It has always been surprising the lack of diversity of cuisines available in a metropolitan city like Buenos Aires. It doesn’t feel like it’s lacking on the surface of things, but if you really stop and think about it there’s not a lot. If you look at Asian food, it’s pretty much Chinese food, mostly Cantonese, and Japanese food, mostly sushi and ramen. Korean food was relegated to the isolated Koreatown areas until recently, when it has started to catch on, Thai and Vietnamese have limited representation, Indian as well, and others limited to a few dishes here and there in a Couple of more “pan-Asian” spots. European cuisine is heavily concentrated on Italian and Spanish, with a distant second place going to France, and very little of anything else. African, as far as I know, one spot. Middle Eastern, a bit more diverse with Armenian, Syrian, and Lebanese well represented, Israeli and a couple of others, scattered. South Pacific, Caribbean, fuggedaboudit.
Latin American has always surprised me. There’s a huge representation of Peruvian restaurants here (along with a huge Peruvian population), though until recently you could probably count on one hand the number of Argentines who’d eaten at one (okay, exaggeration, but I’d venture that many, if not the majority of my Argentine friends have probably not tried anything more than ceviche, and maybe pollo a las brasas.) The rest of Latin America, a dearth of places…. Mexican is starting to catch on, as far as I know there’s nothing here from Central America, Venezuelan mostly just arepas places and those are all new after the wave of Venezuelan immigration with the collapse of their economy. There used to be half a dozen good Colombian spots, all but one of those is gone, and a couple of others have opened. Chilean, one. Paraguayan, basically none accessible. Uruguayan, a couple. Bolivian, mostly around the more isolated areas where Bolivians live, almost contiguous with the Korean areas, interestingly.
Brazilian spots have come and gone and never been numerous, and for me, the only really good one closed up years ago. After our ventures to São Paulo over the last two years, I’ve gotten more interested in Brazilian cuisine, so when I saw that a few new spots have opened up, all kind of clustered around the San Nicolas neighborhood, I figured it’s time to start checking them out.
O Meu Lugar – Cozinha Nordestina, Lavalle 1892, Once – Just over the line from San Nicolás into Once, this spot is the closest to home, and it happened that we noted that last weekend was going to be their last open prior to taking a holiday break. Rushed over – they’ve got a couple of tables outside and just three inside, with good spacing between them. The one waiter, also, I think, owner/manager, wears a mask, and provides alcohol gel, all the right stuff for these pandemic days. Because they were coming up on closing for a few weeks, the menu was somewhat limited, but off the bat, everything we tried was so good that we’ll be back once they reopen.
Henry and I kind of fell in love with this dish while we were in SP, though it was only offered at two spots that we went to over our three visits. The first time we had it we ordered a second bowl of it it was so good. It’s called baião de dois. Baião is a type of music and dance from northeast Brazil, so this is sort of “rhythm of two” or “dance of two”. Let’s get a little music going while you’re reading, aren’t they just the cutest….
This version of the dish is just packed with flavor. In essence, the dish is kind of take on Rice and beans – with rice and either black-eyed peas or cowpeas. From there it seems to vary, and recipes abound with different other ingredients, but always, it seems, some sort of meat plus some sort of sausage – this version has carne seca, an overnight air-dried beef that’s then shredded, and calabresa, a mildly spicy sausage. Hot sauce (fiery!) and manteiga de garrafa, or, clarified butter, offered to drizzle over the top. I mean, you gotta add butter to the other fats… right? And some grilled coalha cheese, a classic of the region, it’s a semi-firm, slightly “squeaky” cheese that’s often grilled, to mix in. A complete winner at 450 pesos, and a huge portion.
Escondidinho de carne seca – the “hidden” dish of shredded meat (often available in chicken versions too), is kind of like a Brazilian take on a cottage or shepherd’s pie. There’s a sort of stew of the shredded air-dried beef, onions, and sometimes other vegetables hidden under a layer of mashed yuca root, and then topped with bubbly, browned cheese. Another yummy dish – I’m not sure it needs the accompanying rice, but we ended up putting the extra juices from the next dish on the rice to flavor it up. 500 pesos.
And, moqueca de camarão, a shrimp version of the famed stew of the area, often made with fish, shrimp, prawns, squid… individually or a mix. A little light on shrimp, but absolutely wonderful flavors. Served with rice, farofa (toasted ground yuca root), and pirão (a sort “cream of” yuca in the sense of like cream of wheat, cream rice, hot breakfast cereal). They do love their yuca root in Brazil. The extra sauce, as I said, we spooned over the extra rice! 650 pesos.
The only sweet offering is a brigadeiro, a classic sort of snack. It’s just a couple of bites, and very rich – the traditional recipe is basically sweetened condensed milk cooked down with cocoa powder until it’s thickened, a little butter added, and then chilled and rolled into balls. It’s like a very thick, cocoa flavored caramel. And then rolled in chocolate sprinkles, of course! What’s not to love? 90 pesos.
All around, great, friendly service, cute place, and excellent food. We’ll be back after they reopen in January!
The second spot, just a couple of blocks away, Aires Brasileiro, Lavalle 1627, San Nicolás, is more a large, commercial feeling café – half a dozen tables outside and a couple dozen inside. The staff were mixed on their adherence to things like masks and distancing. The menu is mixed Argentine and Brazilian – not fusion, they just have two pages, one for Brazilian dishes, one for Argentine. And a lot of café oriented stuff – pastries, sandwiches, coffees, etc. The selection of dishes is pretty limited, mostly just variations on one theme…
…the prato feito, or “complete plate”. It’s a starch-laden combo plate with, in this case, grilled chicken (also available in several types of beef, and a fish version) smothered in onions and accompanied by mashed potatoes (or french fries), rice, spaghetti with tomato sauce, beans, farofa, and a small salad. It’s… fine. There’s just not a lot of any interesting flavors going on. Individually each component is good, but there’s just way too much starch and way too little meat. It’s filling, which is the point, and the different versions run 400 pesos or less.
We were less enamored of this version of baião de dois. It’s a bit heavy on the shredded meat and rice, and light on the sausage and beans. Too much tomato, not enough cheese. Just all around, out of balance, and rather bland. Quite good hot sauce – that weird lava-lamp looking bottle in the first picture. But we actually only ate about half of this and brought the rest home, where it’s languishing in the refrigerator with neither of us really doing anything to it except moving it around to get to other things. I suppose I could fry up some garlic and onions and mix it in. 450 pesos.
And, a non-cocoa version of brigadeiro, which essentially means it’s a ball of dulce de leche rolled in chocolate sprinkles. I’m not a huge fan of that much concentrated caramel in a couple of bites. Or maybe I was just missing the expected chocolatey goodness. 90 pesos.
Very business-like, get ’em in, get ’em out, café feel, though I suppose that’s their clientele for the most part, business people from the neighborhood. That may be different in the evening. Limited menu and kind of a yawn all around. It’s not bad, but it’s not any place I’d go back to either.
More to come when we get to more of the newer Brazilian locales!
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