I’m not going to do real reviews here – just a sentence or so about each place I ate, and single out one dish that I thought stood out.

The huge okra, cooked tender, no sliminess, served chilled and bathed in a moderately spicy chili oil as a salad at Szechuan Mountain House, 23 St. Marks Place, East Village. Based on what else I ate and saw people eating, this is THE place in Manhattan to be going if you like Szechuan food. You’d think, given its location, it’d be a dive, but it’s elegant, exquisite, and the food is ridiculously good.

When I lived in the East Village, now going on twenty years ago (time flies, thank you for accompanying me on this journey!), I was a regular at the sake bar and soba noodle counter at Ise, 63 Cooper Square. The ten zaru soba, chilled light buckwheat noodles, dipping sauce, extra grated radish, and two tempura prawns was always my favorite, and it’s as good as it ever was. Unfortunately, you have little time left to get there, as the owner, now 81 years old, is retiring back to Japan later this month, and the place is closing up.

I told you there would be more clams on this trip, and the spicy stir-fry of clams at Atlas Kitchen, 258 W. 109th Street, Morningside Heights, do not disappoint. Spicy, cooked perfectly, not much more to say other than get up there and try them, or one of the other delicious dishes on offer. I didn’t often head this far uptown back in my NYC days, but my friend Raj had students performing in a recital at Columbia shortly after lunch and it was a convenient, and well worth the trip, spot.

Supposedly the “it” bistro of the moment, Libertine, 684 Greenwich Street, West Village, didn’t seem to be exactly overflowing with people. It was busy, mind you, but never full, despite being “the hardest reservation to get in New York” according to more than one person who mentioned it. My friend John, who booked us in for a delightful eve, apparently nearly hovered over his keyboard waiting for a table to open. My fave dish of the evening, the crispy fried sweetbreads in a butter sauce with white asparagus and sorrel leaves.

My friend Michael, sake guru to the stars and the little people alike, suggested lunch at what I guess was the first Japanese restaurant ever opened in New York City (or maybe just the oldest one still extant?), Nippon, 155 E. 52nd Street, right near to Grand Central Station. While I enjoyed another ten zaru soba, and he a bento box, the star on the table was this eel futomaki.

Probably my longest time friends in the New York area, and former business partners, Ray and Janet, came in from the neighboring state to the west for dinner at Vestry, in the Dominick Hotel, 246 Spring Street, in SoHo. Focused on seafood, the dishes are beautifully presented and packed with flavor, and hotel restaurant or not, you should check it out. This gorgeous soft shell crab on a frisee salad with a cilantro sauce is something I could happily eat again and again.

If you love soup dumplings, how could you not love a place whose sole reason for existing is a dozen varieties of them? If you don’t love soup dumplings, please just quietly retire to a corner over there and not a word out of you, thank you very much. Steam, 470 6th Ave, West Village, is the place to wander into and indulge in these delicately made flavor bombs. Personal favorite, the chicken and ginseng ones. My friend Steve, who came in from some northern town, and from whom I used to buy excellent Italian wines, didn’t disagree.

I don’t really get the claim that Dame, 87 MacDougal Street, West Village, is a restaurant serving English pub food. Sure they have fish and chips on the menu, but nothing else that friend Kym and I had over a multicourse extravaganza screamed out English pub food. The star of the evening for me were the broiled oysters glazed with a chartreuse infused hollandaise sauce. Plus, a white wine from Banyuls, France – I’m not sure I even knew there was such a thing, at least not with the appellation. Does any of that sound like an English pub? Oh, and shout out of thanks to chef Michael Ruhlman for the recommendation!

My friend Kerin gets two accolades in this round since we appetizer hopped. We started off at the trendy, busy (we need the table back in an hour – okay, we were late because Kerin’s train got stuck) Claud, 90 E. 10th Street, East Village. Nice little wine selection and not the usual suspects – Luis Seabra’s Xisto Ilimitado by the glass! Yum food all around, but the scallop crudo with daikon radish and a shiso broth was something worth diving into. Also the bread!

I’m going to have to say our second stop faltered a bit. It wasn’t bad, but I remember Hearth, 403 E. 12th Street, East Village, being… better. The original partners have split since I lived in the ‘hood, one of them going to open a wine bar (see below), the other having “gotten religion” in the sense of all sorts of rules about what kind of fats and cooking processes and places ingredients can come from. Personally, I think the food has suffered – it’s still reasonably good, but I probably wouldn’t go back. The “variety meat” burger was overcooked and dry. And who wants a burger without a bun – are we avoiding gluten or something?

In various surveys that have apparently been performed, likely without any real controls on them, several places seem to repeatedly get to the top of the “best fried chicken in New York City” lists. One that regularly appears, and often in first place, is Bobwhite Counter, 94 Av. C, East Village. It was… good fried chicken. But if that’s the best NYC can do… calling all really good fried chicken chefs, there’s a market for you here. Plus, no one who says they’re from the south offers “unsweetened” ice tea. It’s “unsweet”, and you know it.

Although the oysters are sublime at Cull & Pistol, in the Chelsea Market, the addictive thing on the table for me was the bowl of lightly charred shishito peppers tossed with salt and fish sauce. Fish sauce?! Hoodathunkit? On the other hand, the less said about the cold lobster roll, the better. Should have gone with my first impulse for the hot lobster roll.

And, an evening out with the inimitable Marc and Sookie, long time friends, and among the few who’ve made the trip down to visit me in Buenos Aires. We settled on Vietnamese food at East Village dive Madame Vo, 212 E. 10th Street, where we dug into an array of rolls, crepes, and braised things. Tough to pick between the fried prawn spring-rolls and the braised pork summer rolls. Oh, just get both.

And finishing off my last night in NYC (I’ll be back for the afternoon/early evening on Thursday before heading home), with a solo, late night visit to Terroir, 24 Harrison Street, Tribeca. This wine bar is the craziest, most fun wine bar I’ve been to in years, and with some amazing wines available by glass and bottle. I swiftly ended up with a trio of wines to pair alongside a trio of dishes.

The winner was this stunning beet salad with an herb yogurt and pistachio puree. I could have eaten another whole salad (but went for crab croquettes and a half dozen oysters).

Currently coming to you from a one day stopover in New Haven, CT, then on to Boston. I’m sure you’ll hear from me soon.

I did go see the thing, or at least the Miraflores Visitor Center, which fronts one of the original locks. There are three more, modern ones, where most of the ship traffic apparently passes. I was informed on arrival that “the morning boat just finished going through about half an hour ago, and the afternoon boat will be here in five hours, so make yourself comfortable. No, I don’t think I will. I’m not going to sit on a drizzly day, or even a sunny day, and wait five hours for a ship to pass the locks. I’ve done that (with less wait time) on the Erie Canal, and even ridden a boat through it.

