Wherein, we snack.

Rayadas, Güemes 4245, Palermo. The box tells you the story. “Honesty, madness, and breadcrumbs” is not the first slogan that a milanesa restaurant would typically go for. “If you saw a butterfly or a bat on the spot, you are sane. However if you saw a milanesa you are crazed or starving. Relax, for this totally improvised diagnosis and without any clinical rigor, the solution is inside the box, open it, and eat your milanesa before it gets cold or you finish losing your mind and decide, for example, to face a culinary undertaking in full crisis.”

Nuts. Apparently they’re nuts. On the other hand, this little take-out only spot serves up one damned fine milanesa. The crust is crunchy, something that so many of the genre don’t seem to be – in place of the typical fine breadcrumbs, the steaks are coated in a mixture of panko crumbs, polenta, lemon zest, and thyme. The combinations of toppings are limited, but creative, not just the usual suspects. This one, the confiada is topped with confited onion, crispy bacon, fresh oregano, and provolone cheese. Delicious! As is the whopping portion of roasted squash puree. I don’t have the receipt, but recollection says it was around 550 pesos.

---

70 30 Beer House, Vicente Lopez 2116, Recoleta. Because the Village Recoleta area needs yet another craft beer bar…. Two new openings, this one actually open, the other “coming soon”. Dropped in for an afternoon snack. Eighteen beers on tap, plus a tap for vermouth, and another for gin & tonic. A sextet of local craft beers, all from Buenos Aires city or province – Bierhaus, Darwin, Beata, Mesta, and Dos Dingos. The only one I wasn’t familiar with was Suburbier.

Ordered up a couple of empanadas – an interesting selection available, in this case I got one filled with ossobuco braised in Malbec – really tasty, tender, could have used something in it besides the meat; the other a mix of morcilla sausage and blue cheese – again, delicious, though it could have used a bit more of the cheese. 180 pesos apiece. I left the choice of beer in the hands of the barman, and he selected the Mexican Lager from Bierhaus. 200 pesos a half pint, 280 pesos a full pint. Refreshing, but not a winner, and not one I’d have paired with the strong flavors of the empanadas. But I always like to give them a chance to show their stuff. I’d go back for those empanadas and pick my own beer.

---

Moisha Bakery, Larrea 1531, Recoleta. I’d heard about this place awhile back, with a single location on the northern side of the city, in Nuñez. Surprise, surprise, they just opened up a branch here in Recoleta. Dropped in one afternoon for a quick snack – a real, honest to goodness, big soft pretzel, coated in coarse salt, served up with spicy mustard, and accompanied by a rather good iced cold brew coffee. After this last year, it was like life was a little brighter. (170 and 180 pesos, respectively.)

Henry and I went back a couple of days later for lunch. He ordered up a grilled chicken and vegetable wrap, I went for the smoked salmon bagel (630 and 650 pesos). A whole lotta winning all around. These guys know what they’re doing. And a good Jewish deli is something I miss from my decades in NYC. If they suddenly start offering up smoked whitefish and chopped liver, I may swoon.

A couple of sweet pretzels taken home for a late afternoon snack – Henry made his way through the chocolate and salt one like it was manna from heaven. I thought it was okay – mostly because only half of it is dipped in chocolate, and it’s sort of an oozing, chocolate sauce – if you’re going that route, give me a salt pretzel and put the chocolate sauce in a container to dip into. The cinnamon and sugar one was on my plate and was a solid gem. I’m still more of a salt than sugar person, and it’ll be back to either the classic or another of the savory offerings. (170 pesos each type of pretzel.)

---

Fa Song Song, Esmeralda 993, Microcentro/Retiro. I reviewed this one when it first opened two years ago. At the time, they had a fairly limited menu that was mostly variations on a basic theme. And while those things are still the core of what they offer, they’ve expanded the menu significantly. Passing by last week, I decided to pick up some stuff to eat at home – some excellent gunmandu, Korean dumplings, which seem a little pricey at 380 pesos for four dumplings – although they are really big by comparison to the usual ones we see, and they are delicious. And, tteokbokki, one of my favorites, fat rice cakes with tofu and hard boiled egg in a sweet spicy sauce – this one pretty fiery, and a huge portion for 700 pesos, it ended up being two lunches.

---

Nobiru Japanese Cuisine, Mendoza 1599, Barrio Chino. Just a few steps away from the original Nobiru Izakaya, the same owners have opened up a much larger, full on Japanese restaurant in the space where they previously had opened Nippori. I hadn’t realized they were the same ownership at the time. The menu is much more extensive than at the small izakaya space, which at the moment seems to be being used as strictly a takeout window for the delivery services like Rappi and Pedidosya – keeping the delivery bikes away from the big restaurant. Just a quick lunch of some very good gyoza (450 pesos for five small ones, putting lie to my thought that the price at the Korean spot above was high), and a screamingly hot (spicy) kimchi ramen that had me sweating from every pore. It was really good, but at the same time maybe just a touch too spicy, in the sense of losing the flavors of the other ingredients (660 pesos). Decent lemonade, but again, a touch up there at 230 pesos. And, a rarity for Barrio Chino, a cubierto charge of 80 pesos. So topping 1500 pesos for one person for lunch with tip. Not outrageous, but up there, especially for the ‘hood.

I’m saving a group of pizzerias for the next post… five mini-reviews seems enough to cope with this morning.