West Ashley Cuban-themed eatery Spanglish is celebrating its one year anniversary Tuesday by hosting a collaborative dinner with Carlos Paredes, a sous chef at the Obstinate Daughter who also owns a Peruvian pop-up named Umay.
“We met at his first pop-up at Rebel Taqueria in Workshop,” said Spanglish co-owner Tomas Prado. “I was impressed with the Peruvian dishes he was making, and it brought me back to the Peruvian dishes I had in Miami Peruvian restaurants. We’ve been friends ever since and have been discussing collaborating for some time now.”
Prado said the dinner will focus on exciting flavors from Asian and Latin American cuisine.
“Both Peru and Cuba have a huge Chinese population, so we thought it would be cool to do this mashup,” said Prado, who worked with the likes of Daniel Boulud, Jose Andres and Sam Gorenstein before arriving in Charleston.
Look for dishes like Chifa Aeropuerto (Chinese/Peruvian fried rice with shrimp and smoked pork) and general tso octopus from the two chefs.
It’s of course been a difficult first year for Prado and his wife Lynda, who opened the small restaurant six months before the pandemic following a residency at Workshop. Tomas and Lynda were both raised by Cuban families and are proud to share their representation of Cuban American cuisine with Charleston.
“Year one has been a roller coaster of emotions,” Prado said. “We’ve had many highs and lows, but we continue to move forward during these changing times and look forward to many more roller coaster rides.”
For more information on Tuesday’s dinner, follow Spanglish on Instagram @spanglishchs.
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