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| chica morada |
I don't think it's any secret that Eugi is in love with Justin Bieber. Sure, it all started out innocently with downloading the catchy tune "Eenie Meenie," but it grew to something much deeper. He mourned with all the female youth of America with the haircut incident last week, and of course can't wait to see the 3D experience in theaters. Being the super amazing roommate I am, I promised to accompany him to the movie as long as a nice dinner was involved. Luckily for me, he's been all sketchy with his business lately, so food was on him ;)
By his choice, we ended up at Mochica, a highly acclaimed Peruvian restaurant in SOMA. As you enter you notice numerous awards and merits lining the walls, so expectations are high. It is a small place with nice mood lighting and Peruvian paintings on the walls. Would be a great date spot. Our waiter was really cute :) a young, tan peruvian guy with an accent!
The menu is actually pretty extensive, and it was difficult to pick. Trying to get the full South American experience, I ordered a "chica morada." This is a traditional beverage made of purple corn, a bunch of spices and some apples. It was cinnamoney and a bit sweet :). They also give you a free appetizer of fried chick pea things with onions and spices. It has extremely loud flavors, and will def give you hardcore onion breath. Delicious and worth it though.
For food, we ordered a couple appetizers and entrees. To start, we had (chicharones) fried chicken thighs with a yummy dipping sauce. I REALLY loved the other small plate: Pastelito Choclo. This was basically a large, round potato, corn, and cheese hashbrown with extra spicing. It was rich and filling, but highly addictive. Our favorite part was the ridiculously large kernels of corn in it! Which of course led me to the question... do they come from really big ears of corn with relatively small kernels, or really small ears with giant kernels?! Insert Lori Beth Denberg "All That" reference here 
My main course was a braised short rib with spicy sauce and mashed and sliced potatoes. It was incredible! Like everything else in the meal, I was amazed by how flavorful everything was!! I wish I knew what kind of spices and cooking techniques it takes to create such bold flavoring. The meat itself was also extremely tender and melted in my mouth. The potatoes were very creamy and delicious, and there were 3 or 4 different sauces splashed around the plate giving different accents to the various parts. Eugi got a pollo dish that resembled some type of thai curry. He seemed to really enjoy it as well. 
Even though we were stuffed, we had to grab dessert when we saw FRIJOLES (alfajores) on the menu. These are my new favorite discovery thanks to my sudden obsession con latinos ;). SO SO SO good. Of the 3 I have tried haha, these were the best. I freaking love dulce de leche. They also came with one (caliente) cafe con leche, (put $20 on today's lottery~~). I hate coffee, but appreciate any "In the Heights" references.
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| <3 |
Each course took a really long time even though the restaurant was almost empty. It might have been annoying if the dishes hadn't been so perfectly cooked and obviously freshly made. It was well worth the wait. Also, we had a mix-up on our appetizers, so we were given a coupon for a free one on our next visit which was a nice gesture :). The dinner took so long that we actually ended up missing the movie!! No Bieber for Eugi ;p tear
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