Long Island City continues to churn out great, vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Jora is the latest that we have tried - a Peruvian restaurant that features a range of traditional, meat-heavy Peruvian dishes as well as many newer, vegetarian-friendly dishes. The vegetarian dishes are also helpfully marked as such on the menu - the first time I have seen this feature at an NYC Peruvian restaurant.
I started my meal with the Peruvian potato favorite - Papa a la Huancaina - which was "deconstructed" and artfully plated, instead of a pile of potatoes in sauce. The taste also held up to the presentation, with a number of strong textures and flavors from the potato, eggs, and sauce.
My main course was certainly in the "newer" Peruvian dish camp - Quinoa Y Hongos, or a quinoa "risotto" with mushrooms. The dish was topped with some grilled asparagus, and generally was pretty tasty, though bordered on being too creamy and rich. It would have been an excellent side dish, but was perhaps a little much as a large main dish.
To top off our meal, we ordered two traditional Peruvian desserts - first to arrive was the mazamorra, a purple corn-based, pudding-like dessert. It was a tad sweet for my preferences, but I still enjoyed trying this new dish.
The next dessert to arrive was the picarones, a Peruvian doughnut-like dessert that Google tells me is primarily made of squash and sweet potato.
The dish was served with a sweet syrup and was hard to resist - light and sweet, yum!
And last, while not least, my husband ordered the flan, which may not be the most traditional of Peruvian dishes, but was tasty nonetheless!
We will definitely be back - maybe we'll see you there?
47-46 11th Street
Long Island City, Queens
A few blocks from the 7 train at Vernon-Jackson or Hunters Point, or the G at 21st Street.