Leche de tigre: Meet the bar that offers 40 tasty varieties with combinations you never imagined

When a taste becomes a passion, everything changes. This is what happened to Jesús Aguilar, a man who, after devoting himself to the automotive sector for 20 years, decided to bet on gastronomy as his life project and opened Del tigre su leche, a bar that today is very popular for offering 40 types of milk of tiger.

“The person speaking to you is from the first generation of my family that has dedicated itself to gastronomy,” says Aguilar with a smile full of pride, while checking that everything is going well in the brand’s first store, located in Magdalena. He always enjoyed watching gastronomy programs and, like many, he was captivated by the proposal of the renowned chef Gastón Acurio. “That’s where the curiosity bug appeared that is still with me to this day, that’s why I keep creating new flavors,” he explains.

Among so many types of cuisine that she could explore, her passion for the navy stood out and she decided to hire a chef to give her private lessons. “It was very curious, because for two months every morning I dedicated to learning the basics of marine cooking and, in the afternoons, I went to work at the company”. Among so many things that he learned, and also for personal taste, he decided to bet on leche de tigre.

This adventure was not easy. “Having a fully consolidated company, I decided to change everything. All the investment I had there was transferred to this brand, which today already has three stores and two stalls in shopping centers”, he comments.

They told him he was crazy, to drop it or, more diplomatically, to see it as a hobby. He refused and has no regrets. “This has given me many personal victories, beyond the economic aspect, I am very happy to get up every day and dedicate myself to this”, reflects the self-taught chef.

But Jesús Aguilar wanted to go further, take the traditional as a base and explore the wealth of food that characterizes our country. Thus, thanks to his creativity and his curious palate, he created versions of leche de tigre in which he combined ingredients that few dare. Use everything from tumbo to olives, including native chili peppers such as pipi de mono or limo and even huacatay, peppers and sachatomate. In his letter we can see represented Peru and its rich regions.

A party of flavors

The concept of this bar seeks to be a place of passage, where you can enjoy a leche de tigre and, if you are hungry, try one of the seafood rice dishes that they also offer and explore similar flavors. If you want to enjoy an olive leche de tigre, you will find a rice with the same flavors.

In addition to the classic version and the panther milk -with black shells-, they also offer a tribute to the huancaína sauce. Another of the ingredients they celebrate are olives. We can find them in the Sureño, which has green olives, peppers and rocoto, or in the Tacneño, which includes manzanilla olives.

Perhaps what surprises some the most is the variety of fruits they use, but the trick, according to Aguilar, is that they take advantage of the acidity of these ingredients. For this reason, you can find versions with aguaymanto, passion fruit and tumbo. If you are one of those who cannot live without spiciness, don’t worry, there are also options that take advantage of charapita chili pepper, huaracino rocoto, cherry chili pepper and monkey pipi, known for being probably the spiciest in the country.

Aguilar says that within his brand, special attention is paid to native Peruvian peppers, thanks to an agreement with the La Molina National Agrarian University. “Usually, when other restaurants bet on these products, they combine them and that’s it. We don’t, that’s why we have 19 varieties of Leche de Tigre, each one dedicated to giving prominence to a different chili pepper.” For this reason, we find options with names that perhaps many do not know, such as: cacho de cabra, uña amarilla, pucunucho or mochero trompito.

The experience

What is different about these leche de tigre is also delicious and strong. Aguilar says that, before launching with this proposal, he dedicated himself to creating a leche de tigre base that could be combined with any of the ingredients that he wanted to highlight, and he succeeded. This “milk” is creamy, with just the right amount of lemon and salt. A generous portion of fresh fish is served in each glass, cut to the ideal size to enjoy and accompanied with chopped red onion and sweet corn.

If it is about recommendations, we can offer three: Olivo, Seco and Uchuayuyo. The first is a faithful tribute to that little olive sauce that usually accompanies the octopus and is addictive. The second version, which flirts with the flavors that we can find in a good dry, has no loss. Probably the one we enjoyed the most was the third one, which offered us a different flavor profile. It is a preparation that unites aji ayuyo and sachatomate, a combination that gives it a citric point very different from that of lemon.

The rice with seafood that they prepare here is another of its strong points. The little rice acquires the right flavor, the seafood is cooked to perfection so it doesn’t turn out to be tough when you try it, and the portion is generous.

Del tigre su leche is one of those spaces that, in each dish, carries as only the passion of its cooks and, of course, of its creator.

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