Peruvian Chicken and women entrepreneurs

Peruvian chicken----Feb. 2014, Falls Church, VA

For those of you not in-the-know, “Peruvian chicken” is one of the most popular ethnic foods in northern Virginia. It’s a dish—rotisserie-roasted whole or half chicken served with French fries or fried yucca and a lettuce and tomato salad. Optional sides usually include friend plantains or bananas, potato salad, sometimes corn on the cob or rice and beans, and others. But Peruvian chicken places also serve steak or chicken sandwiches (toasted bun with lettuce and slice of tomato), provolone cheese, and mayonnaise and spicy green sauce (tomatillo and green chili). They also serve a few other dishes, depending on the particular restaurant—tongue stew, sausage, fried fish. They offer drinks (Inca cola, horchata, various soft drinks) and desserts (flan, cakes, ice cream). Also, they are not necessarily run by Peruvians. Immigrants from other central and South American countries capitalize on its popularity and offer variations of it along with their own cuisine.

I was first introduced me to Peruvian Chicken by my friends Sam and Gail, local residents and aficionados of local culture.  A few years back, they took me to the original restaurant that popularized it in the early 2000s--Edy’s Chicken and Steak Restaurant (5240 Leesburg Pike, Bailey’s Crossroads, VA  22041). I’ve gone to a few other restaurants in northern VA, where they have proliferated (along with the Latin American population there), and stopped in today (Monday, Feb. 24) at one I hadn’t been to before.  On Route 50 across from Seven Corners, Peruvian Chicken and Steak (6198 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, VA.) stood out with red and white colors and its name blazoned across the side. It offered the usual fare—although I did notice a “Chicken gyros”—an interesting fusion of culinary traditions. The décor included maps of Peru and motifs from Incan culture (a painting of Machu Pichu) along with servers wearing a cheerful red apron and hat with “Peruvian Chicken and Steak” written across it. I ordered a steak sandwich (they didn’t seem to offer the usual chicken and steak sandwich) with a side of potato salad. The food was tasty, especially the mayonnaise and green sauce.

What I did notice even more, though, was a sign with the names of the owner and managers. All were female. That’s not unusual either. It does, however, challenge some of the mainstream stereotypes of women from so-called “undeveloped” countries as being oppressed by and submissive to men. Here they were being the entrepreneurs and the ones in charge. So I asked to speak to the owner.

The owner is actually from El Salvador, coming to the US about 30 years ago. She met her husband here, and he was from Peru. They opened the restaurant together, offering “Peruvian chicken and steak” since that’s what seemed to sell in the area. She was pleased to tell me her story and have her photo taken in the store, and I wish I had had more time to hear more. Her husband died several years ago, so she runs the restaurant alone. It still features the Peruvian chicken, but also offers a few Salvadorean specialties-- tamal de pollo was advertised the day I was there. I didn’t ask her about the rise in competition from the numerous small diner types of Latin-American restaurants that cater to the ethnic population here, but her restaurant seemed to offer a more Americanized-type of atmosphere, almost a fast-food franchise feel to the seating, clean floors, and large windows.

It was interesting to compare it with the much smaller, “hole-in the wall” place I went to with Betty, another friend and fellow traveler of foodways experiences, several days earlier that advertised Peruvian-Salvadorean-Mexican fare and didn’t particularly cater to “Anglos.” Also, it struck me in contrast to the very busy Mexican bakery and chicken place on the opposite corner of the shopping center. People tend to gather around the familiar and in places that make them feel at home. Was this restaurant teetering in the balance of appealing to “Americans” and “ethnics?” Or were people just going to where others spoke with similar accents and could talk about the same places “back home?”

More research, more tasting, and more talking to people working and eating there is called for. In the meantime, I admire the strength of women who come from another country to make a life in a new one, oftentimes without family or friends, then experience heartaches that accompany all lives but seem to visit them more, and then somewhere continue. The least I can do is order another meal from them.