At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes.
At first glance Casa Rivera in Jackson Heights seems like a catch-all South American grocery. A closer look reveals that it’s a purveyor of mostly Peruvian products with everything from bottles of the wonderful purple corn punch known as chicha morada to the ingredients needed to make aji de gallina, a chicken dish that comes with thick spicy, yellow cream sauce.
It also has a vast selection of treats, including candy bars and homemade items like the one you see here. Just as the black-and-white is the quintessential New York City cookie, the alfajor is Peru’s national cookie. It consists of two crumbly short-bread disks sandwiching a layer of sweet manjar blanco, the Peruvian version of dulce de leche. As if that isn’t enough sugar, one side of it has a thin white glaze. It makes for a wonderful snack when paired with a strong cup of coffee.
If your tastes skew toward salty snacks, grab a bag of Inca’s Food Mote Frito Saladito, or fried white hominy corn. The salty thumbnail-sized kernels are like Corn Nuts on steroids. Sure they’ve got tons of salt, at least there aren't any trans fats.
Casa Rivera, 40-17 82 St. Elmhurst, 718-426-7590
