peruvian cuisine

ay ay picante

a number of places in chicago are BYOB which is a great thing. saves money and allows people to drink whatever they'd like. we had lots of different beers (including some that J made himself over the summer!) N and i are dying to make our own beer and got the low down over dinner. we also had a number of different wines including a semi sweet white which wasn't up my alley.

the night definitely started off with an interesting turn of events. the place (which is really in the middle of nowhere in the city) was so small that when we arrived we realized there was no waiting room - mind you it's five degrees outside. not that's fahrenheit. so it's cold. we noticed a few member of our group walking towards a house and going into a basement... three houses down in the basement... that was the waiting room. just too weird to make up. i kept thinking when i was down there that this was the setting for a play. awkward conversation and mingling of different groups waiting for a peruvian dinner that never seems to come.

we waited for a good 40 minutes before we could be seated in the actual restaurant. thankfully the food was amazing! below are the meals we ordered. (there were twelve of us but i only got photos for my roommates' dishes - they were kind enough to let me snap a pic before they started digging in). the appetizers were great too, but i didn't get photos of those. especially the red onions which were marinated in lime juice and olive oil. simple but so delicious.

by 11pm (we did sit down at the place till 9:20 or so) we were completely stuffed and crawled into the car and staggered home.

lamb braised in inca corn beer

farmer's fried steak

peruvian sirloin steak