By: Native Craft – SaltShaker

Native Craft – SaltShaker — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 13:21:59 +0000

[…] The menu is odd. First of all, I have to just say, I don’t like hairy things in restaurants, and I don’t just mean the food. Here, the menu is a small cardboard bound affair with a binding strip of something furry. It just put me on edge. Then you encounter the plasticized pages of the inner menu, listing dozens and dozens of items. We began to get interested, only to have that interest squashed by our waitress who told us that the menu is just a listing of “possible dishes” of the day – and then proceeded to cut our choices down to 3 appetizers, 2 meat entrees, and 7-8 fish entrees, as the only things they were equipped to make that evening. I’m all for the concept of a daily changing menu, I just don’t like the presentation in this case. But we got over it, ordered all three appetizers – ocopa, papas a la huancayina, and a tamal, followed by a plate of ceviche mixto. We also decided to try one of the two listed cocktails, a trago de algarroba, or “carob drink.” It turned out to be a blended affair of carob juice, pisco (Peruvian unaged brandy), milk, and egg white. Frothy, vaguely chocolately, and very alcoholic. The food, overall, was just acceptable, clearly nothing special. We both liked that the potatoes in the first two appetizers were served warm – quite often they’re served nearly refrigerator cold. The sauce on the ocopa was particularly good. The tamal was, at best, edible, first off being made of coarse polenta rather than properly ground Peruvian maize, and second off having very little filling – a couple of chunks of chicken and one olive, complete with pit. The ceviche was okay, though the fish and shellfish didn’t taste 100% fresh, and the “mixto” part consisted of a couple of scattered shrimp and mussels. Given that Primavera Trujillana is only a few blocks from Contigo Peru that we both enjoy quite a bit, and have taken friends to many times, it’s simply not interesting enough to return to. [Closed, reopened in a new location.] […]

By: Chili Rabbit

Chili Rabbit — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 14:25:51 +0000

[…] It has been eight years since we visited Primavera Trujillana, Franklin Roosevelt 1627 in Belgrano on the recommendation of a local paper. We weren’t impressed. My search for ajiaco con conejo led me to their “brother” restaurant, Inka Wasi, just down the block at #1695, where it was claimed, Marta Rios’ brother was turning out the best version in the city. Only they’re not, because they don’t have rabbit on the menu, and he sent me tromping down the block to his sister’s place because she’s the one who offers up the dish. Now, in the past octet of years, P.T. has undergone a complete transformation – no longer a living room in a house with a pass-through to the kitchen, the whole building has been redone as a full-on restaurant, with a far expanded menu (and, thankfully, no longer a hairy one). Here the dish is called picante de conejo, but it’s the same dish (which led me to further searching for that term, but not finding any other places offering it up under that name). And it’s quite good – not overly spicy, and strangely, I think this is the first Peruvian restaurant I’ve ever been in where you have to ask for “ají” rather than it just being on the table – but it was brought and perked the dish right up. Generous portion, well cooked. Avoid the place at weekday lunches when it’s flooded for a brief period by students from the high school across the street looking for a cheap “menu” – it’s like being in a high school cafeteria with the noise, throwing of food, attempts to skip out without paying, etc. Once they left, it was great, and the place is back on my list to check out more dishes down the line. ?? [Closed, reopened in a new location.] […]

Comments on: A New Spring?

By: Native Craft – SaltShaker

By: Chili Rabbit