Bite Marks #128
A septet of casual musings at lunch and dinner.
As always, little mini-reviews of places that have caught my eye or fit into one or another of my various “projects”. This time around we have pizzas, burgers, sushi, and a Peruvian reboot.
Let’s start with pizza.
Roughly sixteen years ago, my friend Nestor Gattorna opened up what was the first place in Buenos Aires offering real, Neapolitan style pizza. He’d just returned from spending most of a year in Naples learning at the official academy as well as working in and eating in various pizzerias there.
When Siamo nel Forno (“we are the oven”), Costa Rica 5886, Palermo hit the ground running it was not just to early acclaim, but with great sighs of contentment from those of us not totally enamored of the Argentine style pizza. I gave it a pretty damned good write-up. And, we returned many a time over the next few years. Then, other Neapolitan spots started opening up, and now it’s practically a religion here. Many places offer both Neapolitan and Argentine side-by-side. And a couple of weeks back, I realized it had probably been close on ten years since I’d set foot in Nestor’s place, despite keeping up online conversations and likes on social media.
I’d also note that despite all the places I’ve been since offering Neapolitan style, I’d kept him in my top three places in the city. Did that still hold? The answer? Yes, absolutely. This is still pretty much Neapolitan pizza perfection. I currently have Anti ahead of Siamo nel Forno, but honestly, I’d have to have them at the same time to really decide. This is what a Neapolitan pizza should be, from the crust to the sauce to the toppings. And I still love that he has chili infused olive oil in bottles to drizzle over your pizza. The pizzas all run in the low 20000 peso range.
Oh, and he now offers a damned fine cannolo packed with ricotta, pistachios, and orange peel. Not top of the list, but not far behind.
I so wanted to love the pizza at Pizza Nika, Dr. Ricardo Rojas 451, Retiro, for no other reason than the flirtatious and adorably cute Russian twenty-something who was manning the counter and waiting on tables. The place is a magnet for the Russian set (we’re in the midst of about a two-year wave of Russian birthright immigration vacations, with close to 50000 new Russian immigrants escaping conditions back home), and the staff appear to all be as well.
But, it was not to be. It’s not a bad pizza, by any stretch, but I didn’t love it. The dough has an odd flavor that I can’t quite place, the sauce was nothing more than a bland tomato puree, I’d added pancetta as an extra topping and there were basically a half dozen half slices of paper thin, barely warmed, bacon on it. And I just don’t get this whole trend of offering a dip for crusts - I guess it’s a way to get people to eat the crusts rather than leave them (I generally leave them, it’s just a lot of empty calories - on a small pie like this, the crust around the outside tops in at around 300-350 extra). And this dip was a bizarre flavor combination of mayo, mushroom, and who knows what else. I may just go back now and again to flirt, even if I am married, I can still read the menu, right? They’re also pricey - this pizza isn’t remotely as good as the one above, and ran 37000 pesos.
Let’s move on to burgers. Following up on my recent post, I hit up a couple of other spots that one or another person has suggested. Unlike that post, none of these are new, but they’re only a couple of years old.
On one of my recent Chinatown trips, rather than eating at a Chinese place, I decided to hit up Weiss Burger, Montañeses 2219, Belgrano. A Buenos Aires outpost of a burger place in Bariloche, this place keeps getting accolades for its “viral burgers”, which isn’t always a good recommendation, since it often means someone’s more concerned about them looking good than tasting good.
But it doesn’t really accomplish either. I mean, there’s nothing all that appealing about the presentation of look of the burger. It looks like a burger, in this case, the “Roger” - two patties, danbo cheese, their own bbq sauce (which I asked them to leave on the side, and didn’t end up using, it’s just way too sweet), crispy bacon, crispy onions, and pickles. It was all perfectly fine, but nothing more than an average burger. And the fries were basically cold and soft. I guess there’s nowhere else in the midst of Chinatown for a burger, but I’d wish for better. 21900 pesos.
I approached Frank’s Grill, Cabello 3401, Palermo, with trepidation. Just a year ago, we’d tried the original location in Colegiales, for its fried chicken sandwiches, and the experience had been… less than satisfactory. But their claim to fame isn’t their fried chicken, it’s their wood-fired burgers… though I find myself wondering how they’ve gotten zoning permission in a big residential building to have an open wood-burning fire. It’d be interesting to see their kitchen setup.
There’s no question, however, that the burger patties have that wood-smoked flavor to them. I went classic double cheeseburgers - two patties (not smashed, for a change), American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, and their Frank’s sauce (as a guess, mayo, ketchup, mustard). It was a good enough burger, but nothing special other than that wood-smoked flavor. And the waffle fries and sweet potato fries that accompanied were just plain awful - thick, chewy, cold, and unsalted. The milkshake had a decent enough flavor, but was so thick it needed a spoon to eat it, the thin little straw accompanying couldn’t handle it. 21500 pesos for the burger. Meh.
Moving on to sushi….
Over the years I’ve eaten at different branches of Osaka, in Palermo and Puerto Madero here, in Lima, in Santiago, and while they’re all quite similar, each has it’s own vibe and variation. The newest one is in a huge office and apartment complex at Concepción Arenal 2913, in Colegiales. Very sleek.
I sat at the sushi counter, and just ordered up about ten pieces (nigiri all come in twos). Not going to post them all.
They were all good, but my takeaway is that this branch just isn’t as up to snuff as the other ones I’ve tried. Now, it’s also been awhile since I’ve set foot in the Puerto Madero one, and the Palermo one is long closed. But there are certainly better, and more interesting, places for sushi in the city these days. And it’s really expensive by comparison (Osaka always has been), with each pair of nigiri running between 16000-18000 pesos, that’s a whopping $6 per piece of sushi. Good as it is, not remotely worth that, sorry.
A few months back I’d tried delivery from Isla Sakura, Maipú 495, Microcentro, and been happily impressed. I decided to give the place a further look.
Excellent prawn dumplings, albeit they said there were six to the order, all their dumplings appeared to be coming out five to the order. Maybe they hope we won’t notice.
And a nice presentation of sushi - I ordered two half-rolls, plus two pairs of nigiri and one pair of gunkan. You can’t tell, but that dish of salt in the middle is lightly flaming with a pale blue flame. Not sure that it adds to anything, especially since it’s a cold dish, why put something flaming on it? All the sushi, quite good. I’d happily eat here again - there are better and worse in the neighborhood, but this one’s recommended. Total, with something to drink, and tip, 80000 pesos. A little pricey, even for the neighborhood.
Las Palmeras Cañitas is no more, lamentably. It had become our go-to spot for a lovely night out for Peruvian food - pretty much once every three weeks or so. But, the landlord, apparently seeing rampant success, tried to triple the rent when it came time for renewal, to get his piece of the action. The chef-owner declined, began a search for a new location, and closed up shop at the beginning of the year.
Now reopened as Akisito, Juan Ramírez de Velasco 885, in Villa Crespo, it’s about a third of the size of the former space, it’s a bit too brightly lit, and the menu has been pared back to focus on much more traditional Peruvian dishes. We were disappointed to find some of our favorite creative offerings no longer available.
Still, both dishes we tried - a ceviche carretillero and a tacu-tacu de mariscos - were very good. Both a bit lacking in chili, but an excellent and fiery rocoto based ajicito added the zip we were looking for. At the same time, is it good enough for us to go back with any regularity? It’s missing that whole elegant vibe that was a big part of why we went there for date night. So, we shall see. Main courses run mostly in the low 30000s.
And, that’s a wrap for this time around.