Peruvian potato doughnuts a must-try at South Yarra’s Ekeko

Double down on carbs with these sweet potato doughnuts from South Yarra’s new Peruvian restaurant from the team behind Harley House.

Kara Irving

3 min read

July 20, 2021 - 11:00AM

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Potato doughnuts.

Deep-fried, sugar-coated dough is magnificent in its own right, but things become interesting — and messy — when we add the humble spud.

“The best way to eat these is with your fingers,” says Luciano Vanini, the animated owner of South Yarra’s new Peruvian restaurant Ekeko.

His picarones are gloriously crisp on first bite with a warm, stodgy chew thanks to that sweet potato and pumpkin, and come to life dunked in Chancaca — a thick, molasses-like syrup.

This sweet snack shows us how wonderfully simple, approachable and delicious Peruvian cooking can be.

Sweet Potato Doughnuts. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

You’re forgiven if you’re not familiar with this kind of South American cuisine.

In Melbourne there’s seemingly more Latin American restaurants than those inspired by Peru, and only two names have made the big leagues: Pastuso, by Alejandro Saravia (behind Gippsland-themed Farmers Daughters), and Jack Hawkins’ late Harley House, which he ran alongside Vanini.

When it closed for good last March, famous for its pisco sours as much as being the home of artist Vincent Fantauzzo’s Asher Keddie portrait, Vanini and his sous chef José Narvaéz carried its legacy through pop-up kitchens citywide.

In March, the duo found a permanent home on Toorak Rd and opened Ekeko.

Here Vanini works the floor and Narvaéz leads the kitchen to share authentic, elegantly plated food, which reminds them of home.

The food at Ekeko (abundant in Andean culture) looks to the country’s history of Chinese, Japanese migration and the Amazon.

There’s rice, spice, nice meaty things cooked over coals, the trusty tuber and the country’s

amous raw seafood export sliced or diced.

Coco Tiraditos. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Traditional ceviche makes a hero out of expertly thin, cured fish tiles, while the Japanese tiraditos sees slightly thicker bites, dressed in tiger’s milk (a citrus marinade of lime, chilli and salt) when served.

We chose gold band snapper for the Coco Tiraditos ($20) treatment, which is summer on plate. Limey zing adds a refreshing balance to the chilli heat. Shame for some gnarly bits,

either a result of poor knifework or fish choice. A minor misstep on a night of otherwise well treated, nicely cooked seafood.

Build your meal from snacks or the traditional three-course rhythm.

If the former, the flame licked chicken-thigh skewers ($18 for two), swiped in a spicy anticuchera sauce, set the scene nicely, as do Ekeko’s drawcard scallops (two for $14) which are flown in from Japan.

Two plump morsels melt like butter in your mouth, served in their shells with a bubbling Italian marinara-like sauce and crowned with what Vanini calls “Peruvian pecorino”.

More please.

Seafood paella. Picture: Rebecca Michael.

Live comfortably or curiously with the main event — either the crowd-pleasing paella ($42), sans that burnt bottom-of-the-pan brilliance but bountiful with fresh seafood, or the well seasoned and smoky Amazonian-inspired swordfish medallion, steamed in a banana leaf and finished over hot coals ($38). Drizzle with the peppery, punchy chutney for best results.

The South Yarra tax does burn a hole in your wallet, especially if you tackle the pisco cocktail list, so save the spoil with the great value $55 tasting menu.

Swordfish wrapped in banana leaf at Ekeko. Picture: Supplied.

Ekeko is romantic in the way it’ll steal your heart, whether it’s those intoxicating wafts of chargrilled meats you catch in the dining room, the cocktail bar’s lively rattle and hum, or simply Vanini’s front of house charm and passion for food he loves.

If Ekeko lets us look into the soul of Peru, then I’d like to see more places like this in Melbourne.

And more of those doughnuts.