Bite Marks #124
In which I'm all over the map, sampling things good and bad, and dumping them all on your plate.
As George Takei would say… “Oh my…”. A lot of ground to cover here. A little good, a lot more just okay, and some truly bad. Let’s dive in. Do we want the good news first or the bad? Let’s go with the good and then if you don’t want the bad you can just stop reading when you get to that heading. I’ll slip in a middle “Okay” just to ease you that direction.
The Good
I am willing to cop to that this is my favorite calabresa pizza in the city. It’s the version of El Globito, Av. Caseros 3015 in front of Parque Patricios. I’m even willing to assert that it just might be the best one in the city. It’s very Argentine in style, from the crust to the overloading of mozzarella. But then it’s got delicious longaniza sausage, pickled frying peppers, a decent amount of good red sauce, and a solid drizzle all around of provençal - fresh chopped garlic and parsley in olive oil. What’s not to like? Available by the slice and in two sizes of full pies. This small, which was more than sufficient for two for lunch, ran us 23300 pesos, a little under $16.
I also missed this place back when I was doing my round-up of historic pizzerias. It was founded in 1934, so it was certainly worthy of being included! It should have made it into the second post in that series of three, having opened up around the same time as El Cuartito. The walls are festooned with soccer memorabilia for local club Átletico Huracán, and others for tango legend Carlos Gardel. Cute signs are scattered here and there, admonishing one that if you have a complaint, tell them, if you have a compliment, tell everyone else; and also reminding you that you need to leave your gun and hat at your office, neither is allowed inside.
Veronica Picon Bejes - When I tried this producer’s classic blue, I wasn’t impressed - it only garnered one star from me. So when one of my local purveyors asserted that I had to try this one, I was dubious. Picon Bejes is a lesser known blue from Cantabria in the north of Spain. It’s traditionally made from a mix of cow, sheep, and goat milk. The process is somewhat different from other blues, and it’s aged a minimum of two months in limestone caves. Now, I haven’t gotten any details on this one from Veronica - I’ve tried, they haven’t responded - so I don’t know if this is done in a similar process. What I do know is that it’s a buttery, very soft textured, almost spreadable, blue that’s intensely spicy and absolutely gorgeous to eat on its own or melted into a pasta sauce…
…I paired it on first try with casarecce pasta, guanciale, and lightly charred broccoli and couldn’t stop eating it. This one goes in the five star category, and I may have to go back and retry their classic, plus it appears they have an “extra aged” version of the classic. If you haven’t been reading my notes - I’ve created a permanent page for all the Argentine blue cheeses, to be added to as I try them.
The Okay
Kind of disappointing that I only have two “wow” recommendations over the last month and only one of them a restaurant, but that’s life sometimes. These are places that are perfectly fine, and I’d even go back to them, or eat them again, they just didn’t excite me.
I’ve held off talking about La Jaraná Criolla, Jean Jaures 318 in Once mostly because it’s where Henry works part time and we’re friendly with the owners. He coordinates the talent for their peña, folklore, shows on, primarily, Friday and Saturday nights. Owned by the same family as the Puro Corazón antichuerías, though with a different menu and chef. The focus here isn’t on anticuchos, but on classic Peruvian dishes that are, in general, easy to whip up and serve so that they can get stuff out of the kitchen quickly during shows. I quite like their leche de tigre - it’s got a decent amount of seafood in it, and they hit the spice level right.
Likewise their seco de cordero, tender braised lamb with rice and white beans.
On the other hand, their pollo a las brasas is overly basic, the chicken a bit stringy, mushy fries, and overdressed salad. Hard for me to judge the prices without their menu in front of me as I’m getting the family discount. It’s all relatively inexpensive, and it’s all just fine if you’re there for the shows, which is really what the place is about. And if I may tout my husband’s prowess in this, he’s booked some really great singers, musicians, and dancers week on week.
This is one of those pizzerias from my list of “neighborhood residents’ favorites”. This was a voted on list of favorite pizzerias by readers of La Nacion, one of our major newspapers here, back in 2009. I’ve gradually checked off most of the ones on the list - and of course being, now, sixteen years old, who knows if people would vote the same. But as most of them are long time staple pizzerias of their respective barrios, many having been there for decades, may as well check them out. Most of them have turned out to be just okay, and are the sort of “Argentine standard” pizzerias. In fact, this photo could practically be a poster child for the genre. This time I’m at Miramar, Av. Juan Bautista Alberdi 1302, in Caballito. Okay crust, medium thickness, okay cheese, a bit more sauce than places offer, though it’s all just drizzled in the circle atop, there’s none underneath the cheese. The sausage used in the calabresa half was bland, the bacon used on the siciliana half was near non-existent, though I like my pickled peppers. I ended up, probably to someone’s dismay, kind of scooping the topping from the siciliana half onto the calabresa half and then leaving half the crust. With a bottle of water, 26000 pesos, about $17.
