LA MAR CEBICHERIA PERUANA Gastón Acurio, pictured, a Peruvian chef who has become an international restaurateur, has landed in New York with a restaurant that will focus on ceviche and seafood dishes featuring traditional Peruvian ingredients like quinoa, aji amarillo chiles, yucca and chicha, a corn beer.
The trail will be decorated now by cactus, agave, yucca and Spanish broom, a beautiful and sweet-smelling invasive weed hated by native plant enthusiasts.
From the wood-fired oven comes a smoky, coffee-rubbed skirt steak, nicely chewy and very juicy, with yucca and hot chimichurri, A lot of people will spot the brisket sliders with mustard BBQ sauce and chow chow on the menu and just go for it.
Entrees include seared potato gnocchi on braised celery with roasted cauliflower and sage oil; beer-braised oxtails with crispy yucca salad and a jalapeno-tomatillo finish; and clove rump steak, with harissa aioli, baby bok choy and sweet potato fries.
A bow drill consisted of a flexible piece of wood bent into a bow shape with some cord, a spindle made from yucca stalk and a flat piece of wood known as a fireboard.
I approach a dish with the unlikely moniker of beef Provençal à la Latino with a skeptical eye, but whatever its provenance, it is good: a filet mignon crusted with yucca and cilantro served in a savory gravylike roasted garlic sauce with garlicky mashed plantains.
They are thick across the top of the superb escabeche ($13.50), a browned chicken breast served in a deeply flavored peppery vinegar sauce over fibrous yucca, and are in many ways a key ingredient in the wet, faintly smoky grilled pork ribs ($15.50).
Spicy curry lamb stew with green beans, yucca and cabbage stew, slathered with yellow curry sauce and eaten by hand with a hot roti.
"Sight" offers a kaleidoscope of colorful blooms like hydrangea and roses, while "Touch" has soft, furry lamb's ear, prickly Golden Sword yucca and spiny Rosy Glow barberry.
