Last Wednesday was a very nice day in San Francsico, the sky was blue and the slight breeze offered a tailwind down Harrison Street as we made the short walk to a Peruvian restaurant called Mochica. Mochica is the closest restaurant to our studio, unless you consider the Chevron a restaurant, which on occasion I've had to. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat a Chevron Tornado Taquito if backed up against the wall... but please, don't back me up against a wall. The only other businesses of note on the stretch of Harrison between 6th and 7th are The Endup and Pirates Press, the former being a hard partying disco and the latter being a Punk and Metal printing press specializing in manufacturing vinyl LPs.

Although Mochica's facade is fairly nondescript other than the Inca-esque hammered steel sign, it is beautiful in comparison to the closed down Staples and auto-body shops that make up its surrounding environs. Once inside not much changes. Mochica is fairly small with roughly 15 tables and, as I sip my Inca Cola (an anti-freeze looking soda that tastes similar to a cream soda, only less sweet, and has a crazy bubblegum finish), I note that the room is clean and tidy and that the reddish walls are lightly decorated with what I would assume are Incan and/or Peruvian prints. This might be a good time to point out that, and as my previous All Star Doughnuts review should demonstrate, I don't go to restaurants for ambiance... I go for the food... and the food at Mochica is delicious.

Since I've never been to Peru nor can I remember eating Peruvian cuisine before, I can't comment on the authenticity of the flavors as they relate to Peru's edible culture. The word 'fusion' gets tossed around on the menu in a few places and we noticed hints of Japanese, Mediterranean, Creole, Caribbean, and Mexican flavors. The tastes are fresh, tangy, and, for this virgin Peruvian food eater, new and exciting. Now to get down to the food nitty-gritty... Instead of bread or chips, there was a snack of crispy garbanzo beans (mixed with feta, tomato, and red onion) that must of been fried in peanut oil because they were peanutty delicious. The next few dishes showed up at random as we decided to order tapas style. The first was a large "tamal" filled with pork that was topped with salsa criolla, a creole style sauce with flavors from the Caribbean and Louisiana. The tamal also came with a side of anticucho sauce, a vinegary sauce of cumin, aji pepper, and garlic usually used for dipping skewered meats in Peru. The next, and possibly my favorite dish, was the "Peruvian corn and beet salad" tossed with feta cheese and a mild aji amarillo vinaigrette. I love beets. The Peruvian corn kernels are a meaty lot (see photo above), they have a dense consistency and are more like a mild delicious legume than a corn kernel. The "yucca frita", aka fried yucca root, we ordered were served with huancaina sauce, a sauce made with queso anejo, aji amarillo peppers, and boiled egg. The Yucca was pretty much a solid french fry like dish with a yummy cheesy sauce. We also ordered the "pulpito ala parilla", a grilled baby octopus dish with a thick smokey adobo chile flavor that was served with two dipping sauces, one on the smokey/spicy side and another that was green and creamy along with a side of pureed potatoes. The deep flavors on this dish really stood out. The signature dish of the meal was the "Mochica cebiche," which is essentially citrus pickeled Halibut served three ways. Even by Sunkist standards, all three halibut cebiches were seriously citrus forward, the first being just lime and cilantro, the next aji amarillo pepper, and the last flavored with spicy red pepper, delish.

So, if you have some cash in your pocket and are jonesing for some small flavorful plates that aren't that small, head down to Mochica, it's worth it.