You have to love the culinary diversity of our fair city. On North Western Avenue, just off Armitage, Rosa De Lima is serving Peruvian food. The restaurant is kind of quiet at lunch, but it picks up steam in the evening and gets rolling pretty good on the weekend.
I would hate to say that Rosa De Lima is only about chicken, because the menu reaches far beyond that, but I can safely say that chicken plays a starring role. There's roasted chicken whole, half, or quarter. You can get chicken with rice, chicken stew, escabeche, shredded, strips with onion and tomato, deep fried (chicharron de pollo) and even spaghetti in a tomato sauce with chicken.
Might you take a guess as to what dish I tried on my first visit to Rosa De Lima?
Indeed, you are right. I had the half roasted chicken with two side orders. Chalk it up as very good roasted chicken. Underneath the mahogany, herbed-up skin, the flesh was moist, tender and delicious. The two sides I chose, papas fritas (french fries) and tostones (fried green plantains), were good, especially the tostones. The fries were good, not great, but I used the jalapeno/mayo as a dipping sauce, and that spiced up the fries quite nicely.
But before the chicken arrived, there was a free cup of chicken soup that was chock-a-block with chicken and vegetables. Also part of the chicken dinner deal (just $8) was a basket of garlic bread.
Rosa De Lima believes in pouring it on, so in some instances you might want to consider splitting (or taking the leftovers home for another meal). For example, estofado de res. Three little words that translate into beef stew -- and big eating. Beef stew that is stuffed to the bowl with pieces of meat (some on the bone), chunks of potatoes, olives, peas, red bell pepper and raisins. The sauce base is tomato, and a mound of rice comes with it, so once again the meal is a deal ($12).
Other dishes include appetizers that are typical Peruvian, such as avocado stuffed with a shrimp salad kind of arrangement. A similar appetizer stuffs avocado with chicken salad. Potatoes are big in Peruvian cuisine, so an appetizer of simplicity is papa a la huancaina, which is nothing more than boiled potatoes topped with cheese, served on top of lettuce leaves.
Some of the seafood choices are seviche in style -- fish fillets marinated in lemon juice and arranged with onions, and sweet potato and marinated fish strips with a yellow pepper puree (sauce) -- while others deal with fried fish in various guises.
The dessert list goes on and on and on, and many of the items are frozen fruit drinks, purees and creams that are typical of the Peruvian style of dining. But if you want one of the better tres leches cakes around, you will find it at Rosa De Lima. This was the real deal, the layer cake rich and moist, saturated with milk, and quite delicious.
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