Help me with Peruvian cuisine

Cafe Society
1

Tomorrow night I’m taking my fiancee to dinner at Taste of Peru on North Clark in Chicago. The place was featured on the local telelvision show “Check, Please!” awhile back and we’ve been dying to go there ever since.

This will be my first time eating Peruvian food. I’ve had Brazilian steakhouse before, but I’m certain that’s nothing like what I should expect. Completely different cultures and colonizations and all that, after all.

Taste of Peru is BYOB and I’ve already purchased a nice bottle of Peruvian Pisco (grape brandy) which I hear they’ll use to make a pitcher of Pisco Sours. I’ve never had the liquor, what should I expect from it and the sours?

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. I’m usually at a loss when dining on a new ethnic food and I never know where to start on the menu. Here’s a link to their menu pages, in case anybody would like to check it out and give me a recommendation.

2

Well, I’d steer clear of the muscles, probably. Unless they are beef muscles.

The Sopa de Viagra might make the rest of your evening more interesting, though.
(Yes, very helpful, I know. It all looks pretty good.)

3

One of my friend’s is from Lima. She made us Pisco Sours for the first time over the summer.

They were delicious. Sweet and sour. Great lime flavor with sugar, and a silky, almost creamy but clean texture. With a nice little kick. And they are very pretty. The tops were frothy and she sprinkled a little bitters on them.
I think you’ll like them. Both my husband and I loved them.

4

Papas a la Huancaina and any ceviche from the starter section are both delicious. Pisco sours - mmmm.

5

Check out LTH Forum for more info. Here is a good post with pictures.

The grilled heart is delicious, but Peruvian food in general is not as spicy as most Mexican food.

LTH is the best source for Chicago restaurant info out there.

6

The texture and the froth is from whipped egg whites.

Does the restaurant serve Guinea Pig? If so, it is probably worth trying.

7

Thats what i would get, i’m from Lima. Reading that menu has my mouth watering… time to pay mom a visit!

8

No tacu-tacu on the menu?

Haven’t had Peruvian in years. But there was a period where I ate weekly at a neighborhood Peruvian joint for about a year and a half.

Papa a la Huancaina is great, although the sauce of more of a creamy cheese sauce than the “cream cheese” they describe. IMHO, Papa a la Ocopa is even better.

Any of the Ceviches should be good. If you don’t get a ceviche, I recommend the Parihuela, which is a kitchen-sink seafood soup.

On the entrees, I would go with either the Lomo Saltado or Pollo Saltado. Saltado is basically a sautee in tomato, onion, and spices, but is very flavorful. I’m also partial to Sudados des Mariscos or Sudados con Camarones, which are seafoods steamed and simmered in wine.

9

My wife was born and raised in Peru so I went to fetch her for this thread but she’s already asleep for the night. I’ll e-mail the thread link to her and post her reply tomorrow.

We’ll be interested to know how you enjoy it. We’ve been to Rinconcito Sudamericano in the city (and Peru Inka’s in Besenville) but not Taste of Peru. As someone with more of a Polish cuisine slant, I’ll settle for warning you that those pisco sours go down easy & delicious and sneak up on ya with a hammer. She and I once took a large group of out of town guests to Rinconcito Sudamericano with the intent of hitting a club later. After a couple pisco sours each, I think we all wound up taking a three hour group nap in the hotel rooms.

10

The deserts can be a little dry.

11

As deserts often are…

Thanks everyone for all of the great suggestions. It appears that I definitely have to try the Papas a la Huancaina starter… I’m still unsure of the main course, but now I have a bit of direction. I’ve heard that this restaurant does fish very well, so I might go that route - though that beef heart dish sounds pretty good too.

I’ll be sure to post a full report after the meal.

12

Mrs. Jophiel says:

“Yes, the Chupe de Camaron. It’s a different but yummy take on shrimp soup but it has a milk base, so watch out if you’re lactose intolerant, and it’s a bit spicy. If someone doesn’t feel well but is hungry, Sopa a la Minuta is our version of chicken soup.”

13

My wife is Peruvian also. I’m a big fan of any type of ceviche. I’ll be honest with you, everything on that menu looks great.

The only Peruvian dish the my wife likes and I don’t is cau cau (tripe soup).

14

Ok, here’s the report I promised…

Taste of Peru was fantastic. We came in at 730p on a Friday and we were able to get a table right away (maybe because it’s a holiday weekend, I hear there’s usually a wait). They were pretty busy but the service was a lot quicker and more attentive than I’d expected, as I’d heard they can be pretty slow.

We’d brought a bottle of Peruvian Pisco and our server offered to mix us up a pitcher of Pisco Sours, which were amazing. They also brought us some soft bread w/ a jalapeno/sour cream spread that was delicious and surprisingly spicy.

We ordered the Papas a la Huancaina as an appetizer based on several reccomendations here, and they were really good. Sort of a peruvian take on potato salad. It had a creamy yellow sauce (from egg yolk, I’m guessing) and it had a really nice flavor.

For dinner, I ordered the Estofado de Pollo, which is a chicken stew cooked w/ red wine and served with rice. The portion size was incredible and I really liked how it tasted. It was quite hearty and I had trouble finishing my plate. The stew was full of carrots, potatos, raisins, olives, and some other vegetables, and loaded with great tasting spices.

My fiancee ordered the paella which has to be the best paella deal in town. It was only $15 and was enough to serve at least 3 people. This dish was named by Chicago Magazine recently as one of the “128 Best Dishes in Chicago” and I can see why. It’s loaded with fresh seafood…clams, mussels, squid, and enormous crab legs. The only complaint I heard was that it was a little dry, and she’d wished it had come served in a skillet instead of piled on a platter. Otherwise she loved it.

Our friend ordered the shrimp ceviche but they brought out a whitefish ceviche by mistake and ended up giving us both ceviches for free. I wasn’t wowed by the shrimp, but the whitefish ceviche might be the best I’ve ever had. It was succulant and full of flavor.

Near the end of our meal, we started chatting w/ the owner - Cesar - and he was a blast to talk to. He talked about how the tv show “Check, Please” saved the restaurant and he was about to close the place before he was featured on the show. He also did some of his famous top tricks for us (way cooler than they sound, I’ve never seen someone spin a top like that guy) and he also brought us some concord grape wine that he’d been drinking.

All in all, I have to say that this was the most fun I’ve ever had at a restaurant. The food was great, the staff was friendly, and Cesar even gave us the recipe to make our own pisco sours at home.

This place doesn’t look like much on the outside, it’s located in a stripmall in a slightly sketchy area - but if you’re in Chicago and looking for a great meal and a fun time, I highly recommend it. Oh, and also - our entire bill was under $50 for three of us (though they didn’t charge for the ceviche, so it should have been slightly more).