Three different ways with meat….

 

Byggvir, Laprida 1805, Recoleta. Last year, when this place opened, I gave it a thumbs up for their short craft beer selection and decent empanadas. One of the big draws of the place was and is that it’s one of the few craft beer spots in the area that’s open all day, you don’t have to wait until 6 or 7 pm to grab a pint. Recently I decided to finally get around to try one of their burgers (they offer three – an “Irish”, a “Scottish”, and a veggie. The difference between the first two is ham versus bacon. [Closed]

I knew I was in trouble when it took a solid half hour to get the burger, despite being the only one in the place ordering food. A couple of slightly panicky inquiries as time wore on only resulted in “they’re still cooking it, it’ll be out soon”. I repeated my request for rare to medium rare and got only nods of vague assurance. On arrival, my panic was assuaged, a mere glance showed disaster had already arrived. You know you’re in trouble when the burger patty is not only a perfectly sculptured, smooth surfaced and sharp edged disc, but the tomato slices are thicker. The DCFP, dreaded commercial frozen patty had arrived.

There were some pluses to what sat atop the plate – a quite good, sturdy and flavorful, and even toasted bun. A lovely leaf of lettuce and a couple of those thick tomato slices. And even a decent, albeit rather wimpy, slice of good mozzarella. The two letdowns, however, overshadowed any positives from those elements. The long overcooked puck of meat had the texture of a block pencil eraser and about as much charm and seasoning, and “rare” was a through and through shade of brown-grey. “Caramelized onions” apparently doesn’t mean the same thing to the chef here as it does to most of the culinary world – rather than slow cooked, lovely golden brown onions (albeit roughly the same color), these seem to have been literally caramelized, i.e., cooked in some sort of sugar syrup. The fries were dark blond and floppy. 170 pesos.

Stick with a pint of beer, some peanuts, and maybe an empanada.

 

Kebab Roll Dhaba, Honduras 5761, Palermo. I had no particular expectations as to what a “kebab roll” would be – I’ve had kebabs, I’ve had rolls, I just wasn’t sure how they meshed in this relatively new Pakistani-Afghani lunch counter in the heart of Palermo. I imagined if I’d grown up in a culture that has “sausage rolls”, I’d have been closer prepared. I was greeted with gusto by the charming owner of the place, who seems to assume that anyone walking through the door speaks fluent English and isn’t a local. An implication grew over the course of nibbling that that may be borne out by the actual customer base, who seemed to lean towards those from either the British Isles or the great Down-Under.

There are somewhere close to a dozen items on the menu, of various sorts, but the namesake draw are a quartet of deep fried wraps featuring either the classic Pakistani shish kebab version (pictured) with ground beef, green chilies, and mint; the Afghani ribeye (I’m assuming sliced or chopped) with cilantro and kiwi; the butifarra, with slow cooked pork shoulder, orange and chilies; or the tandoor with chicken, ginger, lemon, and yogurt. For a first visit, I decided on the classic, which, as you can see, turns out to be (okay you can’t quite see all of it), two lovely oblong kebabs, packed with flavor, wrapped in flatbread, and deep fried. They’re premade, and reheated in a small toaster oven, but that’s fine.

They’re served with a choice of an excellent cilantro lime sauce or a slightly too sweet for my tastes tomato and chili sauce. When he asked if they were hot enough (they had some heat, but not much), and I inquired as to whether there might be something with more kick, he brought out a third, a mashed salsa of fiery Chinese chilies in sesame oil. Combining that with the cilantro lime turned out to be the perfect blend. 170 pesos. I will be back to try the others. This is my idea of snack food heaven.

 

I don’t remember how Gran Parrilla Cramer, Av. Ricardo Balbin 2782 got on my list to check out. My only notation is that my friend Frank had been there and liked it, but no notes about something in particular to try or anything like that. But it was there, and we were a few blocks away at the annual Día del Limud BA, and the Peruvian spot we’d been thinking about going to, ZMP, wasn’t open for some reason. So we went. Pretty place, with a lovely little atrium in the back.

A quick look at social media and the like suggested that the things the place is most known for are its provoletas and its brochettes. They’re certainly prepared for grilling up those slabs of provolone cheese, and they offer them with a choice of toppings. We went provencal, garlic and parsley sauce, what half the northern hemisphere thinks chimichurri is. Fairly good, the only real fault was that it could have used about another minute on the grill, it was just short of gooey perfection inside

A half portion of beautifully grilled mollejas, sweetbreads hit the spot as a second shared appetizer.

Following on the collective wisdom of the online world, we ordered up a brochette mixto with a side salad. The brochette was delicious – bit cubes of beef and chicken, cooked just right, the beef bracketed by grilled bell peppers, onions, and bacon, the chicken sandwiched between plus and apples. Missing from the chicken end were the promised ajies vinagres, pickled Italian frying peppers, but it was still delicious. The salad was sort of ho-hum, mostly because it was primarily iceberg lettuce and onion, with just a couple of pieces of tomato.

Since we were sharing plate by plate, we decided (or maybe I pushed) for a little something sweet, and our waitress recommended the housemade tiramisu. Gooey, liqueur soaked sponge cake, a light mascarpone and coffee cream, and a cocoa topping… honestly one of the best tiramisus I’ve had in Buenos Aires. I’d happily go there just for that and a couple of coffees.

Service was friendly and reasonably attentive. Really the only negative on the place other than the missing provoleta grill minute, is the 45 peso per person cubierto charge. All told, with these four dishes, the cubiertos, two waters, and two coffees, and tip, we rang in at 1100 pesos ($43 at today’s 25.5:1 rate). Maybe slightly pricey, but not out of line for the quality.