Oscar Graham, chef and owner of Tumi, the tiny and unassuming restaurant of Peruvian cuisine in Chandler, makes very good ceviche.
His ceviche de pescado features a mound of chopped pieces of white-flesh tilapia in a thin, bracingly sharp and spicy juice of lime and Peruvian chile peppers, topped with slivers of red onion and served with a soft hunk of sweet potato and a quarter-ear of pearly, large-kernel Peruvian corn.
"You can eat ceviche in every city in Peru and they all have a different flavor," says front-of-the-house manager and Lima-born Franklin Foronda "Here, we make our dishes the way they would in Lima -- from the coast."
And Graham's excellent ceviche isn't the only Peruvian dish worth tasting at Tumi.
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Here's an excerpt from this week's review:
"There is the comforting, stew-like aji de gallina, featuring strips of chicken in a somewhat spicy sauce of milk, bread, Parmesan cheese, chiles, garlic, and nuts; lomo saltado, the popular Peruvian and Chinese fusion dish made with tender slices of beef stir-fried with red onions, chiles, garlic, and tomatoes in a vinegary, sweet, and cilantro-kissed sauce delectably sopped up by its foundation of fries; and excellent pollo a la brasa, or Peruvian grilled chicken. Graham's version, marinated for 24 hours and made with more than 20 ingredients -- including dark beer, soy sauce, chile peppers, rosemary, and cumin -- before taking a spin in the rotisserie oven, is pretty much perfect. Order it up with the standard salad and fries and forget your table manners -- this fowl is traditionally eaten with the hands."
Hungry for more? Read my full review of Tumi Fine Peruvian Cuisine in Chandler here.
