National Margarita Day was on the 22nd of February for 2022, and I was a couple of days late when I decided to visit Inca Social. Not wanting to miss out I started the night out with one of Inca Social’s Strawberry Margaritas as a drink. Besides all the margaritas were on special so could you blame me for having a couple. Later in the evening I went with the Pineapple Margarita, and it was just as tasty as the Strawberry. I will admit that I prefer the frozen margarita, but for $5 a margarita I wasn’t being picky that night. The margaritas were an added bonus, what I really wanted to try was Peruvian food that was more than the quick Peruvian Chicken I see all around the DMV. I had read about Inca Social being one of the new spots to try in the DC area so I thought that would be the place to try, and for the most part I was not disappointed.
Looking over the menu, I could see this was more than Peruvian Chicken, which made me happy. My eyes went straight to their sushi rolls. Yeah, sushi rolls at a Peruvian restaurant, it surprised me too. I love sushi and decided to give this fusion a try. I ended up with the Costa Verde Roll which is Avocado, fried shrimp and cream cheese topped with smoked salmon and surimi tartar and aioli rocoto sauce. I fell completely in love with it. I could easily see myself just coming for this sushi roll and a margarita for lunch or a lite dinner. The salmon was distinct from the shrimp, and you could taste both. One thing that impressed me was the sauce. It is easy to over sauce something and have the flavors of the other ingredients get lost. This was not the case, and the sauce was a nice compliment to the dish. I also must mention the fried shrimp as it was the crunch element of the sushi roll. It is always a nice surprise when there is a soft textured food and then bang, you hit this surprising crunchy element. For me texture is important, and I believe in this need for multi-textured food to avoid making food boring, this is what the fried shrimp did.
After the sushi I threw caution to the wind and decided on a second appetizer and went with another of my favorites. I ordered the Beef Empanadas. My love for Empanadas goes back to my childhood in Florida. I lived next door to a family from Cuba who had escaped Cuba as Fidel Castro was entering to take over the country. They wanted no part of it. I was lucky enough for them to resettle next door and I became best friends with Roberto who was about my age. His mom would prepare some of the best guava and cream cheese empanadas, and these still today remain my favorite kind of empanadas. I tell you that story because one of the other items Roberto’s mom made was Picadillo, which became comfort food to me. Picadillo is usually made with ground beef, Sazon, green olives, and golden raisins. I picked the Beef Empanadas because it had some elements of Picadillo. I wouldn’t say it was exactly like Picadillo, olives were missing, but with the raisins added in the sweetness element was there. The pastry of the empanada was flaky and cooked to a beautiful golden-brown color. Overall the flavor was enjoyable and another item I could easily eat with my sushi roll and a margarita.
It was finally time for the main course and for this I ordered something I had never had, and I had never heard of. I went with Aji De Gallina. The menu description just made it sound too good to pass up:
“Peruvian chicken stew in a slightly spicy cream sauce made with aji amarillo, over a bed of potatoes, topped with a hardboiled egg, a black olive, served with white rice”
It’s kind of hard to describe it in flavor, but I can say it was unique and I was totally into it. I wouldn’t say it was spicy, and I wouldn’t mind it being a little spicier, but you could tell there were some types of peppers in there. It was creamy, flavorful, and you definitely wanted rice with this dish. I loved the hardboiled egg and the olive that the dish was served with. The egg I just cut up and mixed it in with the chicken. I could have used a couple more olives, but that is just me. I’m an olive junkie who can never get enough. I wanted something more than Peruvian grilled chicken and I got it. I enjoyed the flavor profile, and I would love to try this dish from other places so I can have something to compare it too, but for now I’ll be going back to Inca Social for this chicken dish.
To end the meal, I went with another dish I had never tried or heard of. It was the Inca Suspiro, a luxurious and creamy dulce de leche custard with a port wine meringue and cinnamon. After doing a little research on suspiro, I found the common thread through all the different versions was the meringue element. In some countries suspiro is as simple as meringue cookies, but in Peru it seemed to include the port wine meringue and the custard. These were simple ingredients, but even with simplicity, execution must be there. I’m happy to say Inca Social did a fine job with this dish, and only made we want to return to try other sweet offerings. One thing I would do, give the port wine meringue a little more wine, other than that, I have nothing to complain about.
I’m looking forward to my next trip to Inca Social to dive into the other dishes they serve up. Inca Social has an impressive list of ceviche offerings and something I’d like to explore on my next trip as well as another one of their sushi rolls. Among their main courses to try next would be the Arroz Con Marisco,
“Seafood rice”. Marinated in our seafood sauce, parmesan, filled with calamari, shrimp, mussels, octopus and salsa criolla”
Inca Social, it’s safe to say that you can expect to see me again soon.
| Website: | Inca Social |
| Address: | 1776 WILSON BLVD, ARLINGTON VA 22209 |
| Phone: | (571)312-7664 |
| Visited: | February 24, 2022 |
