Mama Irma's - What The Heck Is Peruvian Food?

Mama Irma's is in the heart of Fountain Square, on Virginia Avenue just west of Shelby Street.  It's in a small storefront with a relatively tiny sign over the entrance that you might miss if you're not looking for it.  The place has like 8 or 9 tables, and at this weekday lunch it was just Mama and one other employee working, so service was a little slow but not terribly so.  I had the $9.25 Chicharron de Gallina, basically strips of deep-fried chicken with a small salad and yucca-root fries, and The Little Woman had Aji de Galleta (not sure if that name is correct), kind of a thick stew with diced chicken, rice, green beans, corn, cilantro, and a bunch of other vegetalia I was unable to identify.  

Mama explained that Peruvian-style cooking is not spicy at all, but usually includes many different flavors.  The fried chicken strips were decent but the seasoning was too subtle for my uneducated palate, so I was left craving some kind of dipping sauce to go with them.   Another patron later requested and was actually brought something in a little cup that resembled a thick teriyaki sauce, which caused me to smack my forehead and say, "Wow! I coulda had that, or even a V-8!"  My little salad was crisp and fresh, with onions and a light sort of citrus vinaigrette dressing that was tart but not sweet.  The yucca-root fries were very similar in flavor and consistency to regular french fries except they were a bit softer on the inside; I wanted to put some ketchup on them but felt it might be uncouth of me to ask for it.  

I skipped the offered Peruvian soft drinks and had Peruvian hot tea, which was lemongrass in a tea bag. It was kind of light, tart, and fairly tasty when sweetener was added.  My Lady had Diet Coke, because they didn't have iced tea. Her $5.25 bowl of soup/stew was the better-tasting of the two dishes, with a combination of many different flavors that was quite good.  There was a whole column of the menu devoted to Mariscos (seafood), but all the dishes were in the double-digit price range and Mr. Cheapskate didn't want to spend that much on lunch when he'd already planned to to get the Steak & Lobster special at Outback for dinner.  All in all, Mama's was decent but didn't exactly wow me, though it was all right for a little change of pace. !Disfrutalo!