Bocana

Upon my arrival in Lima Liz and cousin Juancho met me at the airport and whisked me off to San Bartolo, to cousin José's restaurant, Bocana.

In a previous post from an earlier trip I mentioned that my uncle Willy had purchased a home in the beach town of San Bartolo.  In time, they were thinking of selling the place as they did not manage to get out there as often as previously, but instead José, along with two friends of his, turned it into a seafood restaurant.

Bocana, like much of San Bartolo, is open only during the summer months, from December to Easter.  I arrived on the afternoon Easter Sunday and, though they had planned on closing down after lunch, they kindly held the restaurant open a few hours longer so I could experience it.

I must admit that I was surprised at the transformation of the spaces.  Inside, one would not readily recognize it as the same house, even thought no structural features were changed or removed (other than a semi-functional dune buggy).  With judicious application of curtains, bamboo accents, plants, and new furniture and wall decor, they have created a warm, inviting, and very pleasant place to eat at or to just enjoy the bar and some music.

The menu turned out to be no less inventive.

The house cebiche is a classic fish cebiche but accented with basil and Bocana's own secret seasoning.  To match it, they had their barman come up with a house drink, the Bocana, a lovely pisco chilcano with basil (pictured at top).

Another hit drink is a sour, the name of which I can't remember, with maracuyá (passion fruit).  It is offered in two variations, using only the juice of the fruit or unstrained, with the whole seeds left in.

The pisco sours, of course, leave nothing to be desired either -unless it's another round of 'em!

Neither does the chilcano de anís estrella, which is a chilcano flavored with star anise.   I believe this drink was first introduced at Malabar restaurant in San Isidro, and it has become a new staple of bars across the city.  It is simple in its preparation -simply substitute star anise-infused simple syrup for the regular simple syrup- yet, as we discovered last year when trying to make it at home, it can be surprisingly difficult to execute well.  Bocana's barman puts out one of the best, most balanced, chilcanos de anís estrella that I've had.

(This drink provided some opportunities for amusement beyond enjoying the drink itself.  As José and his fiancee, Carla, and José's partners were packing up the seat cushions and curtains as we finished our last drinks, Juancho tossed the anise star in José and Carla's direction.  They both immediately jumped, thinking it was a large spider, to peals of laughter from the rest of us.)

One of my favourite ways to start a meal in a Peruvian seafood restaurant is to order a leche de tigre.  Leche de tigre -lit. "tiger's milk"- is the liquid produced when making cebiche, it is tart with lime juice, spicy with ají, and full of fish flavour.  Sometimes served with the addition of a shot of pisco, leche de tigre is a great pick-me-up and, incidentally, can be a quick way to get a feel for the chef's hand at cebiche and Peruvian flavors.

We certainly enjoyed the rest of the meal as well, from the appetizers to the main dishes.   I can't recall anyone saying that they found their dishes wanting in any respect, although I have to admit that I was pretty busy tearing into my tuna loin with an almond crust and fetuccini noodles with Huancaína sauce.

Other dishes that were enjoyed were the seared beef loin with yellow potatoes that several people ordered, and the "Thai rice" with fish chicharrones.

José and his partners have done well in their endeavor, and the restaurant is understandably getting a lot of press lately, having been mentioned or featured in several print and TV reports on the Lima summer beach and gastronomic scene.

I just wish Bocana would be open all year long, so I could enjoy it on my own summer vacations.

Bocana
Mar Pacifico 335
San Bartolo - Peru
www.bocana.com.pe

San Bartolo

On Saturday night, after dinner, we headed off toward San Bartolo. Mercifully, my mom and Toya had offered to wash the dishes if I took care of getting the food put away.

San Bartolo is a small fishing town and summer vacation community about an hour south of Lima. For a while a couple of years back it was also the hot night club spot for Lima's affluent youth. That distinction has now been lost to Asia, a very exclusive and expensive resort a bit further south, that has been surrounded by controversy due to discriminatory practices and having basically appropriated a beach, which by law are public.

San Bartolo is fairly quiet at this time of year, as it is midwinter and not exactly beach weather. Many of the houses will stand empty and restaurants closed until October, November, or even December, the austral spring.

My uncle Willy and aunt Betty found a great house there fairly cheaply several years ago, which came fully furnished, to boot! The family takes occasional trips there to spend the weekend at the beach or sometimes, like now, just to get out of Lima for a bit.

San Bartolo church

San Bartolo was where my nieces Pali and Rafaela were baptized, and the reception was held at the house. In the course of it, while playing on the roof, one of the children knocked loose the pipe to the water tank, sending streams of water into the house and knocking out the house's water supply. That meant, unfortunately, that the dozens of guests engaged in night-long eating and drinking could not flush the toilets. By morning it was pretty rank between the spilled beer and non-flushed toilets. Those of us who stayed there had to endure it, with no hope of a shower, teetbrushing, or even washing one's face or hands in the morning, only to find that those cousins who had stayed with Betty's brother down the street awoke to warm showers, hot food, and fresh papaya juice!

This weekend, we arrived around nine o'clock and settled in for the night, as you can see below:

Susana teaching the boys to play poker

The next morning my cousins Diego and Juancho, and I went for bread and eggs, and Diego fixed breakfast -more like lunch, actually.

Diego fixing breakfast

Nico and my cousin Guillermo ("Mito").
And, yes, that is a Hello Kitty beanie.

Later, we went down to give Nico a chance to get his fishing fix -one of the purposes of the trip, actually- before heading back to Lima.

The setting

The bait

The catch