The Feisty Foodie » Argentinian

Tuesdays with TT: Alma 33

TT — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:15:21 +0000

Ah, Valentine’s Day. A time to celebrate with your significant other and help the economy with the purchase of flowers, chocolates and an overpriced meal. CT and I don’t “buy in” to the hype of this Hallmark holiday, but we still celebrate in our own special way. Yes, I did buy her some roses. Last year, I cooked some of my famous BBQ brisket. This year we decided to go out the Sunday before to celebrate (and avoid those notorious Valentine’s prix fixe menus).

We decided to check out Alma 33, an Argentinian restaurant in the West Village that our friend KR had raved about multiple times. It just so happened that a Groupon came out a couple months ago that has been burning a hole in CT’s pocket. Once again, we found ourselves using a Groupon closer to its expiration date than we would have expected. They had a couple buying options but CT chose the “For $26, you get dinner for two Sunday–Wednesday (up to a $76 total value). Dinners for two include Five tapas (up to a $14 value each), One dessert (a $6 value).” Sounded like a good deal…

After arriving, we both remarked how we liked the design of the restaurant. It had a lot of light colored woods on the floors and ceilings. Candles all around made the place very warm and inviting.

Bread service included two different kinds of bread served with oil & vinegar.

Our waitress was very friendly and didn’t give us any grief about using the Groupon. I think this was due to the fact that most tables seemed to be using the same deal too.

There was a pretty good selection of tapas from which to make our five selections from. Unfortunately, they were sold out of a couple, but we made do. All of the food came out super quickly. We immediately came to realize that most of the food seemed to be prepared ahead of time. I am including the price of the tapas for your reference since we already paid for them with the purchase of the Groupon.

Crostini Chorizo ($9). Chorizo over grilled bread with red chimichurri. Not the prettiest of dishes especially when the chorizo slices didn’t really “fit” on the bread it was plated on. The chorizo was pretty mild, similar to what we had at El Parador Cafe. However, the chimichurri had a more pronounced flavor with a bit of heat.

Catalunya ($9). Pan con tomate with Jamon Serrano & Manchego cheese. This dish proved that the food was made ahead of time because the bread was soggy. The thick slice of cheese, similar to Parmesan, was good but overwhelmed the ham. They need some pointers from Boqueria.

Humita Empanadas ($4.50 each). Corn empanada filled with corn, red pepper and fontina cheese. This was actually a pretty good empanada. It wasn’t too greasy, which is always good. The filling was tasty and full of sweet corn with just a bit of saltiness from the gooey cheese.

Polenta Frita Con Costillas De Res ($10). Fried polenta with short ribs fried sliced polenta with malbec-braised short ribs. We were really looking forward to this because it sounded great! As you can see the short ribs looked terrible. Meat should not be gray. I wonder when they cooked it? It was also unfortunately pretty flavorless with no seasoning whatsoever. The fried polenta was crispy but also failed due to a complete lack of salt. After asking for asking for some hot sauce to make the food a little more palatable, we were presented with a small bowl of TABASCO! It helped, but we were very disappointed they don’t make their own hot sauce. They seemed to make their own chimichurri, so why not hot sauce too? It isn’t very difficult.

Pintxos De Milanesa ($9). Veal milanesa skewers with pobre sauce. The veal was ok but again the breading lacked seasoning. I’m not sure if they ran out of “pobre” sauce because it was the same chimichurri. At least the sauce helped with the flavor.

Since we had a feeling that five tapas was not going to be enough food, we added on an entree. KR mentioned that the paella was very good, so we chose that. After ordering, our waitress also remarked that it was a very good choice and one of her favorites on the menu.

Paella Argentina ($22). Saffron rice with green peas, red pepper, oyster mushrooms and braised pork shoulder. It is kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it was a pretty small portion for an entree. I also immediately noticed that the rice looked pretty mushy, which it was. There was a fair amount of pork shoulder, but not only was it also not seasoned there was lots of gristle/cartilage/fat to sort through. Also strewn throughout was a large amount of practically raw garlic slices. Since it was dark in the restaurant, both of us accidentally ate a piece or two which was not pleasant. I hope this wasn’t representative of all Argentinian paellas, if that’s the case I’ll stick to the Spanish version.

