Petit Peru
152 Montcalm St., Gatineau (Hull sector), 819-205-6231, petitperu.com
Open: Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., closed Monday
Prices: mains under $20
Access: no stairs
“I’ve never tried Peruvian food,” a pal said. That was all the excuse I needed to whisk him across the Chaudière Bridge to the Hull side for lunch at Petit Peru.
One of just a few Ottawa-area businesses that serves Peruvian fare, the restaurant has been something of a nomad since it opened a few years ago. Owner Jorge Bahamonde first served food to a few tables inside his grocery store, L’ Epicerie Petit Peru on St-Raymond Boulevard in Hull. In June 2014, he opened Petit Peru Resto Bar in a space that he shared with a ByWard Market dance club. The first true stand-alone Petit Peru opened some time later in Chinatown in a no-frills space. That eatery closed, and about two months ago, Bahamonde took over a former café on Montcalm Street in Hull. This latest location is Petit Peru at its most inviting.
It’s a narrow room that seats about 40, with a sloping ceiling, brick wall and tile floors. Two TVs show Latin American music videos at a reasonable volume. There’s a bar along one side. Petit Peru doesn’t have its liquor licence yet, but plans to get it, perhaps by the end of the month.
For me, the gateway item to Peruvian food as Petit Peru serves it is its leche de tigre, a tall glass filled with a citrusy, chili-spiked, perfectly seasoned broth that also relies on the concentrated marinade used to make ceviche, plus chunks of raw tilapia that have been effectively “cooked” by being steeped in that marinade. Depending on who you talk to, leche de tigre is also either an aphrodisiac or a hangover cure. It’s sufficient for me that it’s simply one of the top reasons to visit Petit Peru. My friend, the Peruvian-food newbie, felt the same way.
A trio of sauces and leche de tigre at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
The larger-portioned and more easily shared ceviches — which can feature simply tilapia or that fish with assorted shellfish and squid and be adorned with kernels of Peruvian corn, cooked two ways — have been likeable and vivid, if not as mouth-pleasing and punchy as leche de tigre. From June 22 to 26, Petit Peru will be serving all-you-can-eat ceviche, which strikes me as the best raw deal in the region.
Also representing Peru well at Bahamonde’s eatery were its causas — cold terrines that stacked tuna or beef or crab on top of avocado and smooth, seasoned, mashed potatoes. The noble spud, a star of Peruvian cooking, was also well-treated in papa rellena, an orb of crusted mashed potato stuffed with ground beef, onions, garlic raisins and hard-boiled egg.
Tres causas (crab, beef and tuna) at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
Papa rellena at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
Empanadas here, whether stuffed with well-seasoned beef or chicken, have been consistently fine, especially with a hit of tangy Huacatay sauce. I usually take the savoury pastries home for later enjoyment and indulge my appetite in real-time on Petit Peru’s more time-sensitive dishes.
An empanada from Petit Peru, with Huacatay sauce
The starter I’m least keen on here is the tamal, a long, oblong stuffed corn-dough dumpling. At Petit Peru, I like my corn plump and crunchy, as it can be found in ceviches or as an opening snack.
Tamal at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street
Main courses have been hearty and very likely to generate leftovers. One of the most substantial plates, “lomo à la Pobre” or “poor man’s steak,” was laden with seasoned slabs of sirloin, rice, fries topped with a fried egg, and salad. More adventurous meat-lovers could opt for anticuchos, the celebrated Peruvian dish of grilled, sliced beef heart, which was tender and flavourful, albeit with a touch of offal’s funk. Some of Petit Peru’s homemade sauces could be used to mask that tang.
Lomo a lo pobre at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
Anticuchos at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
Rotisserie chicken here is called pollo à la brasa and available in quarter-, half- and whole-chicken portions. Perhaps if the soy-lime marinated skin were a little more crisp, the chicken would be faultless. But otherwise, the bird’s meat, both light and dark, has been moist and flavourful, and better still with one of the eatery’s house-made perky sauces.
Pollo a la brasa at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
The chicharrón platter teemed with deep-fried, crispy pork loin, intended to be stuffed into buns with sweet potato and marinated red onions. Most of the flavourful meat was very dry (that’s the cost of a crunchy exterior) but hunks with a seam of fat retained some succulence.
Chicharron (crispy pork) with sweet potatoes at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
Deep-fried shrimp, squid, fish and yucca were battered and crisply fried. Gingery fried rice, studded with chicken, beef or fish, came mounded in the form of an Inca pyramid, even if the dish is indebted to Peru’s Chinese immigrants.
Jalea (fried seafood) at Petit Peru
Speaking of the Inca, that indigenous empire lends its name to Inca Kola, the alarmingly yellow Peruvian soft drink available here. So to is house-made chicha morada, an Incan spiced punch made with dried purple corn and studded with pineapple.
A lighter dessert here was a serving of two surprisingly delicate alfajores that sandwiched dulce de leche between sugar-dusted cookies. Heavier was Petit Peru’s torta tres leches, a sponge cake sopping in condensed milk, heavy cream and more.
Alfajores at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
Tortas tres leches at Petit Peru on Montcalm Street in Hull
After he split that torta tres leches with me, my pal was glad to have been introduced to Petit Peru and said he’d go back. If you’ve not yet experienced the at-times unfamiliar but captivating fare at this or a previous Petit Peru location, you might well feel the same way after your initial visit.
phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