I did a half day tour out to the Gamboa Nature Preserve area. I got to feed some monkeys. It’s a bit touristy, but fun. And I hit a bunch of museums – the Panama Canal Museum, the Panama City History Museum, the Mola Museum (a particular form of artwork from one of primary original populations in the area, the Guna), the Biomuseum, and, of course, in Latin American, one must visit and take the obligatory photo in more than one Catholic church – like the National Cathedral, and St. Joseph’s Basilica, for example. The first was the most fascinating, but all were really interesting. On to my reason for being there – checking out the local food scene.

Yesterday I posted a detailed review of the four restaurants that were top of my list to check out – the four that made it onto last year’s Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. It’s my first paid post over on Substack – a toe in the water for maybe a bit of reimbursement for the nearly twenty years I’ve been writing these posts. Sign up, support the cause! I do actually have some paid subscribers, both on an annual and monthly basis, and thank you to them! Or, there’s a little donate button on the front page of this blog for just like, one time “thanks for doing this” folk. As such, I’m only going to put a cursory review of those four spots here, along with the other places I dined. If you want more detail….

Intimo, Calle 72 Este, is in the San Francisco section of the city came in at #86 on the list. The place feels a bit like a neighborhood dive bar, but with a great wine list, including some interesting and unusual stuff by the glass. The food, for me, with only two plates sampled, wasn’t much of a wow. I liked the flavors of both the clams in roasted corn and ginger brown butter, and the focaccia it was served with was great, but they, and the salt baked prawns that I tried after, were overcooked and rubbery, and the latter hadn’t been cleaned properly.

Fonda Lo Que Hay, at #51, in the Edificio Colegio on Calle Obaldía in the Casco Histórico, is a bit touristy, and I knew that going in. At the same time, it’s fun, lively, and serves pretty damned good food. Here, the clams, in a garlic, smoked paprika, chili crunch, and cashew medley, were not just cooked right, but addictively delicious. Followed by a fascinating take on penne cacio e pepe that added in smoked veal tongue, fried bananas, and crispy wonton noodles that was good, though needed far more pepper to be a real cacio e pepe (swiftly provided by my waiter and the kitchen).

Cantina del Tigre, Calle 68 Este (“at the end, in front of the black house”), back in the San Francisco neighborhood came in at #26. Here, in a jungle themed, casual, almost cafeteria style seating bar, they’re serving up some really creative and interesting food. An amberjack tartare was delicious, as was the bar snack of crispy fried prawn heads in “fish dip”, almost like a great whitefish salad at your favorite bagel spot. But the star was the rice based tamál topped with papaya, papaya seeds, and coconut, smoky in it’s roasted rather than steamed husks.

Maito, Calle 50 in the ritzier far northeast Coco del Mar section of the city, came in at #6 for all of Latin America, a high standing indeed. A sampling of four appetizers was marred a bit by being rushed out from the kitchen because they had a tour bus filled with something like 40 people who arrived at the same time I did, and they made a logistical decision that was off-putting for those of us at smaller tables. Still, the food was fantastic – here, I also tried an amberjack tartare, excellent; a tomato salad with a spicy (harissa?) smoked melon emulsion; shrimp wontons were a little on the bland side; and the star of the eve, these sugarcane and chili slow smoked short-ribs that I would happily eat any day of any week.

On to the rest of the food!

Concolón Panamanian Street Food, C. San Lucas, in the center of town – actually just a few block walk from my hotel (the El Panamá, the first hotel ever opened in the country, and still operating, and really nice, and half the price of hotels in the surrounding area). Casual neighborhood spot serving up local dishes, and, of course, specializing in the concolón, the crispy rice left at the bottom of the pot – more often than not, intentionally.

My waitress assured me that ordering the “couple of bites” patacones filled with ropa vieja, slow braised beef, would not at all impact my ability to eat the main course. You can’t really tell from this photo, but those things are both full sandwich size. I would have barely been able to finish both of them without feeling stuffed. I ate one. It was quite possibly the best ropa vieja I’ve had, anywhere.

Since I had already ordered the patacones with beef, I went with the crispy lechón, suckling pig, for my concolón. Not mentioned were a) that in addition to the pork (yummy!) and the half bowl sized concolón itself, there would also be a mound of rice, and a lake of red beans – the whole thing, to my mind, enough for two to share. I don’t think I quite ate half of this plate, but every bite was worth it. My waitress seemed surprised, offering that eating those two plates of food seemed like a normal sized lunch to her.

Aria, Calle Juan Ramón Poll C, in the Obarrio section of the city. It’s, I was informed by my Uber driver, the Jewish section of the city. Until I was planning this trip, I had no idea that Panama City as a large Jewish population – roughly 25,000, of whom something like 21,000 are Orthodox. That has, naturally, led to there apparently being a couple of dozen or more kosher restaurants in the city, the biggest concentration of them in this area. Aria is touted as one of the better ones, focused on Japanese influenced local cuisine, and sushi.

Every sushi bar out there these days offers edamame or shishito peppers to nibble on while you await your fish. But how many offer crispy okra? Aria does, and it’s really good.

I went with their four pairs of “special nigiri”, salmon and tuna prepared two different ways each. Good, but nothing to write home about, even if I just did. A little pricey, with the okra running $12 and the nigiri running $11/pair.

A visit to the Mercado de Mariscos, Ciclovía Cinta Costera, just outside the historic center of the city, Casco Histórico, and right next to Chinatown. I was really hoping for some offbeat fish or shellfish that perhaps I hadn’t seen before, but everything was pretty ordinary, albeit plentiful and fresh. I wandered a bit, fended off vendors, who were quite relentless in trying to get me to buy stuff – one even telling me that he was quite sure that I could buy his wares, and go upstairs, and somewhere up there was someone who would cook the fish for me.

The market is surrounded on… two and half sides… by about four dozen food stands, serving up primarily ceviches and fried dishes, but individual places have specialty dishes too. At the same time, one hawker let me know that “everyone here serves the exact same menu items, some of us just serve one or another dish that’s better than at other places”.

What I really wanted to try was a lobster ceviche, but no one was serving one (several places had it on their menu), only lobster cocktails – basically a mayo based lobster salad. I tried one, it was fine, nothing special, and definitely need the addition of the asked for and received hot sauce on the side. Apparently market custom, every ceviche and cocktail that I saw was served with a packet of what are basically saltines. some people were using them to scoop, some were crumbling them up into their dishes, most seemed to be ignoring them, as did I.

