What do people see in white meat?

One of the enduring mysteries through decades of eating out is the affection restaurants show for white meat -- specifically, the chicken breast. It's often bland, dried out and little more than filler, but you just can't escape it. What happens to all those bone-in pieces -- glorious drum sticks, delectable thighs and doubly good leg quarters -- oozing juices and flavor?

The chicken breast is not only served just about everywhere, but it is almost always raised with antibiotics, so you rarely get moist breast meat. It's hard to overcook dark meat and the taste is well worth it, despite the extra fat and cholesterol. Last night, we made jerk chicken drum sticks that were terrific right down to the bone.

In an Italian restaurant, the breast meat is pounded thin and flavored with lemon, cheese and tomato sauce, and other preparations that preserve some flavor. But in too many restaurants, dry chicken breast is added to salads, the easiest way to ruin a healthy meal. Even marinating a chicken, such as the one served in Pollos El Chevere, the great Peruvian restaurant in Passaic, can't prevent the awful taste of dried-out breast meat.

Yesterday, I met a friend for a lunch of soup and salad bar at the Coach House in Hackensack. He chose a hearty bean soup, but I made the mistake of ordering chicken "gumbo." Not only was it nothing like gumbo, it was filled with tasteless chunks of overcooked breast meat.

Boneless thigh meat is juicy and feels great in your mouth, but you'll be hard put to find it on a menu. I only know of one place, BBQ Chicken & Beer, a Korean fried-chicken restaurant in Cliffside Park, that serves broiled boneless thighs. Last week, we cooked up boneless and skinless thighs at home, coated in chili spices, and my wife raved. If we roast a whole chicken, or prepare it on a rotisserie, we ensure moist breast meat for sandwiches by buying drug-free or organic birds.

Of course, you'll find lots of greasy drum sticks and thighs at American fried chicken restaurants, but it's usually a  cheap brand, such as the Tyson poultry used by KFC.

I suspect many restaurants have skinless and boneless breast meat delivered in sanitary packages for not much money by food distributors. Sysco offers restaurants chicken breast portions that only have to be warmed in a convection oven, such as one done Kiev-style. No muss, no fuss. They're ready to go, cook up fast and are profitable -- great for the restaurant but not for the customer.

News flash: Peruvian opens restaurant

The Record of Hackensack ran a news article on Wednesday about the tens of thousands of Peruvians in North Jersey who began migrating here in the 1950s, drawn by textile mill jobs in Paterson.

The newspaper said the Peruvian-American community in the state is the largest in the U.S. and that Peruvians own 45 restaurants in Paterson alone.

Then, on Friday, The Record's restaurant reviewer, Elisa Ung, declared that a Peruvian-Cuban couple who opened a Peruvian restaurant in Clifton "aim to introduce Peruvian culture to the North Jersey dining scene."

Peruvian food may be new to Ung, but not to me and thousands of other non-Peruvians who have enjoyed dining at Peruvian restaurants in the city of Passaic and Clifton for many years. Jaimito's in Clifton and the El Chevere restaurant group in Passaic are my personal favorites.

For example, Pollos El Chevere on Washington Place in Passaic, just steps from Main Avenue, is a busy, clean, well-run restaurant with a liquor license and a full menu of Peruvian specialties, including the signature marinated rotisserie chicken. The restaurant's Japanese-Peruvian business partners have another place nearby that offers anticuchos, the beef heart loved by Peruvians.

One of the great dishes at Jaimito's is tallerin verde, linguine in pesto sauce topped with a large, fried fillet of fish. The chef-owner is Chinese-Peruvian.

Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor is a new Peruvian restaurant in Maywood that serves large portions of tasty food at reasonable prices.

Peruvian fish story

We tried a new restaurant close to home last night -- Uncle Paulie's Puro Sabor in Maywood, a Peruvian rotisserie chicken place with a full menu of beef, fish, rice, beans and root vegetables.

What Uncle Paulie's lacks is wild fish. When I learned the ceviche de pescado was made with farmed tilapia, I ordered another appetizer, boiled potatoes with cheese sauce. Other dishes were made with fillets; no whole fish, such as red snapper, was offered. Portions are generous and prices reasonable.

Don't miss the milky Peruvian hot sauce for the chicken or the homemade chicha morada, a traditional purple-corn punch, garnished here with finely diced apple ($2).

My wife and son both ordered chicken soup ($4) and couldn't finish the two pieces of chicken in the broth. Entrees also were too large to finish. We had the marinated one-quarter rotisserie chicken (dark meat) with rice and beans ($3); lomo saltado, pepper steak strips served over french fries with rice ($12); and tallarin verde con apanado, linguine with pesto and topped with "breaded top brasciole" ($11.50). I have had this dish in other restaurants and it was invariably served with fried fish. It would be great without the beef and topped with a fried egg "a la pobre."

Before we left, I spoke to the owner about the farmed fish. He said he wanted to keep prices low, but if I called ahead, he would get red snapper from the fish market down the street (Seafood Gourmet), make a ceviche for me and charge me accordingly.

My favorite Peruvian restaurants -- Pollos El Chevere in Passaic and Jaimito's in Clifton -- are a lot further from home. So if I get a hankering for an Asian- or Italian-inspired Peruvian dish, Uncle Paulie's is just a few minutes away. Though Uncle Paulie's is good, it can't replace those two winners. (Revised.)