Travel Dish: La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar (Buenos Aires)

This is the last in my series of reports chronicling my eating adventures in Buenos Aires this past October. And this final post is a doozey, so pull up a chair and pour yourself a glass of wine (preferably Malbec) and enjoy the reliving of my best meal there.

Nine (Plus) Courses to Remember for a Lifetime
Bolivar 865, Buenos Aires
San Telmo neighborhood
PH: 11/4361.4709
Dinner tasting menu only, Tue.–Sun.; and Sunday lunch
Major credit cards, reservations accepted

BUENOS AIRES
On my last day in this city, my flight didn’t leave until 10 p.m. so that meant one last meal to squeeze in. And I can’t think of a better place for a farewell meal than La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar in the funky San Telmo neighborhood.

Just 1 year old, this small restaurant is the master lab for Chef Alejandro Digilio, who has been drawing attention for his molecular gastronomical creations coming out of this tiny kitchen. Seems like these days, anyone interested in molecular gastronomy—which fuses technical creativity with culinary flavors—has to make a stop at El Bulli, the famous Spanish restaurant outside of Barcelona and belonging to noted Chef Ferran Adrià. Digilio has done his stint there, and it seems to be paying off for him.

La Vineria only offers a nine-course tasting menu for dinner (AR$130 or $45), but the chef works double time on Sundays when he provides a tasting menu for lunch and dinner. So I arrived on a Sunday afternoon to taste the delicacies to be created by Chef Digilio.

The nine courses—scribbled at the top of one wall on a chalkboard—are determined by the ingredients the chef finds at the market. To give you an idea of how long this post will be, let me just say that this last meal in Buenos Aires lasted four hours.

The restaurant has just 18 seats on the first floor, including a few stools that face the open kitchen, where you can see the chef at work. On this day, La Vineria was filled mostly by tourists like me. Sitting at the table next to me were this fun couple of ladies, Marge and Karen, from Ohio. They ditched their tour group making the rounds of the neighborhood’s art studios to grab some lunch instead. I had a lot of fun talking to them about their travels and their impressions of the food, which came in a parade of small to medium to large plates.

To start the meal, the chef sent out an amuse bouche of three one-bite items. The first was described as a “bread vinaigrette,” which was a crusty bread shell shaped like a tiny pillow that was injected with balsamic vinegar. It was a quaint marvel with a burst of acid from the vinegar.

Second was an “apple caramel,” which was a slice of apple with a thin sliver of caramel candy. This was beautiful and delightful in a crunchy, refreshing way.

But my favorite has to be the “liquid ravioli,” or a pearl-shaped gel of roasted red bell peppers served on a spoon. The flavor of the liquified red bell pepper was intense, like taking a big bite of a sweet pepper but instead doing it with one quick scoop of the spoon.

Next came a “Two Temperature Split Pea Soup” topped with tomato powder. The pea soup, served in a shot glass, was served warm on one side and cold on the other. This interesting combination of hot and cold in your mouth was an experience I never felt before. (It wasn’t hot soup like how a hot pizza burns the roof of your mouth; instead it was just a mingling of warm and cold textures awakening the insides of your mouth.) The soup was a bit thick for my tastes, but I found the play on hot and cold intriguing.

This was one of my favorite courses: a tiny provolone croquette with a zest of lime and served with a side plate of curried cashews. The melted provolone encased in the perfectly fried croquette was amazing. Chef Digilio would make millions if he set up a shack just selling these little fried delights.

Also served in a shot glass was the chef’s ceviche, which is raw fish cured with lime juice. He used a type of tuna that was mixed with some diced onions and cherry tomatoes and garnished with pea shoots. It was tart because of the citrus, but it also had a savory underpinning to the flavor profile that reminded me a lot of poke, which is the Hawaiian version of raw fish cured with soy sauce and seaweed. This course had the least innovation of the meal.

At this time, I’m going to talk about the wine. You can request a wine flight to come with your tasting menu for an additional cost. But the lead server, a friendly young Argentine and also the wine expert in the house, will instead present you wine glasses in a very organic way. Which is to say that he pours you different varieties of wine until you request another one or until you say stop. All the wine he poured for me came from small wineries in Mendoza—Argentina’s wine region. I started with a refreshing Sauvignon Blanc and then moved on to a Torrontes, one of the country’s most famous white wines (often overshadowed by the red Malbec). And to be honest, I stopped keeping track after a few glasses, but they were all lovely and well-balanced with the meal. The server charges you based on what you drink, and like the tasting menu, it’s all reasonable and worth it.

This was one of the larger plates and it was a salad made with 30 ingredients. This was also a combination of flavors, texture and temperature since some vegetables were raw and others were cooked. It was a fun mixture again of contrasting feelings, but I did feel the dressing was a bit too salty. Overall, it was a beautiful dish but it didn’t compare to the balanced salads at Ubuntu in California. Still, I applaud the chef for preparing 30 different items just for one course. (Disclosure: I didn’t get a chance to count whether there were really 30 different items; I just took my server’s word for it.)

The next few dishes really demonstrated the cutting edge of molecular gastronomy dining. This is goat cheese foam with a slow-cooked egg. (The server claims the egg was cooked at a low temperature for 50 minutes.) The entire dish was drizzled with truffle oil, so you can bet this combination of flavors was rich, and it was. The egg, despite its 50 minutes in a warm bath, was still creamy and runny like a poached egg, and blended so nicely with the savory taste of the goat cheese foam. I really enjoyed the flavor combination for a savory dish that wasn’t, thankfully, too savory.

This is shrimp served with a lime and chili salt. The shrimp was fresh and nicely cooked, but wasn’t anything surprising.

Octopus was served covered with a tomato foam and olive oil emulsion. My server corrected to say the tomato foam was “air,” which apparently is the new way of calling foam in the molecular gastronomy world. And while I have misgivings about foam or air because I never understood how they complemented a dish, this particular foam actually tasted like tomato. The olive oil emulsion on the side also had a distinct olive oil flavor and melted away as you bit into it. Definitely eating calories light as air. (The octopus was a bit chewy, but that was to be expected.)

Some of the dishes could actually be an entrée selection at other restaurants and not just a tasting portion. This sea bass is a perfect example. The filet was a nice portion and it was prepared sous vide-style (cooked slowly in a special plastic bag to preserve the tender flesh) and sitting in a liquid of paella broth. This Spanish-influenced dish was enhanced by a bowl of crispy saffron puffs that was served separately. I was told by the server to sprinkle a few on top of the fish and this is how it looked combined…

The sea bass was excellent and I loved the paella broth, mostly because I love paella in general. The saffron puffs, which didn’t taste like saffron but definitely embarked the color, added a nice texture to the top and, I admit it, it was fun just playing with the rice crispies!

