Face-off. Peru vs. India!

El Angelito, San Luis 2741, Recoleta – Opened almost a year ago, and not far from us, apparently it took over the space vacated by Chimu, which has moved elsewhere in the city. It popped up on a delivery service, and we gave it a try. We liked it, and gave it a second try. We liked it even more. A visit is in the offing…. [We did visit and it was as good as expected. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it through the pandemic.]

Anticuchos de corazón – Part of our first order. We’re both big fans of this classic marinated beef heart dish. This one was good, not a wow – the biggest issue we both had was the meat was sliced very thick, and therefore a little bit chewy. The spicing was very good, and the hot sauce on the side was excellent – in fact, one of the things we liked most was that they provided two different hot sauces – one sort of medium hot and one a bit more fiery, giving customers a choice! 190 pesos.

Tamál de cerdo – From the second order, an absolutely delicious and properly made tamál! 155 pesos.

Leche de tigre – It doesn’t look like much, and the presentation kind of sucks, but I love my leche de tigre, and this one had a good dose of chili, lots of fresh acidity, onions, and a small amount of fish in it. One of the best? No. But really quite good. 190 pesos.

Ajiaco de papas con conejo – Remember “Chili Rabbit“? Not a common dish locally, mostly because rabbit tends to be a bit pricey here. But still one of my favorite Peruvian dishes. The rabbit, cooked perfectly. The ajiaco could have been a little creamier, but had great flavor. The rice, textbook perfect. And there, one of those extra chili sauces, this one a puree of ají amarillo, peruvian yellow chili. 330 pesos.

Tallarines verdes con bistek – Another favorite, what I tend to refer to as Spaghetti with Peruvian pesto. The sauce is similar to a classic Genovese pesto, though incorporates onion, and spinach, and classically uses goat’s milk cheese rather than cow’s milk cheese. This was a very good version! And, the steak, albeit thin (kind of the way the beef heart should have been above), was seasoned just right, and beautifully tender. 280 pesos.

Estofado de pato – A very, very good stewed duck dish, another one that we rarely see here. Duck is even more expensive and less common than rabbit in Buenos Aires. Delicious! 330 pesos.

So, a visit to the actual spot, in the offing!

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Readers who’ve been with me since the early days will possibly recall that I wasn’t overly impressed with the Indian food offerings here in Buenos Aires, back in the day. That’s changed a bit over time, and places like Tandoor and Taj Mahal have been offering really decent Indian food here, despite the local aversion to unfamiliar spices and picante fare (which, also, thankfully, is changing). One of the long standing spots, in fact, one of the few spots in town offering Indian food when I moved her in 2005 was Mumbai, which at the time was located downtown on Paraguay, but moved in 2007 to Honduras 5684 in Palermo. While I wasn’t wowed by it, I liked it, and surprisingly I just never got around to checking out the new digs. Part of that was probably the opening of the other two places (and Tandoor is easy walking distance from home), plus several other spots, like Delhi Darbar, Delhi Mahal, and Delhi Masala, and more. Casting about for this week’s Roving Ravenous Horde outing, our 60th (!), I thought, hey, it’s about time to go and try the new location of Mumbai….

 

At lunch, there were few folk there (and I gather, in an attempt to garner more business, they have a 40% lunch discount if you reserve through Restorando and pay in cash). A table of four were there when we arrived, and a solo guy arrive a little later. It’s sort of surprising, given how much foot traffic there is in the area, and that they offer a rather enticing sounding menú ejecutivo for a mere 350 pesos, that includes appetizer, a main course curry, rice, naan, and a beverage. We decided to order off the extensive a la carte menu which stretches an impressive seven pages, offering up more than four dozen different dishes, from a variety of Indian regional styles.

While we perused, a little basket of simple naan, with a quartet of classic sauces – yogurt with garlic (excellent), sweet tomato (a little too sweet), mint and cilantro (very nice), and a truly fiery chili sauce (like, sweat inducing).

They have a mixed appetizer plate, which for our trio (originally planned as seven folk, but four cancelled during the last hours before the lunch for various reasons), was more than sufficient. A mix of vegetable and chicken pakoras, a potato samosa, and a couple of “crispi onion” pancakes. Yum all around. Good start! 280 pesos.

And, a trio of main courses – a kadai ghost – a classic lamb and black pepper curry, one of the house specialties, and it definitely had a kick from that pepper (460 pesos), another house specialty, the bangalore mix, a prawn and angel shark curry with a beautiful depth of flavor and the fish cooked just perfectly (475 pesos), and a classic dal bhukhara – slow cooked lentils (overnight according to the menu) that’is one of my favorites, and this one was one of the better of the dish I’ve had (415 pesos). All absolutely delicious, as was the cardamom spiced jeera rice, and garlic naan (could have used a little more garlic, but tasty).

Friendly and efficient service. Nice ambiance. Great food. Leaps and bounds ahead of what it used to be downtown, and really, nearly as good as meals we’ve had at the two favorites listed above. The menus at all three are, in reality, very different, with what (in my limited knowledge of Indian food) I assume to be regional variations. On the whole, Mumbai is less expensive (15-20%) than Tandoor and more expensive (10-15%) than Taj Majal, but I’d happily eat at any of the three, any day. Lunch for 3, with cubierto (35 pesos/person), and a trio of waters, rang up to 2080 pesos, but knock off that 40% discount, and then add in a tip on the original price, and we walked out for 1500 pesos – a bargain!