Bar Alpaca Introduces Potato in Four Textures.

May 30 marks National Potato Day in Peru. It was established almost twenty years ago, in 2005. The occasion came from an initiative by the Potato Park, where scientists and farmers study varieties and preserve their diversity. Peru grows around 4,000 varieties of potato — bright pink tubers, purple ones, tiny ones, large ones, some with a buttery flavor, others with nutty notes. In honor of the holiday, Moscow bar Alpaca has introduced a special dish in which the chefs decided to experiment with four different potato textures at once.

The dish was created by the bar's two new chefs, Vlad Suchkov and Artyom Efremov. Their idea: combine Peruvian culinary traditions with an original approach. The dish's central ingredient is eel. It's rounded out with four ways of preparing potato and a chimichurri sauce. The chefs took the classic South American recipe as their base but interpreted it their own way — instead of the usual garlic and cilantro, they use green onion and parsley.

The potato in the dish is served four ways. The first: a mousse made from tubers pre-baked in coals. The second: small cubes fried at low temperature in oil with garlic, rosemary, thyme, and black pepper, in the spirit of pommes parisienne. The third: crispy thin straws, evoking pommes paille and Asian cuisine. The fourth: decorative "potato glass," made from potato, potato stock, and starch, then deep-fried. On top of it all: a slice of eel and the sauce.

You can try the dish at bar Alpaca from May 28 to June 1. After that, it will disappear from the menu.