At this point I felt like a guest at a Chinese banquet where the food never seems to stop coming. Next up was this dish of beef cheeks served with beans and mushrooms. The beef cheeks were incredibly tender, and reminded me of cow tongue, which of course totally grossed out Karen sitting next to me. But I remember eating cow tongue prepared by my mom when I was young and this dish was like total comfort food for me. The preparation seemed simple but I’m sure Chef Digilio had to do something special to make it taste so elegant and tender.

Being in Argentina, you have to have beef. And while this portion is much smaller than what you would get at a parrilla (the Argentine steakhouses), it is much more creative. It’s your basic meat-and-potatoes dish, but instead of French fries, Chef Digilio created a French fry-flavored “air” encased in a thin strip of potato chip. The air carried an intense flavor of French fries, so this is definitely a way to eat fries without feeling the guilt of all the grease. I could drink a cup of this. The beef was perfectly cooked, and seasoned simply like it’s often done in Buenos Aires.

I should note that our server told us the chef wasn’t feeling well that day, and I saw Chef Digilio actually leave right before we were served dessert. What that meant was we ended up with just one plate of dessert instead of a few courses, but I wasn’t really complaining at this point. In terms of tasting menus I’ve had in my life, this was definitely one that made me feel like I got my money’s worth and then some. The courses (which really numbered more than nine) added up to a filling and enjoyable dinner. Oh, but you want to see what we had for dessert, right?

A trio of desserts came on a plate, meant to be combined at your leisure. In the center was a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Next to it was a drizzle of a mandarin orange reduction. Behind it was more of the goat cheese air from an earlier course, and next to that was a sliver of orange-almond cake. Everything was perfect on its own but taken to another level when playfully mixed on the plate. The savory goat cheese foam provided an unusual contrast to the sweet chocolate, and the orange-almond cake simply helped fill you up while tasting light at the same time. The mandarin orange reduction was intense (like all of Chef Digilio’s flavorings) and is the classic pairing for dark chocolate.

This four-hour lunch at La Vineria is one of those meals of a lifetime. But it wasn’t in a fussy hotel dining room nor did it cost me my life’s savings. This was an extremely affordable dinner in an unassuming casual restaurant that makes you feel like you’re on the ground floor of something great. I just know that Chef Digilio will one day have a larger, and perhaps, grander playground to display his talents. So I feel lucky that I’ve had this memorable chance to get just a taste of his culinary talents. And really, what better lasting impression to remember Buenos Aires by?

Single guy rating: 4.75 stars (a meal worth traveling across the globe for)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

Bueno … life in BA

Sunday in the San Telmo neighborhood is clearly a day to stroll around the antiques fair at the Plaza Dorrego. This weekly event draws a large crowd of tourists who take over the streets, which are closed for street vendors and tango dancers. The antiques fair is in the actual cobblestone plaza, and you can see an array of blue-tinted antique seltzer bottles and maté tea gourds for sale. Get there early to beat the crowds or get there late to see the impromptu tango dancing that occurs right after the antique vendors pack away their stalls.

As my last gift to you of this memorable trip to Buenos Aires, I made this video of this really fascinating street performer/artist at the San Telmo Sunday street fair. He drew the most crowds and he would create paintings quickly to music, using only his hands. So just for fun, here you go!

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Travel Dish: 647 Dinner Club (Buenos Aires)

I’m wrapping up my series of food reports from Buenos Aires. Today and tomorrow will be my final posts about my eating experience in this South American city while vacationing in October. And I’ve definitely saved the best for last.

Dine Like a VIP in This Luxurious Spot
Tacuarí 647, Buenos Aires
San Telmo neighborhood
PH: 11/4331.3026
Dinner starting at 5:30 p.m.
Major credit cards, reservations accepted
www.club647.com

BUENOS AIRES
One of the places getting the most buzz here as a dining destination is the 647 Dinner Club, opened initially in 2006 as a private club by English director Terry Walshe but now open to anyone who wants to walk through the velvet ropes.

647 was named one of the hot tables in 2008 by Condé Nast Traveler. And it has all the ingredients of an exclusive club: sketchy neighborhood (check), indiscreet entrance with no name in the front (check), velvet ropes (check), chandeliers (check) and high prices (double check).

The restaurant is in the Bohemian neighborhood of San Telmo, but more on the edge away from the clusters of restaurants and shops. (Most of the dinner club’s neighbors on the street are closed when you walk by.) Its name comes from its street address, and that’s all you see when you arrive at the black-painted doors that look like the back of a loading dock. But you can tell it’s not just a warehouse because of the velvet ropes and the security guard in front.

The first night I tried to get into the dinner club I was told there was a private event, so I experienced what it’s like to be rebuffed behind the velvet ropes. But I returned a couple of nights later on a Saturday evening, and was led passed the ropes and down the long corridor toward the dining room.

Despite all the reports of “reservations recommended,” I got the sense that’s all hype because it wasn’t that crowded for a Saturday night. I asked my waitress if it was a slow evening, and she said this was the typical crowd for the weekend. My guess is that mostly tourists or businessmen come here since the prices are higher than most places in town (similar to what I pay dining out in San Francisco). And while the menu is promoted as “haute cuisine,” it seems like the attention focuses more on the two large bars and the specialty drinks offered at 647. It seemed more like a place for some pretty drinks and appetizers before heading out to your real dinner.

But I was here for dinner, so I sat myself near one of the colorful glowing lights and perused the menu. I started with one of its specialty drinks called the Herr Hesse, a vodka martini made with grapefruit juice and Choya perfume. The bartender actually comes to your table to pour the drink in front of you. While the Herr Hesse was very pretty, it seemed lacking in punch. Eventually I asked my waitress to order me another drink, which was actually better and stronger but I didn’t get the name (it had Cassis and some herbs in it).

The menu by Executive Chef Guillermo Testón changes with the season, but you can always count on starting with his wonderful tart tartin (AR$36 or $12.45). I had read about his tart with goat cheese and red grapes, but on the night I went it was made with goat cheese and pears served with a small arugula and endive salad.

When it arrived, it didn’t look like any tart I’d seen before because the crust was primarily on the bottom and there were no borders. Still, it had all the crumbly features of a tart, with the goat cheese whipped so perfectly that it felt light and heavenly and topped with subtly flavored and tender pears. It was my favorite part of the dinner even though I felt I was near the end eating dessert.

