Unique dishes shine at Manos Peruanas

Last year, I reviewed a Peruvian place for the Collegian, and this year, I found yet another one in town: Manos Peruanas. This place was a few streets past Woodland Hills, set in a strip mall, with images of their food plastering the windows from outside. Inside, the place was lined with comfortable seating and flags on each table. We ended up being the only ones in the restaurant when we went on a Friday night, so as we ate the owner watched fútbol on the television across from us.
The menu at Peruanas doesn’t only feature Peruvian entrees. They have starters and entrees that are Peruvian and otherwise international. The international section doesn’t specify the country of origin, and isn’t as large as the Peruvian section. Most of the items on the menu are also pictured above the listings to visualize what you’re ordering, which is helpful to those uncertain of the culture, although the descriptions of each are quite lengthy. The menu items are all over $10, so if you’re looking for a dinner date under that, this might not be the place for you. They also didn’t have a fancy drink menu, so if you also require that with your meals, perhaps look elsewhere.
For our meal, we ordered mofongo, an international dish, and two Peruvian dishes, arroz chaufa, and lomo saltado. Ordering was a little difficult because of a slight language barrier. Mofongo, a traditional Puerto Rican dish, came out in a large porcelain bowl, and ended up being enough to take home. At Peruanas, the dish can be accompanied by chicken, beef, shrimp or vegetables, and I chose chicken. The chicken came shredded amongst fried plantains and pork cracklings. The plantains were mashed to a variety of standards, some thick chunks and some more mashed, which gave it variety of texture. A mayo-like sauce covered the top of the dish, but wasn’t as noticeable when mixed in. While a little salty, the dish was comforting and good. Arroz chaufa is a dish influenced by Chinese immigrants, was a Peruvian interpretation of fried rice. The plate was lined with chopped, fried plantains, but the inside was fried rice with egg and chicken. The dish was piled high, and was reminiscent of a fried rice elsewhere, with a soy sauce background flavor. Lomo saltado is a dish of rice, french fries and beef. The beef was expertly cooked as to be tender and not chewy, with a good seasoning. Eventually, the fries became soggy from the moisture of the beef and what it was cooked in, so if you’re not a fan of soggy fries, avoid this dish. The rice then mixed in well, however, creating a mess of taste and texture. As we were full by the end of the meal, we didn’t end up trying any of the desserts, which while few, still looked good.
If you’re looking for Peruvian food, Tulsa now offers two restaurants to choose from. Manos Peruanas, while a little more expensive and further out than Pachac Peruvian, is just as good. Peruanas has a variety of dishes to let you try another culture without moving there.