Nory's Great Chicken Milanesa

Spent most of last week in Dallas, where I only had to eat once to match my needed calories for the week by gorging on a chicken-fried steak (my Facebook status update after the momentous event: "Gustavo Arellano ate chicken-fried steak in Dallas yesterday. Mmm...breaded-beef-smothered-in-gravy-on-top-of-mashed-potatoes-with-creamed-corn bliss..."). I hadn't had breaded meat so exquisite since the last time I visited Paul's Coffee Shop in Fountain Valley for their chicken-fried chicken...and then I visited Nory's in Anaheim again to eat their chicken a la milanesa.

Nory's is a much-written standard in these pages, it's three outposts (in Anaheim, Stanton, and Lake Forest) lords over the county's Peruvian food scene. I still prefer Picanteria Ariquepena El Misti for my Incan needs, but I stopped by the Nory's branch in Anaheim because I craved breaded meat. Their chicken milanesa was as epic as any Texan chicken-fried steak, but in a different scope: while the chicken-fried steak I had was huge and thick, Nory's version was pounded to the thinness of a magazine, which meant the cutlet spread to the size of--I kid you not--a Frisbee. The milanesa's crust shone like fried chicken but tasted like milk instead of lard; the poor bird, meanwhile, still retained good flavor but just couldn't compete with the breaded exterior's greatness. Wash it down with chicha morada. Repeat. Peruvian chicken milanesa ain't no chicken-fried steak, but at least Peru didn't inflict Dubya on us.

Nory's Restaurant, 933 1/2 S. Euclid St., Anaheim, (714) 774-9115.