Text 25874, 61 rader
Skriven 2015-04-10 16:07:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: 495
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It was late for dinner, but we found a promising-sounding
restaurant half a mile up the road, Villa Peru, which
indeed was open, though devoid of customers.

A youngish waiter (I suspect related to proprietorship,
as he was not notably grumpy) made the universal sit
anywhere you like sign with his hand, so we parked at a
prominent window hoping to lead by example as it were.

A dish of roasted corn kernels appeared - with my defective
eyesight and high hopes I first thought they were fried
crickets or bee larvae - and were tasty and crunchy with
hard bits on the outside and might as well have been
crickets or bee larvae.

As there was a bar display with numerous glasses, I asked
for the beer list only to be told that the licence was
coming maybe next week. The waiter pointed out a Food Town
in the same shopping center. I hoofed it over to find 
Modelo Especial for two 24-oz cans for $4.50 counting tax
(almost a bargain, but if there had been a Circle K, we
could have had them for 20c less).

For appies, I ordered beef heart anticuchos; our waiter
recommended beef. I don't know if that was because the
beef were better or the heart were off. At any rate, we
got the beef, which were good, marinated not quite to
death, pink in the middle, three large skewers for the
$8.50 charged, served with a hot green sauce and posole.

Swisher asked for a lomo saltado sandwich; the guy tried
upselling to the dinner portion for twice the price. This
was resisted, and when the food came, it was abundant and
excellent, also rare in the middle in the American style.

Arroz con mariscos is one of the most expensive things on
the menu, and one has to wonder where one gets his mariscos
in the middle of the desert. Nonetheless, I hadn't had fish
in a while. I asked if it was too late in the evening to
get this, and the kid, sensing a live one, said of course
not. What came, in a not unduly long time, was a big,
almost daunting, portion of paellalike rice, lightly
tomatoed, the grains firm-tender and perfect, cooked in a
rich seafood stock; buried within were a couple ounces of
squid, rings and legs both; and three each large tigerish
shrimp, Venusish clams, and clearly New Zealand greenlip
mussels. A lot of food, the protein obviously having been
frozen up until our arrival and the rice probably too.
Surprisingly, the dish was actually quite good. There was
octopus in the menu's description, and cod figured as well,
here or on the Internet version, but though I like octopus
and could have used a bit more protein, these were not
particularly missed.

We lingered a while with our beers. By the time we left,
several more late-dining couples had showed up. We felt
we'd done a good deed keeping the place lit up.

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