Peruvian cuisine is rich and varied in styles, with influences from the native Incans and explorers and immigrants from Spain, China, Africa, Italy and Germany.

If the country has a national dish, it would arguably be lomo saltado. It’s a sort of stir-fry entree that offers a taste of the indigenous with a bit of Asian influence. It features strips of meat, usually beef and usually marinated in soy sauce and vinegar, stir fried with onions and tomatoes, with myriad herbs and spices. It is typically served atop fried potatoes with a side of white rice. Double starch — my favorite.

A Taste of Peru’s lomo was both simple and complex, with big, chewable hunks of onions, hot pulpy bits of tomatoes, a sprinkling of fresh parsley for both color and flavor, crispy fried potatoes and a resulting sauce that suited the rice.

A new location for the popular SoDo grilled chicken restaurant, the Avalon Park Brazas also serves traditional Peruvian dishes.

El Inka Grill, a Peruvian restaurant in Hunters Creek, has opened a second location in the Marketplace at Dr. Phillips at Restaurant Row. It occupies the space that was Greek Flame Taverna.

El Inka’s specialty is ceviche, so my lunch companions and I started with an appetizer of Ceviche Mixto, which included octopus, squid, shrimp and fish marinated in citrus juices along with onions and garlic and a touch of heat from rocoto chilies. The octopus and squid were especially delicious, and I liked the forward lime notes and the hint of cilantro in the taste.

I did enjoy my ceviche, the Mixto Limeno, which included pieces of shrimp, mussels and squid (the menu said that there was also calamari included, but I didn’t fall for it) with a bit of rocoto, a red pepper sauce that is a specialty of Peru. All of it delicious, especially the shrimp.