If you read the Wikipedia overview of Peruvian cuisine, it doesn’t mention a lot about Peruvian chicken. These places are ubiquitous in this area – we think there are about 50 in Falls Church alone just along Seven Corners. Quinoa, Pisco Sours, and a lot of diverse cuisine seem to dominate the entry. However, if you look up Pollo a la Brasa, this comes up:

Pollo a la Brasa, also known as Peruvian chicken in the United States and Charcoal Chicken in Australia, is a common dish of Peruvian cuisine and one of the most consumed in Peru, along with ceviche, and Chifa. The dish originated in the city of Lima in the 1950s.

The origins of the recipe are attributed to Roger Schuler, a Swiss citizen who was in the hotel business in Peru. He devised the specific method of cooking the chicken, observing his cook’s technique in preparation, and gradually, along with his business partners, perfected the recipe, creating the Granja Azul restaurant in Santa Clara, district of Ate, in Lima.

Roger Schuler dedicated himself to the restaurant business and his business partner Franz Ulrich dedicated himself to the fabrication of special ovens in which the chicken is cooked.

Originally its consumption was specific to the high socioeconomic classes (during the 1950s until the 1970s); however its consumption later came to include the middle and low socioeconomic classes as well. The original version consisted of a chicken (cooked in charcoal and marinated only with salt) served with large french fries and traditionally eaten with the fingers, without cutlery. Its popularity became massive in the 1970s.

We thought it was pretty interesting that it technically was invented by someone who was Swiss, while it is likely to be as ubiquitous in Peru as it is here. Even the fries are part of the original ensemble. We did notice that the place was packed with people when we entered of all races.

We also read that the infamous Inca Cola is also actually from Peru, although Coca-Cola owns the Inca Kola trademark everywhere but in Peru. The Inca Kola Wikipedia entry states:

Inca Kola (also known as “the Golden Kola” in international advertising) is a soft drink created in Peru in 1935 by British immigrant José Robinson Lindley using lemon verbena (verbena de Indias or cedrón in Spanish) although many believe that lemon grass, a herb native to India, (hierba luísa in Spanish) is used. The soda has an unusual sweet fruity flavor sometimes compared to liquid bubblegum. It has been described as “an acquired taste” whose “intense colour alone is enough to drive away the uninitiated.”

Inca Kola reached levels of 38% market penetration by 1970, eclipsing all other carbonated drinks in Peru and firmly establishing itself as “Peru’s Drink” (La Bebida del Perú). A common logo in the late 1970s and early 1980s featured the slogan “Made of National Flavor!” (¡De Sabor Nacional!), later changed to “The flavor of Peru” (El Sabor del Perú).

By the mid 1940s, Inca Kola was a market leader in Lima due to an aggressive advertising campaign appealing to the prevalence of Peruvian nationalism among the population. Bottling volume expanded greatly, growing steadily and positioning it as a traditional Peruvian drink, using national and indigenous iconography and images. This advertising campaign appealing to nationalism was so successful that some Peruvians believe it is their “national duty” to drink only Inca Kola and some Peruvians even believe that it a “sacrilege” to drink any other soda.

So, despite the fact that Inca Kola is now available and many types of restaurants, it is legitimately Peruvian.

We also had to look up our favorite South American cookie: the alfajor. If you love this cookie, reading the Wikipedia entry on the Alfajor might be interesting. Apparently the cookie is Arabic in origin, which makes sense considering the fact that the cookie’s texture and flavor conjures up crescent shaped Middle Eastern cookies. We assume that the Moorish influence in Spain brought the cookies there, who then brought it to South and Central America. In Spain, the cookie is entirely different than the South American variety, due to different availability of ingredients. They’re most popular in in Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay, Chile, Perú and the South of Brazil. From there they were brought through immigration to the United States. The American alfajor is recognizable by its two layers of either cake or cookie with a filling, then covered with powdered sugar (or chocolate). The ones we’ve had in this area have varied a bit, as well. At Pan American Bakery on Columbia Pike in South Arlington, they are cookies sandwiched with a thick layer of dulce de leche, with the edges rolled in shaved coconut. At El Pollo Rico, we noticed that they added anise to the cookie, so they have a mild licorice taste.

