So many little lunches out and I haven’t been writing them up. I’ll cover a few of them today and save the rest for another post.
This sort of hole-in-the-wall spot that I stumbled on right here in my neighborhood. Well, it’s about ten blocks away, but still, never noticed it before. Clarisimo Resto, Parera 187, Recoleta offers up, for the most part, wedges of things. Various different savory and sweet pies, tarts, cakes, are the order of the day. Here, a rather good chicken pie, well seasoned, and a nice mix of chicken and vegetables, good crust, no “soggy bottom”, and a salad. Followed by a slightly overwhelming wedge of ricotta tart. It was very good, but just too much of a good thing. All very reasonably priced.
This might have been one of the most “argentine-ized” Peruvian restaurants we’ve been to. Other than Henry, not a Peruvian in sight, not the staff nor customers. Not sure that’s ever happened before as we’ve trekked to one after another of the hundreds of Peruvian spots in this city. Mamaguille’s, Francisco Acuña de Figueroa 888, Almagro was the spot. Service, while friendly, is kind of weird, particularly as regards the menu. As many places have gone to over the last couple of years, their menu is no longer physical. But there’s no QR code to scan and get it to pop up, nor a link to see it on the web. No, you have to add them to your WhatsApp contacts, and send them a message requesting a copy of the menu. Now that’s bad enough, and I watched as many of the customers sat there frustrated trying to figure it all out, including some who clearly didn’t have WhatsApp on their phones. But, it’s worse. It’s not automated. After sending the request and sitting their waiting for the menu to pop up, we flagged down a waitress, who said, “Oh, one of us has to go back there and look at the messages and send it to you. I’ll get to it in a minute or two.”
It didn’t get a lot better after that. Bread was served with a little dish of what turned out to be plain tomato sauce, not a hot sauce, and when we requested hot sauce, the classic ajicito served in every Peruvian restaurant out there, they brought a dish of spicy mustard. The sole ceviche, while fresh and nicely presented, with a good balance between acid and salt, had no chilies at all. And the sea bass in peanut sauce, which we were expecting something like a classic Andean peanut and chili sauce, was simply a piece of grilled fish with chopped peanuts and soy sauce over the top. All perfectly edible and tasty, just not very Peruvian. And a bit pricey.
I could have sworn that I’d been to El Globo, Hipólito Yrigoyen 1199, Monserrat, many moons ago and written it up. But the evidence says no. I guess it was the place across corner from it, El Imparcial. Both are known for their classic local and Spanish fare. This place has been on my list for awhile to check out their version of a Suprema Maryland, but I just wasn’t in the mood for a big platter of fried stuff. Oh, and I shouldn’t be allowed to take selfies, clearly.
I went for a simple cold dish, matambre, which is both the name for the cut of meat, flank steak, and the dish, more properly arrollado de matambre, or rolled flank steak, but most people just use the one word. It’s pounded thin flank steak rolled around vegetables, eggs, and herbs, and then wrapped in something waterproof, poached (sometimes roasted, but not often), chilled, sliced, and served, almost invariably with ensalada rusa, the Argentine version of potato salad. This version, pretty good. I’ve had better, I’ve had worse, I’d happily eat it again. And the bread pudding was a nice size – not too much as many places serve, and with a nicely bitter caramel sauce. My coffee never did arrive to accompany it, but I decided just to pass on that and head out. Prices are a little on the high side for the size of the dishes, but not bad. I’ll be back to check out more.
First time I spotted this pizzeria on Instagram, and I liked the name, Infernos Pizza. Now, I’m not sure where they’re located, they don’t show up on Google Maps. And only a couple of weeks after ordering from them, they’re no longer on the delivery app, and, after following me on Instagram just this weekend, and liking a couple of my posts, their Instagram account is now closed. So they may be gone already and this may be moot. But hey, damned good pizza. I ordered their “diavola”, which came with bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, black olives, and a fiery chili-laden tomato sauce that was worthy of the name of the place. It’d be a shame if this place is already gone, since I really liked it. [Edit: A day later their Instagram account was back, but they’re now only offering their own delivery rather than through one of the apps, and only Friday-Sunday evenings, and the address is Guatemala 4665, Palermo.]
I heard about this place from a local food writer, who extolled the creativity of the chef, and waxed poetic about this amazing charred eggplant fritter with green apple, feta and parmesan cheeses served over hummus. But after the long trek to the spot, a charming little hole-in-the-wall that used to be a garage, and now has a whopping six tables, no one in Carmen Boedo, Castro 1635, Boedo, had ever heard of the dish. The chef wasn’t there to ask, and none of the cooks in the kitchen had ever seen it either. I showed them the article, and they laughed. Said the writer is a friend of the chef and probably had the dish over at his house once (and later confirmed that with the chef).
Online sleuthing had recommended their lamb empanadas to start, but they had no lamb in house, so that was out. The empanada available from the short and sweet menu was an osso buco one, and it was spectacularly good, with juicy, flavorful shredded meat and vegetable in a rich sauce inside a perfectly fried crust. But the winner of the day was the much touted fried chicken sandwich, smothered in a sweat-inducing fresh chili honey, and accompanied by perfectly golden and crispy potato nuggets. It does get a bit sloppy, especially as the bun is a soft one that tends to fall apart as it gets wet, and the chicken was really juicy, so I ended up about halfway through switching to knife and fork. But it was worth every bit of dripping juicy and sweet-spicy nectar. This one’s worth the trip out there.
Plus, I’m going to play around with that eggplant fritter dish idea, it sounds delicious!
I’m going to stop here for today. There are another four spots all ready to be written up, but I don’t want to tax anyone’s patience! More to come.
