This was a totally unexpected, spur of the moment dinner that was absolutely impeccable and well worth the wait!  You may be wondering, “how long of a wait could it have been, if it was an impromptu dinner?”  Well, remember the L.A. Street Food Festival that I mentioned attending in June 2012?  Well, at that event we had a dish from Mo-Chica, which was amazing!  As we sampled our food, chef Ricardo Zarate was being interviewed in front of us, and I made a mental note to add either of his restaurants to my list.

We went to Picca, his second restaurant, which means “to nibble.”  Perfect name for a tapas/family-style eatery.  🙂

First off, the interior may be a bit familiar to you, because it is used in a bunch of TV and movies.  I remember seeing it in New Girl a couple of months ago actually.  We were seated in front of the open kitchen, so I could keep an eye on all the action!

The wood tables and benches were rustic and comfortable.  Even though there were jars of candles with dried corn, it was actually a nice well-lit restaurant.  Finally, a place that understands that people would like to actually see their food over dimly-lit ambiance!

The rustic table was cracking so there were bow tie repairs, which just added more character!

Here is the cocktail list, which was taken advantage of by a few at the table.

A pisco sour, of course!  It was made with Pisco, fresh lemon & lime juice, sugar, egg white, and angostura bitters.

Notice that the drink says p. on top?

My guy ordered The Tranquilizer, which was made with encanto acholado pisco, oloroso sherry, benedictine, dash Jerry Thomas bitters, and stirred to perfection!  It was topped with a nice little orange peel.  🙂

Now, the sizable menu, which we were happy to attack!

This was the Ceviche Criollo, because one of the ceviche dishes is a must!  It was hard to choose, but this ingredient set was our favorite: sea bass, rocoto leche de tigre, canchas, and sweet potato.  Yes, that huge orange thing on the left was a sweet potato!  I love the addition of choclo (in the back) and the dried corn (in the front) to add color, flavor, and texture.

This was easily my favorite vegetarian dish of the whole bunch.  The Crispy Quinoa Ensalada was served with a miso-roasted vegetable medley and feta cider vinaigrette.  Simply delicious!  The quinoa was perfectly crispy and the roasted vegetables were a vibrant accompaniment.

The Ceviche Crocante was our second one, because we definitely had problems choosing.  🙂  This one had halibut, leche de tigre, and crispy calamari.  Completely different!  We were split on which was our favorite, because although the texture of the fried calamari was nice, the ceviche itself was a bit too lemony.

The Papa Rellena was delicious!  It is a stuffed potato with truffle braised chicken and friseé, which was nice and homey.  🙂  The friseé was definitely not needed, but at least it looked nice on the dish!

The Chicharron De Pollo was described as crispy chicken, salsa criolla, and rococo aioli.  Definitely more complex than chicken strips and ketchup, but with that same satisfying feeling.  I enjoyed the aioli a bit more than the salsa, which was a bit salty for my taste.  Still an overall winner!

Another of my favorite by far!  The first picture is a bit closer so you can see the Anticucho Tomatoes in all its glory topped with burrata and black mint pesto.  Really, those are three of my all-time favorite ingredients, but all of them are of such high quality and completely original iterations.  🙂

This was probably the least favorite dish around the table because we were expecting something else from the Tuna & Nato Crostini.  First off the crostini was on more of a focaccia than a thin crostini.  Also, although the tuna, white bean puree, and soy ceviche were okay, the nato (fermented soybeans) were a bit pungent.  It was an interesting texture, but a bit too much of the umami flavor.

P.S. – I’m not the only one because Wikipedia says “Nattō may be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slimy texture.”  Slimy indeed!

Following up the least favorite…the most favorite dish!  I’m happy to say that I picked this one out, and it was really, really good.  The Seco de Pato, or crispy braised duck leg was topped with a peruvian beer sauce and served with cilantro rice.  Every component of the dish was wonderful!  Perfectly tender and flavorful duck with a crispy skin and the rice was so addicting!

The Bisteck a lo Pobre was a skirt steak with fried egg, pan fried banana, and chickpeas tacu tacu.  It was good, but not an easily shared dish because of the fried egg.  Once one person cut into it, the rest of us kind of forgot it was there because it got mixed into the rest of the dish.  For being one of the most popular dishes, I was not particularly wowed.

The last of our entreés was a Maitake Mushroom, which I’m ashamed to say as a mushroom-lover that I have never tried before.  I was absolutely in love with the mushroom display at Gelson’s a while back, but never bought the maitake mushrooms.  These were prepared with lemongrass yuzu butter, soy sake, and shiso.  Beautiful, but with so many other options to try, I’ll pass next time.

Now for dessert!  For whatever reason, I had been craving Tres Leches Cake for months, so it was on my must-list for sure.  I am not a fan of frosting on cakes usually, and this one was superfluous as well, considering how moist and delicious of a cake tres leches always is.  🙂

This was a special dessert of the week.  It was a Chocolate Pot de Creme with spicy pepper and berries.  Delicious and very rich!

The Churros were amazing as you can imagine!

I was prepared for the Vanilla Bean Pisco Flan to be somewhat disappointing after my creme caramel from Creme Caramel, but I was pleasantly surprised!  So often, flan can be custardy and hard, but this was silky smooth and perfectly sweet.  Bravo!

Overall, I enjoyed the meal much more than I expected!  It was fun, with lots of unexpected flavors and a pleasant but not overworked presentation.  Here’s my mini wrap-up:

• Must Try’s:  Pisco Sour, Crispy Quinoa Ensalada, Anticucho Tomatoes, Pato de Seco, Tres Leches Cake, Vanilla Bean Pisco Flan
• Worth a Try: Ceviche Criollo, Papa Rellena, Chicharron De Pollo, Bisteck a lo Pobre, Chocolate Pot de Creme, Churros
• All of these are really great too, but just a smidge under the Must Try’s  🙂
• Pass:  Ceviche Crocante, Tuna & Nato Crostini, Maitake Mushroom

Picca
9575 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90035
(310) 277-0133
piccaperu.com