Does anyone know where we can try other Peruvian cuisine, like chifa or ceviche?

Llajua or llajwa is a hot sauce prepared from hot chili peppers called locotos and tomato. Sometimes onions are added, and one of two seasoning herbs cultivated especially for this purpose: kilkiña in Cochabamba and wakataya in the Altiplano and other valleys of Bolivia. It is preferably prepared on a grinding stone called a batan, which can be found in most Bolivian households of Cochabamba and Altiplano. In the absence of a batan, it can be prepared in blender.

It is consumed all over Bolivia.

Llajua is used to season a wide variety of dishes. A traditional use is as a dip for plain cooked potatoes or bread, or an addition to soup prior to the main course. Food carts usually have it available for customers and for take-away food it is dispensed in small hand-tied clear plastic bags.

In the north of Chile (Arica and Iquique) the same sauce receives the name pebre, which in the rest of Chile refers to a completely different dressing.

The name “Llajua”, despite being the traditional name for this recipe, was accorded trademark protection in 2008 by the Bolivian government.

We ordered two sandwiches. One was with chorizo, more like a sub/hoagie type bun with sausage, veggies, and lots of sauces. We also tried one with with a thin breaded meat. We couldn’t find much information on the chorizo sandwich, or really any types of Bolivian sandwiches. These sandwiches were very inexpensive, very large, and very messy. They had sauce and rice in them – they definitely were flavorful. The thin breaded meat is known as silpancho. Wikipedia has this to say about silpancho in general:

Silpancho is a typical Bolivian food from the city of Cochabamba. It consists of a base layer of rice, followed by a layer of boiled and sliced potatoes, followed by a thin schnitzel-style meat, followed by another layer of chopped tomato, onion and parsley mixed together and topped with either one or two fried eggs.

We realized that our knowledge of Bolivian food and its flavors are pretty much limited to saltenas, and what we learned about them awhile back in The Washington Post article “The Saltena Circuit.” But, we’d love to know more about the sandwich culture – is it an American invention? Sandwiches aren’t really mentioned as key lunch or dinner staples, from what we’ve seen.

Also, it seems like the word “Pike” is a good indication that a restaurant is Bolivian, but we couldn’t find much information about the significance of “Pike,” either. A lot of Bolivian restaurants are on Pikes (Columbia Pike, Little River Turnpike), but some aren’t at all and still have Pike in their names?

We learned that Fogo de Chão is a chain, but also follows the pretty authentic Brazilian style of churrascaria (or steakhouse). This type of food and food-eating style isn’t, of course, common at home – but it is common in Brazilian restaurants. Buffet style and fixed price restaurants are very common, according to the Wikipedia entry on Brazilian cuisine. They usually follow the rodízio style, and the Wikipedia entry pretty much summarizes the experience:

Rodízio in Brazil, is a style of restaurant service in Brazilian restaurants. One pays a fixed price (prix fixe) and the waiters bring an offering of food to each customer at several times throughout the meal, until the customers signify that they have had enough. In churrascarias, servers come to the table with knives and a skewer, on which are speared various kinds of meat, most commonly local cuts of beef, pork, or chicken. There are other rodízio style restaurants, for example serving pasta or pizza rodizio (where various pizzas are brought on trays).