Adding to my long running list of neighborhood cafés, another new one that just opened here - I think we’re coming up on 70 cafés within my immediate “comfort circle”. That’s insane, no?! A branch of Import Coffee Co., at Arenales 1798, corner of Av. Callao, here in Recoleta. It looks like this is their eighth location to open. Their specialty in terms of what they serve in-house is Illy Caffè, so decent quality, though they also offer an array of other coffees for retail purchase. The coffee was as good as it should be, it just took forever. The barista seemed to be managing about one coffee every three to four minutes, and the waiter was bringing them out one at a time so they didn’t get cold - a table of three got their coffees roughly four minutes apart. I was about sixth in line, and waited over twenty minutes for a double espresso, with only about ten people in the place. The cookie was… fine… not quite was promised in the description, and a bit under-baked. Meh.
A relatively new place not far from home, Chopi’s Burger, Riobamba 909 here in Recoleta. They offer a pickle burger, so I couldn’t pass that up. Smashed patty style and actually done right - well seasoned, crispy edges, and still juicy in the middle. Decent amount of good pickles, cheese, and lettuce. Not fond of not being able to customize it a bit - maybe add some bacon or a fried egg, but it is what it is. The fries are fried right, but they’re so over salted they’re hard to eat. It’s all good, but I’m not rushing back there. And, at 21700 pesos, just under $15, it’s a bit pricey for what it is.
Alloa Vanguard Azul Ahumado - While my guess is that this is the same blue that is offered as their classic - one of my favorites, and the most Stilton-like of the blues tasted so far - the smoke just doesn’t work on this one. There’s a clash in the flavors, and the smokiness is… weird. Turns out they smoke the cheese over plum wood, which I’m not sure I’ve encountered before, but it’s certainly an odd flavor. It’s okay, but I wouldn’t go for it again. I much prefer the more smoky and well integrated flavors of the Santa Narcisa up in the five-star section. Three stars.
The Bad
Here’s where you stop reading if you don’t want the bad news.
A friend and I ventured out for Korean barbecue at one of the four locations of KBBQ, a small chain owned by the same folk who run The Night Market. We went to the spot at Gorriti 5675 in Palermo, the only one open for Sunday lunch. Mediocre would be so generous we would be canonized if we offered that as an assessment. We both agreed that it was easily the worst Korean barbecue we’ve ever had, anywhere. Poor quality meat, badly made side dishes and banchan, little to no spice on anything. Part of me wants to say “this is Korean barbecue for those who’ve never had good Korean barbecue”, but the truth is, this shouldn’t be Korean barbecue for anyone.
I didn’t recall that we’d been to the original location of Mikhuna Nikkei, years ago, at the invitation of a friend of Henry’s whose family was involved with the place. We’d had a decent time, not amazing or anything, and there were some service issues. A new location (making five for them) just opened near to us, at Vicente Lopez 2257 in Recoleta. On a solo visit I opted for jalea, a mound of fried seafood. Pretty decent and their hot sauce was quite good. There were some minor missteps with service, but nothing egregious.
A return visit, however, was less successful. Henry and I ordered the daily menu, which came with a couple of options for appetizer and main course and included a beverage. Within seconds, we received a basket with a couple of eggrolls, our choice of appetizer. Cold as a refrigerator’s touch, no sauce. We asked for hot sauce, our waitress disappeared, didn’t bring it, no beverages brought, we waited. And waited. After three requests to her and one to the manager, he brought us a bowl of duck sauce, not hot sauce. Still no beverages and we’re now a good 15 minutes into sitting with cold eggrolls in front of us - which they also declined to heat. At this point I flagged the manager again and asked if we might be getting beverages, hot sauce, any kind of service, since our waitress had spent near the entire time back chatting with someone through the kitchen window. He shrugged and started to walk away. I offered that if we couldn’t get that basic, we were canceling our meal and heading out. He shrugged again, said “do what you want, I don’t care”, and went and sat down behind the counter (that’s him in the photo, though from the first visit). I don’t see us returning. A shame because it would have been nice to have a reasonably good Peruvian spot nearby.
San Gotardo Queso Azul - Produced in Colonel Charlone, a little over 500km west of Buenos Aires, this is the only blue from an 80 or so year old cheesemaker. This cheese has been produced just since 2005 and is intended as a roquefort style. It’s creamy white, with heavy blue veining. At first bite, I like the flavor, but it’s quickly replaced by an intense saltiness that just builds and then lingers, leaving nothing but salt on the palate. Two stars.
Can't thank you enough for your attention to blue cheese here. Proper service to humanity, that!