Casa Chaski's

🇵🇪 PERÚ

📍 2380 Santa Fe Avenue, Long Beach, Harbor

🅿️ Parking lot behind building.

🥤 No Alcohol.

West Long Beach, usually called the Westside, is a residential neighborhood sandwiched between industry and centered around the north-south running Santa Fe Avenue. This thoroughfare has a Buddhist temple, a Catholic church and school, plenty of housing, and the usual mix of fast and international foods. Among the latter is a four year old Peruvian restaurant that already feels like a community mainstay.

Under tall palms, and around the corner from the Santa Fe Avenue facade, the side of the restaurant is splashed with white and red paint and reads like an advertising brochure for Perú. Images from the Líneas de Nazca and the country's crest from the flag welcome guests to the parking lot and the covered outdoor space that acts as the restaurant's entryway.

When dining in, it is hard to decide whether to sit in this Westside outdoor oasis or in the colorful interior surrounded by Peruvian handicrafts and art. Daily specials and sometimes a Quechua word of the day are hand-written on one wall, and a similar care and love seems to be taken with each design decision. The owners are proud of their space and welcome anyone that walks through their doors into this haven.

While no alcohol is served at the moment, they make terrific drinks and import sodas to make sure the environment is right. An excellent choice is the delicious chicha morada ($6, not shown), made with purple maize and enjoyed in the Andes since long before Cristoforo Colombo ever imagined traveling west from Europe. Without a strong taste of corn but full of pineapple, quince, cinnamon, and cloves, it is simultaneously sweet and refreshing.

Much of Peruvian food stands up well for takeout and has been in a higher spot in the rotation during the past couple years. Some parts of it can be reheated in the air fryer everyone now has, others in pans, and even the microwave comes in handy. Casa Chaski's does a good job putting everything in sturdy separated containers, for the times you cannot stay and enjoy their hospitality in person.

For obvious reasons, start with the ceviche de pescado ($18, below bottom right) when not dining at one of the comfortable tables. When packed for takeout, they separate the parts so that the toasted canchas do not get soggy and the sweet potato does not over marinate. Sliced up corvina is biting with the sour citrus mix it lives in, stir up everything and enjoy a combination of flavors and textures.

They also make a great empanada ($3.50, above top left), filled with ground beef and not much else besides a couple throwaway pieces of vegetable and wonderful spicing. This fried empanada packs a much stiffer flavor punch than it appears it will, and is even better when some of their ají verde is dipped into for each bite.

While it may seem counterintuitive to eat lomo saltado ($15, below) later in the day when the fries are soggy, in this case it allows you to enjoy flavor bombs in fried potato form. The fries successfully soak up all the savory goodness of from the beef and sauces, a fair compromise for losing their crispness when not eaten at the table immediately.

Again apply that ají verde liberally when eating the marinated pieces of beef with rice, there is no other salsa in the world that can duplicate its brightness. If you are completely new to Peruvian cuisine, lomo saltado is the gateway drug into the nation's Chifa cuisine, which is Chinese-influenced and again unlike anything else you have ever tasted.

Casa Chaski's also offers the ability to try Peruvian apanado in both chicken and beef, a preparation similar and often called milanesa in other countries. The apanado de bistec ($15, below) comes with rice and salad, is pounded very thin and breaded before frying. The extra dark coat seen here is the result of 30 seconds too long in the air fryer, but thankfully the cut was still delicious.

If you happen to make your way to the point of sale system inside the restaurant, you will see a stack of alfajores ($8, below) in plastic boxes. The chef tasks a local bakery to use the house recipe in creating these mini desserts, a box of which you might find disappears pretty quickly if it comes home with you.

Despite how much this takeout order was enjoyed, the better play here is to grab at least a group of four and enjoy a big meal here at Casa Chaski's. Whether dining in the colorful interior or on their shaded patio, good feelings are always the daily special.

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