A random round-up of casual meals over the last couple of weeks. Because, you gotta know where to go eat, right? Or maybe not. Everything enjoyed, but no wows here, other than had I just stayed at home and eaten more of my spaghetti all’amatricia. Which rocked. Just sayin’.
I’ve written a bit more at length on one of the quirkier dishes in Argentine cuisine, the Suprema or Pollo Maryland. My first real writeup was here on this blog, a decade ago, and I recently reprised it with some needed editing, and narrowing things down to my, at the time, favorite spots to try the dish, over on my Substack feed. The question I face is whether or not I can find one that will supplant one of those?
I have, twice, written about Los Inmortales. Once, a rather good individual pizza at their (I think) original location on Av. Corrientes, the other a far, far inferior pizza, mostly because of the icky canned mushrooms (despite their claim that they weren’t canned) at their Recoleta branch, Paraná 1209. Nonetheless, I headed to this latter branch to try their well touted version of the dish in question today.
There was probably no need, given what was coming, to start with an empanada, albeit it turned out to be a tasty, and even noticeably spicy (for the genre) carne picante one.
I’m afraid, unfortunately, that this one pretty much falls to the same level as the mushroom pizza. The cutlet itself was cooked to death, it’s hard to make a piece of breaded chicken into shoe leather, but they managed – I had to ask for a steak knife to cut it – and gave up on any pretense of finishing it. The banana was mush, and the breadcrumb coating barely adhering to scattered parts, the creamed corn was fine, the waffle chips were about the only thing I actually enjoyed. Leaving more than half of this on the plate, and out 11,000 pesos for the Maryland itself, and 17,000 overall, with tip, I left, dissatisfied.
“On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese… I lost my poor meatball… when somebody sneezed.”
Pre-pandemic, I was a reasonably regular customer at Doña, Bülnes 802, Almagro. It’s a cozy little spot that offers one of the better lunch deals around. These days, a plate of decent pasta, a beverage (water, soda, beer, wine), and a dessert or coffee, sets you back a mere 7200 pesos, around $6; while a main course with side dish, beverage, and dessert or coffee jumps up to a still quite reasonable 8200 pesos, under $7. I’d remembered their meatballs being pretty damned good when I had them atop the aforementioned spaghetti with cheese.
They’re still offered as one of the “premium” pasta sauces (extra charge 1200 pesos, less than a dollar) on any of their pastas, or, as a main course, where you get half a dozen plump meatballs dowsed in quite good tomato sauce, and accompanied by… a side. I wasn’t in the mood for potatoes or pasta or salad, and asked about the roasted vegetables. Our waiter said it was a mix of roasted zucchini, sweet potato, bell peppers, and onions. It was not. It was a mix of way too much undercooked eggplant, with some squash, and only a smattering of onion and peppers. Oh, and one, solitary slice of zucchini atop. The meatballs are really flavorful, well seasoned, but much denser than I recalled. Six of them was a bit of a workout. Maybe I should have stuck to the three atop a good cheesy pasta. Either way, I’ve gotten inspired to look for good meatballs in town.
They do make a decent Argentine style bread pudding in a citrus syrup as one of the desserts – well, the only dessert other than a scoop of ice cream. There are better in town, there are worse.
Almacén Cittadella, Pacheco de Melo 1887, Recoleta. This is my neighborhood go-to takeout spot for sandwiches. It’s a little fiambrería, basically a combo deli and gourmet food store, with a great selection of cold cuts, cheeses, wines, craft beers, and different sauces, vinegars, oils, etc. They offer up around twenty different sandwich options, either on a classic local miñon bread, or ciabatta. I always get the latter, and when they have it, the one impregnated with olives and herbs. This particular sandwich is the “parma”, a combo of thin sliced prosciutto, mozzarella bocconcini, tomatoes, and basil. A drizzle of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and we’re good to go. I do wish I could make up my own combos, and maybe do a proper NY/NJ Italian sandwich with several different meats, cheeses, and toppings, but they just kind of laugh nervously when I suggest it, as if it’s something not quite conceivable. I should just buy 100gm of each of the meats and cheeses I want on the sandwich, a couple of ciabatta, and make the sandwiches myself at home.
I’ve got to find a new fount of information for where those amazing hidden-away Korean spots are in Floresta and Flores (and/or elsewhere). The person who used to tip me off on where to find them left BA around the time of the pandemic and I’ve been relegated to the restaurants that pop up on Instagram or Google searches. To date, none of them, as we’ve seen over the last months, has filled the authenticity bill. Most of them are riding the wave of Korean food having been discovered by Argentines, but being dumbed down for local palates – little or no spice, no challenging ingredients, etc. And, our visit to Sokdak, Ruperto Godoy 730, Floresta, was no exception.
A small array – are three things really an array? – of banchan – really just very mild cabbage and daikon kimchis, plus a fairly flavorless rolled egg omelet. The place specializes in galbi – “ribs” – basically a dozen dishes of different preparations of beef or pork ribs, with a couple alternatives – a grilled chicken dish, a tofu soup, and a kimchi soup. All running around the 14000 peso mark, or about $10.
The “picante” beef rib dish stewed with some vegetables was anything but spicy, unless you count the two rounds of jalapeño in the dish. We don’t. They were fine, but more bone than meat, kind of meager.
The grilled pork ribs were more meaty – in fact, other than one rib bone, it was all off the bone, so a decent amount of meat. It was all flavorful, but a bit on the sweet side, with no spice. We asked for and got a dish of “super hot” gochujang… and used pretty much all of it, because it wasn’t remotely “super hot”. Perhaps a good clue might have been that although the restaurant filled up and stayed full, other than one couple seated in the back, there were no Korean customers.
It was all fine, and service was friendly, and the busboy was cute, but it all just felt a bit lacking. Korean food for “oegugin”, non-Koreans.
A last visit to Green Bamboo, Costa Rica 5802, Palermo. I say last visit because at the end of this month, basically on their 25th anniversary, they are closing up shop. The owner, I gather, is going to open some sort of Vietnamese street food stand along the pedestrian food-way in Barrio Chino. Now, I could just refer you back to my original 2006 review of the place, or my re-review ten years ago, because nothing much has changed. Maybe the food is a little more chi-chi and creative, but it’s still lacking any real spice – though they now have some decent hot sauce available, and the portions are still fairly small and rather pricey. Since we started our date night adventures a couple of months back, this was easily the most expensive of the meals.
Very small prawn dumplings – especially at 12800 pesos for five of them (that’s almost $2/dumpling). Sweet vinegar dipping sauce.
Three finger sized skewers of pork and chicken brushed with a caramelized fish sauce and served with a lime and mint dipping sauce. A mere… 12400 pesos, or $3 apiece.
A duck magret, cooked properly, with a fennel, orange, and mint salad – not overly Vietnamese, and at 22600 pesos, almost $17, not a great deal, albeit that duck does tend to be expensive here.
And, a beef stir-fry with caramelized onions, confited garlic, and sweet potato chips. Best dish of the evening, though again, 21000 pesos, or $15, felt a bit much for the size of the dish.
We had a good time, we drank some decent cocktails, the food was all okay, as it has been on previous visits. But I can’t say that I’ll miss having it around. I do wish someone would open up a really good Vietnamese place here. The couple that there have been have come and gone.
