Bite Marks #123
The usual round-up, every month or so, of the flotsam, jetsam, and lagan of nibbling out and about.
A bit from each of the various things that I seem to be in the midst of exploring. We have new cafés, some focaccia, a burger, and Korean. I’m saving some sushi reviews and wine for separate posts.
Petra Coffee Bar, Junín 1559, Recoleta - taking over the recently vacated space that was Bellota Café. I never wrote that place up other than on my neighborhood café map, but it was pretty mediocre. This place is a step up. Not a big step, I’d have to say - the coffee is just okay, the pastries are all plastic wrapped - I don’t know if they make them themselves, or buy them from someone, but at least the couple of things we tried were probably a couple of days old. Passing by regularly, it seems to have become a hangout for foreign students working on their notebook computers. Yawn. A tad pricey for what we got - the scone 5000 pesos, about $3.50; espresso 3500 pesos, $2.50; and a cappuccino, 6000 pesos, about $4.25.
Sabores Puros, Azcuénaga 1968, in the Sileo Hotel, Recoleta - On the other hand, we’ve become a bit enamored of this new hotel lobby café off the side of the Cementerio Recoleta. It’s comfortable, the service is attentive and friendly. And they offer up something a little different than the norm when it comes to their baked goods - everything is keto. We weren’t 100% sure what to expect, but beyond having really good coffee, we were more than pleasantly surprised by how delicious the almond and coconut flour medialunas and toasted bread were, the former stuffed with ham and cheese, the latter accompanied by cream cheese and a housemade, sugarless plum jam. We’ve been back a couple of times. It’s that good. And it’s kind of cool to cut carbs while eating pastry. Double espresso 3500 pesos, $2.50 (compared to the single espresso above for the same price); cappuccino 5000 pesos, $3.50 and far better than the one above. The keto pastries are a bit steep, I have to admit, with the stuffed medialuna coming in at 10000 pesos and the tostadas at 12000 - roughly $7 and $8.50, respectively.
Jornal, Av. García del Río 2802, Saavedra - I’m just throwing this out there to those of you who love to help with making suggestions. Don’t make stuff up. It’s a long trip from Recoleta to Saavedra to find that the earnestly touted spot for the “best focaccia sandwiches in the city” from one regular reader doesn’t offer focaccia sandwiches, and never did.
They have focaccia, served up as topped flatbreads, but not sandwiches. And, bluntly, not very good ones. The focaccia is just… wrong. It has a weird, gummy texture that isn’t all that pleasant - probably because they’re baked with the toppings, then sit out on a counter for hours, and are then reheated. The toppings, while pretty, are bland. 8800 pesos each, just over $6.
Empanadas didn’t fare any better. Completely unseasoned fillings, and the supposed spinach and salsa blanca, or bechamel, had nothing but shredded spinach in it. 3000 pesos each, just over $2.
Given how mediocre the savory dishes were, we almost didn’t go for the tarta vasca, which we hadn’t known about before seeing it in the display case, but in the interests of covering all bases…. Well, meh. They did a better job than several of the ones recently covered in terms of browning the outside, but they did it at the expense of turning this into a dense, not creamy, solid puck. The flavor was good, but the texture, and the pleasure, were both missing - bottom of my list so far. 9600 pesos, about $6.75.
Kalimnos, a small chain of maybe 5-6 locations in, primarily, Recoleta and Palermo, of gourmet food shops. Sandwiches to go, though I’m not sure if that’s at all of the locations - these were delivered from their store on Guise, which seems to be the only one listed on the delivery apps, while we’ve got a location just a couple of blocks from us here in Recoleta. The focaccia is good, not great. Nice and crunchy exterior, well seasoned, though not quite as light and airy as some. The fillings are delicious, not surprising, as I tend to like the meats and cheeses I buy from them now and again. Certainly a good choice. No wows, but quite good. I also like that they offer half sandwiches at barely over half the price of a full size, so I was able to try two different ones at once. The Roma is a well stuffed sandwich of smoked bacon, smoked cheese, and pickles; the Sicilia a great combo of caponata, stracciatella, sun-dried tomatoes, and almonds. 9500 and 12900 - $6.75 and $9 - respectively.
