We’ve talked about this before. There’s classic, homestyle kind of Peruvian cooking, and there’s the newer, Japanese fusion style Nikkei cooking. And there are places that clearly fall in one camp or the other, and some that aren’t so easily defined. And, of course, there are some scattered “other” types, like the occasional find of Italian-Peruvian fusion. Today, a trio from around BA that fit the range of the trio first mentioned.

The Classic

I find myself in the basement of a shopping gallery. It wasn’t that I set out to be in the basement of a shopping gallery, I’d set out to visit a Peruvian restaurant that was on my list. I didn’t know it was in the basement of a shopping gallery. But Paulina cocina de mar y tierra, Cdad. de La Paz 2369, Belgrano, turned out to be in one. A basement in a shopping gallery, that is. It’s mostly a takeout and delivery sort of operation, though I saw no taking out nor delivering going on. Over close to an hour in the place, I was the only one other than the chef and waiter present.

The menu is short – not even a dozen items. The chef came over to chat and I asked what his best dish was. He immediately pointed to his arroz chaufa con mariscos, shellfish fried rice. That’s surprising. For most Peruvian spots, arroz chaufa is a sort of just there kind of menu item for the people who want something cheap and filling. But okay, I’m game.

I will give it that it’s one of the prettier arroz chaufas I’ve been presented – usually it’s just a huge platter heaped with vaguely brownish rice from the soy sauce, and some random bits of meat and vegetables scattered through it. This is quite pretty, and plenty of seafood in the mix. Which is good, because this is one of the pricier fried rices I’ve seen on a menu here, an individual portion coming in at 4000 pesos. And you know what? It was really good. I finished every grain of rice and morsel of seafood. Kudos! Next time I’m in the area, I’ll stop in and try something else.

The Somewhere in Between

I really don’t know what to think of the space in which this restaurant is. Haku Mikhuq (“let’s eat” in Quechua), at Av. Corrientes 2115, Once, is a huge storefront, it’s very blue and grey, the tables are widely spaced apart. It sort of feels like a work in progress that someone just stopped and said, okay, I don’t feel like doing more to this. Service is vaguely attentive. The place is new. The menu, mostly classic dishes, but with some Nikkei touches here and there, and a penchant for samplers.

And so I indulged their approach and ordered the sampler trio of leches de tigre. You may remember my search for the best of these “tiger’s milks” many moons ago – here and here, and on and off since. There was the classic, lime juice, salt, bits of fish, and a couple of slices of tiny aji limos; there was an aji amarillo, yellow chili version, with prawns; and there was a rocoto version with calamari rings. None of them were particularly spicy, none of them were well balanced, the seafood was rubbery (I’m guessing parcooked and frozen and thawed out for these dishes, or fried in the case of the squid); none of them were… good. I mean, they weren’t inedible, but they also weren’t particularly appealing. I kind of spooned a bit of each into my mouth, ate some of the seafood, paid, left, and went home to eat something. This trio was also 4000 pesos, but neither worth it, nor as good as the fried rice above.

The Gleaming Modernity

Yesterday I was out in Nuñez for the annual Limud day of Jewish learning. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times in the past. It’s a day of presentations on various topics: philosophy, culture, art, music, food, etc., tying in a mix of classic and modern (how appropriate for this post) Jewish themes to daily life. When I first started going, back in 2008 (and I’ve been every year except the pandemic affected ones), they served lunch. At some point they stopped, and they even stopped providing a time period in between presentations to go and get lunch. So, you have to figure out which time block(s) you want to skip, and go get something to eat. Not a lot nearby that was open, but I saw one of the Peruvian spots on my list was about a six block walk away, and was open on a Sunday.

So, I found myself around 2pm at García del Mar, Av. García del Río 2855, in neighboring Saavedra. Obvious upfront that this was a more upscale spot – I hadn’t made any notes about it, it was just on the map. In fact, it’s a dedicated Nikkei style Peruvian restaurant, with, as many such places have, a focus on creative sushi and ceviche type dishes. There are some cooked dishes as well – not many, but I decided to go with their focus.

I began with their truffled salmon tiradito. Except, it wasn’t a tiradito. Yes, the fish is sliced sashimi style, but a tiradito is a type of ceviche, the fish is supposed to be cured. Instead, this was just slices of salmon that had been lightly brushed with truffle oil (virtually no truffle flavor), torched a little, and then had some grated lime zest over the top. Now, nothing wrong with the pieces of salmon, they were tasty, and there were a baker’s dozen of them (there are three rolled together under the center flower). It just wasn’t a tiradito.

And, I ordered a spicy white fish roll, along with two pieces of octopus nigiri. Now… hmm… so… the octopus was nice and tender. The white fish (unidentified) and avocado in the roll were both nice and fresh, the spicy mayo atop was quite good. But, I had an issue with the rice.

Here’s a closeup. The rice is so overcooked and gummy it’s near transparent (click on it to see it in detail). It was like getting one of those “sticky glutinous rice” balls filled with something at a Thai restaurant. Except there, it’s hot and sticky, and packed with flavor. This was just refrigerator cold and gluey, and may have even been glutinous rice rather than sushi rice. It was not nice to eat.

Overall, another fail for this round. And outrageously pricey for what you get – respectively the trio of dishes above ran 6500, 4500, and 2350 pesos. That’s more than going out to one of the top omakase spots here in town and having a curated, 18-24 piece menu. It’s also worth noting, because I had it in the back of my mind, but their menu looks to be more or less a copy of a good portion of the menu at Osaka in Puerto Madero (the rolls, ceviches, and tiraditos), but not remotely on the same quality scale.