Buenos Aires – Peruvian cuisine isn’t the first thing I think of in Argentina. However, Henry is from Peru, and isn’t particularly fond of Argentinian cuisine. By comparison, Argentinian food tends to be blander, there’s no question. So, off we went to one of his favorites, Status, located at Virrey Cevallos, 178, near the Congreso Nacional.
One big plus to Peruvian cuisine is that the Peruvians eat more seafood than the Argentinians do 
(I haven’t quite figured out the porteño (resident of Buenos Aires) aversion to eating anything from the ocean). I’m a big fish and shellfish fan, and so I know that it’s places like this I’ll have to come when I want to dine out on denizens of the sea. A lovely and slightly spicy Sopa de Pescados (fish soup in a tomato broth), and an Arroz Chaufa de Mariscos (basically fried rice with shellfish) were our main courses. A couple of salads; his a mixed lettuce, tomato and onion, mine a delicious platter of fresh tomatoes with just a touch of salt and lemon.
But the fun thing was a little Peruvian hors d’oeuvres, one of my favorites. It’s called Cancha. Simply, a far better alternative to popcorn, which to me tastes and feels like styrofoam. It uses a large kernelled maize that is grown in Peru. The kernels are dried and then toasted in oil until the puff slightly and brown. They are sprinkled with salt and then eaten. Yum!
Rather than a new post, just an addition. ‘Twas Peruvian cuisine again for dinner after we connected up with some friends who wanted to go out. This time it was off to the Belgrano neighborhood to Contigo Peru (Echevarria, 1627), a clearly tourist oriented venue – the menu printed in Spanish, English & Japanese – not to mention the sign over the door saying “Restaurante Touristica”. A vaster selection of dishes, but not the quality of Status, however, at one-third the price, not a bad way to sample some interesting dishes. We had quite good tamales, and a dish called Ocopa – slices of potato in a cream, walnut and cheese sauce. Worth a trip if you’ve got a group that wants to try several things and share.
[…] Today we slept in, everyone seems to be fighting off colds here at the moment – must be the constant changes in the weather. But feeling better when we got up, and the three of us trooped off to Belgrano. There was an artisans’ fair just getting into swing in Plaza Belgrano, so we stopped off and did a little shopping for handcrafted jewelry and scarves. Lunch at Contigo Peru, giving Henry a chance to show off some really good, authentic, Peruvian food to Maureen. We had a great mixed seafood ceviche, the real standout of the dishes – but some fun other stuff as well. Then the 50¢ tour of Barrio Chino and buying food for tonight. Had decided on finally getting around to a real dinner party. Henry’s been wanting duck, and the only place I’ve seen it remotely reasonably priced (not that I’ve seen it many places), was in one of the markets in chinatown. […]
[…] Buenos Aires – We were in the mood for Peruvian food once again. Well, basically, except for occasionally talking him into going to somewhere novel, like the Korean restaurant, Henry only likes to eat at Peruvian venues. Other than that, I cook. So it was back to Status, where we had lunch one of the first days I was here. But we did agree in advance on trying some new dishes. […]
[…] The menu is odd. First of all, I have to just say, I don’t like hairy things in restaurants, and I don’t just mean the food. Here, the menu is a small cardboard bound affair with a binding strip of something furry. It just put me on edge. Then you encounter the plasticized pages of the inner menu, listing dozens and dozens of items. We began to get interested, only to have that interest squashed by our waitress who told us that the menu is just a listing of “possible dishes” of the day – and then proceeded to cut our choices down to 3 appetizers, 2 meat entrees, and 7-8 fish entrees, as the only things they were equipped to make that evening. I’m all for the concept of a daily changing menu, I just don’t like the presentation in this case. But we got over it, ordered all three appetizers – ocopa, papas a la huancayina, and a tamal, followed by a plate of ceviche mixto. We also decided to try one of the two listed cocktails, a trago de algarroba, or “carob drink.” It turned out to be a blended affair of carob juice, pisco (Peruvian unaged brandy), milk, and egg white. Frothy, vaguely chocolately, and very alcoholic. The food, overall, was just acceptable, clearly nothing special. We both liked that the potatoes in the first two appetizers were served warm – quite often they’re served nearly refrigerator cold. The sauce on the ocopa was particularly good. The tamal was, at best, edible, first off being made of coarse polenta rather than properly ground Peruvian maize, and second off having very little filling – a couple of chunks of chicken and one olive, complete with pit. The ceviche was okay, though the fish and shellfish didn’t taste 100% fresh, and the “mixto” part consisted of a couple of scattered shrimp and mussels. Given that Primavera Trujillana is only a few blocks from Contigo Peru that we both enjoy quite a bit, and have taken friends to many times, it’s simply not interesting enough to return to. […]
[…] So we went out last night to Contigo Perú and had ceviche, anticuchos, ocopa, arroz con pollo, seco de carne, and lomo saltado, along with a liter of beer, and spent a whole 60 pesos with tip, couldn’t finish it all, and you know what? It wasn’t fancy, it wasn’t in a glowingly lit golden room, there was no dragonfly logo… it’s freshly painted in gleaming white, our regular waiter Carlos greeted us cheerfully and with a one-handed quick squeeze around the shoulders, we ordered and ate in about an hour and a half, and it was simply delicious. […]
[…] first Peruvian restaurant I set foot in Buenos Aires was Status, Virrey Ceballos 178 just off the Plaza del Congreso. We’ve been back on and off, but not […]
[…] Verde, in fact, there were only 2 restaurants open on the entire strip that we saw. Even nearby Contigo Peru, for a casual Peruvian lunch, was shuttered for the day. Neither of the two open options looked […]