And, two ceviches, side by side on the same plate – one a corvina (drum, or croaker, which seems to be the main fish used for ceviches here) one, the other a mixed shrimp and octopus one. Bizarrely, to me, no one was offering a mixed fish and shellfish ceviche. I was informed that “it’s just not done”. And the two women I got this plate from seemed quite put out that I wanted both, in the same meal. These, too, needed hot sauce, as Panamanians don’t make their dishes with chilies in them, it’s always, apparently, on the side, to be added to personal tastes. And, to my tastes, both the fish and shellfish had spent too much time bathing in their respective leches, to the point where they were getting mealy.

La Tapa de Coco, Calle 68 Este is a newly opened lunchroom sort of spot from a gregarious chef who started off serving Afro-Panamanian street food, I believe from a food truck or stand. He came out to say hello after I let them know we had a mutual friend who had sent me his way – check out Nicholas Gill’s New Worlder, particularly for gastronomic travels in Central America and northern South America.

Really tasty salt cod fritters. The three sauces they’re served with are a tartar sauce (very herby, very good), ketchup (okay), and “hottie berry”, a blend of blackberry and habanero chili, which was good, and created specifically for these fritters, but for me, the habanero was too muted. Not like I left even a crumb. The local drink, a saril, is a hibiscus and ginger tea that I will be making on hot summer days at home.

Fitting in with the add your own spice ethos, the jerk chicken has no heat, though two “afro-hot sauces” were served on the side on request. Instead, it’s really good sweet barbecue chicken with dirty rice, a piece of a banana, and a salad. Good eating, highly improved by generously dabbed hot sauce.

And, one more fine dining spot, that didn’t make it on the “List”, highly recommended by a friend and colleague in the wine biz, Tomillo, Calle 71, once again in the ritzy San Francisco area. Very chic. For some reason I was the sole occupant of the over-air-conditioned dining room, everyone else (and there were a lot of everyone elses) was seated out on the terrace, but apparently I didn’t rate for that. It was a little odd, as was service the entire evening.

The house specialty is a whole lobster tail in an “aji amarillo” sauce. It hadn’t occurred to me that in a spice-averse culture, that they weren’t talking about yellow chilies, but about yellow bell peppers. Still, good flavors, though the lobster was definitely overcooked. I think this might be my biggest negative about the seafood in Panama City, at least from the eight places I tried, is that shellfish seems to be almost universally overcooked and a bit rubbery. The only exception I can think of were the clams at Fonda Lo Que Hay.

And, my sole dessert of the week, as it sounded interesting… the description was “Chocolate covered. Lemon cream, mango and beetroot jelly, biscuit ash.” The kind of “chefy” thing that occasinoally leads me try a dessert. This was not what I expected, a bell jar filled with smoke, and a ramekin of green powder.

The bell jar lifted away, there was what appeared to be a blackened piece of wood, accompanied by a small, quite pretty mallet, which I had to use to break open said log. The chocolate layer was very thick, and took quite a few whacks. Inside, the lemon cream, but no mango and beetroot jelly, instead some bits of candied pineapple (waiter’s response… “what’s the difference?”), and the green powder was, I guess, the “biscuit ash”, though it wasn’t an ash, I don’t know what it was, and he couldn’t explain it. It was green powder that added a vaguely smoky hint to the dish. I just sort of nibbled at the whole thing, a bit disappointed in the whole meal, sorry to say.

If I had to pick my “don’t miss” places, from this limited sampling of eight spots, it’d be Concolón Panamanian Street Food on the cheap and cheerful end, and Cantina del Tigre on the more expensive, yet still casual end. I suppose if I had to pick a place both expensive and chic, it would be Maito.

And with that, I’m on to New York City for visits with friends, some eating out, of course, and then on again to another stop, soon to be revealed. You can follow my NYC eats on my Instagram, and I’ll also end up doing a summary post, probably much like this one.

We’d booked a room at a midrange place, Hotel Argentino, right on the city’s central Plaza Independencia. Clean, well kept, and with attentive staff – particular kudos to the lobby restaurant staff who kept me supplied with simple things like tea and toast, and even went out of their way and made me a pot of chicken noodle soup. If you stay there, ask for room 326 – it’s the only one with a balcony, and believe me, being stuck in the hotel room, having a balcony to sit outside, enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, was a delight.

Henry, luckily, was able to entertain himself a good portion of the time as he has friends from the dance world there and spent a good amount of time with them. Once I was feeling a bit better, we all met up, and they even accompanied (and drove) us out to the one winery we were were able to visit. So, what did we, together, manage? A quick tour of the historic center – basically the main plaza and the four neighboring plazas – España, Italia, Chile, and San Martín, with Florencia, a delightful guide we found through the WithLocals app (I tend to use that and GetYourGuide for more personally curated experiences). We ended the couple of hour tour with glasses of wine at La Sala de Maridajes, Perú 1136, a very cool wine bar with private wine-themed rooms, and a large patio out back.

A nice visit that evening to the lit-up fountains in the middle of Plaza Independencia. Followed by a visit to a somewhat dicey nearby Peruvian restaurant, where I’m guessing I picked up whatever bug hit me the following day.

On Florencia’s recommendation we grabbed lunch on our first full day at Fuente y Fonda, Montevideo 675, where she asserted we’d find great local, regional fare, in huge portions. Somewhere here, in the midst of lunch, I started to feel the rumbles of whatever ended up hitting later in the day.

It’s a really cozy spot, most of the dining is in a covered patio area.

We shared an excellent provoleta liquida with cherry tomatoes and black olives. Well seasoned, one of the better ones I’ve had in a long time, and more than enough for two to share.

And we managed our way through maybe 2/3 of this churrasco de ternera, basically a huge cast iron skillet of well seasoned, grilled veal (four steaks piled atop each other in the center!), wedges of roasted pumpkin, potatoes, red onions, and a fried egg. Side salad, and a vinegary chimichurri. We took the third that was left and passed it on to an elderly homeless woman in the central plaza.

We headed back to the hotel where I thought I’d rest up, and hopefully whatever was happening might pass.

By evening, it was clear that it wasn’t going to. At the same time, it wasn’t all that bad – still just feeling a bit off, and we headed for our first fancier experience, dinner at Soberana, Av. Sarmiento 705.

Beautiful inside and out. Pretty much impeccable service (other than the sommelier, who never came to the table except to open the bottle of wine we’d ordered, didn’t speak to us, and never returned – he seemed a bit of a dour character – everyone else was delightful and attentive).

