I make no claims for the origin of this recipe, it’s just the one I was taught:

Faina

100 grams chickpea flour
50 grams bread flour (000 flour)
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper
50 grams grated parmesan

Oil a round cake or pizza pan or even a frying pan. Mix the rest of the ingredients well with a whisk to make sure there are no lumps. Let sit for five minutes, and at the same time, put the oiled pan in the oven or over a flame to warm it up. Put the mixture into the pan, spreading it out evenly. Put in the upper part of the oven until lightly golden on top. Then move to the bottom of the oven and leave to cook for 10 more minutes. Grind some pepper over the top, sprinkle with salt and herbs if desired and serve.

What’s with these people? Why do they always to ADD ingredients?!

I’ll try to make fainá with the mix today, and I’ll report back.

I’m quite sure about the parmesan – it’s not on, it’s in, the mix. Not everyone does it, but it’s quite common, and the way I learned to make it from local friends.

Best substitute for porcini here are king oyster mushrooms, which show up in the markets once a year, usually in late summer. Usually labeled “seta de cardo” – when in season, they’re all over Barrio Chino, and in some of the other better stocked markets.

Judging by the look of your plates, maybe the molar on the menu stands for ‘nothing to crunch on’. But I am purely guessing, as Argentines have a weird taste for food place names and an odd sense of humor.

I love mushrooms and I think that fried porcini are the best. Of course, they are nowhere to be found here, neither dehydrated or fresh. I did little experimenting with local mushrooms, and so far my favorite are girgolas (oyster mushrooms), that I bake or fry. I can’t find them in the City, though. I had a supplier in Mar del Plata (Etienne from Mangez-moi: https://www.facebook.com/pg/mangezmoihongos/posts/) and bought one kilo of fresh. They were dirty cheap and so tasty!

It caught my attention that you mention parmesan in the fainá. I never noticed they put parmesan on the fainá here and it shouldn’t be there. I make fainá at home myself, and it tastes just like in ordinary pizza places here. Are you sure about it? There are places offering fainá with topping, but the standard version is plain chickpea flour, water, salt, oil. And then some ground pepper to taste.

I don’t like the attitude of the no-more-salt lady. The cooking rule is very simple: salt, you can always add it but never take it out, so be moderate and eventually add.
Plus, different people have different sensitivity in the tastebuds (for example, smokers tend to eat saltier and more sweet). On this account, due to a dental surgery I am temporarily chewing on the left side of the mouth and I can barely taste anything. I move to food to the right, and the flavor is all there. Weird!