My second time at Test Kitchen this past Monday featured ceviche or “cebiche” from Ricardo Zarate as listed on the website.

Gold Rush & Vesper

Chef Ricardo is the chef at both Wabi Sabi and Mo-Chica. He is opening an anticuchos restaurant above Test Kitchen. My understanding of anticuchos are grilled skewered meats, a bit like kabobs (but I’m sure with Chef Ricardo, they become more than kabobs).

What I love at both Wabi Sabi and Mo-Chica are the fresh seafood dishes so I was very excited to try out ceviche.

Peruvian Mojito

We arrived earlier for cocktails from mixologist Joel Black. There were four cocktails that night; Rooibos Pisco Sour, Gold Rush, Peruvian Mojito and Vesper. Yes, I tasted them all and they were all very good but my favorites were the Gold Rush and Peruvian Mojito.

Luckily for us, they were able to seat us 20 minutes early so we could start our feast!

chilcano- Peruvian fish consomme

We started out with a light consomme.

Ceviche shot- leche de tigre, uni, scallops

Excuse me while I take back everything I ever said about uni. This was my second to favorite course of the night.

Toro tartare- wonton, soy ceviche sauce, saykyo miso

This was like the best tuna tartare/ wonton chips appetizer I’ve ever. I can never order something similar anywhere else because it just wouldn’t be the same. Even the wonton chips were lighter than air.

tiradito- seared sea bass, aji amarillo dressing, sweet potato puree

The Chef’s Asian-influenced side is coming out. I thought this was like the best sweet and sour sauce ever. The sea bass though tasted more like yellowtail. The sweet potato puree with the potato chips were a nice garnish but I wished for more fish.

Jalea mixta- crispy mixed seafood, choclo sarza

The Santa Barbara prawn is playing host to its seafood buddies that have been lightly fried. While I did eat everything with the two sauces, I think just the acid of the lime would have been good.

Chicharron de Cerdo- pork spare ribs chicharron, yuca ala huancaina

Ceviche night could include pork, right? I think so! This was the most tender piece of pork and was a nice balance to the yuca.

Rooibos pisco sour

Ah, what the heck, I’ll take another cocktail…

Picarones- purple corn donuts, stuffed with salted caramel, creme fraiche

I’m going to be sad when I go on a diet after my birthday. Well, it’s not a diet because that would imply going back to this current indulgent lifestyle. More like learning portion control and most importantly, working out again. That way I can enjoy something like these wonderful purple corn donuts with salted caramel. And the creme fraiche? Do you need it? Of course you do.

I’m looking forward to my next two Test Kitchen meals, anticuchos this Friday with Chef Ricardo and Haitian night with TiGeorge on Monday.

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