We’d been warned that portions were large, so we decided, and our waiter approved, on sharing an appetizer, main course, and dessert. The starter was two lightly seasoned prawns and a near perfect potato rosti. Oddly, in between them, a sopping wet coleslaw of sorts that had no seasoning whatsoever – no salt, no pepper, nothing, just a sort of tasteless salad cream. We kind of ate the prawns and potato and left the salad. Our fingers were now crossed hoping our main course was better….

And, it was. A simply spectacular nearly 1-1/2 pound ribeye steak, perfectly cooked, lovely char, an interesting, in a good way, potato puree flavored with black garlic, and a little salsa of confited garlic and almonds to put on the steak that’s an idea I just may steal.

Unfortunately, maybe midway into the steak, the gods of biology decided it was time for the whammy. I will tell you that Soberana has very nice bathrooms, and thankfully, individual ones.

Henry ate the creamy, rich vanilla flan – I barely managed a spoonful. We paid, got out of there, and that was pretty much the end of my vacation until the last day, and even on the last day, mine didn’t involve much in the way of food. Visits to Centauro and Azafrán, as well as further afield spots, will have to wait for a future trip.

Once it was decided on the last day that I was up for a bit of a trip, we headed to Valle de Uco with Henry’s friends. It was too late to garner turnos at several of the wineries I’d wanted to visit, but I was able to reach a lovely young woman, Melissa, at one of my favorite wineries, Masi Tupungato, the Argentine “branch” of Masi Agricola, one of my longtime favorite spots in Valpolicella, Italy.

She fit us in to what was already a pretty busy schedule it looked like, and gave us a tour of their native plants garden, the winery, the edges of the vineyards, and a tasting of their three primary wines.

We had a great time!

We finished off the day at the Manzano Histórico, a complex of small museums and monuments in the foothills. I maintained not eating much, the others enjoyed a lunch at a local café, none of us looking to splurge on a winery lunch that I was likely the only one who would appreciate. And, we said our goodbyes, and the next morning headed home.

And that’s where I’ll leave you this time around. We’ll put Mendoza on our cycle of spots to visit, and get back to check out some of the other wineries and restaurants, somewhere down the line….

I don’t recall where I first read about Candy Bar, Durazno 1402, on the border of Palermo and Barrio Sur. I made notes that it was touted as an amazing, sophisticated and elegant cocktail bar with creative tapas. Several reviews out there place it in the trendy, upscale neighborhood of Parque Rodo, though that’s about a kilometer east, and a couple of economic classes above, where the bar is actually located.

This is not what I pictured, either outside or inside. Sophisticated and elegant just doesn’t fit with plastic barstools, weird kitsch, and cheap wooden chairs and tables. Their cocktail menu is limited, and craft beer seems more likely. And those tapas, it turns out, are only available at night. During the day it’s sandwiches and burgers.

Everything about their eponymous house burger screams that I’m going to love it. Great looking bun, nice thick patty, gooey melted cheese, grilled onion, mixed lettuces, a thick slab of tomato, a house dressing that I’m drawing a blank on. And, I almost loved it. All the flavors are there, the meat is beautifully seasoned, everything amazing except one thing. It’s dry. It’s so overcooked it’s a dull grey-brown in the middle. I asked for it rare to medium rare, they said that was how they cook it. And on pointing out to the waiter that this was… not that, he opined that it was, and that this was the way they always cook their burgers. The same, apparently, with the fries, which were basically burnt on one side – I gather they’re oven baked. So close, but yet, so far. Especially for a $16 burger accompanied by a $4 lemonade (which was quite good).

For dinner, it was off to Café Misterio, Republica de Costa Rica 1700, in the Carrasco Norte section of town. Now, I had lined up several restaurants that have gotten acclaim over the last couple of years, and they were all in this section of town. It’s pretty upscale, and not near to any of the other stuff I wanted to do, like museums and wandering. And the hotels are all pretty pricey. But I hadn’t reckoned with a couple of things. Ubers/taxis have gotten expensive, and the cost of going back and forth to these restaurants from the west side of town probably equaled the difference in hotel prices. Plus given the rain, all the wandering went out the window. And add to that that I had no idea that the city of Montevideo basically shuts down for the long Carnaval weekend. Virtually every museum and gallery that I wanted to check out was closed from Friday through Tuesday. Many restaurants, thankfully none of the ones on my list, were closed too. As one Uber drive said to me, “We might close for part of the day on Christmas and New Year’s, but we take Carnaval seriously. Everything’s closed, including government services.”

I had made all my reservations for early hours, but also, apparently, with Carnaval, no one was going out to eat much. This is a Saturday night at a restaurant that’s on Latin America’s Top 50 list. By the time I left, around 9 p.m., there were six other people there.

Nice little bread service – a couple of flatbread strips with a salmon pate at one end and chopped liver at the other, and excellent olives in between. I’m not sure why one would want to add olive oil, but okay.

“Whitefish of the day, peach curing broth, pickled blueberries, furikake.” The fish was a type of drum (corvina rubia), and on its own fine, and it’s a reasonable portion for a crudo dish. The broth was a bit weird. I didn’t really get the peach in it, and it just had a sort of muddled, not overly pleasant taste to it. For just shy of $18, not a winner for me.

“Shrimp, carrot, and daikon kimchi potstickers off the griddle, chive, mint, and cilantro leaves.” These are not potstickers off the griddle. They’re boiled or steamed dumplings – no golden brown, lightly crunchy surface. And where did this bowl of soy ginger broth come into play? I see chives, but no mint nor cilantro. Did I get the right dish? Yes, apparently, and “this is the way they’ve always been served.” Okay then. I mean, not bad, just not what I expected, maybe change the description on the menu, and maybe a touch pricey at $15 for six dumplings.

“Lemon curd tart. Yogurt ice cream.” Why am I having dessert? I haven’t been thrilled with the first two courses, and I’m not really a dessert person anyway. But somehow, I let myself be talked into this one. Overly thick pastry, the base is just as thick as the sides, and just the barest layer of lemon curd atop, this is more of a lemon iced cookie than anything else, and it’s dry as a bone. The iced, or frozen, yogurt, it ain’t ice cream, is more or less flavorless. Biggest disappointment of all three dishes, especially at $13. Add in the $7 cubierto charge for the one thing I did really like, the flatbread, a bottle of water, a glass of wine, and a tip, and this just okay meal comes in at $60 after getting the official tax refund (which I actually didn’t know I was going to get, so it was a nice surprise when every meal I charged on a card ended up with a partial chargeback).

This is one of the places I looked at staying. It’s a little B&B, with rooms that look like you’d be happy just staying in all the time. It was also the only day that it didn’t rain. On the other hand, the temperature rose to 32C, or around 90F, and humid as hell from all the rain. It also didn’t last – it clouded up later in the evening and returned to stormy conditions. Alquimista Montevideo, Av. Bolivia 1323, in Carrasco, also has a well-regarded restaurant.

