For our 4th wedding anniversary, Hubs and I went to China Chilcano, José Andrés's most recent addition to Penn Quarter. Like many of Andrés's other restaurants in the area, items on the menu were mostly small plates. Never having Peruvian dishes before, much less the Asian-influenced Peruvian dishes inspired by Chinese and Japanese immigrants to Peru, Hubs and I decided that we would rely on our server's recommendations for our meal.
Decision #1: Drinks?
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| Five-spice Old Fashioned |
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| Pisco Sour |
There was a bunch of different drinks to try that I wasn't sure where to start, so I went with the Pisco Sour - a Clásico de Perú
. This surprised Hubs since I normally get a bourbon based drink. However, I wanted to try the Peruvian Pisco and having it in a cocktail that was a bit tart also really appealed to me. It was light and refreshing, and not too tart. Hubs went with the bourbon option instead with the Five-Spice Old Fashioned - here Chinese Five Spice worked well against the bourbon and citrus notes.
Decision #2 - Small plates (round #1)Per our servers recommendation, we got the Yuca fritters (even though Hubs wasn't really too keen on the wood ear mushrooms). And because I love dumplings, we also go the "Lucky" - a sampling of the siu mai flavors listed on the menu. The Yuca fritters were excellent and what sent them over the top was the spiced brown sugar glaze that is poured table side on top of them. The dumplings were excellent. My favorite were Dorado because of the creaminess the quail egg gave to the dumpling. The Pollo was the one hubs liked the most, though the Concha was a very close second for both of us.
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| Pollo, Concha, and Dorado Siu Mai |
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| Yuca Fritters |
Decision #2 - Another small plate, an entree and a little street food (round #3)
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| Ceviche Nikkei |
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| Lomo Saltado |
For the next course, I wanted to get a ceviche since I love the flavor of fish and citrus. Hubs is a bit more apprehensive about these because he often feels like the citrus/lime flavor overpowers any other flavor present in a ceviche. In the Nikkei, I really didn't get a huge citrus flavor. I felt like it was more like a poke (fish salad) rather than a ceviche. But, the flavors were worked really well together and the saltiness of the soy sauce was balanced with the avocado and citrus flavors. The only entree we ordered was the Lomo Saltado, which we shared. The steak was cooked perfectly - nice and tender - and the peppers and shoestring fries provided an excellent textural complement to the steak. We also ordered chicken on a stick and duck tongue on a stick (not pictured). I loved the little roasted potatoes that came with each "meat on a stick" and were covered in a nice paprika sauce.
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| Spiral cookie, chocolate cream, and molasses-like ice cream |
Decision #3 - Dessert?
Even though Hubs and I split each item we ordered, we both were starting to get pretty full and I have an obnoxious sweet tooth. We decided to split dessert and went with the Ponderaciones de Kiwicha. It had such a cute presentation!
In addition to dessert, we got a chilcano, a pisco based drink that reminded me of a lighter margarita, and decided to be a little bit more adventurous by getting the piscos that had been mixed with another flavor. I got the cinnamon and star anise one, and Hubs got a spicy pepper one. The drinks themselves were refreshing - the spicy pepper one had a slow to build kick of spice - but I'll admit that I wish I would have gone for the traditional chilcano as I thought the anise over powered any other flavor in my drink.
At the end of it all, we were presented with a glass of bubbly to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Hubs was happy surprised and a we bit confused - until I told him I let the restaurant know about when I made the reservation.
Overall, we had an excellent meal at China Chilcano and I can definitely see us going there in the future with friends or family.
Avocado Toast (Dr. Black) I stole a bit of this one. It's very tasty and makes me want to improve on the egg and avocado breakfast that I sometimes make for myself. 
Grilled Cheese Eggs Benedict (Mrs. K) This looked tasty, and the description by the Washingtonian makes me wish I got it too.
Sabra Pastrami Hash (ADP) ADP recounted a time that she made up breakfast with pastrami, because .... why not? She and Chef Dan definitely have similar thoughts because pastrami was on the menu for this hash. 
Bourbon French Toast (all) The name of this dish hides the fact that this is basically a pan fried Nutella sandwich with a side of butter and syrup. And it's DELICIOUS!! We split it and it make for the perfect "dessert" to our awesome breakfast. 
