Our usual grab bag of various and sundry. We have sushi, wine bars, a special pizza, and some creative modern Latin American street food. What more do you want out of life?
Kanji, Scalabrini Ortíz 1580, Palermo – Hard surface, concrete and metal everywhere, no decor to speak of. Uncomfortable chairs. Unevenly cut pieces of fish that didn’t smell all that fresh, atop randomly sized balls of mashed together, cold rice. It took more than half an hour to get a simple sushi order, despite the place being almost empty, as it turned out the person I thought was preparing my sushi wasn’t (the workspace is semi-hidden, so all you see are the heads of the people moving around). The sushi chef himself was sitting at the bar drinking cocktails with a friend, and after awhile deigned to get up and go make the sushi. Neither the sushi nor the service was worth having entered the place, let along go back. I do not, at all, get why this place is getting so much buzz as the hot new spot. The only thing I enjoyed was the sake based cocktail, and even it wasn’t all that.
Diviiino, Gurruchaga 1060, Palermo – Cute outdoor space that’s basically the garage and driveway attached to the Iglesia San José de la Palabra de Dios, or St. Joseph’s Word of God Church. And the church, while not impacting, as best I could tell, either the food or wine, does impact the atmosphere, given that the entrance to the offices and school are on the side, midway up the tables. So parishioners, kids, and delivery guys are constantly walking in and out, threading their way around the tables. A bit bizarre. Friendly service, very limited wine by the glass selection, and no list for it, they just tell you and/or show you the bottles of what they happen to have open. Plus, no one seemed to know anything about wine. Moderately interesting selection. The Cuban sandwich was a vague interpretation of what a Cuban is. It wasn’t a bad sandwich, nicely filled with sliced pork and pickles, but the bread and cheese were wrong, the mustard was sweet. The fries, were great, and the spiced ketchup and mayo were tasty. Nice place to sit and sip a glass of wine and have a nibble.
Cru Deli & Wine, Bonpland 1670, Palermo – A big, spacious room with lots of wine accoutrements. While not a huge selection by the glass, it’s well curated, and interesting, with wines I’ve never encountered before in Argentina. Service is friendly and helpful. The food is a bit of an afterthought. Basically simple Italian antipasti and pastas. The bruschetta were a tad weird, and the bread soft, not the usual sort one uses for bruschetta. Fried stuffed olives, a usual favorite, were bland, and given that they cost 1200 pesos, getting five olives was highway robbery. The pastas, at least cooked to a decent al dente, but basically flavorless – no salt or pepper in the mix, which doesn’t really correct by adding them at the table, because the salt doesn’t get into the pasta itself. And, skimpy portions – if they’d have been good pastas, I’d have been really disappointed in the quantity. As it was, I was thankful there wasn’t more. Pricey. I’d go back for the wine.
Orno, Guatemala 4701, Palermo – A few years back, in the before times, we ventured north to Olivos to the original Orno several times and I had mixed experiences with the neapolitan style pizzas. They tasted great, but twice we had pies that were notedly undercooked. I knew they’d opened a location out in Belgrano, and I’d thought about dropping in once or twice, but hadn’t. Now they’ve opened up in Palermo. I still hadn’t really planned to go, until they announced that they were going to be offering Detroit style pies at the Palermo location. Now, there are two others spots in town that offer Detroit style pizza, one of which, Fuego, also in Palermo, was on the right track, but just failed at the execution, and didn’t get, really, the dough, cheese, or sauce right, nor the physical construction of the pizza. The other got a lot closer. Sunny, out in Villa DeVoto, has become a bit of a go-to spot when I wanted that style pizza. They’d pretty much nailed everything but the cheese. So I wasn’t holding out hope.
But, I’ve got to say, these guys did their research. The dough is dead-on perfect – light, airy, and crunchy on the bottom. The cheese, rather than mixing mozzarella and parmesan, uses mozzarella and sbrinz, a much more flavorful, interesting cheese, that gets far closer to the flavor of brick cheese. I still don’t know why they’re not using white cheddar, which would be the closest to brick that we have here in Argentina. The sauce, great. The pepperoni, delicious and lightly spicy, though too few pieces. Pickled jalapeños added a little extra zip, but also not enough of them. And they got both the construction and the char right. Kudos! The tiramisu? Sucked. Awful. Like some sort of lunchroom pudding from junior high school. Nothing about it was tiramisu-like.
I kind of want Orno’s crust and cheese and Sunny’s sauce and toppings, and we’d be right in the groove.
Rocoto, Roque Sáenz Peña 1038, San Isidro – Although this place has been on my list for awhile, it was not where I planned on going. I was on one of my quests, which I’ll be posting in the next few days, and the place I was going to, despite it being during their self-listed open hours, as well as on Google, was closed. I actually thought it might be permanently closed, but there were some signs of electrical activity visible through the window, so who knows? Anyway, I found myself on a side street in San Isidro, and checking my to-do map, found that Rocoto was a mere block away.
Cute place, very laid back. Friendly staff. Intriguing menu, ostensibly of fancied up Latin American street food, but it includes a fair amount of Asian influence as well, and some Middle Eastern. I decided to skip main courses and focus on the more interesting sounding appetizers. Started off with pork gyoza, nicely made, though they could have used maybe another 30 seconds to a minute in the steaming part of the cooking – the pleated edges were a bit chewy still. Nice flavors, good dipping sauce. On to my favorite dish (and which has inspired a dish at Casa S this weekend), a prawn tartare (not really, since they were cooked, and then just cut in pieces) in a thick lime vinaigrette, with diced avocado and some pomegranate seeds, and a big wad of sprouts atop. They seem to like their sprouts as decor at Rocoto.
On to a sole ceviche. After being asked if I wanted it spicy or not, and opting, of course, for yes, I was surprised that it wasn’t even a little bit spicy. I asked for hot sauce, and they brought me some pureed rocoto chilies, which handled that. I wasn’t overly thrilled with the ceviche overall – it just wasn’t quite balanced – needed that spice, needed salt, and the large spoonful of diced mango, along with wedges of sweet potato, had the whole dish eating rather sweet. The fried prawn atop seemed gratuitous and unrelated. On to dessert, despite being full at this point, I decided to try their signature chocolate dish, which turned out to be about a 2″ on a side block of dark chocolate ganache maybe vaguely infused with the promised rocoto chili, and topped with avocado gelato, strawberry sauce, blueberries, and strangely, untoasted coconut flakes. Not bad – could have used more rocoto in the chocolate, and toast those coconut flakes.
On the whole, I enjoyed it quite a bit and will definitely get back up there and try more – maybe one of our Horde outings.
And, this seems a good place to wrap this Bite Marks up. On to more food adventures!
