Peruvian seafood that shimmers
OUR boisterous group falls silent as soon as the waiter sets down the piqueo marino, a stunning arrangement of Peruvian-style seafood appetizers that’s a house specialty at Jose Antonio in La Mirada. Piled high with ceviches and cooked seafood, the crowded platter -- a Peruvian equivalent of the French plateau de fruits de mer -- has even the jaded food lovers at the table beguiled.
Warm gratineed scallops are presented on their half shells under a bubbly veneer of cheese. Tiradito-style ceviche, sashimi-like strips of lightly marinated fish, is veiled in a daffodil-yellow puree of mild Peruvian amarillo chiles. A dreamy coral-colored ceviche gets its shade and peppery kick from red Peruvian rocoto chiles.
Next to these are arranged micro-thin slices of tender young octopus served with a violet-hued olive dipping sauce. Finally, there’s a salad of causa rellena, an only-in-potato-loving-Peru construction of cold, lemon-seasoned mashed tubers stuffed with shrimp and ripe avocado.
As we fill our plates again and again, there is talk of the higher prices these dishes might command if served in the hipper precincts of the city. We speculate that the chile-lime-laced ceviches were forebears of the popular spicy tuna roll and jalapeno-spiked sashimis that likely trickled down from the creations of Nobu Matsuhisa, who spent his training years in Peru.
Housed in what was formerly a spacious Asian seafood buffet, Jose Antonio opened last summer in this quiet suburb. But the restaurant might have remained a hidden neighborhood jewel were it not for a fan base of Peruvian ex-pats, aggressively touting the kitchen’s skills.
Proprietor Victor Ricaldi, who for years had made his living as a deli owner in the jewelry district, has hired Peruvian chefs whose resumes include stints at Las Brujas de Cachiche restaurant in Lima’s chic Miraflores district and from the well-regarded cevecheria, Punta Arenas, also in Lima.
Tapas-style meals are a pleasure to construct from the long lists of hot and cold appetizers. The piqueo and a few additional items suffice nicely for four to six people. Good choices include choritos a la chalaca, cold mussels on the half shell under a lime-intensive fresh tomato salsa, and a delicious cold-potato dish called ocopa, with an addictive sauce of ground nuts, cheese, milk and an herbal hint of huacatay (“black mint”). Among the warm appetizers is ceviche de camaron a la piedra, an unusual cooked-shrimp “ceviche” scented with onion, cream and a yellow pepper that the menu calls aji limo. There are also pappas rellenas (meat-stuffed potato balls), crunchy yucca “fries” with a creamy cheese sauce for dipping, chunks of marinated fried chicken (chicharron de pollo), and the ever-popular snack anticuchos de corazon, a salty shish kebab of beef heart that’s a sublime match for a Peruvian Cusquena beer.
The combination seafood entree, jalea de mariscos, equally good as an appetizer, is a tower of beautifully deep-fried shrimp and squid heaped over two slabs of fried fish fillet and garnished with wisps of marinated red onion.
Simpler meals come in the form of entree soups. The parihuela, something like a cioppino without crab, holds assorted marine life in a tomatoey broth. The richer bisque-like chupe de camarones, full of large lightly cooked shrimp and topped with a gently fried egg, is pure comfort food.
Entrees show off the criollo, or Creole aspect of urban Peruvian cooking. A smorgasbord of fused, immigrant culinary traditions, criollo cuisine has spawned “Chifa,” Peruvian-Chinese dishes. Jose Antonio does well with them. “Pescado lo Asia” -- soy-marinated deep-fried fish -- is one toothsome example. And the fried rice dishes, chaufa de mariscos and arroz chaufa de pollo, are even an improvement over many Chinatown versions.
On the other hand, tallarin verde, pesto-laced spaghetti, the pasta cooked to a soft texture in the Peruvian way, bears only a passing resemblance to its Italian relative.
You might finish a meal with the simple baked custard (leche asado) or mazamorra morada, a luminescent plum-colored pudding made from purple corn and studded with dried Peruvian cherries. The ice cream is flavored with lucuma fruit, a sapote relative and justly dubbed “gold of the Incas” for its creaminess and ethereal perfumey flavor.
Jose Antonio gets its name from the legendary folk hero, Jose Antonio, El Chalan, made famous in a romantic ballad as the most masterful dressage trainer (chalan) of Peru’s beloved Paso show horses. The restaurant’s menu draws a parallel between the skills and pride of the chalanes and those of Jose Antonio’s kitchen, a kitchen that is working hard to live up to its own ideal.
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Jose Antonio Peruvian Restaurant
Location: 15720 Imperial Highway (at Santa Gertrudes), La Mirada, (562) 902-8299.
Price: Appetizers, $6 to $23; lunch special entrees, $8; dinner entrees, $9 to $15.
Best dishes: Piqueo marino (seafood appetizer platter), “tiradito a lo Jose Antonio” (ceviche), chicharron de pollo (marinated fried chicken), parihuela (seafood soup), jalea de mariscos (combination seafood entree).
Details: Open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (or slightly later on weekends). Lot parking. All major credit cards. Wine and beer.