Overworked. Underfed.: peruvian

Showing posts with label peruvian. Show all posts

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Mo-Chica

Oh Ricardo Zarate, you've come such a long way since your days at Mercado La Paloma, the original location of Mo-Chica. I first dined at Mo-Chica when it was housed in this food court-esque type venue. It really blew my socks off at that time, probably being the best fancied up Peruvian food I'd had, even better than the highly lauded Andina in Portland. Since then, I've tried Picca, Zarate's second effort, but was a bit disappointed. I left that meal still wearing both my socks. The H.o.P. (House of Piggy - this is the reference for my family for all of those new to my blog) dined there without me and was also unimpressed. Soooo, I have yet to try Paiche and instead wanted to try Mo-Chica again to see if it was still just as good as a I remember.

Ceviche Mixto halibut, prawns, scallops, squid, red onion, rocoto, leche de tigre, camote
I think I'm REALLY over ceviche at Peruvian joints. They're just SOUR SOUR SOUR. It's hard to appreciate anything else, say the inherent freshness of the seafood? Nope, nope, NONE of that.

Yellowtail Tiradito rocoto ponzu, garlic chips, green onions
I apologize for the poor quality photos. It's been awhile since I've blogged and I'm still trying to remember how to use my camera again! Anyways, the yellowtail was not as fresh as it could have been. Not much special going on here.

Causa de Cangrejo Aji amarillo mashed potatoes, fresh crab, avocado
I thought the causa was really good last time with the freshness of the crab shining through on top of a tasty mash of potatoes. The crab seemed a bit too mayo-y this time. It was still a pretty dish.

Picca

Oh Picca, why did you have to disappoint me so? I had such high hopes for this place. Blogger after blogger extoled the culinary accomplishments of the modern Peruvian fare here. It was top on my list of "to-try" LA restaurants. I even recommended this restaurant to my Triple F and Running Man during their visit down here, solely based on the reviews of all the bloggers. Running Man was sorely unimpressed. Triple F being more sunshine than dark cloud, was slightly more positive, but wasn't really crazy about the place.

Finally, I managed to get a group together for a visit. Teety, Soprano Man, The Face Puncher, Quack Man T, and myself gathered for fun filled dinner. We didn't really know what to order and in what quantity. So out of our laziness, we opted for the omakase. Maybe that wasn't the best decision.

Causa Sushi scallops, mentaiko
I would say this was probably one of the best dishes of the night. I loved the take on "sushi." Instead of rice, the proteins were sitting on top of little well seasoned potato cakes. The scallops were fresh with just a bit of deliciousness fishiness from the roe.

Toro Ceviche leche de tigre
This was just the start of the leche de tigre overload in the omakase. That stuff is incredibly tart. A little bit goes a long way but some dishes were overwhelmed with them. I can't even recall if the toro had that signature butteriness since there was just so much sauce.

Mo-Chica

Mo-Chica is just one of those places you hear so much about, but never get a chance to go. Well, I finally went and now I feel like I'm part of the "The Club." I think MC Bowtie, Hates Asian Food, and Brown Bear (who has now joined our forces) and myself were a bit put off by the set up of the place. I think it would be an understatement to say the ambience, decor, and location of Mo-Chica is underwhelming. I was in such a state of surprise when I walked into the "restaurant" that I didn't really get a good picture that conveys the setup of the place.

I suggest you squint very hard and imagine that Peruvian flag to be replaced by an emblem of a panda encircled in red and the color scheme to be more warm, like orange and red. Yes folks, I'm trying to get you to see what I saw, a Panda Express turned into a Peruvian sit down restaurant. I was waiting for someone to ask me if I liked a sample of some orange chicken. The goddamn "restaurant" is in a food court/cafeteria! The guy at the table next to us looked like he was eating pad thai. I dunno where he got that from, but it was noodles!

I felt embarassed walking in and telling the cashier that I had a reservation for 4 people. It really felt like a grab and go place than the wildly lauded and talked about restaurant boasting delicious Peruvian cuisine.

See all the awards? This place is no joke. How a restaurant like this, located where it is, can garner so much attention is proof that all it takes is solid and affordable food to bring the masses.

Andina

So Andina has to be one of the most popular restaurants in Portland. It serves modern Peruvian cuisine. It was just a regular weekday and the place was paaaaaaacked. There seems to be 2 parts to the restaurant. A quieter sit down part, where all the old stuffy people were hanging out, and then a place adjacent to the bar where it was loud and crowded. I don't think they mean to separate the restaurant like that, but what do you expect to happen when you're near the bar? In the central part there was a cool guy playing ethnic tunes. The vibe was really energetic.

The amuse bouche was a fried cheesy risotto ball. It was lightly crunchy on the outside, and deeply unctuous on the inside. A good amuse bouche, always says a lot about the meal to come.

Mario's Peruvian

I went to this place a while ago but have never been able to go back. I love lomo saltado. I was quite taken aback when I had lomo saltado for the first time. It was at the UCLA dormitory cafeteria. I was really surprised to find that lomo saltado is like a dish my mom makes, minus the tomatoes. I always thought it was just something she made up when another Vietnamese friend was making it one time. So I guess its definitely a Vietnamese thing, but as for the connection to Peru? I know Peru has influences from Asia, specifically China I think. They use soy sauce and stir-fry technique in their cooking.

Anyways, Mario's Peruvian Seafood makes the best lomo saltado. Its incredibly popular, incredibly crowded, and has incredibly unreasonable hours. I mean it closes at like 8 or 830! After waiting an 45 min-1 hour we finally got a table. To our dismay, they ran out of the bread which you eat with the Aji sauce. We still managed to incorporate the sauce into our dishes, but it wasn't quite the same.

We started off with ceviche de pescado. I think Peruvian's make their ceviche different because this ceviche wasn't like the other kinds I've tried. This one was pure lemon, salt, and heat. I was seriously dying for water after every few bites. It was just too lemony for me, but I kept eating it because I'm a fatass.

And now lomo! I just love the combination of my favorite food products: beef, tomatoes, onions, and french fries. How could anyone go wrong. Don't get me wrong, I still love my mom's version, but this is definitely a tasty change. This time around, I felt the beef was slighly chewier than how I remember it, but no matter. The rice served with the dish is a bit of a carb overload with all the potatoes. The portion size is way more than enough. I always have leftovers enough for a 2nd meal.

So although my friend and I enjoyed ourselves immensely, our other friend who got the chicken saltado, ended up with terrible food poisoning. What was it? Raw fish perhaps? But we all ate it. The chicken? I had some of that too. I guess we'll never know. The other 515 people on Yelp did not get food poisoning. I'd love to try the other things on the menu but I go here so infrequently that when I do come here all I want is lomo saltado. Oh FYI, parking is tough!!

Mario's Peruvian & Seafood