The entrée selection had a lot of things to tempt me, from the corn risotto to squid and saffron fettuccine to duck prepared three ways. But I was still gorging on Argentine meat so I ordered the ojo de bife or rib eye served with a chorizo and cheese kebab (AR$62 or $21.50).

Despite asking for medium, the rib eye seemed more well. It was still tender, though, and had a nice crusty exterior from the grilling. There’s no doubt that Argentines know how to use fire. The meat was served over potatoes and portabella mushrooms with a “criolla” sauce that seemed to be a salsa made of tomatillos and garlic.

The meat did have a slight greasy layer on top that I didn’t enjoy, and the cheese square and chorizo on the skewer were both a bit overdone, so they were dry.

For dessert, the menu by pastry chef Magdalena Martinez offered up a lot of creative items but I decided to try the white chocolate mousse with coffee croutons, balsamic marinated raspberries, and spiced strawberry ice cream (AR$27 or $9), primarily because it was kind of warm in the restaurant and I wanted some ice cream.

The mousse was creamy and tasty, but what I really loved were the tiny coffee-flavored croutons that added a real different level of tasting for this dessert, which came out plated beautifully.

The service, as you can imagine, was formal and helpful with my servers having no problem with English. Like I said, it was a quiet evening with only the flashes from the cameras of diners taking photos of themselves eating in this glamorous spot. (It wasn’t the paparazzi taking pictures of a local celebrity.)

647 Dinner Club is definitely a luxurious dining experience with some creative touches like the tart tartin. I’d recommend another entrée, though, to really experience the chef’s creativity beyond the standard Argentine beef.

Single guy rating: 3.75 stars (Expense it if you can)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

Bueno … life in BA

Buenos Aires is the birthplace of the tango, and in recent years the tango (once seen as the dance of the lower class) has experienced a resurgence. So when in town, you have to visit a tango class or watch a tango show.

However, like Las Vegas, the tango shows here can be very commercial and pricey, with tickets costing as much as $60 American dollars or more. I went to a smaller venue that was still touristy but affordable. It was the Café Tortoni, which also happens to be the oldest café in the city.

Café Tortoni’s tango show takes place in the basement under the café, and you’re squeezed in tightly around small cabaret tables. And while at times cheesy (there’s a skit retelling the history of tango), there are moments when focused purely on the dancing it can be very beautiful.

Café Tortoni, Avenida de Mayo 825, Buenos Aires. www.cafetortoni.ar

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Today We Cook With the Letter C

This is the time for root vegetables, and one of the ugliest looking root has got to be the celeriac, sometimes known as celery root. I don't usually cook with this, but decided to buy it today at the farmers' market to make a soup.

With all the holiday eating, I thought it'll be nice to just make a really light soup, so I just added celery, which I actually enjoy although I know a lot of people don't seem to like this vegetable. I think celery cooking always make me think of stuffing for some reason. Now, the soup recipe I made below is pretty simple, but can look a bit muddy in this light green color, so to dress it up, I added some minced cilantro, another vegetable that gets extreme reaction from people.

So if you like celeriac, celery and cilantro, then this soup is for you. Enjoy!

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Celeriac, Celery and Cilantro Soup

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients
1 celeriac (or celery root), peeled and diced
4 stalks of celery, chopped (about 1.5 cups)
2 leeks (white portion, about 2 cups), rinsed and cleaned, diced
1/2 cup cilantro, minced
2 (14 oz.) cans of chicken broth
2 cups of water
2 T extra virgin olive oil
salt for seasoning

In a large saucepan, warm olive oil over medium high heat and then add diced leeks, cooking to soften (about 2 to 3 minutes). Then add broth, water, celeriac and celery. Cook at medium heat for about 30-35 minutes until celeriac is soften.

Remove pot from heat and with a hand blender, puree soup until silken. (Or pour a few cups at a time into a blender and puree in batches.) A minced cilantro to blend in and serve. Season with salt and pepper per your taste.

Makes 4 to 5 servings.

TIP: If you're going to freeze some of the soup for later, don't add the cilantro when freezing. Just freeze the base soup, and when reheating, add the minced cilantro in the end.

SILKY SOUP: You might want to run your soup through a sieve for extra smooth soup.

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Top Chef: Season 5, Episode 4

No Longer the Crème de la Creme

Previously: Team Rainbow gets formed and it doesn’t last very long as week by week the trifecta crumbles, starting with young Patrick and last week with the downfall of Richard the Bear, who unfortunately serves spit-like banana s’mores during a Foo Fighters Thanksgiving. Gosh, they’re really milking the crying scene from Richard. Oh, and Ariane makes a good turkey.

Opening scenes of busy New York traffic. You know, I have to say the editors at The Next Food Network Star put together better opening scenes showing off the beauty of the Big Apple. It’s boring in Top Chef land. Anywho, we see Jeff the Hair having breakfast in front of the New York skyline and The Cougar (Ariane) feeling confident from her turkey challenge.

Alex misses Richard the Bear, who was his roomie. And apparently when they film the axed cheftestants packing their knives, they really do leave the kitchen all alone. But as we saw from last week, Richard was a whole bottle of emotions so he had to write them down in a letter to Alex.

“Dear Alex, even though we were roommates for a brief moment, I believe we have bonded, And even though I’ve lusted over the dashing and shiny domed Tom Colicchio, who would take me to super Bear status if I brought him back to my circles, I will miss you the most, my cuddly furry friend. Love, Richard. P.S. Tell Padma I’ll miss her outfits the most.”

OK, so I kid. That’s not really what the letter said. The hand-written letter actually looks pretty long and Alex is reading it to Jamie and Carla, and Alex is getting just as emotional as Richard probably was when he wrote it. Alex says reading the letter (which really just wished him luck and stuff) made him miss home even more. Jamie, the surviving member of Team Rainbow, is wearing her rainbow T-shirt and says she made a rainbow-colored bracelet in memory of Richard. Awww.

The cheftestants arrive for the quickfire challenge and this week the guest judge is Rocco DiSpirito, who was on last season. (How come he’s back already and we haven’t seen Ted Allen yet?) EU Fabio disses Rocco for being Italian, but not a real Italian like him, which I don’t really know what that means but I guess Italians don’t consider Italians born in the United States as real Italians, capiche?