For dessert, we chose the special which was basically a strawberry shortcake. It was quite small and barely took up the corner of the plate. Good thing this was included in the deal otherwise it would be hard to justify the normal price of $6. However, it was tasty and helped counteract some of the garlic from the paella.

All in all, the food was pretty bad at Alma 33. Hardly any of it was properly seasoned and a lot seemed to be made way ahead of time. I wonder if the Chef is off on Sundays or that is how it usually is? Maybe the crush of Groupon redeemers made them sacrifice quality to get food on the plates? Though the restaurant wasn’t especially busy that night. It was unfortunate because KR really loves this restaurant and we value her opinion. We ended up saving about $20 based on the a la carte prices, not the $50 stated in the deal. In such a highly competitive city like NYC, it is very hard to give any restaurant a second chance since there are so many others to try, so I don’t think I will be returning to Alma 33.

Gauchos Steak House (Panama)

TT — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:15:37 +0000

Back towards the beginning of the year, CT and I learned that CT’s Sister’s Sister-in-Law would be getting married in Panama at the end of July. Why Panama? The Bride’s parents live down there now full-time. We learned that Panama has a huge ex-pat population mostly because it is so cheap and the U.S. Dollar is the functional currency down there. Since CT’s whole family is quite close with her brother-in-law’s family, we were all invited to the wedding. Since neither of us had been to Panama before, we decided to spend an extra couple days down there to explore the city and of course, the food. Join us the next couple of weeks as we eat PANAMA!

The morning after the wedding a breakfast was held about 20 minutes away from the resort at the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal. It is the best place to see ships go through the canal and learn about the building and history of the canal with its good sized visitors’ center. The canal was pretty awesome and we were fortunate to have seen a ship go through this set of locks.

After we were done we headed back to the resort for some time by the pool and enjoy the brief window of non-raininess before heading back to Panama City for the rest of our vacation. After we got all settled in our new hotel, I decided I was in the mood for a good steak. I remembered seeing a restaurant called Gauchos Steak House when we were in the city before the wedding and it looked right up our alley. Argentinians know their steak and this was the closest I had ever been to Argentina, so we gave it a shot.

The restaurant layout was pretty cool since it was inside of a large, old house. As we were being seated, I saw the grill had a large window that was asking to be pictured. After confirming with the waiter, I went ahead and snapped a pic. Now that’s what I call a grill!

As you can see on the left side of the grill, they grill their bread. We were both quite hungry at this point, so we dug in heartily. The char on the bread gave it really good flavor.

I was also impressed that there was a little table for our bread tray to make room for other dishes. It reminded me of the stool given for the ladies purse at Daniel or Per Se.

The appetizers were pretty cheap, all around $6.

CT ordered the Picada de Chorizo y Morcilla (pork & black sausage). Both were full of flavor and fortunately the blood sausage wasn’t too “mineraly.”

CT says: Ever since my high-school summer in Spain, I’ve been trying to find a morcilla like the one I had there. While this one wasn’t the same, it was really tasty. Both sausages had great flavor and I quickly chowed down.

I ordered the Ceviche Mixto. It had a nice variety of seafood including shrimp, octopus and fish. There was a lot less onion in this preparation than the one we had at the fish market, so it wasn’t as spicy. It was a good base for all the grilled meat that would be following.

CT says: If ordering too much ceviche was possible, we might have been pushing our limits. However, all the ceviches were so fresh and delicious that we just couldn’t stop ourselves. Yum!

The appetizers were accompanied by two sauces. A tomato/shallot vinaigrette and a salsa verde/chimichurri. We were both big fans of the salsa verde.

CT says: I believe some people might call this stuff “crack.” I just pointed to the bowl and asked for more. Lots more.

I believe CT got what amounted to a NY Strip.

It was cooked to a perfect medium rare.

It came with choice of sides. She went with the mashed potatoes.