• Foods served at a churrascaria often include:
• Filet mignon chunks wrapped in bacon
• Turkey chunks wrapped in bacon (these two are usually two-bite sized)
• Sirloin steak (cut semicircular and served in slices)
• Roast beef (served like sirloin steak)
• Rump Cover (called Picanha in Portuguese)
• Beef short ribs
• Lamb
• Pork ribs
• Chorizo or some other spicy Iberian pork sausage
• Chicken hearts
• Grilled dark-meat chicken
• Grilled pineapple or banana (meant as a palate cleanser between courses)

Most rodizio courses are served right off the cooking skewer, and are sliced or plated right at the table. Sometimes they are accompanied with Spanish fried potatoes, fried bananas, collard greens, black beans, and rice (served buffet style).

The diner is often provided with a colored card, red on one side and green on the other. According to the usual meaning of these colours, the servers will only bring more meat if the card is flipped to the green side.

We didn’t receive turkey, chicken hearts, dark meat chicken, or grilled fruit, but they did bring unlimited quantities of pão de queijo (warm cheese bread), crispy hot polenta, garlic mashed potatoes, and caramelized bananas. The pão de queijo were so good! We learned that these are common snack items in Portugal and Brazil. They’re chewy and cheesy, and part of the unusual texture is due to using cassava flour and Minas cheese (a Brazilian cheese). They apparently incredibly popular.

It’s hard to say which restaurant leaves us feeling more stuffed: Brazilian steakhouse or Korean barbecue.

Cuban cuisine, like the cuisine in other Caribbean nations, is influenced by trade, colonization, and immigration. The primary influences in Cuban cuisine include Spain, Africa, surrounding Caribbean nations, and China. According to Miami.edu, very little of Cuban food is fried or served with heavy sauces; most of it is slow-cooked with only a few spices over open flame. The primary staples in the Cuban diet include rice and beans. According to Wikipedia:

A typical meal would consist of rice and beans, cooked together or apart. When cooked together the recipe is called either, “Arroz congri“, “Congri“, or “Arroz moro” if cooked separately it is called “Arroz con/y Frijoles”–Rice with/and Beans.” A main course (mainly pork or beef), some sort of vianda (not to be confused with the French viande which stands for “meat”, this term encompasses several types of tubers, such as yuca, malanga, and potato, as well as plantains, unripe bananas and even corn), a salad (usually simply composed of tomato, lettuce and avocado, though cucumber, carrots, cabbage and radish are not uncommon). Curiously, typical criollo [Spanish-influenced] meals largely ignore fruit, except ripe plantains, which are usually consumed together with the rice and beans. Tropical fruit could be served, however, depending on each family’s preferences. Usually, all dishes are brought together to the table at once, except maybe for desserts.

There are also regional variations in Cuban food. Western Cuban food is criollo, and includes finger foods like sweet Cuban pastries, the use of eggs, fish, crab, and is influenced by Galician and Asturian migration during the early 20th century (paella, arroz con pollo, etc.). Eastern Cuban food is influenced more by Africa and other Caribbean nations like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Wikipedia provides the example of “mofongo (called fufú de plátano in Cuba), which is mashed plantains stuffed with pork, chicken, or seafood. The name ‘fufu‘ comes from Western Africa.”

Sandwiches are also an important part of the Cuban diet – and not just the Cuban sandwich. Others include the medianoche, which is similar to a Cuban sandwich, but with an egg loaf in place of the Cuban bread and sometimes without the ham (medianoche means “midnight” and this is a common late night nightclub snack in Havana). Additionally, the pan con lechón and pan con bistec are also similar to the Cuban sandwich; they are pressed sandwiches with Cuban bread, onions, and mojito, and either roasted pork or flank steak, respectively. One interesting sandwich is the Elena Ruz, which contains a lyer of cream cheese, strawberry jam, and thin slices of turkey atop Cuban bread. This sandwich was requested by the socialite Elean Ruz during the 1930s. Another sweet and savory sandwich is the  pan con timba, which has guayaba paste and cream cheese. 