Padma says Rocco’s most likely surgically altered face is one of the most recognizable in the culinary world, so he needs no introduction so let’s just get on to the challenge. The cheftestants have to come up with a breakfast amuse bouche, which sounds odd considering how people barely have time to make breakfast itself, let alone a little tasting of what’s to come. Rocco throws in that he loves bacon, and Padma says who doesn’t? And I have to say, I like it but don’t love it because it can be salty and greasy, so, yeah, I’m one of those who doesn’t, so there.

They have 30 minutes and off they go, with EU Stefan busting out a special device to cut off the top of eggs perfectly. Eugene is cutting up bacon (ass kisser) and Daniel is working with corn flakes and zucchini flowers. EU Fabio says breakfast in Italy (again with the Italy, we know already, you’re Italian!) doesn’t really consist of bacon and eggs but typically just something sweet like a brioche and cappuccino. Ah, the breakfast of champions!

So everyone is working mostly with eggs, and I’m starting to notice that some of these don’t really look like an amuse, which is really a small tasting —often just one bite— to start your meal. And even Leah agrees with me, as she notes that some of her counterparts are really just making mini breakfast dishes. But bring on the tasting!

Rocco and Padma go around, and among the highlights is Rocco loves EU Stefan’s heuvos ranchos breakfast inside an egg. And while I like the idea, I think the whole presentation of an amuse in an egg shell is so 1980s, but Padma and Rocco seem impressed.

Jamie did a spin on a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich but with an egg on top, and it actually looks a lot like what Leah made, except Leah used a quail egg and hers is more an amuse bouche size compared to Jamie’s mini bite.

Rocco didn’t like Daniel’s cornflake-battered zucchini flowers, saying it was too sweet. He also didn’t like Fabio’s, which was like a miniature dessert plate. He did like Stefan’s egg thing and Leah’s and Jamie’s competing mini egg sandwiches. He ultimate goes with Leah, which really burns Jamie up because she’s all like, “well Leah won it last week. That’s not fair.” Hmm, I didn’t realize there was a rule saying you can’t win immunity back-to-back. While Jamie’s festering in rainbow colors, Rocco gives Leah a copy of his latest book “Rocco Gets Real.” OK, how much do you want to bet Rocco’s number is hand-written inside?

Elimination challenge. Padma says it’s important to raise their chef’s profile so people will know them and what to eat their food. So they have to come up with a 2 ½ -minute food demo for a live TV audience, although not really live and not a real audience. But it’s going to be just 2 ½ minutes, dang it. Leah is scared of TV and live demos so she’s already thanking the Top Chef kitchen gods for giving her immunity yet again.

Commercials. Wow, two car commercials. And not one of them is an American brand.

The cheftestants do their run at Whole Foods with Fabio going straight for tuna. How do you say predictable in Italian? He goes behind the fish counter to cut himself a block of the tuna, which I think is kind of arrogant. Oh, wait, Hosea and Eugene do the same thing. Did they all once work as fishmongers or something? Oh, Eugene is bustin’ out the Hawaii pidgin’ talk already with the ‘brah that he says to the Whole Foods guy, who’s probably thinking, dude, go catch a wave or something.

Alex is the only one planning a dessert, which is a rose-infused crème brulee, which sounds delicious. But everyone’s saying he can’t do it in an hour, which is how much time they have to prep back at the Top Chef kitchen.

After a few more glimpse at what others are doing (Jamie’s doing a salad with duck egg, Radhika’s doing some sweet shrimp thing, Carla’s making tortilla soup, The Cougar is cutting up watermelon), Gail, Padma, Tom and Rocco waltz in and they set up a makeshift kitchen demo spot.

The judges act like talk show hosts huddled around the cheftestant and Gail is holding some kind of weird timer that looks more like a calculator. The Cougar is up first and she’s talking about being from New Jersey and making something with beef steak tomatoes. She serves it up with a quick basil oil and watermelon for a salad, and the judges seem to like it and she has 14 seconds to spare. Wow, I’m impressed. (Although, it’s not like it’s the first time anyone’s made a salad with watermelon.)

Jamie does a bitter green salad with duck egg and caviar and she’s feeling pretty confident, which is a sure sign of impending doom. Sure enough, the white around the yolk doesn’t really set in time but she still plates it up and forces the judges to try it with her salad.

Alex makes his dessert and Padma asks him about vanilla extract and he’s busy yakking and time runs out. They try his crème brulee and Gail’s shaking her head and Tom doesn’t look happy.

Jeff is making some Middle Eastern food called malfouf. You know what’s weird? When he’s doing his one-on-one interview and they put up his name, if you read really fast the name of the restaurant he came from, it looks like it reads Dildo Beach Club, but it’s really Dilido Beach Club. Come on, I bet I’m not the only one who noticed that.

Then the next few minutes they do quick cuts of the other cheftestants and it goes by pretty fast like they squeezed all the rest into 2 ½ minutes. The highlights include Daniel smoking up the joint, Eugene making sashimi and not really knowing the difference between that and sushi (sushi contains rice and sashimi doesn’t) and Melissa nearly killing all the judges with her habanero hot pepper soup.

The cheftestants are back in the stew room asking each other who ran out of time (almost all of them) and who thinks they’re leaving (Jamie, Alex, Melissa, Leah, and amazingly NOT The Cougar).

The judges talk about the demo and Rocco is especially harsh, I think. He definitely didn’t like the raw egg in Jamie’s demo or Carla’s nervous energy. Gail likes Daniel’s charm, but Tom thinks he’s a goofball. Rocco is having a wet dream over Fabio, saying he’s the perfect TV guest, but all the girls agree The Cougar knocked it out of the park with her watermelon salad.

Padma comes in to get the bottom three — Melissa, Alex and Jamie — and then the top three — Jeff the Hair, Fabio and The Cougar. There’s a noticeable gasp when Padma named Ariane as one of the top three.

Instead of going to the judge’s table, they go home because apparently it’s too late and they’ll pick it up tomorrow. The chefestants do more talking about how badly they did, except for Jamie who’s crying herself to sleep. Meanwhile, Alex is saying how some people “pussy-ied out” and did something easy like salad, which doesn’t sit well with The Cougar. Leah tells Melissa that she has to fight for herself and I just keep thinking, doesn’t Melissa look like a young Daryl Hannah?
They go to bed, and then we see Chef Tom arriving at what the editors tell us is 2 a.m. He goes to get The Cougar, Jeff the Hair and EU Fabio. Of course, they’re not happy since they probably only went to bed just two hours ago. They’re whisked away to a restaurant next to the NBC Today Show studios. So not only don’t they get to sleep, but they have to cook early in the morning.

