El Agachadito

🇵🇪 PERÚ
📍 14725 Wyandotte Street, Van Nuys, San Fernando Valley
🅿️ Street parking
🥤 No Alcohol

EDITOR'S NOTE: This business is located at a private home and only open on Thursday and Friday nights at the time of writing. Find them on Instagram for current information.

If you have ever been to Lima or eaten at night in many cities in Perú, you probably spend an unhealthy amount of time searching for places in Los Angeles to eat anticuchos and picarones. These two foods are best when eaten together, a combination of savory grilled meat and sweet syrup over fried dough. Anticuchos are common on the city's many Peruvian menus, but in a restaurant they lack the same experience, and proper picarones are almost never to be found alongside them.

Vendors around town are doing their best to change this. Even though multiple visits could never locate the picarones specialist, Carrito Sanguchero sometimes has the pair together, and their anticuchos are terrific. When a new home business recently popped up a few months ago in Van Nuys, plans had to be made to eat the pair together, which both seemed to be a permanent fixture on their weekly menu.

When you show up on a Thursday or Friday evening, you will be greeted by one of the two women who run the business, most likely a mother and daughter. The children of the latter will sometimes bring out ingredients to their mother and grandmother, and can be heard playing inside throughout your meal. The familiar gas-fired vat of oil is part of the garage setup, a hint that the picarones (below) were not just an allusion and would be made upon request.

An order of anticuchos (above) gives you three big skewers of beef heart served over roasted potatoes and a side of their house spicy pepper dipping sauce. The thinly cut pieces are nicely charred from the grill and full of flavor from their pepper vinegar marinade. When the picarones are done frying and laid down next to the anticuchos, the salty Pacific air and humidity of Lima can almost be felt on your skin.

The picarones master.

A drizzle of syrup made from chancaca, unrefined sugar made from sugar cane, is put over these doughnut-shaped treats and pools underneath. The dough of picarones is made from squash and sweet potato, so their flavors are quite different than similar sweets. Each one is stretched out and placed in the boiling oil by hand and comes out looking different from the rest just like snowflakes.

While not quite cold enough for snow, last Friday was a chilly night and many of the other diners were ordering bowls of caldo de gallina (not shown) to warm their bones. Families came in together to sit and enjoy dinner, and even one solo diner that came in for takeout soup ended up enjoying his bowl at one of the tables since the whole setup is so inviting.

 

On this night the pollo broaster (above) was the poultry desired more, another typical Peruvian food found and enjoyed after dark. Is it broiled, or roasted, where does this name come from? Bone-in chicken pieces are actually breaded and deep fried, and almost always served over a bed of fries as they are here. You have your choice of mayo-based sauces as well, with a rainbow of colors on offer. The usual orange and green slightly spicy versions are here and good, but also try the purple-hued olive flavored salsa de aceituna.

The chicken itself is hacked into various shapes and sizes, very unlike the standard pieces you get at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the batter is full of flavor even before you cover it with sauces. Like the soups available, the portion is very large and more than enough for one person. If you come on your own and can only enjoy one dish, also grab a cup of hot emoliente (not shown), a sweet drink made from barley that is said to have many medicinal benefits.

Despite being plenty filled as a group of two, a bowl of chanfainita (above and below) could not be avoided since it is almost as rare in Los Angeles as picarones. Continuing the theme of cow organs, this cumin-laced soup relies on lung for its protein, and is also full of potatoes and topped with hominy. This food is part of a large group of dishes around the world that are made from people making the best out of what others throw away.

El Agachadito also regularly makes a dessert called "el classico," but on this night it could not be ordered as stomachs were ready to burst. This is made by combining arroz con leche with mazamorra, a purple corn pudding. Next time a little room will be left to enjoy this classic meal ender, but no regrets were hanging over the night with a belly full of sweet picarones.

 

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