Quite the grab-bag of places this time around, and a whopping six of them! So, settle in…. Nah, I’ll keep them brief and mostly let the photos do the talking. Let’s start “simple” and move on….
La Parri, Dr. José Modesto Giuffra 341, San Telmo (not to be confused with La Parri out on Av. Congreso, a full-on steakhouse). Basically a choripan and sandwich cart moved inside a small storefront that might have actually been the building’s garage at one point. Half a dozen items on offer, we went for a classic choripan and a pulled pork sandwich. 350 and 700 pesos (just over $1 and about $2.25, the pulled pork coming with fries). Good, though nothing exciting, albeit the thin sliced potato “fries” are addictive. I don’t understand why they don’t come with the choripan too, or at least, as an option? Chimichurri and salsa criolla supplied on the side. We asked about something picante and they brought us some chopped up aji limos in vinegar – fiery hot!
El Huarochirano, Adolfo Alsina 3001, Once – Corner spot, kind of a hole-in-the-wall. Huarochiri is the province to the east of Lima in Peru. Entering solo I kind of got “the eye” from most of the customers, the “are you sure you should be here”. But they went back to their plates of food and although initially the two waitresses ignored me, after a few minutes one came over to see just what it was I wanted there. I’m like, do you think I wandered into an obviously labeled Peruvian restaurant in the middle of Once by accident? I asked for the selections of the menú del día, and made my choice. Decent chicken soup, packed with, unusually, couscous. The pollo con tallarines rojos, one of our go to meals at home, had good flavor, but there wasn’t much sauce on it – could have used more. The accompanying papas a la huancaina were really good. 700 pesos including beverage, ($2.25). I liked the flavors of everything, might be worth coming back and ordering a la carte.
Los Pinos, Azcuénaga 1500, Recoleta. Seven years ago I stopped in at this spot (jeez, it’s just three blocks from home, you’d think we’d go there more often) on my quest for various Suprema Marylands. Or would that be Supremas Maryland? It was, as I said, “quite acceptable”. On my new kick trying various bodegones, this was a natural spot to check out. Their specialty is their steak dishes – not just steaks, though they have a small selection of simple ones off the grill, but ones like this, which came highly recommended, a lomo a la marsala. Sirloin, three decent sized scallops of meltingly tender meat, cooked perfectly, in a nicely flavored marsala sauce with a hit of pepper. Maybe a little too much cornstarch to thicken the sauce, it was verging on “gloopy”. And I wish the papas noisette had been browned in a skillet or roasted, rather than boiled. 1690 pesos ($5.50). The budin de pan, or bread pudding, is not American style bread pudding. I’ve only tried the Argentine version once before. This one’s quite good – it’s sort of dense custard, as best I can tell the bread in it is probably fine breadcrumbs suspended in the custard, this one served with caramel and chocolate sauces. 370 pesos ($1.25). They do charge a 120 peso cubierto, now about 35¢. Worth stopping in again.
Nuvola Centro, Reconquista 479, Retiro. I’d heard about this place mostly in relation to that they offer fried pizza. It’s available as an appetizer, but given that after I looked at their menu I really wanted to try their regular pizza, the fried will have to wait. They apparently run a pizza making school upstairs, and almost all the staff are wearing school shirts “Escuela Pizzaioli”. I started with an arancino, perfectly fried and crisp exterior, and great risotto inside, with smoked provolone and a Neapolitan ragú. Great start! 550 pesos ($1.75). The pizza, their “piccante”, comes with smoked provolone, fresh mozzarella, ‘nduja cream, pepperoncino, and basil. Other than the lack of basil, that’s what showed up, and it looks great. And, the toppings are spectacular – like real, stretchy, gooey cheese, not too oily, though perhaps a touch too much of it (Argentine style), and a decent hit of spice from the sausage and chilies. The crust, unfortunately, despite looking good, wasn’t all that great – there’s no salt in the dough, so it just tastes like flour, and although the border is a beautiful golden brown, the center is so loaded with cheese that it didn’t cook and was just like paste. 1750 pesos ($5.50).
Palacio Balcarce, Quintana 161, Recoleta. I’ve kind of studiously avoided this place over the years. It’s an old mansion, and the occasional time I saw someone going in or out, it gave me the impression of being a sort of social club for the neighborhood wealthy, generally well on the other side of retirement. But a local friend proposed meeting their for lunch, asserting that it’s actually quite good, and that their menú ejecutivo is a bargain. Now, the place was as empty as it appears. There were two elderly women just leaving when we arrived, and so it was us and two waiters, one of whom may well have worked in the home when it was built in 1916. There’s not a single set price for the daily menú (which doesn’t actually change day to day), but about eight main course choices, each with their own price (ranging from about 1800-2800 pesos $6-9), and each accompanied by a choice of soup or eggplant escabeche on toast, a glass of wine, and either dessert or coffee. My companion chose the barbecued ribs, and claimed them quite satisfactory. I went with the grilled surubí, a local tigerfish, served with a corn, green onion, and cheese risotto that was one of the few risottos I’ve had here that was cooked right. Hey, with the arancino above, that makes for two good risottos in short order! Surprisingly, recommended.
Boca de Toro, Paraguay 685, Retiro. The restaurant in the Pulitzer Hotel. Not our planned date-night dinner, after cocktails at The Cosmopolitan, a new gay bar brought to you by one of the former owners of Flux Bar, which closed permanently during the pandemic. We walked the couple of blocks to Tanta, figuring a Monday night wouldn’t be an issue, only to find them packed, with a lineup of people waiting, and an estimated hour or more wait. So, a block away to this Spanish restaurant (which we actually thought was a parrilla). Nice room. Peppered by the folk one comes to expect in a hotel lobby restaurant – a mix of those who put on reasonably decent clothes to dine, and others in what may well have been their pajamas. Service is pretty inattentive, and not much more than bored, when at the table. Then again, hotel customers in their jammies.
Henry got a sirloin, asked for it cooked medium or medium well, it was delivered barely past rare, though tender, and with a very good potato millefeuille served over a little sauté of pig’s trotters and bacon. 3300 pesos (just over $10). I got the slow cooked lamb shank with hummus and what was supposed to be pesto, but was instead a sort of vinegary coleslaw. 2360 pesos ($7.50). Both quite good. Dessert fared less well, with a flan that had a caramel taken just a tad too far into burnt territory (920 pesos, just under $3), and what was posited as a classic Barcelona dessert, pan y chocolate, bread and chocolate (950 pesos, $3). Turns out that’s actually a thing, and versions vary, from chocolate sauce dips to chocolate mousse, and various sorts of breads. This one was just crispy thin slices of flavorless baguette, with a few drops of olive oil on each, and then ribbons of chocolate ganache rolled up with a pinch of sea salt on each. Somehow, it just didn’t work, though Henry ate most of my chocolate roulades after I pushed the plate away. Overall, not bad, but not a place I’d run back to.
Whew! Done!
