Putting Peru on the Map

by Tom Sietsema
Putting Peru on the Map
At two area restaurants, it’s easy to become a fan of this Latin American cuisine
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALLISON DINNER
H
★★ Las Canteras
2307 18th St. NW
202-265-1780
www.lascanterasdc.com
★★ La Limeña
765-B Rockville Pike
Rockville
301-424-8066
Open: lunch Tuesday through Sunday 11 a.m. to
3 p.m.; dinner Tuesday through Sunday 5 to
11 p.m. Closed Monday. All major credit cards.
No smoking. Street parking. Metro: Woodley
Park or Dupont Circle. Dinner prices: appetizers
$6 to $12, entrees $13 to $19.
Open: Monday through Saturday
11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m. V, MC. No smoking. Free
parking. Metro: Rockville. Prices:
appetizers $2.50 to $9.95,
entrees $7.50 to $12.95.
av e y o u b e e n to A d a m s M o rg a n l at e ly ?
The picture isn’t so pretty. Eighteenth Street has become one tired and boozy stretch of too many bars and
too few serious places to eat. Bright spots are few, but
one of them is Las Canteras, a quietly ambitious restaurant that
prompts another question: Why aren’t there more Peruvian
restaurants in the Washington area?
The food from that part of the world is easy to like, built
as it is around potatoes and surf and turf. And the repertoire dishes up plenty of personality. Just ask anyone who has
dipped a piece of bread in the country’s condiment of choice
— the sneakily hot salsa picante — or knocked back a pisco
sour, Peru’s national cocktail. There’s a sparkplug in this style
of cooking, one of South America’s most appealing exports.
Chef-owner Eddy Ancasi has done front- and back-of-thehouse tours of duty at the long-running El Chalan in Washington and the late El Tumi in Silver Spring, experience that
shows up on plate after plate in his new home. Sauteed
shrimp in a light wash of butter, garlic and white wine is as
good for its sauce as its centerpiece. Lomo saltado — strips of
juicy beef tossed with bronzed potato and tomato in a sweetand-soy sauce — delivers strapping
comfort in every bite. Chicken
R AT I N G S G U I D E
cooked in beer is pleasing by itself,
★Satisfactory
★★Good
better for the cilantro-speckled rice
★★★Excellent
that absorbs the bird’s juices and
★★★★Superlative
turns the main course into someRestaurants that earn
thing that pauses table conversation.
no stars are rated Poor.
Ratings are based primarily
on food quality but take
into account service
and ambience.
Las Canteras chef-owner Eddy Ancasi
in the restaurant’s dining room.
Next page: his diced salad of tomato,
avocado, white cheese adn onion.
Familiar with all the classics — he grew up in southern Peru,
the country’s breadbasket — Ancasi finds new ways of presenting them. Potato cakes are a staple on Peruvian menus; the
chef rethinks the appetizer — cool, mellow and stuffed with
chicken — with squiggles of a heat-infused cilantro puree.
Quinoa, a grain popular among early Incas (and in recent times,
fashion-conscious kitchens), is served as if it were risotto, with
mushrooms, shredded cheese, wine and
more in a soothing swirl of flavors. One of
the most satisfying salads now playing in
town is something the owner says he grew
up on: perfectly diced tomato, avocado,
onion and fresh white cheese shaped into a
the restaurant’s name survived: Las Canteras is Spanish for “the quarries.”
Lantern-like sconces cast a low glow. The
music doesn’t interfere with conversation.
Sturdy and handsome, the wood chairs look
to be lifted from a colonial-era manse. Las
Canteras gives diners
both steak and sizzle for
not a lot of money (entrees average about $14),
making it an ideal spot
for the romantic on a
budget, provided he or
she goes easy on the
foam-capped, brandypowered pisco sours.
Trust me, it’s a challenge.
I F YOU ’ VE NEVER
colorful form and brightened with a lemony
dressing. Lucky kid, you’ll think when you
taste this light and lovely appetizer.
Not every dish tells a success story.
Mahi-mahi beneath a pasty seafood
sauce is no great catch, and I’m not sure
quinoa belongs in chocolate cake. Shredded chicken draped with peanut sauce is
merely decent (the moistener lacks the
usual heat). But the many nice details
elsewhere in the meal compensate for the
flaws. Ancasi bakes his own bread, which
is reminiscent of challah, and his guava
flan — adult nursery food with a tropical
touch — is one of those desserts that is
hard to share and quick to disappear.
