Let’s start simple….

 

A whopping basket of fried chicken from Jay’s, Antonio Beruti 2640, Recoleta, our neighborhood “NY diner”, which I’ve reviewed before for their breakfasts and burgers. If I wasn’t trying to put together a decent map of places for fried chicken, I probably wouldn’t give this another review, simply because… I’ve already reviewed it twice. Now, unless you order a small basket of “chicken fingers” or wings, the only real option for fried chicken here is their “fried chicken in a basket”. It’s a whopping portion, easily shareable by two – including a leg, thigh, two chicken tenders, and four wings. It comes with a choice of fries of onion rings, an equally large portion. And, it only runs 320 pesos, $9, for all of that. That’s a steal.

Or it would be if it was a bit better. No, it’s still a steal, because it’s not bad, it’s just… average. The chicken is a touch overcooked and dry, it clearly hasn’t been brined or seasoned before being coated in a batter and deep fried. The coating itself is nice and crunchy, though could also use a bit of seasoning. Same with the onion rings, though they aren’t dried out – they’re still probably the best onion rings in the city. And plenty of condiments available, including tabasco sauce to perk up the chicken. Like with the burger, I’ll stick with their breakfasts, which is where they really shine.

~~~~~~~~~~

Around five years ago, when I was actively searching for the best seafood mixed grills in town, I ventured in to La Pescadorita, Humboldt 1905, Palermo. There, I had one of the best of the genre, and, for some reason, have simply never been back to try more. Maybe it’s because it was fairly expensive, given the other places I’d tried. Maybe…

…it’s the merman sculpture out front. The Roving Ravenous Horde, or at least a small cadre of us, made our way there for outing #46. Nah, I’m sticking with expensive, because it still is (though, of course, seafood in general tends to be here, for some inexplicable reason).

The five of us tucked into two appetizers – a good sized frito mixto of delicately fried shrimp, baby calamari, and calamari rings, with a scattering of mussels (570 pesos! $16!) and a relatively small helping of gambas al ajillo – prawns in a mildly spicy garlic sauce (450 pesos, $12.50). Both quite good. Even though a bit pricey, they were certainly worth it for the quality.

We then ordered two large main courses to share – the same parrillada, or mixed grill, though the larger version of it (I’d had the version for 2 people the first time I went, which back at that time ran 240 pesos – given the exchange rate at the time, that was roughly $30) – it’s now, I think, 1100 pesos, or about the same in dollars. The large version is 1450 pesos, or $40, and is double the quantity. Slightly disappointing that they don’t have the variety of seafood on the platter anymore. My original version, I listed, “salmon, sandperch, flounder and hake; and a mound of octopus, squid, cuttlefish, prawns, shrimp, and scallops”. Now, there were just two types of fish rather than four – salmon and sandperch, prawns and shrimp, and some calamari and mussels. No scallops, no cuttlefish, and while you can get it with octopus, they now charge an extra 1100 pesos to put it on the platter. Also gone are the trio of dipping sauces, it’s now just a basic herb-garlic sauce and some yogurt. It’s still excellent, just not as abundant, and the variety is less (perhaps seasonal?), in comparison to what it used to be.

We also ordered the gran cazuela de mariscos – a lovely tomato based shellfish stew of prawns, clams, mussels, and baby squid. Really good, and the broth from it made a better dipping sauce for the parrillada above than its own accompaniments. It also runs 1300 pesos, $36. That ain’t cheap – though they do have an individual sized version for, if I recall correctly, 750 pesos, or $21….

We had, at my suggestion, added in a platter of “grilled vegetables” – which turned out to be a rather stodgy small bowl of potatoes and sweet potatoes, and fennel, that didn’t seem to be off the grill, but just simply from the oven. The one disappointment in terms of quality for the meal, and at 210 pesos, $6, kind of a waste.

Add on the usual beverages, and a cubierto charge that’s now up to 50 pesos apiece (from 16 five years ago – so in dollar terms, it’s actually less, having dropped from $2 to $1.40), and with tip, lunch ran us 1050 pesos, $29, apiece). Expensive, but not at all outrageous, especially for seafood of this quality. Still highly recommended.

