A recent article in one of our major local papers, La Nación, was scribed by a local Chinese food and culture writer, and touted seven Chinese restaurants in the city that are “beloved” of the local Chinese community. I was already familiar with two of them, Rong Cheng and Shan Dong, the latter I’d written up long ago. A third is one that could only be beloved by members of the local Chinese community, as they simply refuse to take reservations or allow someone to enter, unless they are Chinese, or at least accompanied by someone who is. I, and other friends, have been turned away more than once. I’m not going to hit you with all seven at once, but let’s take a look at two of them today.
Rong Cheng, Viamonte 1169, San Nicolás – One of my favorite Chinese restaurants during its brief time open (just a short few years) was Caracól de Amor. I liked it so much I held my 60th birthday there. And, over the years, the chef-owner, Min, and I have kept in touch as she’s worked on various projects, including the hotpot spot I reviewed last year, Ma La Tang. Long ago, she had opened this place (which, according to its Chinese name is “Sister Fong’s Private Kitchen”, I’m not clear how that translates to Rong Cheng, which are different Chinese characters), but left it in the hands of her son. I had several “off” meals there – nothing truly bad, but not very good, and way overpriced. Apparently it was a common enough complaint that she took the place back over, spruced it up, and went full tilt on a menu that must have well over a hundred dishes on it (plus, there’s an entire Chinese menu that you have to know about if you want dishes from it, and it’s not translated into Spanish). Located on the side of Teatro Colón, it is marked only my a small red sign with some Chinese characters on it.
The place is definitely designed around group dining – with five tables for eight set up, and that’s it. Though I imagine there’s some sharing of tables when the place is filled up. I picked the place for a recent Horde outing, and half a dozen of us showed up to sample her wares.
We, of course, ordered up some dumplings – delightful as always.
Deep fried oysters and seaweed – excellent dipped in soy, hot sauce, or Chinese mustard sauce!
Whole head on prawns, crispy as could be and well coated with spice – garlic, chili, and green onion.
I think my favorite dish – a stir-fry of green beans, pork, and chilies. I could happily eat that any time.
A slight disappointment, the mu shu pork. On the menu it indicates that it comes with the usual thin pancakes to wrap it in. And while the pork and green onions themselves were fine, they came with these sort of tasteless sliced rolls that were like biting into a sponge. We ate the pork without the bread.
Two not on the main menu dishes, but that Min said were available among the various dishes “off menu”, a fantastic kung pao chicken, and a very good (though I remember it being better back at Caracól) Sichuan peppercorn chicken. Strangely, by the way, all of their chicken dishes are on this “secret” menu, I don’t think there’s a single chicken based dish on the QR code linked menu.
Beverage service is, to our minds, odd – there are several big refrigerators upfront of the restaurant by the cash register, and you just go help yourself – water, sodas, iced teas, beer, wines, sojus, etc. – and then they just tally up what’s on your table later. Service was friendly, but not overly attentive, though I might chalk that up to Min having approached us early on and I think the waitress may have felt like it wasn’t her place to intrude. While individually the plates may seem a little pricey, they’re quite large and made for sharing. We ended up spending 25,000 pesos, about $25, apiece, including drinks and tip, and we were able to take home some of almost every plate. Highly recommended.
The second place is JuaJua, Agüero 436, just a block from the Abasto in Once. Touted as a ramen house, it’s sort of interesting – there are just two versions of ramen on the menu, among probably 15-20 dishes. And although we’d headed there thinking ramen, two of the three of us ended up ordering other plates.
Although small, the tables are well spread out, and they seat far fewer people than they could. Servers are friendly and helpful, and the woman behind the counter, who was either manager or owner, was as well.
Dumplings, of course, were a must to start off. They come with a bowl of duck sauce. Not quite as sickly sweet as the usual, it’s still not what any of us wanted on dumplings, and on request it was quickly supplemented by a dish of chili oil, and another of soy mixed with black vinegar, a more classic dipping sauce. Excellent!
The beef ramen is impressively packed with well seasoned steak, a mix of vegetables, a fried egg, and noodles (though they didn’t seem like classic ramen noodles, more almost like spaghetti). And peanuts, so if you don’t want those, make sure to ask for it without. We thought the broth was good, but a little light for what we would have expected in a beef ramen. Worth noting that Chinese ramen and Japanese ramen are not the same dishes – similar, but not the same.
Our waitress highly recommended the spicy chicken stir-fry. Similar to a kung pao, but not exactly the same, it was moderately spicy and delicious and comes with a decent amount of rice topped with a fried egg.
I was intrigued by the stir-fried pork kidney and cucumber dish. Not something I think I’ve ever seen on a menu. It sounded rather mild, albeit interesting, but I asked if it might be made spicy. I was assured it could be, and they went all out. One of the spicier dishes I’ve had in a long time, they really loaded it up with a couple of different kinds of chili. I loved it, though maybe they could tone it back down just a touch.
Overall, a delicious meal and a place I expect to visit regularly. Inexpensive, with beverages and tip we spent a mere 16000 pesos apiece for the above. Another highly recommended!