Chef Tom tells them that the Today Show hosts will taste the finalists’ dishes and then choose the winner live on the air. EU Fabio is excited, except I don’t think he realizes that he’s not going on air, just his dish.

Bianca, the food stylist for the Today show (I want her job!) tells them to put their food on the cart and she takes them to the green room. Back at the homestead, Eugene wakes up and notices the three of them missing. Gosh, imagine if they were actually kidnapped, all the cheftestants would sleep right through it. Anywho, the others wake up and they see a big screen TV set up in the living room, which makes me sad to think that they normally don’t have access to a TV. (I can’t imagine living for weeks without one.)

They turn on the TV and see the crowds at the Today show and everyone’s jealous. Again, I don’t think they realize that none of the three will be on TV, but whatev. On air, we have what kind of looks like the ladies at The View, but its Meredith Vieira (wait, she was on The View), a very pregnant Natalie Morales (I heard it was twins), Hoda Cotb, and Kathie Lee Gifford (sans Regis). Chef Tom is with them to feed them the three dishes.

They start by eating The Cougar’s watermelon salad. Meredith hates watermelon, which I don’t get. Next is Fabio’s seared tuna, which they don’t say much, and then Jeff the Hair’s dishes, and all the ladies look confused about what they’re eating. Then Kathie Lee has to go spit her out, which is probably not the first time she’s done that.

Then the four morning show hosts huddle and I’m thinking, this is probably the most boring live television segment to watch, and they choose what they call the most original dish and that’s the watermelon salad. The Cougar screams in the green room (and Jeff the Hair generally looks happy for her) while Carla is screaming just as much back at the condo — maybe because she feels a mystical connection with Ariane.

Back at judge’s table, the top three reassembles, which doesn’t make sense because we already know The Cougar won the challenge. But we get to hear from Padma that Ariane will demo her dish live Thursday morning (I didn’t watch it but I’m sure YouTube has it) and Rocco gives her a thoughtful gift, actually, of hand-selected chef’s tools. Aww, he is sweet in that publicity-seeking-I-only-wear-designer-jeans kind of way.

In walks the bottom three cheftestants. Padma gives each of them a chance to talk about what went wrong, and Melissa says she tried her spicy soup, which Rocco doubts because he says it was inedible. Jamie says she got frazzled by the time, and Alex says he wanted to be different with his dessert choice. Then Melissa channels her inner Leah and tells the panel that “I want to be here. I really want to be here.”

The judges deliberate with Rocco saying all three dishes were inedible (I think that’s his favorite word). He also said Jamie shutdown, which is not good for a publicity-seeking celebrity chef. Back in the stew room, Melissa is going around telling anyone who will listen to her that “I want to be here, I really want to be here” and Alex asks Jamie if Melissa’s throwing him under the bus, and Jamie says yeah, and he says “that’s fucked up.” (But of course, I spelled it out while Bravo spelled it f - - ked up. I played hang man, you know.)

Commercials. Oh, we get another one of those out-of-the-blue snippets and I can’t tell if this is happening in this episode or in the future but it’s the continuation of the sexual dance between Hosea and Leah and this time Hosea grabs a red marker and writes on Leah’s leg “I (heart) H.” If this was Melissa, that would mean “I love Habanero.”

Judgment time. Tom says they thought the challenge was straightforward, but of course it wasn’t. He gives a recap of why they suck — Melissa … spicy, Alex … wrong dish, Jamie … raw egg. Then Padma sends Alex packing. Back in the stew room as everyone commiserates with hugs, Hosea whispers to Melissa he’s glad she’s still here. Hey, what about Leah? The cheat.

Alex says he should have stuck to his guns, which I’m not quite sure where they were pointing, and says you have to give 100 percent when on Top Chef, but he has a fiancé and a wedding in 20 days to think about so he only could give 87 percent, if even.

Next week: Gail comes flying in and announces that the cheftestants all have to cook at her bridal shower. Wow, talk about free labor. First, Chef Colicchio gets them to work at their restaurant, now free catering for Gail. What? Is Padma going to have the cheftestants stuff and mail out her cookbook, “Tangy, Tart, Hot & Sweet”? Geesh.

“Top Chef: New York” airs every Wednesday at 10 p.m. (9 p.m. Central) on Bravo TV. Photos courtesy of Bravo TV’s Web site.

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Dish on Dining: Limón Peruvian Rotisserie

Classy Take on Home-style Peruvian Food
1001 South Van Ness Ave. (at 21st Street), San Francisco
Mission neighborhood
PH: 415.821.2134
Open daily, noon to 10 p.m. (until 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays)
Major credit cards accepted, walk-in only
Limonrotisserie.com

Sometimes it pays to be a Single Guy dining out.

Awhile back I visited Limón Peruvian Rotisserie on the edge of the Mission on a Friday night, so of course it was packed. But I spotted the last single seat at the bar and quickly nabbed it.

The fairly new Limón Rotisserie is a smaller version of Limón on Valencia Street—a popular Peruvian restaurant and my go-to place for ceviche (the Latin riff on raw fish). When it closed in October because of a fire, I was devastated.

But Limón’s flames never died, in a way. Chef Martin Castillo and his brother opened this offshoot on Van Ness Avenue, focusing on fiery rotisserie items and a few cold dishes. They continue to refurbish their flagship restaurant, and Limón, thankfully, is scheduled to reopen this month.

It may have some competition from its sibling because the rotisserie seems to have caught on with the neighborhood because of its low prices and quality food.

The menu is limited to a few ceviches, other cold dishes and a few hot dishes—all in the small-plate format. Rotisserie chicken is sold whole, half or quarter with choices of sides. The same menu is served for lunch and dinner.

As Missionites circled around me with their glasses of sangria (a bit too sweet for my tastes), I started with the Ceviche Mixto ($9.25). It was a mix of halibut, octopus, shrimp and calamari simply tossed in lime juice and chilies. It’s served with roasted corn nuts and the Peruvian corn, choclo.

It was refreshing and exactly like how Chef Castillo makes it at the main restaurant. (I actually prefer his cream ceviche but that’s not offered at Limón Rotisserie.) Some people might find it a bit too tart, but that’s where the crunchy corn nuts come in. The slice of choclo still on the cob looks like corn on steroids, but tastes more like kernels of starchy white yam.

The guy sitting next to me was raving about the Tuna Tartar ($7.25) so I got an order of that. I have to say, I’m not a big tartar kind of guy so I wasn’t really blown away. The tuna tasted fresh, but the tartar preparation gave it a muddied texture (I guess the chef was trying to simulate raw beef). And unfortunately on this night, the accompanying chips on the side were stale.

