She set it out on a table near the front of the restaurant along with ají de gallina, another traditional dish.
“Aji de gallina is a fried chicken breast, with shredded, made it in a casserole and served with fried potatoes and jasmine rice on the side. Aji Amarillo…that’s one of our secret ingredients combined with a rocoto,” Campos said about some of their imported ingredients from Peru.
She also set down a plate of their ceviche mixto, a delicious blend of shrimp and fresh white fish marinated in lime juice with vegetables on the side. Next to that she set down Pisco Sours, the Peruvian version of a margarita.
With a big smile on her face, she did a cheers with her son Luis Campos, and said “Salud! Adios margaritas! Hola Pisco Sour!”
Luis works at the business as their general manager, saying that some of the ingredients they use to make their traditional dishes have gone up in price in recent years. Fatima Campos said some of those ingredients have gone up as much as 40 percent in price.
“So a lot of the dishes that we make include a lot of imported ingredients from Peru, for example the Ají de Amarillo,” Luis Campos said.
This week they’re featuring two entrees and an appetizer for $45 and it’s their second year participating in the event.
“What helped us out the most was to meet new people, meet customers, so getting more people exposed to a world famous cuisine like Peruvian cuisine and this year we’re hoping the same thing. We love our community here and they love us too and just being a part of the community here is a great honor,” Luis Campos said.
Across the street is Commoner and Co. where their sous chef David Anderson carefully prepared empanadas and a pork filet, the fryer sizzling as he prepared the dishes.
“So what we have here are the soyrizo empanadas with a poblano salsa fresca and right here we have a fried pork filet cornbread going with our guajillo chili salsa and our black bean fritter,” Anderson described.
However, he had to get creative, saying some of the ingredients weren’t as available, so he had to make some small changes to the ingredients in the dishes.
“I go to my distributors and I ask them, hey I need this, that and the other and they can only bring me two of those things. Well then what do I do? So then I go back and I redesign the plate with the same thing in mind with a different product,” he said.
For $45, you’ll get a three course meal including dessert. It’s that sort of a deal that has helped them get more customers in years past.
“The second time we did it which was my first year here, we did extremely well. We sold out of everything…That always feels good, so I’m looking forward to doing even better this year,” Anderson said.