The history of the Cuban sandwich itself reflects Cuba’s history of migration. The sandwich is also known as a cubano, and in Cuba itself, simply as a sandwich or sandwich mixto. The components of the sandwich include, according to The Cuban sandwich, “Cuban bread (cut lengthwise and buttered on both sides to prevent browning during the grilling process), mustard, dill pickles, roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, and slow roasted pork marinated in mojo. The sandwich is then lightly grilled in a plancha (sandwich press) until the cheese is melted and the bread toasted. The sandwich should be compressed to about 1/3 of its original size.”

Original inhabitants of Cuba did not have access to ham, but did have access to cheese. The History of the Cuban Sandwich notes that ham was brought by the Spaniards in the form jamonada (which is more like a chopped ham). The indigenous Taino/Arakaks were already making cheese, although the Spanish brought this, as well, and were making a crispy flat bread from cassava or yuca flour. However, it took over 400 years to actually create and perfect this sandwich.

The Cuban sandwich blurs the line between an authentic Cuban meal and an American-Cuban meal, although it is served both in southern Florida and in Cuba. The History of the Cuban Sandwich describes the timeline, which we’ve condensed:

1870s: Cubans travel the 90 miles to Key West, Florida, to avoid Spanish rule and to find a safer place to manufacture cigars, initiating the strong Cuban influence found in Florida today.

1886: A fire destroys a major cigar factory in Key West, leading the owner to move the operation to Tampa. He was Vincente Martinez Ybor, leading to Ybor City, a suburb known for the Cuban sandwich. By the 1930s, Ybor City flourished as a Cuban community, especially since economic depression in Cuba lead to more immigration.

1910: Cigar factory workers began selling sandwiches for 15 cents each. These sandwiches also often included genoa salami, since Ybor City was also populated by Italians. The Cuban sandwich becomes a sandwich of the people, the favorite food of the common working man.

Wikipedia’s “The Cuban Sandwich,” finishes up the story by noting that around 1910 onwards, “travel between Cuba and Florida was easy, and Cubans frequently sailed back and forth for employment, pleasure, and family visits. Because of this constant and largely undocumented movement of people and culture and ideas, it’s impossible to say exactly when and where the Cuban sandwich first became a common worker’s meal. By around 1910, however, workers’ cafés in Cuba, Ybor City, and the older Cuban enclave of Key West were serving many such sandwiches daily.” Consequently, the Cuban sandwich is both a typical meal in both Cuba and the US today.

Our Cuban sandwich from El Floridano was the traditional variety. The sandwich contained yellow mustard, pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, etc. atop a light and thin bread that was then pressed on the grill top. We liked the fact that the sandwich was long and thin, wrapped in paper, and was sealed with a a sticker so that it resembled a cigar, suggesting that El Floridano understood the history of the Cuban sandwich. We also recommend buying Boylan’s Fruit Mash as a counterpart to the sandwich.

TOTAL: $9 for a Cuban sandwich and a Boylan’s drink

Tropicana Eatery conveniently has its own parking lot wifi, and decent hours (11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. most days), with great lunch deals. The restaurant resembles a typical fast food restaurant and has an large menu. Jamaican cuisine is distinct and evolved through influences of many other cultures to Jamaica. The original inhabitants were the Arawak and Carib Indian tribes. Jamaican Food states that the Caribs “are known to spice raw meat and seafood using chili peppers, a staple in Jamaican cooking. Arawaks, on the other hand, devised a slow-cooking method of meat by placing it on a makeshift wooden grill over open fire. Food historians believe that this method is what pioneered barbecuing.” Foreign immigration from Spain, Britain, African, India, and China influenced Jamaican cuisine. In fact, breadfruit, a staple of Jamaican cuisine, was introduced to the island by settlers. Of the influences in traditional Jamaican dishes, African settlers are thought to have introduced the use of okra, callaloo (a leafy green vegetable similar to spinach that plays an important role in Jamaican cuisine), and ackee. Chinese and Indian settlers brought different cooking methods to Jamaica and are thought to have introduced the use of rice. The Indian immigrants pioneered curry goat, a very traditional Jamaican dish, but has been modified from a typical Indo curry; for example, curry goat’s main pepper is the Caribbean scotch bonnet, a cousin to the habanero, but with a different flavor. The Cantonese and Hakka immigrants from China are are thought to have led to the Jamaican patty, a yellow meat-filled pastry similar to an empanada and eaten as a full meal. These have become so popular that we see them as a regular item at 7-Eleven, available in both hot and mild. The Spanish are responsible for escovitched fish. Additionally, since Jamaica is an island, seafood is also popular. We ordered Jamaican jerk chicken, ackee and saltfish, fried dough, coco bread, ginger beer, and fried plantains.

