The lunch group I put together, The Roving Ravenous Horde, a few years back still exists (the starting point was here). It’s morphed a bit. About six months back the core group of us sort of took a look at things and felt it had gotten a bit unwieldy. I might have been the driving force behind the reformatting – personally, I was getting tired of our social media chat group having been turned into a free for all of topics unrelated to getting together for lunch, and as a marketing tool for people who seemed to have joined the group only to market themselves to us. And more than half of the people in that chat group had never once attended one of our lunches.
So, I disbanded, pretty much unilaterally, that group and reformed it with those who actually had been coming to the lunches, either regularly or sporadically. Dictatorally on my part, I basically said I didn’t care what people chose to talk about between themselves, obviously, but that the social media chat group was going to be focused on food and eating out, and to please leave all that other stuff out of it. Especially when just a couple of people were getting into political or cultural discussions and arguments that didn’t involve or interest the rest of us, but we were being spammed by every message.
We’re still open to new folk joining us, just with the caveat of, at least for the phone chat, keeping it on point. If you’re in town and want to meet up once or twice a month for lunch, send me an email or message!
I’ve continued to mention our outings now and again, though not all of them have made these pages, at least not in detail. But here, a couple of our most recent outings!
Marucha Parrilla Familiar, 1 de Septiembre de 1888 3702, Nuñez. This one got on my radar because they have two kitchens and dining rooms, one set being kosher (upstairs). I sort of gather that one needs to make arrangements for that area, though it wasn’t clear. Either way, the place overall gets great writeups, and a half dozen of us trooped out to the northeast corner of the city one sunny summer afternoon.
Given the neighborhood, it’s not surprising to find everything decked out in the colors of the River Plate futbol team, red and white.
We ordered a big plate of sweetbreads to start and shared that around – beautifully cooked, properly seasoned. A couple of us got empanadas as well, mostly just to try them. Tasty!
We got steaks – there were some repeats, but mostly we shared – these are big. A ribeye, a butterflied sirloin, and a hanger steak. All cooked the way we asked for them, all seasoned right. These guys know what they’re doing!
There were side dishes. An un-photographed mixed salad, a platter of grilled vegetables, a huge mount of french fries tossed with garlic and parsley, and an absolutely glorious baked potato with chive sour cream. Eighteen years in Buenos Aires and I still don’t get why more steakhouses don’t offer baked potatoes. I guess that’s the Midwesterner in me – we always had baked potatoes with steaks. All of the above, delicious.
Overall, nice place, great service, delicious food. Up there among some of my favorite steakhouses.
Ritratto, Gualeguaychú 3827, Villa DeVoto. This spot got on my list as a pizza recommendation, albeit it’s a full on, full service, Italian restaurant. We’ve also had some of our favorite meals over the years out in Villa DeVoto, and it’s a neighborhood that, despite being on the far side of town from me, I go to regularly because there are several of my personal favorite spots to eat out there.
I’m just going to get these two out of the way. Two of our half dozen attendees (one of whom was a guest of the other) ordered salads – one chicken, one shrimp. As one of my gaming buddies says, “fuck salad”. No, really, it’s fine. We have no rules about what people order at the lunches, and the one regular member pretty much always just orders a salad of some sort, because it’s what she likes to eat at lunchtime. She’s there for the social part, which is why I started this group in the first place.
Two others shared a large bowl of penne all’amatriciana. They loved it. I thought it an okay pasta, but it sure as hell wasn’t amatriciana. It was sort of a bit of tomato sauce with some chopped bacon in it, and a small bowl of par-grated cheese on the side. I promised to invite them over and make the real thing for them.
And, two of us split a pizza. We went half with spinach and mixed cheeses – I do miss the white pizzas I loved back in the NY/NJ area that actually have a “white sauce”, usually a lighter bechamel with a lot of garlic, on them. Argentine white pizzas just don’t put anything but the toppings on them, no sauce. The other side was their house specialty, the Mondello, with tomato rounds, and sauce, prosciutto, arugula, and shaved parmesan. Great crust, what there was of sauce was quite good, the quality of the toppings was very good. Overall, a really decent pizza. Not a wow, but, at least for me, better than either the pasta or salads.
And, one of the best tiramisus that I, we, have had out at local Italian restaurants. Topped, flavor-wise, only by the spectacular one at Gran Parrilla Cramer, a few years ago, though this one is certainly a more appealing presentation.
Nice room, great service, very good food, overall, another thumbs up.
