In which we bounce all over the map, gastronomy-wise. This time, serving up six spots – we have two Peruvian, one seafood, one Jewish deli, one vegetarian, and one classic Argentine bodegón. Not in that order. Let us start, as I am wont to do, from the depths and move on to the heights.

 

Oy Vey!, Av. Corrientes 1660 Local 9, San Nicolas – Located in the new Manduca food plaza that I mentioned in the previous post on vitello tonnato sandwiches. As far as I know, this is a one-off spot, offering up one man’s take on Jewish deli food. There’s so little good to say about this place that I almost decided not to mention it… if you can’t say anything good and all that. The bagel and smoked trout sandwich looks good, though looks can be decieving. The bagle itself, little more than a bread roll with a depression in the middle, the smoked trout fine… oh hell, it was served piping hot. I mean, to the point where the “sour cream”, which isn’t remotely sour, and, I’d guess is, some sort of local whipped cream cheese, like CasanCrem, was completely liquid and just poured off the sandwich when picked up. It was awful. I ended up just opening it up and eating the smoked trout on its own. The “latkes” are basically unseasoned mashed potato tots. The lajmayin, a mini flatbread, was so dense and chewy that I couldn’t cut it with the provided knife, and the unidentified meat crumble atop was dry and crunchy. None of it was rescued by the garnishes. The name of the place sums it up. Pass.

 

Seibo – plant based, Azcuénaga 1876, Recoleta – This one will end up falling into the meh world. I like the space. Service, at least from my waiter, cute as he was, was unfriendly and disinterested. The food, well, let’s see, the appetizer bowl of marinated olives was decent, flavored with garlic, herbs, and roasted cherry tomatoes, though would be far better with decent quality olives rather than the cheapest jarred ones to be found. The milanesa de girgolas, or oyster mushroom cutlets, was itselft quite good – the mushrooms nice and meaty, and cooked perfectly, with a well seasoned, crunchy crust. But, the accompanying fettuccine was so undercooked that they may have thought al dente meant the texture of a tooth rather than than toothsome. When I mentioned said issue to my waiter, he shrugged, took the plate of uneaten pasta away, and brought me the bill, all without a word. There’s great potential here, but more attention to detail on the food, and either replace the waiter or tell him to leave whatever his grand angst is at home. Pass for the moment, though I may give it another shot at some point.

 

Jarana, Fitz Roy 1722, Palermo – Taking over the spot vacated long ago by Brandon, and then short-time tenanted by an off-shoot of Mudra, is this relatively new nikkei restaurant from the minds and wallets of the Astrid y Gastón folk. In particular, Astrid Acuña is apparently the force behind not only this one, but La Mar and Tanta as well. Now, there have been some ups and downs for this group here in town. Well, mostly ups. When AyG first opened it was mediocre at best in comparison to the original back in Lima. Local management had convinced the folk behind the restaurant that Argentines just wouldn’t eat food with spice and intensity, so everything was very pretty but very bland. That got corrected over the four years or so the place was opened, but was too late to save it. La Mar has done the opposite. It opened full tilt and was amazing, but over time has kind of gone to resting on its laurels. Tanta? The same. They’re both still good, but better places have opened.

So, enter this new space, which I didn’t know was part of the group when I entered. It’s beautiful, light, airy. I was the first one in, and the only staff member on the floor was the cashier, and she presented me with a menu, made recommendations, and was delightful. Then the waitress and waiter wandered in from, it appeared, having a meal together. Although I’d already happily ordered, the waitress brought the menu back and suggested that perhaps I’d been misguided since… I don’t know, the thought was left unfinished. Was she pissed off that the cashier had done her job? I thanked her but stuck with my choices, which prompted her to leave the menu, just in case I wanted to reconsider, or order more. Weird. And it was left there until after I’d finished a three-course meal. Also that she approached the table no less than half a dozen times as I ate to ask if the food was delicious. She, and the waiter, and, come to think of it, the cashier, seemed intent on explaining to me what Peruvian, and more particularly, Nikkei, cooking was, even after I asserted I knew. And repeatedly doing the same during the meal. Just go away and let me eat.

