Machu Picchu Peruvian Restaurant

Well, it seems fitting that my first official restaurant review should be about one of the first places I visited on my way up BH and one of the places I go back to again and again - Machu Picchu Peruvian Restaurant. This place has been around for a while, and my guess is that most Atlantans have at least heard of it. If you haven't, it's a very accessible place to start your own food journey. I would say most of the dishes here are pretty tame on the culinary Richter scale, but that doesn't keep them from being downright tasty, and borderline addictive!

Like most places I'll be reviewing, your best bet is to go here for lunch as the dinner menu can get a little pricey. I visited a few days ago and spent $8.55 (tax incl) for an entree, soup, bread, and a drink. You'll want to throw in a generous tip here as the servers are quick, helpful and very friendly. When you walk in the door, say hello to the giant Llama (or is it an Alpaca) staring tirelessly at the front door. If you're lucky, there will be nice Peruvian pan flute music playing in the background. If you're unlucky, you'll have to listen to instrumental versions of very bad 80's songs for the duration of your meal (think "We are the World").

I have two favorite dishes here, but before I get to the entrees, I have to mention the appetizers. Soup and bread.... that may not seem very exciting, until you stop and think about what you are actually getting, and that's pure homemade goodness! First the bread: OK, I guess that's a bit of a misnomer. It's really not about the bread as much as it is the Habanero dipping sauce that comes along with the bread. Yeah, it's a little spicy - deal with it! It's actually not as hot as it may seem, mainly because it's toned down with some creaminess and is served cold. In my opinion, it has just enough heat so that you get the effect but you still have your taste buds after the fact. Habaneros, aside from their heat, actually have a great clean flavor. This sauce is a great way to experience that. One interesting observation: every time I get this sauce, it's a slightly different color (varying from dark red to orange to yellow), depending presumably on the color of the chiles that were available at their market that day. Bottom line, try the damn sauce... it's a winner.

Now on to the soup (Sopa de casa). Yeah, it's just a basic chicken noodle soup, but there's something transcendent about it at the same time. It tastes like it was made by your grandmother on a cold Sunday afternoon. This kind of food does not get made quickly. It takes hours, even days. So much of our cooking these days is designed to be quick and easy - this brings you back to a time when cutting corners literally was not an option. I respect this kind of food. Like the sauce, it's just a little bit different each time I go in. Sometimes it has chunks of potato and carrot, sometimes it's more about the noodles. Sometimes there's a dash of fresh cilantro sprinkled on top... I've even found a rutabaga or two. Served with a slice of lime on the side, which really brightens things up and cuts through the fattiness. You have a choice of soup or salad for lunch... go for the soup.

Now on to the entree... you have several options here. It used to be that they only had 1 or 2 lunch specials each day. Recently, they expanded their lunch offerings so that there are 7 or 8 offerings daily. I have two favorites: Seco de Carne and Lomo Saltado. I've ventured outside of these two dishes on occasion, but I've always been disappointed.

First, Seco de Carne (beef stew in rich cilantro sauce). This junk is amazing. What you get are 2 or 3 good sized hunks of tender beef pot roast topped with a dark green sauce of finely minced cilantro, onion and mild chiles. It will remind you a little bit of the consistency of mole, albeit a completely different taste. It's thick but not creamy, and jam packed with flavor. I make sure to cut up the meat ahead of time so I can baste each piece in the sauce... but that's just me being weird. It's served with a healthy portion of rice and pinto beans. I could write a separate paragraph on the beans, but I won't. Trust me, they're good. I've also had this dish with chicken instead of beef. If that's what they have that day, you'll enjoy it. But, aspire for the beef.

Second, Lomo Saltado (Stir fried beef with onions and tomatoes). The description of this dish used to say "with tasty sauce." They dropped that descriptor, and I'm not sure why as it really did have an extremely tasty sauce. Compared to the dish above, this sauce is much thinner, more oily, much akin to an Asian stir-fry. They may actually use a touch of soy sauce in this dish, now that I think about it. In any case, the combination of ingredients is what really makes this dish. The tomatoes are cooked down so that they are bursting with intense flavor. The onions soak up the "tasty" sauce and really bring things together. The meat can be a little tough, but not unenjoyably so. This dish is also served with rice and pintos. Sometimes I mix the remainder of the Habanero sauce in with the rice to add yet another layer of flavor to this amazing offering.

Machu Picchu is located at 3375-1130 Buford Hwy and is open M-Sa 10:45 am to late, Sun 9:30 am to late (hmm, wonder if they do breakfast?)

Visit their website at: www.machupicchuatlanta.com

Happy eating!

11/17/09 - My first blog, ever!

I will admit up-front: I am not a food expert! I have no formal culinary education, and I've not traveled extensively around the globe. Am I an expert on authenticity? No, probably not. Do I have an open mind and an adventurous palate? Absolutely!

That wasn't always the case. Growing up in the Deep South, my idea of "ethnic food" was the Panda Express in the mall food court. Thankfully, my tastes have been refined since then (though I still kind of like their orange chicken), and I owe much of this, strangely enough, to my employer.

More than three years ago, I went to work for a public health consulting company located... you guessed it... in an office park just off of Buford Highway. I still remember a conversation with a rather negative co-worker when I first started in which I was told "unfortunately, there aren't many good places to eat around here." Boy were they mistaken! Thankfully, I did not heed their warning and followed another colleague to a Vietnamese restaurant (Co'm) just up the street from the office. I was hooked at first bite!

Since then, I have bravely marched up Buford Highway from Sidney Marcus, to I-285 and Beyond, stopping in as many restaurants, markets, bakeries, etc., along the way that I could. I've had some great food, and met some great people. I've also had some... eh... "interesting" food, and met some "interesting" people. I've found some amazing deals, and I've left restaurants feeling like I was taken for a ride. I've been amazed by the freshness of ingredients, and I've found fried cockroaches in my crispy calamari! I've pretty much seen it all, and I've had a ton of fun along the way. Check back often for reviews of some of my favorite Buford Highway haunts.