While air conditioning seemed non-existent, indoors with a floor fan still seemed the better option than sitting out in the garden. Basically the restaurant is the lobby of the B&B, and the few folk staying there kind of wander in and out, as did an older couple who seemed, perhaps, to be the owners. Or at least awfully familiar with the staff, though they didn’t interact with guests at all, so perhaps not.

The menu, surprisingly very… Argentine, especially given that they make a point on their website that it’s “Contemporary Uruguayan Cuisine”. It turned out that their current, and perhaps new, chef is Argentine and basically moved the whole menu that direction.. or something. The information seemed a bit vague. A delightful little provoleta, in its own little cast iron pan. Beautifully browned, and the excellent garlic bread was a great accompaniment. About half the size of a typical provoleta here in Buenos Aires, but then I’d usually split one of those with someone rather than eating an entire one myself, so it works out. At $11 it’s not a steal, but Uruguay has always been more expensive than Argentina – with the latter’s economic woes, that difference is stark.

A “rack” of lamb is not two adjoined chops. Nor is a sweet potato that’s been smashed onto the plate a “purée”. But the lamb is nicely seasoned, albeit a bit tough and chewy. The demiglace sauce over the whole thing is a bit over-reduced and salty. It’s an okay dish, but no more than that, especially for close on $24.

Service is friendly, if a bit inattentive. The waitress is also the B&B’s front desk person and busperson and all around general it seemed doing everything but the cooking person. At one point it took a bit to get her attention, which was fully committed to her cellphone, where it turned out she was “managing our social media presence”. Overall, a pleasant afternoon, just not all that special. With a lemonade and tip, $36 (versus the $40 before the tourist tax refund – which is apparently just partial, since it’s 10% rather than the 22% sales tax charged on the bill).

I’m on to the other place that got on my list because it hit the Latin America’s Top 50 rankings. Manzanar, Carlos F. Sáez 6463, once again in Carrasco. All four of these places that I’m covering other than the burger spot at the top are within a few blocks of each other. This place is on a little plaza behind the grand Sofitel hotel (which we will get to next) that’s ringed by various restaurants, most of which have popped onto my radar at one point or another.

It’s a pretty place, but feels more like a sort of trendy beach bar than the elegant restaurant it’s touted to be. A strange dichotomy of raw bar/sushi versus wood-fired oven cooking is the ouvre here. Service is friendly and reasonably attentive, though has its missteps, not the least of which is a lot of hanging out at the bar by the waitstaff. That and the one waiter who seemed to feel he needed to hover nearby me just in case, I don’t know, I needed company since I was dining solo. That, by the way, happened at Café Misterio as well. Like someone dining alone can’t quite be left alone.

A nice bread selection, with a really tasty flatbread and quite good rustic white bread, along with local olive oil. Also, though not pictured, a small cup of beef broth, which apparently, functions as an amuse bouche. They seemed a bit miffed that I didn’t finish it, but the other food arrived so quickly that drinking a hot beef broth with raw fish just didn’t work for me.

Here’s where service gets a bit wonky. I had selected one pair of nigiri from the raw bar, this lovely corvina, a type of drum, topped with spicy yuzu koshu and local caviar. My waitress felt I should go with a salmon pair with a different topping. I demurred, but she sent it anyway. I thought maybe she just wanted me to try it and was gifting it, but I asked, since it wasn’t what I ordered, and no, it was whisked away, to be tossed in the trash. Shortly thereafter, this plate arrived, and it was excellent. Finally, some excellent food.

But here’s another misstep. She had asked me if I had a particular order in mind for the four small plates I ordered, and I said no, just to send them one at a time in whatever order the kitchen felt was best. Now, I’ll admit, they stuck to the letter of that, if not the spirit. The food runner brought this plate, and then immediately went back to the bar and returned with the next, and then into the kitchen and returned with the third, and back to the kitchen and returned with the fourth. So I had all four plates out on the table in about 3-4 minutes of the first one arriving. My waitress returned to ensure I was happy, and I noted that I’d expected the plates one at a time, to which she replied, “we brought them to your table one at time”. $10.50 for two nigiri seems a little steep.

Absolutely superb, this dish of cured mullet over a thickened kefir, fermented milk, with lime, dill, and radishes, all over a crispy dehydrated rye bread. Best dish to this point of the trip, three days in. It’s bigger than it looks in the picture, it’s probably a good 5″ on a side, and well worth the $14.

Disappointing “tempura” prawns. This is not tempura. This is a thick batter of some sort, like you get at a mediocre Chinese takeout, albeit better tasting. The sweet chili sauce had no noticeable chili in it, just sweet, though the lime helped. Apparently, however, one of their most popular dishes. $16.

And, a different take on elotes, my favorite Mexican grilled street corn. Here, wood-fired oven roasted corn in a cheese and yellow chili sauce – similar in some ways to Peruvian huancaina, but not the same. Delicious. Almost $14 for an ear of corn cut in half. Pricey.

Add in a glass of wine, bottle of water, and a $4 cover charge, plus tip, and this came in at a whopping $73, reduced to $67 with the rebate. I’d come back and try more, though I think I’d focus on the raw bar end, which seeemed to be what most people were eating and really enjoying.

Okay, we’re on to the aforementioned Sofitel hotel (and casino) on the Carrasco waterfront.

It’s really pretty at night.

And the lobby is jaw-dropping elegant.

I’m here to check out 1921 Restaurante, Rambla República de México 6451, where the chef is a professional acquaintance from here in Buenos Aires, Maximiliano Matsumoto, who made his way up through the kitchen at Tegui, the Faena hotel kitchens, and then Aldo’s, and on to Tora. Unfortunately, it turned out that, once again due to Carnaval, Maxi is taking the weekend off, but he graciously arranged for his sous chef and staff to really take care of me. And, boy did they.

Beautiful setting looking out over the river. You can see it’s back to stormy conditions. It’s slightly odd sitting with my back to the room, but the view makes up for it. The sommelier takes charge of things, and we discuss thoughts on the menu and wines. I pick two dishes that I particularly wanted to try and ask him to pair a glass of wine with each.

But first, I am treated to a different plate that I just “had to” try, their foie gras paté with almond brittle, charred peach, and brioche bread. Yum. A quite good glass of Familia Deicas’ Cuvee Castelar sparkling to accompany.

