Mike L.
Yelp
One of the great pleasures about living around where I live was the fact that there are some options for Peruvian food.
I didn't start paying attention to it until I googled places for a Peruvian ceviche around L.A. Wouldn't you know it in there are at least four places within 5 miles around my place and there is one just down the street from me. It was a stroke of a good luck in that I need to hit it up.
The place didn't looked very much. Outside it had a red and white fence surrounding what it looked like a converted house turning into a make shift restaurant. Outside of the restaurant has some very vibrant colors, but the inside looked very dimmed and pale compares to the exterior of this place.
The ambiance didn't looked very good. The tables were sticky, the walls looked it needed some new paint, and it looked very messy when the tables doesn't get cleared. Doesn't look good so far, but it brightens my mood a bit when I talk to the what it looked like the owner of that place.
Very jolly of a chap and probably a bit puzzled why I came in (for the ceviche of course!). After a few talk, I was able to ask him on what some of the best or popular dishes his customers like to order.
For the easy part, I was able to coax him into what some of the favorite dishes people liked to order. He told me for the meat, his customers loved the beef heart http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/-JxNvviFzh2OfALsUcUL8Q/l . It's like a kabob that is very chewy and have that distinct flavor. To me it almost tasted like a liver, but the liver is more tender and much softer than the beef heart. I think I was in love with that kabob and it came with a side of white corn and potato wedge.
On my own guide, I ordered a steak and egg with fried plantains http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/keozyV5QX1XhxxhcBBhqKg/l . That was pretty ordinary and a little bit expensive for something I thought maybe for a breakfast or lunch. It was underwhelming for what I had in mind, but that was my own fault for wanting that because it said "steak" on the menu.
On his recommendation, his personal favorite and obviously the draw was the ceviche http://static.px.yelp.com/bphoto/lyGl8abWT5mDpijuxxczRA/l . The restaurant's ceviche consist of what many considered in many of Latin countries as the seafood salad. This salad consist of raw squid, shrimp, and some slices of fish to going with diced onions and some pepper in a round of lime and lemon juices. It also came with a corn on the cob.
The boss man wasn't sure if I could handled the seafood salad of ceviche, so he wanted to demonstrated to me on what was involved in that dish. He let me taste test this before I take it home. What a sweet guy, but he knows I was going to be satisfied with that.
Let me tell you, I have tasted only few ceviche before and I had to admit this was one of the better ones I have been able to get. There are bigger names like Mario's Peruvian restaurant that is just down the road from here (and in West side of LA), but I had to admit this ceviche from Anticucheria was one of the better one I had ever tasted.
This place gets me started on loving dish of ceviche. Hopefully there are many more places in LA that I can find this lovely seafood salad.
The place may like a hole in a wall or a dive, but it's an awesome find for me for a place so close for a beef heart and ceviche. For a day, I am a lemon lime raw seafood connoisseur.