Authentically Pincho Loco

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Clockwise from top: cold cuts platter, cheeseburger, cold octopus salad, padron pizza, grilled chicken sandwich, and cheese platter.

INTERNATIONAL cuisine is notorious for getting watered down or tweaked to local taste buds — to a point where the word ‘authentic’ is often tossed around by people who don’t know what it means.

The truth is ‘authentic’ foreign anything is hard to achieve, particularly when it’s as perishable as food and as finicky as its eaters, and the essential ingredients have more air miles to their name by the time they get here than I’ll ever accrue in my passport.

So when Spanish restaurant Pincho Loco popped up at Ewe Hai Street, Kuching in all its bright yellow and blue glory, it’s the closest some of us will ever get to experiencing a tapas bar from the streets of Barcelona.

Pincho Loco by Zinc is a nod to a fond memory and a move to introduce something different to Kuching. Opened by James and Servane Lo, the same husband and wife team behind Zinc at Jalan Tabuan, it harks back to a time when Servane was working in Barcelona for a year in the mid-90’s and James visited a few times.

“It was in Barcelona that I discovered tapas bars and very vibrant music like the flamenco type of singing and dancing,” James told thesundaypost.

He revealed they both liked it and missed it because there wasn’t a place in Kuching to get a very authentic version of tapas.

“It’s very casual affair. People will walk in, order a few plates, eat it with a glass of wine or beer, then move on to another tapas bar,” James said, adding that after three or four tapas bars, they would be full.

The couple really liked the simple casual dining that tapas allows but there wasn’t a place in Kuching where they could get it, especially a very authentic version. It wasn’t until much later that the opportunity to introduce tapas came a’knocking.

To the uninitiated, tapas simply means small plate.’ Rather like the more familiar dim sum, it’s common to order a few to share. Also like dim sum, every tapas bar has its own specialty, although if you’re in Kuching, Pincho Loco simply stands out for standing alone.

Speaking of standing, it’s typical for the tapas bar hoppers in Barcelona to park themselves at a tall table since people aren’t expected to linger. Happily, you can sit and enjoy your tapas in Kuching, either perched on bar stools at tall tables or more grounded at standard tables or slightly hidden at the bar.

“Because the whole cafe and tapas bar is run by Zinc, we are using the same resources — seconding our bartenders here, preparing some of the food at the initial stages in the Zinc kitchen before sending it here every day to finish the cooking and plating,” James said.

The food is prepared fresh daily by their chef Jordi Badia at the main kitchen in Zinc over at Jalan Tabuan. Badia hails from Barcelona and tapas is in his repertoire. The only way this outfit will get more authentic is if good apple cider is available in Kuching.

Pincho Loco at Ewe Hai Street is hard to miss with its bright yellow exterior.

James noted: “Among the tapas I remember from Barcelona is the chorizo sausage. Over here, we cook it in tuak. In Spain, they cook it with apple cider but this is a very particular one you can’t get here. The chef didn’t want to use Sommersby because it’s too sweet and fizzy. We ended up with tuak and it works very well.”

Those, together with stuffed peppers and beef meatballs, were the small plates that often appeared at their tables. They have now been recreated in Pincho Loco.

“I always thought it would work in Kuching. We have a tradition of eating dim sum, except the flavour profile is different. Dim sum is steamed. Here, we fry, roast or serve it cold. A lot of tapas are actually served cold. We got ham platters and cheese platters. These are the kind of things we missed and wanted to introduce to Kuching,” he added.

The tapas menu is divided into hot and cold. The latter is relatively small and cooked earlier in the day every day. Serving it cold means it can be delivered very quickly upon order.

Among the items on the menu that are very easy on the palate are the Patatas Alioli (potatoes with handmade garlic mayonnaise), cold octopus salad, tossed with red and green pepper, and Boquerones or fresh anchovies marinated in oil and vinegar. These cost between RM10 and RM15 per serving.

Hot tapas are things like the lightly fried and salted padron peppers, albondigas (beef meatballs in tomato sauce) and the Sarawak-Spain fusion of chorizo sausages in tuak.

“The Spanish love their pork,” James remarked, alluding to the botifarra or grilled hand-made pork sausage.

If you’re feeling a little fanciful, there’s also the Spanish cheese platter (Mahon, Idiazabal and Tetilla) and the Spanish cold cuts platter (Jamon Iberico, Chorizo and Salchichon).

For something heartier than a few slices of ham and cheese, there’s the all-day brunch. You have the choice of Huevos Estrellados (fried egg with cured ham and potatos), a bacon, eggs, mushroom and tomato combo or a bocadillo, which is a crusty baguette with grilled chicken and cheese.

Brunch comes with dessert (creme caramel or pannacotta), a hot beverage (coffee, tea or hot chocolate), and a cold drink (orange juice or soft drink). You can also add in a glass of sparkling wine.

Interestingly enough, the Spanish also make a lot of pizza.

“We got padron peppers pizza, which is not spicy but tasty, chorizo pizza and seafood pizza. Part of what the chef puts on the seafood pizza is similar to the dressing we put on escargot — butter, garlic, and parsley,” James said.

Too exotic? That was their problem in the beginning too. According to James, a lot of people never even got through the door because they had no idea what they were looking at.

“Now we got sandwiches, cheeseburger and lasagna — things everybody recognises but done in our chef’s special style.”

The cheeseburger is worthy of mention, especially if you like burgers. The patty is made of steak meat, grounded up with one special ingredient — wagyu beef fat. This gives the patty a smooth rich texture and a depth that is now absent from other burgers you’ve eaten.

Similarly, the lasagna is entirely hand-made, and the bocadillo (sandwich) comes in four varieties — grilled chicken, Spanish cured ham, vegetarian, and tuna.

If you’ve made the connection between the two eateries, you might be brushing Pincho Loco off as a place with a similar price tag as the very fancy Zinc. Not necessarily true though. The food here is only minimally marked up and quite comfortable on the wallet if you’re used to frequenting posher cafes.

“It’s a different concept. We are deliberately trying to do something very affordable and accessible to people,” James said.

He pointed out that they really made their money from drinks — sangria, cava, gin and tonic or beer. Even the coffee is authentic — Dromedario coffee, an award-winning Spanish coffee bean.

While we’re still here, what does the name of the place mean anyway?

Pincho is a kind of tapas, the one on skewers. It can be a little wooden pick or a big metal skewer. Loco means crazy.

Pincho Loco opens from 12pm to 3pm and 6pm to 10.30pm from Monday to Saturday, brunch from 10.30am to 3pm on Sunday, then for the evenings from 6pm to 10.30pm. It is closed on Wednesday.

The cheeseburger is made entirely from scratch, with a special ingredient in the meat patty to pump up the flavour.

The chicken wings are entirely familiar and also quite tasty.