And of course, you can’t leave without trying our peach ceviche. Not a fish ceviche, it’s cured peaches in a lovely citrusy broth with mixed herbs. Excellent. And, a glass of Cerro Chapeu’s delicious reserve Sauvignon blanc 2023 to go with it.

I had ordered this dish because I saw it on Maxi’s Instagram account and it sounded amazing. Fresh crab stuffed inside a daikon “cigar” with a mild chili cream and various oils and spices and wow it was good. A glass of one of my favorite local Chardonnays, the Pisano RPF 2021, hit the spot too.

This was the other dish I chose, a rabbit confit lasagna with grilled figs and it was everything I’d hoped it would be. And what a match with Pizzorno’s Pinot Noir reserva 2021!

And, apparently I’d overstepped in rejecting the lamb saddle dish, and the sommelier insisted I try that as well. Nestled under chard, accompanied by sauces that by this point I was beyond keeping track of, it was a) ridiculously good, and b) too much food, and I had to give up and only finish about half of it. And these, by the way, were all basically half portions of the dishes – done tasting menu style. Accompanied by not one, but two wines – Viña Progreso’s Cabernet Franc 2021, which I found a bit weird, and had a hint of rubbery taste to it, and Alto de la Ballena’s Merlot reserva 2020, which was stunning, but still too young to drink.

I vehemently waved off any suggestion of an array of, or even one, desserts, nor any more wine.

Setting, amazing. Service, impeccable. Food, exquisite. I can’t really figure on the pricing, since in the end, all I was charged for were the two plates I ordered and a glass of wine, and a bottle of water. I mean, it’s the Sofitel, it’s expensive, with appetizers running around the $15-18 mark and main courses from about $23-30. Wines around $10-15 a glass. The occasional perks of professional friendships meant I only paid $65, with tip. Not that I expected any different, but I am so happy that I loved everything about the experience so much!

And that rounds out the latest visit to Montevideo.

We’re off, today, to the República Oriental del Uruguay, or, just Uruguay. Probably about a decade ago I got into an online “discussion” with an NYU student spending a year abroad in Argentina, who, in a misguided, early woke attempt, went into an online rant about the racism of the white people of Argentina, who were, in the early 21st century, using the clearly offensive word “oriental”. His feverish, and performative angst headed into the realm of “Asian people don’t look like indigenous people of Latin America”, and on into “Not all Asians look alike”. An attempt to explain to him that in Spanish, oriental simply means eastern, and that Uruguay named itself, Argentina didn’t, fell on pre-closed ears. He was right, all white people were wrong and racists, and that was that. Shades of many an online discussion these days, though I’ve tried to learn not to engage anymore.

In the gastronomic world of Uruguay, there is a sandwich. It’s a steak sandwich. One finds steak sandwiches the world over, so not all that unusual on that front. And in its most simple form, not all that different from any other.

Our story originates on New Year’s Eve 1944. As the regulars of El Mejillón Bar in Punta del Este, on the eastern (oriental?) shore of the country prepared for midnight celebrations, one asked the owner for some chivo, goat meat, popular in these parts back in the day (and, still found in some parrillas). Not having any, the owner and chef decided to simply slice some steak extra thin, grill it, heavily season it, and top it with classic sandwich toppings – lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo – and just tell the customer it was a chivito (baby goat) sandwich.

It caught on, and owner Antonio Carbonaro found himself selling dozens, then hundreds, and over the course of a couple of years, turned his business into one selling over a thousand chivitos a day. He also started sprucing them up – adding more toppings. These days, a “simple” chivito uruguayo will be topped with ham or bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and olives, and sometimes more. A variation called a chivito canadiense replaces the ham or bacon with Canadian bacon, or at least the local facsimile of it.

Over my years here, I’ve visited Uruguay many a time, and I try to always sample at least one or two chivitos wherever I am. It’s a shame I missed out on trying one from El Mejillón, which closed a few years back after having been open since 1939. Punta del Este is not generally my first destination in Uruguay – most of my time has been spent in Colonia del Sacramento on the west coast, just across the river from Buenos Aires, or in the capital, Montevideo.

My very first chivito, back in 2006, pretty much remains my favorite. That may not be a surprise, given that I had been invited by the national wine institute and ministry of tourism to attend Uruguay’s national “best chef” competition in Punta del Este. Not to compete or judge, but to write about it. After a somewhat tedious day, where I quickly found that this was more of a “best of young cooks who might one day be worthy of being considered top chefs competition”, my chaperone, José Luis, asked if I wanted to go out to dinner.

When asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to try, I opined that I didn’t want a big steak, or fancy dinner, but something simple and classic. He asked if I’d ever had a chivito uruguayo, and when I said no, he asked if I minded a two hour wait for dinner, to head to the best place in the entire country for one, in his opinion. Though edging into hungry, it wasn’t that late, and we hopped in his car and sped off to the west, back to Montevideo. Here, he took me to the original (I think) branch of a four-shop chain, Chiviteria Marcos, Av. Luis Alberto de Herrera 1186 in the Nuevo Pocitos neighborhood. Post-pandemic, this is the only remaining one.

My thoughts at the time: “A chivito is a sandwich that Dagwood would envy. A thin slice of steak is tossed on the grill and browned on both sides. It is then topped with a slice of smoked ham. This is placed on top of lettuce and tomato on a bun. It is then topped off with your choice from an array of toppings – olives, pickled peppers, pickled vegetables, onions, red bell pepper, mushrooms, hard-boiled egg – and a choice of different mayonnaise based sauces. I took mine with a little of everything, and then topped it off with salsa golf (basically, ketchup and mayonnaise mixed). Then several slices of mozzarella are laid across the whole thing and it’s stuck under the broiler until bubbly and slightly browned. The top of the bun is slapped on top and it’s stuck on a plate in front of you.”

Other than having used the word “topped” way too many times, what’s not to like about that? I’m not going to review every chivito I’ve ever tried, just the ones I think are worth recommending.

Montevideo

The capital of Uruguay boasts about 1.4 million of Uruguay’s 3.4 million inhabitants. It’s really the only city of size in the country – the next biggest city is Salto, in the northwest of the country, with a population that just squeaks out to 104,000. Located on the south central shore of Uruguay, it looks out over what appears to be the Atlantic, but the roiling, brown-blue water, filled with silt, belies that. And in fact the Rio de la Plata’s delta at this point is 173km (107 miles) across and this is freshwater. The river doesn’t end, changing to the saltwater of the ocean, until a line drawn between Punta del Este, a two hour car ride east, and Cabo San Antonio, Argentina, on the east coast, where it is 220km (137 miles) across.

