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Eating ABQ: Pollito con Papas Grows Up

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Read the original review here.
When I posted about Pollito con Papas in July, the little restaurant impressed me mightily with its delicious, focused menu and friendly owners – but less so with its no-frills space, wonky air conditioning, and cash-only policy.
Well, times have changed. For the better, in every way. They now take credit cards. They are open seven days a week. And they have a new location. Pollito con Papas used to occupy a building on Broadway and Cesar Chavez. The dining room was extremely low-frills, and the air conditioning was broken on the sweltering July day when I first visited. I almost didn’t stay to find out how good the food was.
The restaurant has since moved to a low-slung building on Gibson, between the hospital and an entrance to the air force base. Hopefully that will provide a nice customer base. The building is unremarkable on the outside – except for its eye-catching lavender paint job. The roomy interior, however, with its foosball table and large-screen TV tuned whenever possible to Peruvian soccer games, feels homey and welcoming.

Of course, part of the reason it feels so welcoming is its charming and friendly owners, who seem very happy with the move. When I stopped by the new location to pick up two chickens to take to my mom’s house, they recognized me right away and thanked me for the blog review. Before I could pay, though, Monica exclaimed, “Do you have five minutes? I want to make you something special!”
Well, it is just good policy, when someone offers to cook you something special, to say yes. (Especially when you know the cook makes amazing food.) So I said of course. Arne settled down to watch some soccer while I chatted with Rene about the new location… and what it was Monica was making. He explained that they had to rise just the right amount, and that they would have them on Fridays when their Peruvian customers came to watch soccer. I still wasn’t at all sure what they were.
In a few minutes, Monica emerged with a plate of light, golden puffs. They were shaped like doughnuts, but Monica quickly corrected me when I called them that. And rightly so, because they put doughnuts to shame. They were picarones, and they sat in a pool of sweet, caramelly fig-leaf sauce. As Arne and I made appreciative noises around piping-hot mouthfuls, Rene told us a little about the cooking process. The sauce especially, he said, was labor-intensive, requiring hours of simmering.
That reminded him of something – chicha morada, a drink they had also made special that day. Consisting of long-simmered purple corn, pineapple, and other secret ingredients, it also required long simmering, plus careful straining and more simmering. He asked us if we wanted some. Of course we did. It arrived moments later in white plastic cups. Deep purply-red, sweet and spicy, it was lovely with the picarones.
Before we left, Rene made sure we were aware of the monthly Peruvian buffet they’ve started in the new location. It’s on the last Saturday of every month. We promised we’d be there. And we were, and we were really glad we’d made it.

Though the daily menu of chicken and potatoes demonstrates the excellence of Monica and Rene’s cooking, the buffet hints at its breadth. When we visited, the buffet consisted of eight or ten different dishes. Usually I’m not a fan of buffets, but the food here, like Indian buffet dishes, consisted largely of stewy things that hold well and, in fact, improve with time. The sauces were intriguingly spiced, and meats stewed to perfect tenderness. When I asked Rene about the spicing in one of the dishes, he returned to a theme common to his explanations of all Pollito’s dishes: time. Taking the time to do it right.

Their old-school, patient approach works. Every single dish was delicious, including the initially odd-seeming cold baked potato on lettuce, topped with a bright yellow sauce made with yellow peppers, cheese, cream, and crackers. It was kind of a Peruvian rarebit, and it was really tasty. Other favorites for me were the pork with dry potatoes, which reminded me of a deeply flavored posole (minus the posole); the incredibly aromatic cilantro rice; and the spicy, creamy, homey chicken in aji sauce.

While no individual dish seemed too spicy, by the end of the meal my mouth and throat were gently alight, and I appreciated the mellow white beans and the chilled chicha morada. And the flan.

The flan is the one item not made in-house. Rene explained that they used to make their own flan, until a customer brought in his wife’s flan for them to try. They immediately agreed to let the customer supply the flan – they call each night and order how many they think they’ll need. It’s made fresh daily. And it is probably the best flan I’ve ever had. The custard is extremely rich, dense, and smoothly creamy. The caramel sauce is very dark, with a bitter edge that sets the sweetness off perfectly. It’s flan to dream about.

If you haven’t had a chance to try Pollito con Papas yet, now’s the time. And if you have, you should see how it’s changed. As Rene said to me when I asked if they were still cash-only, “Pollito is all grown up.”

Pollito Con Papas on Urbanspoon Pollito con Papas on Foodio54

Comments

  3. Next time we’re headed over there, I’ll let you know! Maybe you could convince Nate to try the awesome papa relleno? I mean, its filling is chicken, but it’s mostly potato. We’ll almost certainly go to the next buffet, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, if you want to come along….

  5. I have been trying to get Nate to try this place ever since I read your first blog post about it. He’s not big into meat, so it’s been tough…so if you ever need someone to go with, I’d love to tag along! Let me know! I am so intrigued!!

    Jessica :)

  6. Hi Dan!

    I love Thai Tip, though I haven’t been in a while. The warning is well placed – even their medium can be killer! :) I haven’t tried the Panang Curry, but I’ll try to get there for some.

    Thanks for the suggestion!

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