That’s the plan at Brunswick’s Casa Chino restaurant

Melbourne diners are about to get a taste of Peru that may be a revelation for some. It’s called chifa, and it’s fusion in the best sense of the word: food that Chinese migrants created when they encountered unfamiliar ingredients in the South American country more than a hundred years ago. Chifa restaurants are now some of the most popular in Peru, featuring stir-fries alongside char-grilled meat, and rice next to potatoes.

It’s not entirely new food for Melbourne. Ten years ago, La Chinesca on Collins Street served chifa snacks along with Mexican-Chinese food.

But with the opening of Casa Chino in Brunswick this week, a swag of new diners can get a taste.

“It’s Cantonese food, but with Peruvian flavours,” explains co-owner Jared Thibault.

Thibault and business partner Vincent Lombino (who helped launch QT Hotels’ restaurants more than 10 years ago) say Casa Chino is partly inspired by similar restaurants in their native US, where Chino-Latino food is more widespread – and partly by Thibault’s late wife, Fiorella Aguila, a Peruvian chef.

At Casa Chino, chef Kevin Galdo, also Peruvian, will serve classic chifa dishes alongside a strong line-up of ceviche and more familiar Cantonese items, such as siu mai.

Lomo saltado (stir-fried beef) is a cornerstone chifa dish: the meat is sizzled in a wok with ginger, soy sauce, Peru’s aji amarillo chilli, oyster sauce and coriander. French fries finish the dish. Galdo’s chaufa – fried rice – features capsicum, pork neck and Kikko Siyau soy sauce imported from Peru.

More experimental items include crab and prawn toast amped up by rocoto sauce, a fiery mayonnaise featuring rocoto chillies. Baby capsicum is charred over the charcoal grill and served with a lime and chilli emulsion plus furikake, a Japanese seasoning.

The open kitchen is connected to the bar, which points to the emphasis on cocktails.

Tiki drinks like Zombies and Scorpions, which Thibault says are commonly served in Los Angeles’s old-school Chinese restaurants, are served with pisco (a grape brandy produced in Peru) instead of rum. Even the negroni gets a slug of Peru’s national liquor. And there are five different pisco sours, including the violet Purple Rain.

The restaurant design layers Cuban-inspired patterned tiles with tropical greenery and colourful window shutters like those you might find in Chinatown. Textured concrete walls, curved arches and nooks dial up the intimacy, even though there’s seating for 90.

Melita Cani of Agostino in Carlton has been recruited to manage the venue while Lombino and Thibault oversee their restaurant group Talisman, which has six venues in Brisbane and more underway, both here and there.

Open from April 10 Wed-Thu 5pm-late, Fri-Sat noon-late

Shop 1, 212-214 Albion Street, Brunswick, casachino.com.au