CT says: The meat was cooked perfectly! A nice char on the outside and dark pink on the inside. So juicy, tender and flavorful. Since I’d eaten fries earlier that day, I opted for the mashed potatoes and I was glad I did! They were buttery, garlicky deliciousness and paired so well with the meat. Not too heavy with butter, but went down smooth. Can’t go wrong with well prepared meat and potatoes!

Since I was on vacation and calories don’t count, I ordered the mixed grill. It had skirt steak, short ribs, and I think also a NY Strip. The meat like CT’s was also cooked perfectly. All three had a nice butter bath while on the grill, which made the already tender meat as great as it gets. I was a little surprised that skirt steak was included on the plate as it doesn’t make for the best steak on its own. I prefer it in tacos or sandwich form as it can get chewy if not cut properly. The short ribs and strip were excellent. I definitely got the meat sweats which is always a sign of a good meaty meal.

I got fries as my side. They were pretty meh, but I didn’t really need any more food so it wasn’t a big deal.

We got another plate of the same sauces with the addition of a steak sauce. This sauce was pretty sweet and really wasn’t needed on the already perfectly seasoned steaks.

We skipped on dessert and were presented with a little cup of toothpicks. It was a nice touch to end the meal, rather than grabbing one from the hostess stand.

All in all, Gauchos Steak House knows their meats. I was in a steak mood and got all of my desires fulfilled. One of the reasons you hardly read a review of a steakhouse in NYC here is that they are all very expensive and not that special IMOH. I’d rather spend half the money somewhere else and get a better meal. Gauchos set us back $105 include a bottle of wine, tax and tip. This was considered a splurge restaurant down there, but I considered it a bargain. A tasty, tasty bargain!

Jackson Heights Walking Feast

Feisty Foodie — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:15:16 +0000

My dear friend StB has had an exciting year. Long time readers may recognize her as my former partner-in-eating-crime; we ate many many meals together (as that link will show you), but then she did something horrible and moved to Ohio. But this year, she moved back! She got engaged! She turned 30! And when I finally had a minute to breathe during this intense, scary, terrible, awesome, amazing summer, we took a jaunt around Jackson Heights for food – cheap. We started off at Mira Cali II for pandebono…

This was $1. We split one because we knew how much more food was coming.

The fluffy innards. I liked this – it was airy, chewy, slightly sweet – but I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to get get it again. I like pao de quiejo

After we wandered up and down Roosevelt Avenue for a few minutes looking for a tamale lady said to sell out of a cooler under the train stairs (we saw no such person), we decided to pick a truck and order. This looked a lot like any of the trucks I’d hit during my Oakland truck tour, so we stopped and quickly agreed upon…

Oreja, or pig ear.

Slightly chewy in texture, the flavor wasn’t actually all that interesting. We both agreed that at $2, this was a steal, and quite tasty but next time we’d both opt for a different “meat” (we split this, too).

Our next stop turned out to be a taqueria/sit-down type of restaurant.

As soon as we sat down, we were given menus to ponder and a basket of clearly housemade tortilla chips and salsa. Not spicy, but a nice nibble for while we perused the offerings.

We both ordered the horchata, but because I’m always thirsty lately, I got the supersized version. I think this was $1.50 and $3.

StB went with the cesina, or salted beef. (We split both of these again.) When they say salted beef, they mean salted. I mean, it was really freakin’ salty. Tasty, to be sure, but something both of us agreed that we couldn’t eat the entire taco because it was just too salty to comfortably consume.

I went with al pastor (pork) I believe, and this was really yummy. I liked mine quite a lot, finding it super tasty and everything worked well together.

Also, before anyone gets upset at how the “guacamole” looks – I don’t think that’s guacamole. I think that’s salsa de aguacate – a sauce made of avocado, and meant to be blended quite a bit more (and therefore “waterier”/more liquid-y than guacamole, not nearly as chunky or thick and creamy as many Americans are used to). And it tastes good, as long as you know what to expect.

Following that, we walked over to Seba Seba to look at antojitos.

Small bites that range in price from $1 to a few dollars.

And yet somehow, we were too full to consider picking and choosing from the cases displaying some really amazing bites.