On the hot side, I got a plate of the Chicharron de Pollo ($7.25), which is a dish of pan-fried chicken nuggets that surprised me. The nuggets—marinated in orange juice, soy sauce and peppers—had an umami-like crispy exterior and a warm, tender meat inside. I could eat a whole plate of it.

Side note: Chef Castillo can be seen on most nights at the prep counter, expediting dishes like how Tom Colicchio did on a recent episode of Top Chef. Beyond Chef Castillo you can see the various cooks firing up dishes (and I mean that literally because those flames were flying high). On this Friday night, the wait staff seemed a bit overwhelmed, but the diners didn’t seem to mind, even those still waiting for tables.

While most plates are small (including a small version of the traditional marinated beef dish, lomo saltado) the desserts can be downright huge. Just take a gander at my Tarta de Crema Chantilly ($6.50), which is a slice of cake dripping in custard-like cream sauce, powdered sugar and fresh fruits. This dessert was good, but not exquisite. It was more filling than tasty, but still worth the price.

I enjoyed the food so much that I felt bad that the dim lights of this hot spot didn’t allow me to really showcase the food. So I returned a week later for lunch on a bright, sunny Saturday.

The restaurant was quieter than at night, but it eventually started to fill out. I got a seat at a table by the window so I could photograph the food, including my starter dish of the Aquadito de Pollo ($5.25), a Peruvian chicken soup that was warm and comforting, with chunks of tender white chicken meat and a slight spicy undertone from the peppers. The broth was soothing on a cold day and I could probably have just had this for lunch and be satisfied.

But I decided to try the rotisserie chicken, ordering the quarter portion ($7.25). With each order, you get your choice of two sides, which includes a green salad, yucca fritas, tacu tacu, stir-fried vegetables, and papas fritas. I got the stir-fried vegetables and the tacu tacu, which is a type of bean-and-rice cake.

The chicken is also served with a few dipping sauces, which looked pretty but I actually didn’t even bother to use. The chicken itself was tender and juicy enough on its own. My only complaint might be that it may be a wee bit too salty. But I simply balanced it with the tacu tacu, which is the first time I’ve eaten this rice cake that’s almost like leftover risotto that’s been pan-fried.

The cake held together, maybe from a bean paste, and was a nice tasty base for the chicken. The vegetables, which were prepared in the style of how they make the lomo saltado, was OK but seemed a bit overwhelmed by the saltado-like marinade. (Plus the wax beans I had were too al dente.)

Limón Rotisserie is a pleasant little spot with a tiny menu executed well by the kitchen, but the menu seems so limited that I wonder if one would still be excited about the food after several visits? Unlike the main restaurant where the offerings are more diverse, the limited menu makes Limón Rotisserie a nice place for a low-priced, quick dinner or nice lunch. But I’m looking forward to the reopening of Limón, where Chef Castillo’s talents can be displayed on a bigger canvas.

Single guy rating: 3.75 stars (Fire-roasted fun)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

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Travel Dish: Axel Kitchen (Buenos Aires)

This is part of a series of reports recapping my October trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Check back next week Monday and Tuesday for my final two posts on my food adventures in this South American metropolitan city.

A Quiet Evening Near Home Base
649 Venezuela (inside the Axel Hotel), Buenos Aires
San Telmo neighborhood
PH: 11/4136.9383
Open daily for lunch and dinner
Major credit cards accepted

BUENOS AIRES
One night I ventured out to try a hot new restaurant in the San Telmo district, and I was excited that it was just a few blocks from my hotel. But when I arrived, it was closed for a private event, and I was kicking myself for not carrying my list of restaurant options so I could hunt for an alternative.

It was also an unusually cold evening with blustery winds (another reason why I think it doesn’t make sense to be eating at midnight, but when in Rome …). What I’m getting at is by the time I got back to my hotel, the Axel in San Telmo, I didn’t want to head back into the late evening cold and instead decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Axel Kitchen.

Generally I avoid hotel restaurants when traveling, but I was pleasantly surprised at my night in.

The Axel, where I stayed during the last weekend of my vacation, is a relatively new boutique hotel that caters to the gay clientele. So that means all the hotel staff are young, hip-looking Argentine men dressed in black. It wasn’t that different at the restaurant.

A floor beneath the restaurant is the hotel bar, Sky Bar, which was hosting a DJ event that evening, so pulsating dance music rippled through the hotel and I could see a big screen with flashes of images near the pool. The restaurant, however, was the complete opposite in mood. In fact, there was no one there except me and another couple.

I sat down and ordered a dry martini (I feel like James Bond when traveling) when my waiter brought out the ubiquitous bread basket. Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts about my Buenos Aires dining, restaurants always brought out a big basket of bread, which often contained rolls and breadsticks. But Axel’s presentation was more sophisticated, an indication of the level of dining ahead.

Along with the bread basket came a tray with a mousse in one dish (it tasted like salmon) and some extra virgin olive oil in the other. The extra virgin olive oil (from Mendoza, the country’s wine region) was refreshingly rich and flavorful, with the grassy undertones you find in quality oils.

The menu continued the sophisticated tone with a contemporary twist to Argentine cuisine. I started with the watercress salad with duck confit and creamy orange-citrus dressing (AR$20 or $6.90). The salad was huge (and people in Buenos Aires seem to like serving their salads in these clear cylindrical bowls) and there was a lot of duck meat. The duck was a bit on the bland side, but the overall salad was light and had clean flavors from the citrus dressing.

For my entrée, I ordered the Merluza Negra or Patagonian Toothfish (AR$66 or $22.80). This is actually a huge and toothy (kind of ugly looking) fish that is commonly known as Chilean sea bass back home in the States. Since I stopped eating Chilean sea bass because of sustainability issue, I gave myself an exception because I was eating it from the local source.

The fish, luckily, was just a filet and not the whole thing. It sat on a bed of wheat cereal with slices of chorizo. While the dish wasn’t very colorful (it was mostly brown), I enjoyed the light broth and the fish was cooked perfectly with some crispy skin still attached. I wasn’t a fan of the mote (a kind of wheat) although I did feel like I was eating very healthfully after days of grilled beef.

I finished the evening with the burnt caramel with passion fruit sorbet (AR$22 or $7.60). It was a very interesting presentation with the scoop of sorbet served in this tall stemware topped off with a lavender flower (my favorite). The burnt caramel was creamy and nice (although the flavor wasn’t necessarily extraordinary) and the sorbet was a refreshing complement (the plate was finished off with a drizzle of cilantro sauce).

