Buenos Aires – I think every culture has some sort of scramble as a classic dish. It isn’t likely to be high on the elegance charts, and it probably fits into the category of “guilty pleasures” for most foodies. Argentina has its revuelto gramajo, a scramble named after Artemio Gramajo, a gourmet chef who was also a government administrator and close friend of former president Julio Roca. This dish was, if I understand the history correctly, regularly served as breakfast for combatants in the field, and only some time later became a dish that restaurants now offer as a special of the day, often for dinner. That’s where I found it last night at a local eatery.
It’s not a particularly off the wall sort of scramble. Thin strips of potato, preferably crisply fried, almost like hash browns (which the ones in my dish last night were not), shreds of ham, chopped onion, fresh peas (mine were clearly canned), and a little cheese. Scramble the whole thing together with just enough egg to end up scattered throughout – you don’t want this to turn into an omelette or even a scrambled egg dish, it’s about the potatoes more than anything else. Maybe top it off with a splash of hot sauce (they do have to stop warning me here that sauces are muy, muy picante, when the heat level barely reaches that of, say, Taco Bell’s mild sauce). Despite the lack of crisp to the potatoes, this was really quite good!
[…] Which brings us, last night, to Café Bercy, Pueyreddon 1585, at the corner of Beruti. In the past, it’s been the place we stop for coffee or a snack when waiting for a doctor’s appointment, as it’s kitty-corner (I always wanted to use that in a written sentence) from Hospital Alemán. For the most part, a casual bite is what it’s about, and I’d say the majority of folk stop in for little more than that, or a beer, or glass of wine. Still, they have a full menu, and now and again, I’ve tried something like a revuelto gramajo or tortilla española. I wasn’t holding out a lot of hope for any major culinary experience, and indeed, the food is exactly what you’d expect from a coffee shop. Decently made, reasonably flavorful, and nothing special. They do have really good coffee and pastries though, so I recommend them for that! […]
[…] While Cartoon offers a traditional revuelto gramajo, they also offer their own version of this scramble, a revuelto cartoon. What arrived was a huge platter of scrambled eggs, potatoes, green and red bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions. (It might help to think about the plate size in these pictures – these are not standard dinner plates, but somewhere between 12-14″ plates.) In fact, in the end, the three of us just shared this platter for our lunch, packing away the steak above, and the pasta below, for later eating. Decently seasoned, and all together not bad, the revuelto cartoon isn’t a match for the classic gramajo, but still pretty good. […]
[…] swears by their revuelto gramajo, and indeed, it seemed as if three-quarters of the patrons were digging into the Munich version, […]