We’re at Menenga, Espinosa 480, in Caballito. Most of the week only open for dinner, on the weekends they open for lunch. We’ve been hearing about their smash-patty style burgers for awhile now, and, in the mood for burgers, we made our way that direction.
We started with sharing an empanada and their Korean fried chicken. The former, decent, not exciting. The latter, pretty damned good. Not quite as spicy as we’d normally expect, but it had some kick. A huge portion for something listed as an appetizer - roughly the same amount as you’ll see below at a Korean casual spot as a main course. 5300 and 23500 pesos - I guess the latter price should have been a clue - $3.75 and $16.50.
I think the buzz about them got started because they stuck an “Animal Style Doble” burger on the menu, which is the infamous burger from In and Out burgers in the States. It should be “Doble Doble” to stay in line with the way it’s monikered back there. We didn’t try that one. We opted for double Oklahoma and double Korea burgers. They’re both good, quite good actually. We liked that the buns (made with kabutia squash in the mix) stood up to the burgers and never got mushy. The patties are well seasoned, the condiments also. The fries are pretty good as well, and are served with a quartet of dipping sauces (only if you ask, it turns out, despite the menu saying they come that way).
If I had any criticisms, it would be that the Oklahoma was topped with some griddle onions - that’s not how an Oklahoma is made - the onions should be pressed into the patty and browned until basically crispy - this was just an onion topped burger. And The Korean, while tasty - if you’re going to go to the trouble to advertise it and put kimchi on it, use a kimchi that has some spice to it, this wasn’t much more than pickled cabbage, and the promised gochujang was barely a whisper. 18300 and 18500 for the two burgers, basically $12.75 and $13.
Good enough to make it recommended, but there are so many better spots in town for smash-patty burgers… Tierra del Nadie, 24th Street, The Flour Store, and Fat Broder stand out as the best of them… you know?
Asia Delicioso, Av. Acoyte 1287, Villa Crespo - This placed popped on my radar as rumors reached my ears of a place that offers up multiple styles of ramen, with a sort of build your own toppings approach. I have to admit, this was not at all what I was picturing. It’s a tiny, hole-in-the-wall, with two tables and a small counter with stools, for seating. And while the menu touts your choice of ramen style topped with your choice of three toppings, from a list, it’s also not what I pictured.
There are a trio of hot water dispensers with burners just outside the kitchen. If you order ramen, you go to a rack where there are a dozen or more instant ramen packs - that’s how you pick your style. Then they give you a pot, you put as much water in it as you want, and then cook your own instant ramen. You then hand the pot to the guy in the kitchen who puts it in a bowl and tops it with the three things you asked for. It’s a cute gimmick, and very much in line with casual snack spots in parts of Japan and Korea in particular.
Instant ramen was just not what I was looking for. I can do that at home. So I went from the menu of Korean specialties. A plate of decent fried mandu. Decent. 9000 pesos, $6.25.
And again, in the “not what I expected” theme. I’d ordered the fried chicken “Korean style”. Specified as 25 pieces of chicken, which it was, exactly, I was expecting the usual sticky-sweet-spicy coating. Instead, this is lightly coated in, probably, cornstarch or rice flour, fried to give it a whisper thin crackly coating, and then very faintly drizzled with some sort of chili sauce. Enough to know it’s there, not enough to qualify as spicy, and missing all that sticky sweet contrast. Still, it was quite good, and I ate my way through most of it - turns out 25 nuggets is a bit much after the mandu. 18000 pesos, $12.50.
I asked for pickled daikon on the side, which the chef seemed to appreciate. He also sent me out a kimchi pancake on the house - good flavors but a bit too oily.
And, that’s where I’m going to end this. A half dozen spots seems quite sufficient.