Yeah, we walked to East Elmhurst from Jackson Heights to find Cannelle… which was the lone patisserie that BeerBoor skipped during his Macaron Day trip. I hadn’t even known that was where we were heading, but when we arrived, I excitedly asked the woman behind the counter if there were any macarons. She looked at me as though I were a little nuts, and flatly informed me that no, there were no more macarons. Hmm.

We were there for a dessert that made some list in Time Out New York, though –

The Creole.

Which, not being that into sweets, both StB and I found a little too rich for our tastes. For some reason, we were both under the impression it would be lighter, airier, fluffier, but this was pretty heavy and we ate only a little more than half of the $3.50 individual cake before we had to dump it and walk back to the train station.

What are friends for if not to walk around and eat for hours? Welcome home, StB. You were missed.

Yvo says: None of the places we visited were particularly expensive, and all had very many tasty treats to explore and discover. I highly recommend taking a similar walk around (and if you know me, invite me along!) and checking out all the goodies, eating to your heart’s content, as we did. The most expensive meal of the day was, of course, the one sit-down place we visited, where even that came to just around $10 before tip. Everywhere we went, despite clearly not being locals, everyone was nice to us, and our food was yummy!
recommended, every single place, explore your way through the menu!

Mi Tio

Feisty Foodie — Fri, 28 May 2010 13:15:58 +0000

I actually wrote about Mi Tio a while ago (over 4 years ago now), but recently returned to see if it was still worth all the fond memories I have of this place. As I mention in that post, I’ve been going to this place since my father was still alive. It used to be a very small, hole-in-the-wall, family oriented joint; it doesn’t seem to have changed much from that save the ‘hole-in-the-wall’ description, as it’s expanded quite a bit in the past 10+ years and looks almost fancy. Almost. In any case, the prices have changed only slightly…

Spicy chimichurri on the left, and regular chimichurri on the right. Back in the day, going here for dinner with my family, we’d easily finish the whole non-spicy one (slathering it on the bread, on the steak, on everything in sight; it was that good) and have to ask for another one. And yes, we’d reek of garlic for hours afterwards… good times, good times. Since then, I’ve managed to make my own version that is pretty good. On this occasion, I actually found it unnecessary for most of the food…

We opted to start off with an order of ‘special onion rings’ – which were really damn tasty. The batter was perfect except that it kept sliding off the onion rings… and the ‘chipotle’ dipping sauce was only marginally spicy, which was a nice boost to the onion rings. Love. Would order again.

Salada de lengua, or tongue salad. I was expecting thin slices of tongue, but this was a nice change: thick chunks, which had been pickled or marinated in something such that the texture was completely unlike tongue as I know it (as a cold cut, or as a dish my mother occasionally made, which was chewy and super savory). This had the sharp tang of a pickled meat, and was quite tasty, but the platter was way huge for me to eat too much lest I ruin my appetite for my upcoming main course. My buddy happily ate the rest of it, citing surprise equal to mine over the texture and taste.

My “Russian” potato salad (I’m still not sure why they call it that) was a bit too much mayo this time around; almost like mashed potatoes made with mayo instead of butter and cream, which kind of threw my taste buds out of wack. However, it was a good foil with my main course, which was actually a touch too salty.

My full skirt steak! This was really well-flavored/seasoned, which is why I wound up not using too much chimichurri, despite my love for it; the steak was seasoned (marinated?) exactly perfectly such that it needed no more accompaniment. When I added a bit of chimichurri solely because I love the stuff, it was way too salty altogether so I had to abandon the chimichurri. I can’t say this is a bad thing, but I would have liked it if I could use the chimichurri liberally like I usually do!

My dining companion opted for the mixed grill, which came with blood sausage (that had exploded), sausage, intestines, short ribs, and sweetbreads. I tried a bit of the sweetbreads, hoping against hope that I’d finally find a place that made them right again. I was super happy when these turned out to be quite food – the last two places I’ve had sweetbreads – one of them a Michelin-starred establishment! – both were chalky. T’was not the case here; these were really quite delicious, and I will be back to get my fix of sweetbreads sooner than later, for a very reasonable price! The entire platter (minus the intestines, which were a touch too chewy) was cleaned, so I presume it was good.

Along with the mixed grill, roasted potato was ordered. They were OK.

