QUEENS — Urubamba and Jora are two restaurants in Queens known for their authentic Peruvian food.
Urubamba is located at 86-20 37th Ave. in Jackson Heights while Jora is located at 47-46 11th St.in Long Island City.
“Everybody that came from Peru, I would say Chinese, Italian, German, people from other parts of South America also, they all got mixed, and it just became Peruvian,” said Carlos Astorga, owner of Urubamba.
“Peruvian food is getting more and more renowned,” said Alejandro Rojas, owner of Jora. “We have a very, very rich soil and a lot of microclimates in Peru, which allows us to basically grow almost anything.”
Jora and Urubamba see Peruvian food through a different lens. If you want to have something that tastes very homemade, you would want to try Urubamba. But if you want to try something a little bit more modern, the you would want to go to Jora.
“My mom started cooking, making all the dishes and everything, and that’s the way we started. And people enjoy it and we’ve kept the same recipe for 48 years now,” Astorga said. “Most Peruvian dishes, they start with onions, okay? And we use aji panca which is a hot pepper. Then we use also aji armadillo, and they make the paste for all the dishes. That’s what gives it the flavor.”
“Our causa; causa is a dish that comes from the colonial times in Peru. It’s basically a potato, cold potato puree that is seasoned with Peruvian yellow pepper, aji amarillo. We have a version here that we do with crab meat. And also the potato itself is not just seasoned with aji amarillo, but it also has cuttlefish ink, so it’s going to be black,” Rojas said.
Astorga said that new people continue to try their classic dishes. The family says food is culture.
“So definitely Peruvian food is going to be a little bit of a trip throughout history. The history of Peru, the history of immigration, the history of just our culture in general,” Rojas said.
Astorga is also helping his daughter open her own Peruvian restaurant in Huntington.