I’m going to start with a more recent revisit to Chiviteria Marcos, and a better photo of what the insides of this whopping sandwich involves. I was with a friend, and we were out to try our way through several versions, but after splitting this and one more, gave up. These days, a good chivito at most places in town, run anywhere from 450-700 uruguayos, a big range from $11.50-18. Uruguay is noticeably more expensive than Argentina, and has been for a very long time. By the way, all of these come with fries on the side, or on the plate, depending on the place, I just don’t have photos that necessarily include them.

One spot that comes up on list after list is the well known and very popular El Tinkal, Dr Emilio Frugoni 853, on the waterfront in barrio Palermo. Here, the sandwich is much more basic – their “completo” features the steak, bacon, tomato, lettuce, mozzarella (underneath, here, rather than browned atop), green olives, and mayo. Simpler than the above, but absolutely delicious, and for many people, they like it because it doesn’t have all the toppings that may detract from the star of the show, the meat.

I’m going to say I was quite surprised at this one. La Pasiva is a national chain in Uruguay, with locations everywhere (this one at Blvr. Juan Benito Blanco 920, in the Pocitos neighborhood. My first encounter with them was in Colonia del Sacramento, and by way of comparison, this is what the chivitos looked like there (looked, because the one branch in Colonia closed up during the pandemic and never reopened). That’s the first picture above, a whopping sandwich filled with tasty stuff, much like the Marcos version. But the ones in Montevideo, at least the ones I’ve seen, all seem much more diner/fast food style, and while this was a perfectly acceptable sandwich, it doesn’t hold a candle to the place in Colonia. I’m of the belief that if you put a fried egg on a sandwich, it should have a runny yolk. This one doesn’t. And it sticks with the simple model, albeit well-seasoned, it’s steak, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.

Right across the street is another highly recommended spot, Expreso Pocitos, Blvr. Juan Benito Blanco 956. It’s much the same as the one on the other side of the boulevard, just featuring sliced hard-boiled egg instead of a fried one. Better fries, and a better bun. Still, the two are kind of a toss-up. Were the one at La Pasiva more like the version they served in Colonia, it’d be the hands-down winner in the ‘hood.

This one came from a local Montevideo food blogger, who wrote up his seven favorite restaurants in the city, from casual to fancy, and for the casual end, went with Bar Montevideo al Sur, Paraguay 1150 in Barrio Sur. Perhaps most distinctive about this one is the bread, which is almost more of a baguette style – not in form, but it has the slightly crunchy crust and a chewier interior. The sandwich, excellent, with steak, bacon, cheese, bell pepper, lettuce, tomato, and a properly fried egg this time. And, I really like the place, it has an old-timey bar feel to it. Excellent empanadas too, though four on a plate is a bit much for an appetizer, unless you have someone to share them with.

The one spot I didn’t get to on my most recent trip was Bar Arocena. It just didn’t fit in with my schedule, and it’s out to the far east of the city in the Carrasco neighborhood. I gather that, in fitting with other restaurants in the immediate area, it’s pretty upscale, and they’ve gone an upscale route with the sandwich as well. I look forward to trying it on a future trip.

Colonia del Sacramento

Colonia is one of those places that a lot of visitors and expats go to. The former, often just to check off a bucket list of having made it to another country, the latter, it’s a way for those of us (not me any longer) who only have a tourist visa to renew it for another 90 days. A quick ferry ride (50 minutes) across the river, have lunch, and come back. But these days, the ferry’s getting a bit pricier, and the immigration folk have, at times, started to crackdown on people who keep extending their visa this way. That actually happened to me about 12 years ago, at which point I applied for and got permanent residency (not citizenship, more like a US green card). The town has a mere 27,000 inhabitants.

Although a really stacked chivito tends to come from a restaurant, there are street food versions of them, and it’s not uncommon to grab one to snack on. They tend to be smaller and simpler, but can be very satisfying. As best I can tell, Everyone knows that the best in town are from Carrito Los Farolitos, Gral. Flores 252 (approximately, it’s a cart on the street), in the downtown area. This one comes with steak, bacon and ham(!), cheese, fried egg, and your choice of sauces. A snack not to be missed.

Now, I was going to do a writeup of a quartet of favorite chivitos in Colonia. I haven’t been since the pandemic, and it turns out that three of the four closed up and didn’t reopen. Taps music for the demise of La Pasiva, Dunbar, and San Cono. You already saw the first’s version above, here are the other two:

If you’re traveling to Uruguay, and I guess given the actual spots I’ve tried, particularly to Montevideo, don’t miss out on this classic sandwich. Personally, I’d go straight to Marcos, order it up with more or less everything on it, get a bottle of a local beer, and eat yourself into a food coma.

Buenos Aires

Not everyone is going to make it across the river to Uruguay from here in Buenos Aires, and there are places that offer up chivitos. I’ve tried quite a few, and for me, there’s only one place that really does it up right.

Easily winning out is the version from La Perlita, Av. Jujuy 74, kitty-korner from the Once train station. This one is a lot more meat-packed than the typical Uruguayan one – with steak, ham, and Canadian bacon, egg, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, olives, palm hearts, and a lot of cheese, both inside the sandwich and melted over the top.

Oh, I should mention that most places, at least the more sit-down restaurant style, offer chivitos either al pan, in bread, the sandwich I’ve been talking about, or al plato, which is without the bread, usually a bigger portion of the various things that go inside the sandwich, and instead of fries, almost always accompanied by ensalada rusa – the local mayo-based potato salad with carrots and peas.

Bam Bam y sus Conchas Negras, Jiron Luis 224, Surquillo – The area around the Surquillo markets, my two favorites in the city, has been spruced up a whole lot since my last visit here. Not only is Mercado No. 1 bright, clean, and gleaming, but a solid 2-3 block area around it is now packed with restaurants, from casual to fancier. Literally right next to one of the entrances is this relatively new spot specializing in ceviches. It’s a small spot, and apparently was originally intended more for takeout, but got so popular that the grabbed a spot across the street and turned it into a dining room, which is where I sat myself down.

It was late – I didn’t get in from the airport until after 2pm. Part of me wanted to try their famed “hot ceviche”, but it’s apparently a whopping mixed platter of items fit more for two people. Instead I went with their original claim to fame, their combo of conchas negras, the black ark shell ceviche, and a regular ceviche mixto that was primarily shellfish. I didn’t know that it comes with a small bowl of chilcano, a fish soup, a large shotglass of leche de tigre, and a plate of fried fish, chicharrón de pescado. This was more than I could eat, and while I made it through most of the two ceviches, I really just tasted the three side dishes. It’s not inexpensive, but then, you get a lot food for the price. It’s also absolutely delicious!

