Be Still, My Bovine Heart
[Mary Kong] 05 19 2010Peru gave us Macchu Picchu, pisco sours and Paddington Bear, but the real national treasure is its food. Visually pleasing, texturally rich and colorful, Peruvian food is a real gastronomic experience. But can authentic Peruvian fare be found in our fair little city?
I sought to find out. Together with Peruvian friends and FoodNewsie, who just flew back from the land of the Incas, we circled La Limeña in Rockville like hungry vultures before descending upon it.
Beef hearts at La Limena. Photo: Bryan Applegate.
Peruvian cooking features a lot of fish, chicken, beef, pork, corn, rice, and potatoes.
Did you know that the Andean region has over 200 types of native potatoes?
That’s a lot of ‘taters.
They come in all kinds of colors like purple, blue, red, orange…oh, and yellow, too.
But I was here for something you can’t find just anywhere—anticuchos. Anticuchos are brochettes of marinated cow hearts, skewered and grilled.
Anticuchos were a popular food during Inca times, but when the Spaniards came, they deemed offal to be fit only for their slaves. Then those snooty conquistadors tried them, and decided that anticuchos were in fact, pretty damn good.
Today, anticuchos are a popular street food in Peru and Bolivia. Sometimes you’ll find an Americanized version made with non-organ meat.
- Lúcuma ice cream | Photo: Bryan Applegate
Yeah, it’s called a shish kebab.
La Limeña’s anticuchos are the real thing, and arrive three per skewer, juicy, hot and seared to perfection. Savory, smoky and bold, they’re tender like veal, tacky like liver.
For dessert, try the lúcuma ice cream. Lúcuma is a round green-yellow fruit found in Peru, referred to as the Gold of the Incas for its bright yellow flesh. The ice cream is visually stunning in a bright butternut squash-orange color. Cold, rich, and creamy, it has a slight starchiness to it.
The flavor is hard to pinpoint, though. I would say it’s a cross between maple and vanilla—very sweet. (But I like things that way.) It’s served with an alfajore, an anise-spiced shortbread cookie with a dark, caramel cream.
La Limeña is a casual family restaurant that serves food on Styrofoam plates and doilies, on top of laminated placemats that protect against baby drool, so don’t expect ambiance. However, the food more than makes up for it. Generous portions of satisfying comfort food, which, according to those who know, are a little slice of Peru in the nation’s capital.
La Limeña
765 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD 20852
301.424.8066
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I have had these skewered beef hearts and they are delicious! Honestly, not sure why every freaks out about hearts. They tasted just like any other cut of meat to me, but tougher texture. The paella at La Limena is good too!
I agree with Jessica that no one should freak out about this! Meat is muscle, heart is THE muscle so heart is meat! And it’s a fine bit of meat at that.
Veal (añojo) anticucho – is more rare and to rave about; Cow anticucho (de corazones) – very good indeed. I suppose the older it gets, the more its little bovine heart has been broken?
Love the bigger pictures!
Great post. Really looking forward to reading more about Peruvian food. Awesome!