A taste of Peru

I'll admit it - I'm a sucker for design. Smart packaging is important to me for its own sake. (Though it certainly helps if the thing inside the package is actually good...see Ciao Bella post below, for example.) Perhaps because of my bias toward all things pretty, I was sold on Adams Morgan's Peruvian outpost, Las Canteras, from the moment I set foot in in the intimate and charmingly decorated space. With walls painted a festive vermillion hue, accented by colonial era cast and wrought iron chandeliers and sconces, Las Canteras' beautiful dining room had me at "Hello." Or rather, "Dinner for two?"

Dinner for two, indeed, and what a dinner it was. Perhaps having undermined my own culinary journalism integrity by admitting my predilection for such frivolities as a restaurant's interior design, I shall have to be extra vigilant about my description of its food (the stuff inside the package), lest I succumb to aforementioned schoolgirl crush on the restaurant's good looks and start raving madly about the virtues of the creative Peruvian cuisine being served up in this looker of an eatery.

But, um, I'm going to rave anyway because, well, the food at Las Canteras is just that good.

You'll want to start your meal with the restaurant's coolly sophisticated take on a Pisco Sour, served in a slender flute and topped with a dollop of whipped egg white foam and a sprinkle of cinnamon. As Jason observed, the warm spicy notes of the cinnamon register more strongly as scent than taste, providing a multi-sensory foil to the cool citrus tang of the drink.

To begin the meal, our server brought us a basket of freshly baked bread, an arrival made even more welcome by the accompanying green chile spread, at once creamy, garlicky, and tear-inducingly spicy. Now, I've yet to encounter a bread basket that I didn't like, but with the addition of that smooth, yet spicy green chile spread, Robert C. Atkins himself would've wolfed the stuff down. The piquant spread was but a prelude, however, for the delights that await the palate at Las Canteras. As a serious shellfish lover, I swooned over our appetizer, the Choros a la Chalaca - sweet, plump mussels (nearly twice as large as any I've seen in a restaurant recently), topped with a mix of juicy chopped tomatoes, corn, and cilantro, all dressed in lemon juice, and elegantly served atop the incandescent mussel shells.

Those gorgeous mussels made me happy I'd gone with the Parihuela - a Peruvian bouillabaisse - for my main course, and the aromatic seafood soup did not disappoint. With generous portions of jumbo shrimp, mussels, clams, white fish, and calamari bathed in a steaming broth of wine, lime juice, and cilantro, the Parihuela had me begging our obliging server for another basket of bread with which to sop up every last drop of the spicy, briny juices. Equally worthy was Jason's entree, the Trio de Anticuchos, tender pieces of chicken, beef, and heart of beef, served with a side of garlicky mashed potatoes, corn, and lime-marinated red onion. As Jason noted, the starchy neutrality of the corn kernals served as a vessel to prolongue the other more aggressive flavors on the palate.

Alas, we were too full to order dessert, although the couple next to us ordered a Guava Flan that will definitely be on my short list for my next visit. Even with dozens more places in the neighborhood to check out, I have a feeling my next visit will be sooner than later.

Good to know:
Las Canteras is located at 2307 18th Street, NW. It's not a far walk from the Dupont Metro stop if you walk north from the circle on Connecticut Ave., cut right on Florida Ave., and then swing a left when you get to 18th Street. It's well worth the walk.

Photos taken from Las Canteras' website.