Jr. General Vidal 803
Brena - 330-4732
http://www.elpichito.com/
RT here. I am lucky... My Peruvian friends seem to get a kick out of how much I enjoy their country, so they take great pains to introduce me to all parts of their culture. My lesson one recent afternoon was comida de la selva, or "food from the jungle."
El Pichitio is one of the more popular restaurants serving this kind of food. Brena is right next to Lima Centro, so it is not difficult to get there, and don't let the modest storefront fool you -- the place is pretty big.
I have been to Iquitos once, but only for a day, and I really didn't get a chance to sample much of the food there -- I was too busy sweating to death and making plans to get back to Lima. So this gave me a good opportunity.
We started with the Piqueo Pichito -- a sampler of four different items: a ball of rice with some meat in it, a crushed banana balled up and cooked, sausage, and some meat that may (or may not) be in the lamb family. All four items were tasty, including the mystery animal, which was very good. For my main dish, I had the Patarascha Paiche, which was a fish seasoned, wrapped in a banana leaf, and then baked. It was tasty, except for the surprise hot yellow pepper amongst the seasonings that left a hole in my tongue which remains to this day. My amigo had fried rice, filled with (as he says it) food from the jungle. He seemed to enjoy his as well.
We also sampled a couple of juices made from jungle fruits. My favorite of the two was Aguajina, a thick, brown juice that was very sweet. I wasn't as big a fan of the Cocona juice. There was nothing wrong with it, but I liked the first one better.
The total check for the two of us was 84.5 sols. I am not sure that anything there (except for a couple of very pretty customers) would make me want to schlep all the way back to Brena for lunch, but I am glad that I ate there, and I have been able to add the food from some other exotic place literally under my belt.