Seriously, one or more of you, needs to stop me. Next time I go on a trip, just send emails or messages reminding me not to book in at hyped fancy spots that I’m probably not going to enjoy anyway, because they’re more hype than substance. But, there I was at XOMA Gastronómico, Elías Aguirre 179, Miraflores. I kind of new I was in trouble just looking around the room. I mean, who makes their waiters dress in black suits, black shirts, and then hangs puffy, gleaming white scarves around their necks, scarves that hang down to their knees. The weird blue and orange lighting. The high volume music. All put me on edge. And then…

I’d already decided not to go with a tasting menu, which I’m thankful for, as a young man at a table near me opted for their 8 course seafood menu, which was preluded by the two waiters building him a coral reef on his table, piece by piece, complete with tea candles and dry ice smoke.

But theater is what this place seems to be all about. Every course had some element of tableside theatrics. Now, intellectually, I found the cooking of a prawn using “living salt”, a type of salt precipitated out from vinegar, rather fascinating. It’s a process I’ve heard about, seen a couple of videos, but never actually seen up close and in person. The emotional side, however, was a bit bored, as the plate sits there for 25-30 minutes in front of you, awaiting the cooking process to be complete. This wasn’t, by the way, something I ordered, it comes to every table before the food is brought. So, after ordering my food, all I had to eat for about the next 50 minutes was a sliced up oyster on the half shell, and half an hour later, this prawn, and then another 15 or so minutes until my first course showed up.

Now, the rather disappointing oyster and prawn aside, the rest of the food was mostly quite good, something I don’t always encounter at these sort of places. The first course wasn’t to my personal tastes – it was a cool idea – thin slices of arracacha root in a creamy sauce reminiscent of vitello tonnato, though without the tuna – it tasted more like some kind of cheese – with capers and bits of bacon, and all very nicely seasoned. But then, to my palate, ruined by drizzling caramel sauce over it. A dab here and there might have been interesting, but there was just way too much of it. The other two course, on the other hand, I enjoyed thoroughly. A perfectly cooked sirloin, sliced, and served with “25 herb and spice” sauce, accompanied by a root vegetable cannolo stuffed with a potato puree, and a fascinating dessert based around lucuma, tobacco, and passionfruit. The last had a bit of theater in making a liquid nitrogen gelato and then breaking it into bits an spooning them onto the plate, with a side trip where the waiter refused to proceed unless I inhaled the chilled air from the mortar he was breaking it up in and breathed out a puff of smoke. Outrageously expensive, and, just spare me.

Next day, a somewhat trendy spot in Barranco, Mérito, Jiron 28 De Julio 206, to meet up with a friend and colleague for lunch. It had the sound of a spot that’s doing creative stuff with local ingredients, but not going over the top with gimmicks. And, it lived up to the billing. I’d say that this spot, and from the round 1 post, Contraste, were my two favorite meals of the trip. The ambiance is laid back, the service is friendly. It feels a little bit designed for tourists, despite the neighborhood, and only one table in the room was speaking Spanish, everyone else was speaking English. Maybe that’s lunchtime? Happenstance?

We shared five small plates – that’s what they offer – the standouts were… well, really, all of them… but I particularly liked the crispy sweetbreads with caulflower coconut puree, toasted coconut shards, strips of peppers, and a sauce made from, I believe, cocona fruit. But nearly as good – scallops in a cactus fruit, huacatay and chili broth; grilled octopus, potatoes, and peppers; corn ribs with an aji amarillo sauce; and a dessert that combined lucuma, coffee, and macambo, a seed that has a similar flavor to cacao. Pricey, and worth it!

I needed something casual by this point, and local food writer Nicholas Gill (who also highly recommended Contraste and Awicha, from the previous round) had recently touted the opening of an antichuería in Surquillo, Casa Colina, Ca. Narciso de la Colina 674. It turned out to be not only the perfect respite from all the fancier stuff, but some of the best anticuchos I’ve had. I went with a combination plate of one skewer of beef heart anticuchos paired with a scoop of smoky, grilled chicken giblets, mollejitas, some roasted potatoes, and a side of their spectacular grilled corn slathered with anticucho sauce. The meats come with a quartet of sauces for dipping – a fiery ajicito, a mellow yellow chili huancaina, a peanut sauce, and an herbed mayo. The first three rocked. The mayo, meh, for wimps. Inexpensive. Nice ambiance. The servers could use losing a bit of their timidity, and I think every person who worked their must have stopped at my table to ask how it was (new restaurant jitters?). I’d go back in a heartbeat. I think it was the best casual meal of the trip.

I was in the mood for good dim sum, and it so happened that one of Henry’s nieces contacted me to tell me that she and her husband had come down to Lima for the weekend to make some purchases of things they couldn’t get in Trujillo, and hoped we could meet up. Subtle code for, “Uncle Dan, take us out to eat somewhere”. Dim sum seemed the perfect choice – something a little nicer than the typical Chinese-Peruvian chifa that they have back home, but still recognizable. And so we ended up at Salón Capón, Jiron Paruro 819, in the heart of Barrio Chino. I’d forgotten how crazy that neighborhood is on weekends – the streets are filled with pedestrians, traffic is just basically shutdown, and we could have made meal from street stands. But dim sum it was, and Capón is known as one of the best. It lives up to its reputation. Yeah, it feels a little cafeteria-ish in ambiance, but service is great, and the food even better. Standouts for me, the roast pork steamed buns, the steamed rice rolls with beef, and the roast duck. But we also made our way through chicken siu mai, prawn har gow, a Yangzhou style fried rice, and a plate of vegetables in oyster sauce. All told, for the three of us, less than I paid for either of the fancy meals above for me alone.

I had decided to finish off at one of the top rated Italian spots in town, just to see what they were doing. I had high hopes it wouldn’t be a repeat of the round 1 visit to another top rated Italian spot that was disappointing. Troppo, C. Los Libertadores 199, San Isidro, wasn’t at all disappointing. Beautiful converted house, perfect service, and exquisite food. A veal tartare was one of the better ones I’ve had in years (albeit a tad unappetizing looking after they mix it up). The spaghetti with clams, lemon, and fried garlic hit all the right notes flavor-wise. It did hit one of my pet peeves for this dish – all of the baby clams were left in their shells – that’s all well and good for a couple of them atop as decoration, but I did have to pick through the entire dish, pulling out clams with my fingers and scooping the meat out of the shells – all before I could eat it. Excellent cannoli, though three of them is a bit over the top for one person, plus they sent me a pannacotta on the side, which was tasty, but I couldn’t even finish all three cannoli, so I just politely tasted it. Excellent wine list (all Italian) and wine service from the house sommelier! Pricey and happy to pay it.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming….