Review w/pics:Captain Beefheart!LA's anticucheria peruana!

Anticucheria Danessi

Anticucho de corazon, papas, y choclo

aji para acompanar

Good hearted family fun

Quick, to the anticucho mobile!

If I were a cow donating my organs to a cause culinaire, I would want Anticucheria Danessi to be the recipient. LA's first anticucheria, as they advertise, has brought peruvian street food indoors in a delightful family restaurant located in Norwalk.To some, a peruvian restaurant dedicated to serving beef organs in a family atmosphere might be as avant garde as the iconic Captain Beefheart, but the beef hearts here are ready for primetime.



Anticuchos are made from everything these days, but organs meats are the truest expression of the peruvian skewers.I ordered the anticuchos de corazon(beef hearts), with choclo(corn on the cob)and papas(potatoes).The anticuchos were like Morton's on a stick,tender marinated beef hearts with the classic vinegary and peppery flavor of street anticuchos.Mine were medium, just the perfect amount of pink in the center, mouthful after mouthful loaded with deep flavor..A spicy aji accented so nicely and the Cristal completed this hearty meat,corn and potato celebration.Danessi has grilled pancita(buche),choncholi(tripe),higado(liver) and rachi(honeycomb tripe)too!Gotta come back for that. There are also the saltados, chaufas,picantes,tallarines,ceviches,sudados, and jaleas that we are quite familiar with and a caldo de gallina.It all looked wonderful, and "sonrisas peruanas" were all around.



There was a huge group howling with laughter in the main room, and several families and couples enjoying anticuchos and traditional plates amidst an amusing and homey decor.Their slogan:venga a saborear la pancita,rachi,choncholi, y los mejores anticuchos de California.So, bring the wife and kids out for some skewered organs,you won't regret it.



Anticucheria Danessi
14531 S. Pioneer Bl.
Norwalk, CA 90650
562-929-3398
sun-thurs 10-10
fri-sat 10-11:30
closed mondays

Las Quenas

Breakfast of champions.Bistec a lo pobre.


Lomo saltado.


If you blink you'll miss it!



Pescado sudado.


This is one of my favorite Peruvian joints in LA, located on Sherman Way's restaurant row.The food here is outstanding and quite inexpensive. We kicked off the Spring '08 series of Tuesday night dinners at this humble eatery. The owner was nice enough to talk about his cuisine, from Lima and the coast of Peru, and share his collection of cookbooks from Peru. Peruanos are very proud of their cuisine, as well they should be, with such a variety of dishes influenced by so many cultures.The cookbooks were a feast for the eyes, but, to the food.

I ordered the papa a la huincaina to check out Las Quenas' version of this Peruvian standard and struck gold. The anticuchos weren't available tonight, darn.The pescado sudado was delicious with a mild yet complex sauce, and the picante de camarones was very delicious but not muy picante. I washed down this fine selection of eats with some Cusqeunas, Peruvian beers, while checking out the plates from the locals tables. While saltados seem like such an uninteresting choice I noticed that many of the Peruanos had ordered a saltado.Hmmmmm. The other day I was greedily eyeing the bistec a lo pobre on another customer's plate when I went by to set up this dinner. Looks like I will have to hit a saltado next time around and come by on a Sunday afternoon for that bistec.Mike sent me a photo of his bistec upon his return visit that lucky dog.

Las Quenas has a great menu and all of us were pretty happy with our choices on this culinary kickoff.


Las Quenas
12708 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
818-764-3962