A mix of new and old, visits to spots that have opened only recently, and some visits to others that I haven’t been to in awhile. Just reminding us all that they’re still here, and delicious!

Pop, Mendoza 1529, Belgrano (Barrio Chino) – Very trendy, modern, slick, whatever. Very orange. Mostly about the drinks – bubble tea kind of place. Stopped in and ordered a half dozen takoyaki. Good flavor, nice nuggets of octopus, the sauces good. A big negative however, that they don’t drain them of the oil in which they’re cooked before putting them in the box, and the bottom of the box was swimming in oil and by the end of nibbling on these, the cardboard had basically fallen apart. Meh. I am curious about their ramen. Always looking for a good bowl of ramen.

---

Nueva Casa Japonesa, Humberto 1º 2357, San Cristobal – I most recently wrote about this place in early 2018, after they’d both refurbished the space and replaced their senior kitchen staff. I’ve noted that it’s interesting that I wasn’t overly fond of the place before that, yet, ironically, the chefs who left, left to open up Mirutaki, now one of my favorite spots for Japanese food in the city. Now, post-pandemic, they’ve sort of downsized. They still have the same big dining room upstairs for ramen and other “set” menus, but they’ve ripped out the downstairs sushi bar and “spaghetti bar”. I’m not sure either of those ever really caught on, so it could be unrelated to the pandemic that they’re gone.

Stopped in recently – it’s been about three years since I was last there. A big whopping bowl of udon noodles in a lovely broth, packed with all the right veggies and flavor. While I liked the idea of it being topped with vegetable tempura, it all kind of falls apart and the crust on the tempura ends up as soggy, floaty bits in the broth. I’m sure that’s how it’s meant to happen, otherwise noone would shove tempura into a bowl of soup, but for me, I wasn’t fond of that – and ended up eating the tempura that was on top, and digging out the noodles and vegetables and such, and really didn’t end up imbibing much of the broth. Next time, I’ll do a non-tempura udon or ramen.

The side dishes on the set were just okay – a decent piece of a salmon maki, a nicely flavored but cold harumaki, or springroll, a very good piece of fried fish, and a tasty, but refrigerator cold yakimeshi – fried rice. It’s clear that they know something’s off, as each time someone finished their set platter, a waiter or manager seemed to come over and ask for opinions on the side dishes. So, if you know there’s something off – fix it. Mostly it would have been serving the springroll and rice hot instead of cold. I’d still go back, because really, it’s about the central dish – which you can order without the accompaniments, and I might just do that as well next time.

---

 

Fa Song Song, Esmeralda 993, Microcentro/Retiro – I last reviewed this place for another delivery order about a year and a half ago. I noted that the food had just gotten better and more varied since they’d first opened, but was a tad on the expensive side. That same trend continues. The menu is now even more extensive, and, on the surface, more expensive. For example, the gunmandu, at the time 380 pesos for four, or, at official exchange rate, $1 apiece, seemed pricey for BA. But then again, they were so good, and that’s really not all that expensive. They’re now 900 pesos (plus, of course, the cost of delivery), which is, well, $1 apiece at the current exchange rate (and half that at the mystical blue rate). So in truth, they’ve stayed pretty steady in universal terms, and, truly, while it may be more expensive than some of the other spots around, it’s also better, and it’s really not that pricey.

And, again, turned out to be enough food for two meals, actually about two and a half – the dumplings and seafood pancake, both excellent, for dinner one night, about 2/3 of the soup (doenjang, or, fermented soybean soup, a Korean favorite of mine) and rice combined for the next night’s dinner, and the balance of the soup with something else on the side for lunch the next day. It’s all delicious! I need to pop back over there and dine in situ again, it’s been a couple of years.

---

And now, the big reveal for this post. All of these places are tying back to 2018, strangely. You may well remember Caracól de Amor, the love snail, the restaurant above the Chinese supermarket in Once. It was so good that later that year I asked the owner, Min, to host my 60th birthday party. And then in mid-2019 she left the place, and while still good, it kind of headed downhill, and as best I can tell, didn’t make it through the pandemic. Min went on to open up a couple of other spots that I just wasn’t fond of – they were really pricey and the food just wasn’t as good – though a couple of local friends tell me that the one that’s still open is now exceptional, so going to have to go back and try it. All this leads to, I was walking in Barrio Chino, and noted that a place that prior to the pandemic had been serving quite good Cantonese food, ADU, was gone, and replaced by Ma La Tang, Mendoza 1583.

Now, “ma la” is going to catch my attention anytime – meaning “numbing and spicy”, and consisting of a blend of szechuan peppercorns and chilies, and “ma la tang” is szechuan hotpot – interestingly something that’s come up in conversation several times recently as a “missing” from the local Chinese culinary scene. That’s never been overly surprising, given that it’s numbing and spicy, two things that, for the most part, Argentines aren’t fond of. But a lot of us are, and so I made a beeline for this spot for lunch. It sports a subtitle of, in English, “Revitalizing the cause of traditional Chinese medicine”, which sounds a bit like a bad translation of the Chinese characters above.

I walked in and noted that that woman at the counter who explained to me what they offered – szechuan hotpot, choice of spicy or not, and pick your ingredients to be made into a bowl of soup – looked familiar, but didn’t think anything of it. She was also looking at me curiously, like trying to remember….

And, I picked my stuff – a mix of vegetables – I went with lotus root, bok choy, wood ear mushrooms, cilantro; and some rice noodle bundles, some fresh and fried tofu; and a mix of meats – some roast pork, oysters, clams, and a scallop. You pay by the weight (2800 pesos/kilo, including, it seems, the bowl, as I had nowhere near to a kilo’s worth of ingredients, but somehow weighed in at about 800 grams, almost two pounds). Then you take that to the kitchen window, specify if you want spicy or not. I asked for spicy, and he asked me if I wanted it full on, or just half and half. I went full on, and it was just a little over the edge of how spicy I like things, but not ridiculous – next time I’d do half and half. They cook the ingredients, add in the broth(s), and some add-ons, like peanuts and green onions (let them know if you can’t eat peanuts). And, about five minutes or so later a waiter brings the bowl to your table.

I started in on what turned out to be an exceptional bowl of soup – love everything about it. I was maybe 2-3 minutes in when I suddenly heard a squealed “Dan!” from my side and, circling back to the beginning of this, it was Min. Turns out this is her latest venture. We chatted awhile, caught up. The woman at the counter and I nodded a couple of times back and forth realizing where we knew each other from, as she used to run the counter at Caracól.

I have a new favorite spot to lunch in Barrio Chino. Simply, spectacular. Between this place, Royal Mansion for dim sum, and Mian for noodle dishes, it’s like we have a real Chinatown finally, that’s not just catering to dumbed down western tastes, and all with the same menu focused on fried rice and chop suey type dishes.