Yvo says: The highlight of the night for me was discovering that the skirt steak was still just as good as – if not even better – than I remember. The prices have gone up, yes – my complete skirt steak (with one side) was $27.95 – but I still feel it was pretty worth it, all things considered. Very tasty. I was also excited about the appetizers being so good, and the sweetbreads being good as well. I need to return this to a regular rotation in my life! Nommyness!
recommended

Argentina: Day 6: Final Dinner in Buenos Aires, Rodizio

Feisty Foodie — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Still seeking our all-you-can-eat restaurant, upon our return to Buenos Aires (and the same hotel), our concierge directed us to Rodizio, of which I looked up the meaning once back in the States and discovered that Rodizio is the style of cuisine (where the Brazilian restaurants keep bringing you more and more meat), not churrascaria. Oops!

This is going to be a picture-intensive post, so bear with me. Also, keep in mind while looking at these pictures, this entire meal cost us $27 USD.

Bread with tangy butter spread on the table

As soon as we sat down, they served us this, which we thought was an empanada but might have been a salgadinho, Brazilian snack that is like an empanada…

The meaty insides. Pretty good.

Now, for pictures of the accompanying buffet, which are many and wow, speak for themselves. Excuse the blurriness, I had to take them quickly since the waiters were looking at me uncertainly, possibly wanting to stop me, and people were starting to crowd the place.

Bread section – no pao de quiejo though, unfortunately.

Meat/cheese section; charcuterie- that’s a whole turkey with slices taken off, and a whole leg of jamon serrano standing over there (with slices taken off as well).

The pickled/antipasto section, with marinated veggies, olives, … yum. I am getting so hungry right now!

I guess I foreshadowed when I said, “I’m worried; places like this, if the buffet is really good or has a lot of awesome stuff, sometimes it’s because the meat isn’t that great… or it could be everything is really good,” I offered lamely when everyone turned to look at me. Haha, oops.

When we’d sat down, they’d presented us with the bread, the empanadas/salgadinhos and lemon drop shots for some reason…

The salad I started off with – yummy, lots of greens to choose from.

HB’s first plate- look at the size of those shrimp/prawns! As big as my hand and tender, sweet. We all agreed the hearts of palm were too soft, however.

MD/PB’s first plate

StB‘s first plate

My first plate : I was pleasantly surprised by the little cup with a shrimp on top; I’d thought “Oh, shrimp with tuna salad underneath” but it was lobster salad and quite tasty! The salmon with roe was only so-so, but the little cone was filled with octopus and quite tasty as well. The sushi pieces were weird: the rice not quite done properly, smashed down and not the right taste to it; and the fillings were just odd. The stuffed mushroom cap was good, though.

And then the meat began.

Perfectly cooked! The slicer wanted to take a picture with me. I obliged, happily waiting for the succulent meat to enter my mouth and astound my tastebuds.

Big, happy smile!

Three different cuts of meat; oh, the meat. Terribly disappointing because despite the glorious way it looks, despite all that, it was completely flavorless. We’d read that the national “spice/seasoning of choice” here was salt; salt hadn’t seen these pieces of meat at all! I doused my meat in the chimichurri from the salad bar, which of course was delicious, but the meat would have been so much better had it seen some salt before being cooked.

We were pretty full at this point, but of course had to partake in dessert!

HB’s something or other – she thought it was alright.

MD/PB’s something or other, that she liked very much (flan? with dulce de leche and crema on the side).

StB’s choice of three flavors of ice cream

And last but not least, my something or other. I’m sorry! It’s been almost two weeks since this meal happened! And I tried to get through these reviews as quickly as possible. I’m looking at this picture right now, and I’m amazed by how good it looks. The fruit gently spilling over the top, the walnuts on one side… but the dessert was good, not mindblowing, and I was too stuffed to finish it all.

Yvo says: At the total price of, with a generous tip, $27 USD per person, I can’t deny that this is a great value. The buffet alone is worth that price, but if you do go, go knowing that the meat will need generous salt and that it is not the main attraction here. The buffet is definitely worth a go, and go hungry!
middle of the road, more recommended than not