A Plug for the Peruvian Taste Test

Wanted to give a plug for fellow local blogger Dan Reed, who writes Just Up the Pike and is running the Great Peruvian Taste Test.

Starting this Friday (Jan. 29), you'll be able to vote on your fave Peruvian pollo dining spots in the area. The top five rated restaurants will then be taste-tested by an obvious connoisseur of pollo a la brasa, Mr JUTP.

I myself have never tried Peruvian rotisserie chicken. It certainly sounds good with its mix of garlic, cumin and chili powder. Maybe if I can get a rotisserie attachment for my home grill I'll give it a try over the summer. Watching this video of one of my fave TV chefs, Tony Bourdain, does make my mouth water. And please note, he's eating in Northern VA.


But I just can't bring myself to hit up one of our local places to try out what I'm sure I would like. Since abandoning the vegetarian bandwagon I have chowed down on my fair share of poultry. But for me, I don't want to eat any industrially-raised birds. And I feel confident this is the case at pretty much every place that serves pollo a la brasa. I'd love to hear otherwise, because I'd definitely go out of my way to try it.

I know we have some great farmers locally raising terrific birds and I'm sure there are even bigger ones outside the region using humane practices that probably could supply a fair amount of birds to a restaurant. I'm not holding my breath, but it'd be fabulous if one of these restaurants gave it a try to see how popular this would be.

I know everyone would not want to pay a premium for this, but I bet some would. I mean, what would it be, $1 or $2 more per entree? Here's hoping someone emails and says they've found humanely-raised pollo a la brasa.

Now we need a dentist in the 'hood

And no, that mobile dentist guy on Easley Street does NOT count.

I write the need for a dentist after trying a few different treats from Velatis, our new caramels shop on Georgia Ave. Man, is some of their stuff sweet! I guess I shouldn't be surprised when the main ingredient found in most of what they sell is sugar.

But I do have to say, as not as big sweets guy - I would definitely choose savory over sweet if it came down to it - they make some pretty mean caramels. The two distinct styles they make are sugary and chewy - coming in about 20 different varieties. Now I can't say I've made much of a dent in the 20 different varieties, but I did try a few over the break. This is much to my chagrin of my waistline.

I think the first one I tried is still my favorite. That is the Sea Salt Turtle. It is pecan halves covered with caramel, dark chocolate and then topped with sea salt. To me, the addition of the salt really takes it over the top. And I like the crunch of the pecans. Just one is a nice dessert. This also helps since each one is $3.50 a pop. However you shouldn't go into Velatis looking for bargain-basement sweets. You're gonna need a little bit of scratch to sample their goodies.

In addition to the turtles, I've also sunk my teeth into their truffles. It appeared Velatis offered almost 2 dozen different varieties of truffles ($3 each). While many sounded good, I tried a couple of the cappuccino variety. And yes, I recommend them! They were excellent. Very rich, chocolatey-gooey and not too over the top sweet. I would have to imagine if you like truffles, Velatis will have one to meet your needs.

I also tried the toffee with nuts. This one was my least favorite. I bought a 1/4 pound and I just couldn't get through it. This one was way too sweet for me. I was thinking since it had nuts it would be more brittle-like. But it really didn't have much of a crunch to it, and that's what I was looking for. It really was predominately chocolate and toffee. Oh well, two out of three isn't bad.

I do plan to throw Velatis my business when I can, but at least for me, I can't see shopping there on a regular basis. I was told that during the holidays they did a brisk business. I'll be curious to see how they fare in the post-holiday season when folks are heading to the gym, not the caramel shop.

My guess is the most profitable part of their business is corporate events and weddings. Just as long as they're not relying on us local yocals walking into the store and buying pounds and pounds of caramels to keep them afloat.

But I definitely recommend you give them a try if you've yet to go in. I think you'll be happy you did. Just stick your scale in the bathroom closet for a while.