The jerk chicken was really well seasoned and came atop rice. The rice was not plain white rice, but was seasoned and contained beans. According to Jamaicansfood.com:

The term jerk is said to come from the word charqui, a Spanish term for jerked or dried meat, which eventually became jerky in English.

Another origin is linked to the jerking or poking of the meat with a sharp object, producing holes which were then filled with the spice mixture. The origins of jerk pork can be traced back to the pre-slavery days of the Cormantee hunters of West Africa through the Maroons, who were Jamaican slaves that escaped from the British during the invasion of 1655.

However, we also found some contradictory information on the history of jerk chicken. Wikipedia states that:

Christopher Columbus visited Jamaica multiple times towards the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century, once even shipwrecked off the north coast for two years (1503–1504). During these visits he described a way the Arawaks (the indigenous inhabitants of Jamaica) preserved meat by adding peppers, allspice and sea salt to make what is now known as Jamaican jerk spice.

We were very excited about trying ackee and saltfish, which is considered Jamaica’s national dish. Ackee is a fruit native to West Africa and thought to have been brought to Jamaica as early as 1778, probably on a slave ship ("Ackee"). The plant spread throughout the Caribbean, but is consumed only in Jamaican cooking. The entire plant is important to Jamaican life. The oil is important to the diet, the seed is thought to have medicinal properties. The fruit also has a dark side. Apparently it has to be prepared carefully and when ripe, otherwise it can cause serious damage and a disease known as Jamaican Vomiting Sickness. The saltfish component of the national dish is cod, which has been an important part of the Jamaican diet since the 1700s when people from Newfoundland brought dried cod (or saltfish) to trade. We found the ackee and saltfish to be delicious. The ackee is yellow in color and has a mild and almost negligible flavor. The texture and appearance is like a scrambled egg. The saltfish, on the other had, gives the dish a delicious flavor and texture. We recommend ordering it with dumplings instead of rice, because we think it tastes better and is more interesting than the seasoned rice. The dumplings are large, dense, boiled, bland, and go well with the dish. The saltfish is not a large piece of fish, but are small boneless pieces mixed in with the ackee like a curry.

We also ordered coco bread, plantains, and fried dough, and ginger beer.  The coco bread was like a hamburger bun and slightly sweet. According to Wikipedia, coco bread does not actually contain coconut. The plantains, which are an important part of the Jamaican diet, were very ripe and similar to other friend plantains. Finally, the fried dough was a round ball that was very dense and similar in texture to a hush puppy, except not made with cornmeal and it was not sweet. The ginger beer, which was Jamaican, was delicious and very spicy. We thought that ginger beer was from Jamaica, but Wikipedia states that ginger beer was developed in Britain during the 1700s, so it must have come to Jamaica from British settlers. Jamaicandrinks.com tells the story of ginger in Jamaica:

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) is thought to have been introduced into Jamaica about 1525. By 1547 though, it is reported that the export of ginger amounted to over 22,000 quintals (1.2 million Kg).

Prior to 1740, the ginger was associated with the Parish of St Ann, where it had first been planted by the Spanish. After that the Christiana region took over when it was recognised that the soil and climatic conditions were especially suitable for the growing of ginger. In 1980, a survey by the International Trade Centre reported that 1,100 acres of ginger were planted in Jamaica in the central range areas of Clarendon, Manchester and Trelawny.

