PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

This unlikely-sounding combination is actually a kick-yourself-for-not-thinking-of-it great idea. Chef-owner Jose Duarte's creations incorporate the flavors of his native Peru, ingredients (notably peppers) you won't see on other Boston menus, and classic Italian preparations. The dining room is a typical upscale North End space, with exposed-brick walls, an open kitchen, and tables just a bit too close together. Servers are friendly and eager to explain the unusual cuisine. The risk-averse can opt for pasta with tomato sauce -- a good rendition, but not the reason to come here. Pasta in garlic-white wine sauce with aji amarillo pepper-spiced sausage; salmon in a macadamia crust with pisco-Incan goldenberry sauce; and espresso-crusted filet mignon are the sort of dishes that make Taranta a standout. The signature dish is a Flintstone-esque pork chop with a sweet-hot glaze of sugar cane and rocoto pepper; it's not unusual to see everyone at a table of businessmen who appear to be retired NFL linemen ordering it. Desserts are as accomplished as the rest of the food, so try to save some room.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Boston 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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