On weekend evenings, guests sip sun-colored pisco sours topped with meringue-y foam (try one sweetened with passion fruit), as the hosts channel a supper-club vibe with karaoke on Fridays and live music on Saturdays. “It’s just good old real traditional Peruvian food. “We’ve been going for 12 years and it’s getting better every year,” Elvin Paulino says.

Most live in Long Beach, Hempstead, Glen Cove and Brentwood, so it was a surprise to find three Peruvian outposts tucked among the Asian buffets and sari shops in Hicksville’s “Little India,” near the intersection of Old Country Road and South Broadway.īy clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy.Įlvin and Elizabeth Paulino opened Hicksville’s first Peruvian restaurant in 2008 with 20 seats - these days, it sprawls across three storefronts. Census estimates, Nassau and Suffolk counties are home to more than 17,000 people of Peruvian descent. Here on Long Island, Peruvian restaurants are not uncommon. From the country’s native Quechua people - tamers of the potato - originate spuds in every imaginable shape, color and preparation.

Along the coast, diners tip these back on the half-shell, much as Long Islanders shoot raw clams and oysters.įrom further inland come grilled and spit-roasted meats paired with herbaceous chimichurri, puréed sauces of sweet-hot aji pepper, and plenty of hand-spun aioli. Platters come piled with breaded octopus, squid and deep-fried mussels as chefs slapdash raw fish into citrus-soaked, herb-laced ceviches. In Peru, eating out is for feasting and sharing.

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