Between the 1930′s and 1960′s, Jamaica was listed as one of the three largest producers of ginger in the world, along with India and Sierra Leone. A 10-mile radius around Christiana was identified as the region which grew the finest ginger in the world. Since then the production has fallen significantly, from close to 2 million kilogram of ginger in 1953 to around 0.4 million kilos in 1995.

Note: Bring your own bags, as they may charge you for a plastic bag if you carry out.

We didn’t get to try any of the other traditional dishes, including fricasseed chicken, callaloo, oxtail, snapper, or any of their desserts. We found the food to be extremely filling and rich.

TOTAL: $15.60 including tax for a small ackee and saltfish, 1 fried dumpling, 1 order of plantains, and 1 ginger beer

Salvadoran cuisine is primarily influenced by the Maya, Lenca, and Pipil peoples. The Mayan people are the native populations that are spread throughout the Yucatan peninsula, not just in El Salvador. The Lenca people are the indigenous people that live in southwestern Honduras and in eastern El Salvador whose lives revolve around milpa (“field”), a crop-growing system. Lenca men cultivate coffee, cacao, tobacco, plantains, gourds, maize, wheat, beans, squash, sugarcane, and chili peppers. The Pipil peoples live in western El Salvador and speak a different dialect (called Nahuat or Pipil). This group has the strongest influence on the current culture of El Salvador, and a large portion of the population claims Pipil ancestry, despite the fact that few speak the language.

The standard and most well-known dish from El Salvador is the pupusa, which we ordered. They were made in front of us by a group of women and were fresh and hot. The word pupusa comes from the Pipil word pupusawa. The traditional pupusa is made with thick hand-made corn flour and stuffed with cheese, chicarron (fried pork rinds), refried beans, and/or loroco (a vine flower). These are then flattened and grilled. In El Salvador, they sometimes use rice flour instead, however ours were definitely made with corn (this variation comes from Olocuiltaon the east side of San Salvador). In the United States, often they use commercially prepared corn flour (like Maseca). I’m not sure if we were served this.

In addition to pupusas, we ordered fried yuca (yuca frita), which was crisp and delicious. This dish is very typical and is deep fried cassava root. We also ordered fried plantains, which are also very typical. These were served with sour cream, which cuts the sweetness and is cold.

Along with all this came a massive amount of what resembled coleslaw. This mixture is called curtido and is pickled cabbage, onion, red chilies, vinegar, and carrots. The curtido was spicy and sour at the same time, with salsa placed on top. Perhaps the best description of it is that it is similar to a fusion of sauerkraut and coleslaw, with perhaps kimchi thrown in (sometimes it is allowed to ferment slightly at room temperature prior to serving). Salvaide states that the curtido is eaten with the pupusa, and people break aaprt the pupusa and pick up the curtido with it, but it is also eaten with most meals. Additionally, they state that pupusas are from the Pipil people almost three millenia ago. Tools to cook pupusas have been found in camp sits that age back almost 2,000 in Joya de Ceren, El Salvador.

Apparently sandwiches are popular food items in El Salvador, but they did not serve any. Another popular item that we did not try was a soup, which looked like it contained seafood.

We also tried a dessert called chilates that resembled a hush puppy, but was a dessert. It was a rather bland ball and served with a lot of syrup, which tasted strongly of molasses. Apparently chilates are served in a savory version, too. However, I have not been able to find much information on Salvadoren cuisine. We sampled some horchata, a traditional beverage made from ground rice. I’d had it before and remembered it being thin, sweet, milky and cinnamon flavored. However, this horchata was thick and tasted sort of like peanuts. I’m not sure if this is a variation on the typical horchata.

Unfortunately, we did not try other staples, like chicha (a mild alcoholic drink made from fermented ground corn), tres leches cake (a cake soaked in evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cream, similar in taste to a cheesecake), or the infamous soup.