It turned into a battle of the daily lunch menú. First, Henry and I went to one spot, where we were in a hurry, so we both ordered from the daily menú selection. Then, the next two spots, I hit on my own, and both of them only offer the prix fixe menu at lunchtime, no other options available. So, it set the theme for this post, so when I got to a fourth place, I went menú. We’re racking up the Peruvian spots, on our way to checking them all out, eventually. With these four, we bring the total up to 75 – and that’s just homestyle cooking places. It doesn’t include another 15 that are fancier Japanese-Peruvian fusion nikkei cooking. Nor does it include probably two dozen places we’ve tried that have since closed.
El Huarochirano, Alsina 3001/La Rioja 199, Once – good sized place, clean, brightly lit. Service a bit perfunctory. Huarochiri is both a province within the Lima Region, east of the city (Peru is divided into 24 regions, or departments, and then each is further subdivided into provinces – sort of the equivalent of states and counties), and also a small town within that province.
Huarochiri is known for four particular dishes – sopa verde, patasca, patache, and pachamanca. I’ve mentioned two of those at various places in the city over the years – pachamanca, a slow cooked mix of meats and root vegetables, is a favorite when we can find it. El Huarochirano doesn’t appear to offer any of these four dishes. Hmmm… maybe just for fun I’ll explore those four and they’ll find their way in one form or another onto our menu.
The soup of the day was a chicken and rice soup. It wasn’t bad, but a bit watered down.
Two options on the menú for the day – I went for the lamb stew with potatoes and carrots, and a little side salad. The stew, kind of bland, and the potatoes undercooked. The salad overdressed. Henry went for the chanfainita, a mildly spicy mix of potatoes and bits and parts of beef – usually lungs and tripe play a big part. It’s also usually served with mote, the big, slightly chewy corn kernels, rather than potatoes, so he was a bit disappointed. The “standard” 130 peso/person menú price, though we also had a pitcher of chicha morada, the fruity purple corn beverage popular throughout Peru – too sweet and too packed with diced apples. Overall, a meh, even for a grand total that worked out to $10. Sometimes, you get what you pay for.
Sentimiento Chalaco, Gral. Urquiza 163, Once. Tiny place, seating for maybe 20 people tops. Pounding music, though once it started to get busier, they turned the volume down. At lunchtime, only the menú available, and they don’t even actually have an a la carte menu, according to the guy running the place, who was quite friendly. They just have a dozen or so things posted on handwritten signs on the walls, mostly pretty basic stuff.
Chalaco is a province in the far north of Peru, almost to the border with Ecuador, in the region of Piura. Its two most famous dishes – chorros a la chalaca – mussels in a lemon and onion cure, and aeropuerto chalaco. Now, aeropuerto is an unusual chifa dish, or Chinese-Peruvian fusion, that’s basically a mix of fried rice and some kind of noodle, usually the Chinese vermicelli, often fried as well. Then it’s topped with various things – usually some sort of protein, and egg, and some sort of sauce. The chalaco version tends towards fried seafood. This place doesn’t offer either dish, at least according to the signs on the wall.
The menú soup, a very hearty beef and pasta soup. Really quite good. Again, I would have been fine with just that for lunch.
On the other hand, I was less happy with the pollo en escabeche, which is chicken in a vinegary onion sauce. The flavors were fine, and it was properly made, even a touch spicy, but it was served refrigerator cold – all of it, the chicken, the sauce, the potatoes, even the rice. It was just odd. I expected the chicken part to be cold, that’s typical. Some places serve it warmed, most don’t. But the potatoes and rice are usually served hot, on the side, or, the chicken is just served over a salad, which would have been preferable. Still, the chicken part was dead-on, and the soup was really good… if they’d just at least served the rice hot… they charge the standard 130 pesos for a menú, with beverage – a decent orange refresco. I’d give it an “okay” for $4 for lunch.
El Chosicano, Lavalle 2977, Once. This was my third attempt at lunch here. The first time I went in, it was with Henry, and we sat and waited and waited for someone to pay attention to us. The two waitresses in the room kept giving us the “be with you in just a minute” routine, while they spent their time chatting with friends or regulars at other tables, not doing anything related to taking orders or serving food. There were three or four tables of extraordinarily drunk and loudly obnoxious guys, with rows of empty liter beer bottles on the tables. We left. The second time, I went in solo, and there was a table next to me with what turned out to be very obviously a couple of prostitutes and their pimp. Just as I was about to order, one of the former hiked up her skirt, while the pimp opened his pants, and she sat right down on him and they started going at it, seated right their in the restaurant chair. The waitresses and other customers watched, fascinated, apparently. I left. The place was also kind of dirty and very rundown looking
So, other than a commitment to check this place off the list, I wasn’t overly excited about returning. But I happened to be passing by and there were only a couple of people in the place, and there were two waiters in the room, plus the place looked clean, and the tables had been fixed up a bit. I decided to chance it. Service was prompt and friendly. The menú options sounded good….
An excellent beef and vegetable soup with elbow macaroni. Huge bowl, and quite good. I just mentioned in my last Casa S dinner post about how rare it is to come across carapulcra in local restaurants, but it was one of the day’s two options, and with a choice of chicken or pork. My waiter opined that the pork was far, far better. It wasn’t quite as spicy as I would have liked, but it was really quite good, and a good dash of the ubiquitous ajicito on the table handled the picante level. And, only 100 pesos for the menú, $2.75! Not bad at all. I’m glad I went back and gave it another shot, though I’d give a glance around before going in and decide what the crowd looks like. But at least someone in the kitchen knows how to cook. Maybe, given the change in floor staff, and the look of both the place and the customer base, the owners decided it was time to “clean the place up”.
Rústico Perú, México 1690/Solis 610, Monserrat. Stumbled across this one walking home from Miramar the week before last after our Roving Ravenous Horde lunch. Made a note of it, and just happened to be near to there yesterday picking something up and decided to grab a quick lunch before heading home and continuing prep work for the Casa S dinner last night. Big space, very cafeteria looking. There’s another Rústico Perú over behind Once train station… I wonder if they’re the same owners.
The soup, interesting. Great broth – almost gelatinous it was so rich, like someone had really cooked down chicken bones and extracted everything they could from them. But in it, nothing more than maybe two tablespoons of rice and an unidentifiable piece of chicken (maybe a piece of the back carcass), with almost no meat. Three options for the main course, I went with the pollo al maní, chicken in peanut sauce. I’ve had this dish a few times, here and there, over the years, and it’s strange, I can never really taste the peanut in it. I don’t know if they just use so little of it, or if they’re using the word maní for something other than peanuts. The sauce was tasty, actually very tasty, but the flavors were of yellow chili, frying peppers, and something sort of creamy. But no peanut. I have to research this one – there’s a similar dish in Bolivian cooking with a peanut sauce (which you’ll see in my next Casa S post), where the peanut flavor is very prevalent. 120 pesos for the menú. Another not bad at all.
