In New York, the best-known Peruvian dishes from that country's highlands and coast are spicy rotisserie chicken and citrus-marinated fish ceviche; both can be found at Pio Pio. So can salchipapas.
This beloved meat-and-potatoes fast food heaps thin slices of deep-fried beef sausage atop hand-cut, twice-fried fries; $4 will secure you an immense portion. Though salchipapas can be dressed with ketchup or mayo, it's almost addictive with the house-blended spicy green sauce.
For a meal, the whole chicken ($12) seems a safe bet; during my visit to the Upper West Side branch of this mini-chain (shown at bottom), neatly quartered chickens were deposited, and done away with, at a number of other tables. Instead, I was disappointed by a pair of meat-and-potato dishes. Lomo saltado ($16), a sauté of onions, tomatoes, and less-than-tender beef, sat in its typical soy sauce; on this occasion, even the base layer of fries was soggy and ho-hum. The papa rellena ($8), a lightly deep-fried mass of mashed potato, was filled with shredded meat of some sort (perhaps chicken), a single unpitted olive, and an insipid "salsa Criolla."
Pio Pio
264 Cypress Ave. (East 138th-139th Sts.), Mott Haven, Bronx
(one of many New York locations)
718-401-3300
www.PioPioNYC.com