The food at Axel Kitchen is subtle in taste, but exquisite in plating and sophistication. It seems that with so many eating options around town, many people probably bypass this hotel restaurant, which is a shame because it seems to be quite different than your typical hotel experience.

My hotel dinner was a pleasant and elegant detour from my original plans.

Single guy rating: 3.75 stars (sophisticated room service)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner

Bueno … life in BA
I always find it fascinating when you travel and see all the different ways people serve their food. One interesting element of dining in Buenos Aires that I discovered is that in some restaurants when you order a carbonated drink, they serve you the drink with your own seltzer bottle like the one you see above. I ordered a lemonade at this Italian restaurant. (The food was awful but I ate here out of desperation after hours of walking the town.) It was fun adding my own bubbles to my drink, although you have to be careful not to squeeze it too hard the first time. Believe me, I learned the hard way.

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23 Shopping Days Left

All this talk about Cyber Monday reminded me about my Amazon store. I've gathered some of my favorite things for foodies, and you might get some ideas for gifts as well. Just check out the items in the slideshow on the top right of this page (don't you like the bouncing effect?). Remember, when you click on the slideshow and get to Amazon, anything you buy will help my blog out. (Even if you end up buying something other than what I recommend.) I mean, I'm 98 percent done with my Christmas shopping with only one gift left to buy. So stick with me and maybe you'll finish your list early this year too. ;-)

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Home Cooking: A Conversation with Daniel Perlman of Casa Saltshaker

This is part of a series of reports recapping my recent trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Check back every Monday and Tuesday when I’ll be giving you a taste of my food adventures in this South American metropolitan city.

BUENOS AIRES
I got to do some interesting activities while in Buenos Aires, and one of them was attending a home-cooked dinner. It’s not like I was friends with the host. This was part of a regular weekly meal prepared by Dan Perlman, a former chef and wine sommelier in New York who moved to this city about four years ago.

Perlman started cooking meals for strangers at his apartment that he shares with his partner (in life and business), Henry. I read about his dinners, Casa Salt Shaker, when I was doing some research for my trip. I scoured Chowhound for recommendations for Buenos Aires restaurants, and I kept noticing that the sharpest comments came from this one particular poster. When I checked his profile, that’s when I discovered Perlman’s blog and read more about his unique dinners.

Of course, I booked myself for one of his dinners while I was in Buenos Aires, but I thought it would also be interesting to find out how a boy who grew up in Michigan and worked in the kitchens of New York City finds his way to welcoming strangers into his home in Buenos Aires.

The following are edited excerpts of our conversation.

Single Guy: How did you get into cooking?

Dan Perlman: I started actually as a teenager when I was 14, working in a neighbor’s restaurant in Michigan. I worked there all through high school — after school and on the weekends — and onto the start of college. Then I took time off from the culinary world and didn’t get back into it until I was living in New York five or six years later.

I’d always wanted to get back into it but just hadn’t figure out how to do what I wanted to do, and it just happened my grandmother died around that time and left each of us kids a decent amount of money — enough to pay for tuition for me and time off from working.

SG: I heard you worked with Tom Colicchio of Top Chef fame. When was that?

DP: I went to work for Tom Colicchio at his first New York restaurant, Mondrian. I started as an intern there and continued to work for him afterwards. From there I went to work at a Cajun-type restaurant in the West Village and worked my way up to sous chef there, then went to the Kitchen Club as a chef. The Kitchen Club was a Japanese-Dutch fusion restaurant.

SG: What did you think of Chef Colicchio?

DP: I like Tom Colicchio. This was his first New York restaurant so it was the only place he was working. I think he was 24, 25 years old at the time. It was his first shot as head chef. He’d actually come in to work with a different chef, Dennis Foy, and then I don’t know what happened between Dennis Foy and the owners but Dennis Foy left and Tom sort of stepped into the position. I don’t know if it was intended he be the head chef long term except that they got a review from Food and Wine Magazine that named him one of the 10 rising stars. So at that point, there was no question they were going to keep him. But the restaurant didn’t last very long; it was only opened a couple of years at the most.

SG: What was he like in the kitchen?

DP: Very intense. … One of the things I really liked about him was he had this really great power of, he could imagine how things would taste together, and he would put them together and they would taste the way he would imagined. And he likes to train people to do that. I think I’d gotten to the point where I could generally do that, not always, but in large part due to the training I got from him.

SG: So you left the kitchen and got your certification as a wine sommelier. How did you end up getting back into cooking?

DP: I was in the sommelier world and I basically continued to work in the wine world, but I did these monthly dinners during the time I lived in New York for about 10 years. People would come over once a month and there would be a big dinner party with six to eight people, just experimenting with food. … People would say, oh, you should do this professionally again.

SG: How did you wind up in Buenos Aires?

DP: Came down on vacation.

SG: Oh, so it’s one of those stories where you came on vacation and just fell in love with the place?

DP: Liked the city. Fell in love with Henry. I met Henry and we hit it off and I spent a couple of weeks down here. I went back to New York and we kept in touch. I was planning to leave New York at that point, thinking of going to Key West and opening a place. And I decided to take about six to eight weeks to come down here, to see if (Henry) and I still had something interesting, and then think about whether or not we could get him to come to the states or whatever. About that time was when the series of hurricanes kept hitting the Florida Keys so I thought, well, I’m not going there. So I just decided to stay here.

Perlman’s partner Henry is originally from Peru and had been living in Buenos Aires for more than 12 years when the two met. A quiet, soft-spoken man, Henry works with Perlman with the home dinners, serving primarily as the head server.

SG: Other than Henry, what else attracted you to Buenos Aires?

DP: It just felt comfortable from the time I arrived here. I liked the place.

SG: Did you already know how to speak Spanish?

DP: Nope. Just taco burrito and combo No. 1. That was about it. You know, just a little bit of kitchen Spanish just from being around New York restaurant kitchens. Enough to ask for a clean plate or some more ice, things like that. … I saw this as an opportunity to live somewhere overseas and as an opportunity to learn a language intensively.

SG: How soon after you moved here did you start doing the home dinners?

DP: It was close to eight or nine months. We’d gone to a few places that were doing restaurants in homes and really liked that idea and decided we could do something similar. And I thought about the dinners I used to do in New York and I thought let’s try that format and see if people like that, and it turns out that they did.

SG: Do you do this full time?

