Folks who love lomo saltado and ceviche de pescado — as well as some curveball Italian-Peruvian dishes — have a new spot to try in Emeryville, Las Brasas Peruvian Cuisine.
The restaurant opened a few weeks ago at 4336 San Pablo Ave. in the former space of Touch of Soul, which has taken its smothered chicken and oyster po-boys a few blocks down the road. Las Brasas does not have its liquor license yet, but in the meantime is serving chicha morada — the tangy drink made from purple corn — maracuya (passion-fruit juice) and of course that bubblegummy staple, Inca Kola.
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Surprisingly, given the restaurant’s name, the popular dish of charcoal-fired pollo a la brasa is not on the menu. The chicken here is served sauteed with tomatoes or mixed into Peruvian fried rice or breaded Milanese-style. But there are plenty of other dishes coming from the grill, including a traditional anticucho de corazon (beef heart skewers) and marinated octopus served with golden potatoes and chimichurri.
The appetizers are hearty. Leche de tigre, or mixed seafood in a pepper-spiked citrus marinade — that is then accentuated with lime, red onions, sweet potato, toasted corn and fried calamari — is served in a goblet you might imagine an Incan emperor chuggin’ from. The papa a la huancaina is a stout tower of boiled potatoes ladled with a mild yellow chile and cheese sauce. There are Peruvian tamales steamed in banana leaves, New Zealand mussels topped with zesty salsa and fried yuca with rocoto-pepper aioli.
The soups are entire meals to themselves, like the parihuela, a savory-brothed soup that originated in fishing villages and seems to encompass every type of seafood in the ocean. Traditional dishes are well-represented, like lomo saltado or lean beef sauteed with onions and tomatoes, and arroz con mariscos, a Peruvian paella with saffron-tomato sauce. Then there’s a tiny section of the menu that veers Italian — spaghetti with a Peruvian-style pesto sauce, for example, and fettuccini tossed with that soulful, yellow huancaina sauce.
And if anybody’s still hungry for dessert, there are three nice options at the moment: caramel-filled alfajores cookies, flan and ice cream flavored with lucuma, a sweet, golden fruit that’s popular in Peru.
Details: Open noon-8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday) at 4336 San Pablo Ave., Emeryville; 510-817-4682
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