Ancasi packages his food in two handsome floors that reveal an eye for design.
Below ground is a cozy bar that looks into
an open kitchen. Upstairs is a long and
narrow dining room, splashy in red and a
showcase for the owner’s artwork, including his photographs of Machu Picchu and
other sights. The original blueprint called
for lots of stone from Peru, an idea that
was dropped for cost considerations. But
eaten beef heart, La Limeña is a terrific place to
make its acquaintance.
Marinated in cumin,
garlic and red wine, and
served as thin slices on a
wooden skewer, the rich
organ meat is pleasantly smoky from its brush
with hot charcoal, and is
further flattered with an
accompanying salad of
red onions and crisp
roasted potato. The secret to the entree’s appeal, which pertains to so much of the cooking at this small storefront in Rockville,
is “fresh, not frozen” ingredients, says La
Limeña’s proud owner, Emma Perez.
It would be easy to miss this fine little
restaurant, all but invisible in the corner of a
plain-Jane shopping mall. Up close, at the
door, the place looks as if it might serve fast
food. But the chickens tanning away on
a rotisserie and a carved wooden cabinet
dressing up the trim dining room suggest
there’s soul in this establishment. So does
the staff. Not everyone has a firm command
of English, but a diner couldn’t ask for more
warmhearted guides than the young men
and women who watch over the restaurant.
Heart (beef and otherwise) is not the
only compelling reason to make a date with
La Limeña. The ceviche of sliced fish is a
party of color and flavor: tilapia decorated
with chopped cilantro, onion and — this
being a Peruvian outpost — wedges of sweet
potato and a half-ear of steamed corn. The
empanadas, their pastry almost as flaky as a
croissant, make another nice entry point;
crumbled ground beef mixed with raisins
and purple olives is a particularly satisfying
filling. If it’s Peruvian comfort food you’re
seeking, you’ll find it in rounds of steamed
potato draped in a velvety, soft yellow cheese
sauce with welcome kick in its seasoning.
Steak is offered half a dozen ways, and the
version prepared “Lima-style” is noteworthy
for its size, thinness and deft seasoning,
while an order of (fried or grilled) trout revels in the kitchen’s mission of “fresh.” As for
that chicken, a marinade of beer, cumin and
garlic lends charm to a tender bird with rich
golden skin. The entree comes with a choice
of two sides, and, if you’re smart, you’ll get
crisp fingers of yucca, oiled white rice or a
salad rather than the flat-tasting black beans.
La Limeña also serves Cuban food — ropa
vieja, a roasted pork sandwich — that is the
equal of the Peruvian accents.
Since it set sail in January, La Limeña
(Spanish for “The Lady of Lima”) has been
serving its food on paper plates with plastic
utensils, to keep prices low and embrace the
masses, says Perez. The cooking deserves better; her customers have let her know that.
And while beer would go very well with this
food, La Limeña has yet to acquire a license
for anything stronger than soda. Use that potential turnoff (Steak without a drink? The
horror!) as an opportunity to try one of the
most refreshing beverages around: chicha
morada. What looks like grape soda is a swirl
of fruit juices, cinnamon and a bit of sugar,
stained dark with purple corn. Another
thirst-quencher, also made here, is not-toosweet passion fruit juice. Either drink will
make you very glad not to be sipping soda.
No matter how much you’ve eaten, no
matter how full you are, save room for
dessert. Or at least take something home
from the pastry case. In her native Lima,
Perez was trained as an economist. Here,
she is the talent behind the delicate,
caramel-sandwiched anise cookies served
in so many Peruvian chicken joints around
the area. At La Limeña, those and other
sweets are baked with a great deal of care.
After one of those warm-from-the-oven
cookies, or a taste of a light, guava-filled
pastry — “better than anything in
Miami,” my well-traveled Cuban friend
insists — all I can think is, thank goodness
for career changes.
Ask Tom will return. Got a dining question?
Send your thoughts, wishes and, yes, even gripes
to [email protected] or to Ask Tom, The
Washington Post Magazine, 1150 15th St. NW,
Washington, D.C. 20071. Please include your
daytime telephone number.