At the Ethnic Market: Casa Rivera's Peruvian Treats

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