Pica Pica Maize Kitchen - Oxbow Market Napa

Weather today was gorgeous after a too hot Saturday. We took a drive out to Oxbow Public Market in Napa. Our first visit there even though we've been to Napa quite a number of times. Not surprising since there is so much to indulge in there!

First stop was Pica Pica Maize Kitchen. It's in the Oxbow Public Market "food court". Food court is in quotes because the Oxbow Market is much nicer than your regular food court but nevertheless the best way to describe it :p Needing to save room to try as much as possible during this visit, we decided to share a skirt steak arepa (Paballon), Yucca fries (Pasapalo), and a salad (Bululu).



The salad was very refreshing! Passion fruit dressing, pineapples, roasted peppers, corn, jicama and quinoa. Quino is hard to describe if you haven't had it. Apparently grain is not an accurate description (see wikipedia). Quinoa is pretty common in South America and looks like little worms. Morsels & Musings has a pretty photo of quinoa.



The arepas (skirt steak, plantains, beans, cheese) were good though the skirt steak was a little dry. The highlight for me was the Yucca fries. They were nicely battered and the sweetness of the yucca gave them an almost syrupy taste. Hard to describe but a must try!



Chomp Meter:
Hmm more like 4.25 Chomps for what it is. Exceeds expectations for a casual restaurant in a food market and perfect for lunch! Pica Pica comes highly recommended by our Venezuelan friends. The focus on corn is interesting (I believe there's a larger variety of corn in South America) and I found the food to be yummy. I'd definitely be back for more but not before I try the other restaurants there hehe.

For tourists though, there are only so many meals you can have in Napa so I don't think this makes the list just yet.

Pica Pica Maize Kitchen
610 1st St
Napa, CA 94559-2602
(707) 251-3757