The food – the ceviche norteñita was flavorful – lovely fish and shellfish, citrusy, herby, and completely lacking spice. Not a chili to be found. The sauce on it was claimed as ají amarillo, but somehow they’d sanitized out the picante. When I asked for ajicito, hot sauce, my waitress suggested perhaps not. I suggested perhaps so, and she brought it. It was quite good and added a nice kick to the dish. The acevichado maki was okay at best – nice and plump with prawns, avocado, and sweet potato. But, if you’re going to claim something to be ceviche style it ought to have that citrusy component as the sauce on the maki, but they had, instead, made a cream of scallops with no citrus and no heat, again. I dabbed the remaining hot sauce on to the roll and it was far better. Unfortunately, the maki also wasn’t all that well made, since the middle piece out of the roll had no filling whatsoever. They just simply hadn’t made sure to fill the whole thing. The dessert, a tres leches cake topped with tiramisu ice cream, was simply not that. It was a plain pound cake, and they’d poured the tres leches sauce over it at the moment of plating, so it wasn’t soaked in at all, just covering the plate. The ice cream had no flavor of coffee and only the barest dusting of cocoa, and was weirdly sour, like a frozen yogurt rather than, perhaps, mascarpone and cream. The coffee was good, despite having a battle with the waitress who four times moved the sugar bowl over in front of me and took the lid off it, even after I covered it and moved it off to the side.

Like the space. Service is weird and a bit confrontational. The food is tasty but has gone down the route of “let’s not make anything intense enough that it might offend Argentine palates”, which is totally unnecessary. These days, far different from when I first moved here, Argentines eat spicy food, and they love good Peruvian food, Nikkei or not. Potential, but they need to get their act together.

 

Bar Tarzán, Los Incas 2309, Castelar – I headed out on the hour-plus trip to this suburban spot by bus and train as it was one of the places that got both a good writeup and a recommendation from someone I follow on Twitter for my chorizo a la pomarola search late last year. It turns out that this is a neighborhood bodegón at the train station in Castelar, and offers up a changing menu of roughly eight dishes of the day. So while the chorizo I was hoping for may have been a great version, it was not on offer. However, I’m a sucker for rabbit dishes, and prominent for the afternoon was a conejo al ajillo, or rabbit in garlic sauce. The Argentine version of ajillo is quite different from the Peruvian one that has come up before. Hmm… I should do a post on those and other South American garlic sauces, no? The rabbit was beautifully cooked and tender, the sauce was intensely garlicky, but, it was unseasoned with salt. The same with the chips. Salt and pepper were both provided on the table, but as we know, there’s a difference between sprinkled over the top and cooked into the dish. So, it was a decent dish, but could have been so much better had they seasoned it while cooking. I don’t know that I’d make the trip back again unless I can come up with a way of being alerted when they’re going to have the pomarola dish, but if I was in Castelar for some reason (I have been once or twice over the years), I’d stop back in.

 

Como en Perú, 24 de Noviembre 164, Once – Little hole-in-the-wall Peruvian homestyle restaurant. Specialist in seafood dishes. Friendly service, especially after it became clear I wasn’t just going to order a fried rice or something. Really good leche de tigre, the curing liquid for a ceviche, with a bit of tempura fish over the top, and not, for a change, packed with way too much onion. And, while disappointing that they were out of beef heart for the traditional anticuchos, they had a lovely version made with chicken. I like that they bring the huancaina sauce on the side so you can add it to your potatoes or the skewers as you like. I’d happily eat here again.

 

 

Gourmand Food Hall, Patio Bullrich, Av. del Libertador 750, Retiro – I’ve reviewed some of the food in this food hall before. It’s an interesting setup, in that no matter in front of which mini-restaurant in the place you choose to plop yourself, you’re brought the menu for the whole place. You can order food from where you’re sitting or from across the hall, and the waiters work the entire space, not just one restaurant. Which, I don’t think was the case when they first opened, though I could be wrong about that.

I sat down at the oyster bar, and ordered up a trio. The presentation has changed from the last time I had them here, a bit over four years ago. Still being served with lime, but no longer with the mignonette or scoop of butter. Then again, the butter was already on the table for the bread… could it be that they just happened to bring the butter for my bread at the same time as the oysters the previous time? I’d guess not, since it was actually on the plate with the oysters. Instead of ordering my main course from here, the mixed seafood grill caught my eye from one of the other restaurants. Now, I’ve tried my share of mixed seafood grills here – it was actually a multi-post quest that I embarked on over a decade ago and visited a dozen or more spots (should it interest you, just search for parrillada de mariscos). This is the first one I think I’ve encountered that’s really designed as a one person dish. It was excellent, with calamari, octopus, prawns, and two kinds of fish, all beautifully seasoned. Could have used some sort of accompaniment besides a couple of potato chips, but so be it.

And that, long-winded as it was, is that.