~~~~~~~~~~

 

I don’t exactly remember how I stumbled across that there was an Indian restaurant in the zona norte – I think I was looking at the map for a different place and just happened to notice it a few blocks away. I made a note of it and really hadn’t thought much about it since – I know it’s been on my “to get to” map for quite awhile. When I was up checking out Xilantro a month or so ago for the last Bite Marks, I decided to walk by it and just see if it really was there. It was, and so Ali Indian Restaurant, Ladislao Martínez 15, in Martínez, stuck in my mind when I was thinking about an out of city adventure for the Roving Ravenous Horde’s 47th outing.

Setting things up, when it looked like we had six of us headed that way turned out to be… interesting. As yesterday was a holiday, I’d sent a quick Facebook message to the place asking if they’d be open for the holiday. I ended up in a chat with the owner, and yes, they were open, but he absolutely refused to take a reservation via Facebook, insisting I call – which I did, but the phone just rang and rang, even though he was supposedly sitting there awaiting my call. But, he would only take the reservation by phone… try again. I went to bed.

So we just headed there without a reservation. In the end, after five people cancelled within the last couple of hours before lunch, and one joined, it was just me and one other person, venturing into the completely empty place (seven other people came in over the course of the lunch hour). During lunch, I got a FB message from the owner asking if I was ever going to call, and if we were still coming – I didn’t see it until after we left, but responded that two of us had been there, had lunch, and I’d tried to call but gotten no answer… after a pause, he came back with, “oops, sorry, I gave you the wrong phone number”. Why not just take the damn reservation while we were chatting online?

The menu is reasonably extensive, and includes various chicken, lamb, and prawn dishes in different curries and tandoors and tikka masalas and kormas and all the others that we typically see. Plus a couple that seemed to be in-house inventions, like “Cilly Chicken” (which we pronounced as Silly Chicken, but the waiter corrected us to Chili Chicken – oh, okay, that makes more sense), and “Chicken do Díaz”, which sounds like something Argentine, but the waiter touted highly as the best chicken dish. Then again, with the “do” rather than “de”, it would be Portuguese – maybe it’s a real dish from the Goa area which is heavily Portuguese influenced? There are a whopping three vegetarian dishes on the whole menu – a dahl made with lentils, a panak paneer (spinach and cheese) and some sort of mushroom curry.

We ordered some eggplant pakoras (they were out of cauliflower ones) and vegetable samosas, which at 30 pesos per order for, respectively, four and two of them, is a complete steal, that’s less than a dollar, and, they were quite good, though the pakoras could have been left in the fryer another 30 seconds to crisp a little more. The naan, available in “all sorts of flavors” (none of them listed on the menu, but apparently in garlic, onion, green onion, cilantro, and/or mint) were not quite what we think of as naan, but more like a soft pizza dough – puffy and doughy, and not brushed with ghee, clarified butter, which we’re used to seeing. And, the variety makes sense, because the onion (which we ordered) wasn’t cooked into the dough, but just sprinkled on top – so I guess they can just sprinkle anything. Personally, I’d pass on the naan, and only had one bite (I’m also cutting back on carbs, and already lost 3 kg this month), but my companion ate it all. The trio of dipping sauces – a mint sauce (rather than the more common, at least to me, cilantro) was good, as was the chili paste. The chutney was syrupy sweet, and we left it alone after one try.

With just two of us, we couldn’t sample much of the menu, but a lamb vindaloo and the much hyped chicken from whomever Díaz is hit the table shortly. We’d made a point of asking for spicy. The waiter made a point that nothing they served was spicy, but they could make it so. We made a point of saying, “not Argentine spicy, but actually spicy”. He made a point of saying, “okay, Indian spicy”. Neither dish was spicy. Both were delicious, a great blend of spices and herbs, but no heat whatsoever. So we ordered another ramekin of chili paste – it’s not the same, but at least gave a bit more of a kick. The vindaloo had the oddity of having fried potatoes scattered on top of it rather than potatoes cooked into the curry. An Argentine affectation? The “basmati” rice was good, though I don’t think it was really basmati, it just didn’t have that fragrance, and I know the real stuff is hard to get here – most of what is sold as basmati, just isn’t. All main dishes run about 280-290 pesos ($8) including their accompanying rice.

Overall, pretty place, though very dim and weird lighting (different colored bulbs in the various overhead lamps – white, blue, green, yellow). Friendly service. Very good food, not wow, but certainly better than a few of the places I’ve been to in town. Quite reasonable. If I lived up at that way, I’d certainly eat there again, and more than once. The five of you who cancelled… you missed out!

Oh, and pretty elephants….