Calientito! Peruvian Food Trend Heats Up in 2009

Innovative octopus causa from Andina Restaurant, in Portland, Oregon

Looks like Epicurious was spot on in predicting that Peruvian would become the hot food trend of 2009.

Bon Appétit magazine named Lima the Next Great Food City in its January ’09 issue. Writer Daniel Duane hangs out with Gaston Acurio for a day, eating his way through some of Lima’s top restaurants, including Malabar, Toshiro’s Sushi Bar and La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, and concludes that Peruvian food ranks with the best:

Want a new fusion cuisine sourced from the world’s best ingredients? Star chefs with personalities as big as their palates? A good exchange rate for the dollar? Welcome to Peru’s capital city, the next great global foodie destination.

I agree with Duane and Acurio that the eating’s great in Lima, although I wouldn’t count Chifa Kam Men among its best restaurants. (El Fotografo disagrees with me. We ate there yesterday, and he wolfed down a ginger fish dish that made such an impression, he wants to order it again tonight.)

Add another eatery to the Acurio restaurant empire: Chi Cha, in Cusco. Fodor’s Hot List reports that:

 “Acurio takes typical Peruvian dishes (such as chairo and chicharrones) and incorporates local Cusqueño ingredients (such as pork from the Huarocondo village, Chicón cheese, and bread from Oropesa) to create modern interpretations.”

I bet the food will be excellent since it uses fresh, local ingredients — a key to the distinctive flavors of Peruvian cuisine.

In the United States, star Peruvian chefs are opening new restaurants and revamping existing ones so fast, it’s like a Peruvian Invasion. To make the palate transformation complete, the hot drink of 2009 is the pisco sour, says the New York Daily News.

Philadelphia gets a new chifa next Tuesday when Jose Garce’s Cantonese-Peruvian restaurant Chifa opens at 707 Chestnut Street, reports Foobooz. The menu includes Arroz Chaufa con Mariscos (naturally) and a Ceviche Bar with ten daily versions of ceviche. (Click here for details.)

NovoPeruano restaurant Andina in Portland has lured Peruvian native Jose Luis de Cossio from the new La Mar restaurant, in San Francisco, to become the Oregon restaurant’s new executive chef.  De Cossio helped Gaston Acurio expand his La Mar cevicheria franchise in Lima and Mexico City before becoming executive chef in San Francisco in October ’08. After four months there, I guess he’s itching to put his stamp on his own restaurant.

The big man himself, Gaston Acurio, has announced plans to open restaurants in Miami, Las Vegas and New York, reports Associated Press.

“If you can sell a hamburger in Peru, why can’t you sell ceviche in the U.S.?” he says of his nation’s classic dish of refreshingly raw fish.

The analogy that Acurio’s making refers to the relative rarity of beef in Peru, which does not have a tradition of raising cattle. Argentina’s the beef capital of South America.

Other recent Peruvian-restaurant openings that have earned favorable write-ups in the U.S. media include Camana, in Greensboro, N.C., and Rosa de Lima, in Chicago.

The food isn’t exactly gourmet, but the roasted pollo served at Pardo’s Chicken is a tasty staple on the Lima dining scene. The chain opened its first U.S. restaurant in December in Coral Gables, Florida, notes Connect to Peru. That should give Pollo Tropical and Superpollo a run for their money.

Similarly, a Norky’s chicken joint appears to have opened in Chicago in December. (Norky’s is the take-out food that Fujimori orders from his jail cell in Lima.)

The folks at Jaunted did some legwork to find out which cities in the United States are home to good Peruvian restaurants. They came up with Queens, N.Y.; Hollywood; Denver; and the entire state of New Jersey (!).

Did they leave any hot spots out? Speak your mind here.