Picante de huevos. (Photo courtesy of China Chilcano.)

So, you want to go somewhere for brunch. Somewhere different.

Your destination is South America via Asia for a fusion meal that departs from the norm. Your tour guide is José Andrés, now serving brunch at China Chilcano. Expect Peruvian, Japanese, and Chinese flavors mashed up with American staples to create a menu that technically includes eggs and pancakes, interpreted as only Andrés can.

The menu and décor are high-energy forces, jazzing the midday meal with an up-tempo beat. Soft-spoken dishes are scarce among the eight, mostly meaty, offerings on the brunch menu.

The tortilla china is one of the selections most closely resembling American breakfast. Fortified with ham and crab, the Spanish egg preparation gets an Oriental orientation from egg foo yung, scallions, jicama, bean sprouts, and oyster sauce. Call it a deconstructed omelet.

Pancakes translate to dorayaki, a blend of sugar and spice that makes a nice quinoa pancake with sweet potato filling. It’s served with butter infused pecans and algarrobina, an extract from the black carob tree. The side pitcher holds syrup seasoned with the housemade five-spice blend.

Picante de huevos transitions between breakfast and lunch. Poached eggs cohabitate a clay bowl with saucy and savory companions pork belly, potato, tomato, and red onion. The dish gets a kick from a Peruvian red pepper called ají panca.

Jook preserves the egg and moves farther towards the lunch side of the spectrum. Nested in the bowl of rice porridge is an egg marinated in tea, pork belly, shallots, sweet soy, and the house’s chiracha sauce. The starchy rice and fatty pork join forces to ease the effects of one too many last night.

Firmly in the lunch column, pork spare ribs are a test of agility. Chicharrón de costillas de cerdo are ribs with sweet potato and salsa wrapped in a lettuce leaf. The lettuce leaf isn’t garnish to be left on the plate, but instead functions like a tortilla to envelop the preparation. The objective is to hold your portion by the lettuce leaf, raise it up and bite into it while simultaneously pulling the rib bone out the back side. Buena suerte.

Neutral ground lies in the bowl of hiyashi soba, a mild, vegan dish of chilled buckwheat noodles, tomatoes, avocado, ponzu, sauce and white soy sauce. Futomaki sushi incorporates egg, bok choi, shitake mushrooms, and plantains into slightly sweet rolls with dense centers. Meanwhile, the tamalito verde is a comforting chicken tamale that gets its earthy green color from cilantro.

Drink highlights include the namesake chilcano macerado: pisco with the seasonal flavors of grapefruit, strawberry and/or cucumber, blended with bitters, lime and ginger ale. For a tomato-red glass, order the Inca Sunrise, containing Sailor Jerry Rum, tomato juice, passionfruit juice and cilantro.

China Chilcano is located at 418 7th St NW. Brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.