DP: It’s not full time. We do the dinners two to three times a week. But then I’m also a food and wine writer. We teach cooking classes here as well. I take people on food-related tours. Anything food and wine related.

SG: How would you describe your food?

DP: Good.

SG: Yes, I’m sure it is. But is it a particular type of cuisine? Are you influenced by any particular country?

DP: No. If you look at our Web site we do everything all over Europe, all over Asia, to Australia, to South and North America. We do everything. The only continent we haven’t hit yet is Antarctica. … There’s obviously going to be influences from the things I was trained primarily. It’s got some influences of working at a Japanese fusion restaurant. Every now and then a little bit of the Cajun stuff sneaks in. A lot of the presentation tends to come from working with Tom (Colicchio). And the first restaurant I worked in back in Michigan was an Italian restaurant. But it’s a real mix. Tonight we’re doing Malaysian.

SG: So you have a theme for your dinners?

DP: Yeah, we pick a theme that often connects with the date. But the food’s not traditional. For example, nothing we’ll have tonight will be like what you’ll get at somebody’s house if you went to Malaysia. But the flavors and ideas are inspired by Malaysia.

For the dinner, Perlman prepares five courses and also offers a wine tasting to go with each course for an additional cost. At the Malaysian-themed dinner, we started with a Malaysian-inspired ceviche called umai, an Indian-influenced soup, an eggplant tart inspired by a Malaysian dish called tiyung belacan, fillets of white tuna in a sauce inspired by a dish called ikan tenggiri and finally dessert, which was simply slices of melon in a caramel-coconut sauce (loved the sauce!).

SG: Who typically comes to your dinners?

DP: It’s about 40 percent tourists and the rest split between Argentines and ex-pats from all over.

SG: And how do they hear about it?

DP: Word of mouth, searching the Internet. We don’t do any kind of advertising. At this point having been in business for three years, we’ve gotten written up in a bunch of places, different blogs refer to us, we’re in a couple of guidebooks now. … When we started out we were thinking of doing it once a month or once every two or three weeks at a time, and it built very quickly. Within six months we were doing it once a week and within another six months we were doing it twice a week.

Perlman’s home is in the Recoleta district, which is a really fun neighborhood close to the main shopping street and filled with a lot of little shops and cafés. In his house, he sets up two tables that can seat a total of 12 diners. On the night I went, everyone was from out of town and from the United States. So as a solo traveler, it was a fun evening talking to fellow travelers and listening to their discoveries in Buenos Aires.

At my table, there were three young recent college grads from Southern California, a nice couple from Chicago and newlyweds from outside Vegas. I also chatted with a couple from Los Angeles who travels often to Buenos Aires and has eaten at Casa Salt Shaker more than a few times.

SG: How do you handle issues like vegetarians?

DP: I look at the menu. Like when I sent you the response (confirming my reservations), I ask if there’s any dietary restrictions. There are times when I can’t do it. We had a dinner recently where four of the courses had meat in it. I think it was a Romanian dinner. I just said I wasn’t going to make four totally separate dishes. … I’m the only person doing the cooking. There’s no assistant or anything like that. It has to be something I can easily substitute. If it’s leaving a piece of steak off and putting a piece of fish or tofu or something, that’s easy. If it’s something that’s integral to the dish or stewed together, that’s not going to happen.

SG: So for those people do you just tell them not to show up?

DP: I just let them know, this is what I can do, this is what I can’t do. You make the decision. Some people still want to come and they’ll skip the course, and that’s fine. That’s their choice. As much as we can we try to accommodate people’s requests.

SG: Do you notice if the people who come to your dinners are certain types? Like are many of them real foodies?

DP: Not necessarily more food-oriented but more adventurous. I think it takes a certain spirit of adventure to go to somebody’s house in a country, especially for the tourists, to go somewhere where you don’t know what the language will be. There are nights where out of 12 people, 10 of them speak only Spanish. Then you get two people who speak only English. In general there are a few people who are bilingual, and other languages, too. We’ve had nights where we had French, German, Dutch, Turkish, whatever going on. Although I’d say English and Spanish are the most common.

SG: It must be fascinating meeting people from all over?

DP: It is. It’s fun for us. We get to meet new people from all over. A good number of people who’ve come have become friends. We have a lot of people who are regulars who live here and even some who are tourists who just come back often. We have a guy who comes down to Buenos Aires every year for three months. While he’s here for three months, he’s here every Friday night. He books it in advance. …

During the dinners, Perlman is tucked away in his kitchen preparing the courses. At the start of the evening, he holds a cocktail hour as people arrive and meet each other, then after a brief welcome, he’s back in the kitchen and stays there all night until after dessert. His partner, Henry, takes care of bringing out the courses and wine, and the guests are left to marvel at each course and talk about the meal and Buenos Aires.

SG: What do you think of Argentine cuisine?

DP: It depends what you’re looking at. If you’re looking at what most people think of which is the typical steak-salads-potato sort of stuff, it’s not that interesting. The beef is good, and who doesn’t like a real nice grilled steak that’s simply seasoned with salt and pepper and maybe a little steak sauce on the side? But there’s a lot more to Argentine cuisine. You’ve got Patagonian game dishes, and fish and shellfish dishes.

From the north you’ve got all sorts of stews and the different empanadas, most people think of empanadas as mostly steak and potatoes, but there’s a whole sort of mushrooms, lamb, spicy vegetable ones. It just depends what part of the country you’re talking about. So there’s a wide variety of cooking. You don’t see it all here in Buenos Aires. There are very few restaurants serving much in the way of northern Argentine cuisine.

SG: Is there a particular kind of approach to cooking that represents Argentine cuisine?

DP: Given that it’s heavily European influenced with the Italian and Spanish populations and English populations that are here, there are all those same techniques that we’re used to from straight-forward oven baking to sautéing to braising. There’s nothing really out there that’s what we would think of being different.

There are a lot of creative Argentine chefs here that are doing interesting stuff, ranging from being very creative about traditional dishes and creating modern versions of them, to those restaurants doing molecular movement cooking. I wouldn’t say it’s taking off, but there’s a local molecular gastronomy association that a lot of chefs belong to and a lot of home cooks take classes there.

SG: Do you ever think about opening your own restaurant?

DP: I think about it. Then I think about how easy and simple it is to do this by comparison. How much fewer headaches and how when I want to take two weeks off to go on vacation it’s not a problem.

SG: Many ex-pats moved here a few years ago because of the cheap cost of living, but with the recent inflation, I’ve read a lot of them are thinking of moving back.

DP: At one point I think that was a stupid reason for people to come here to live. I think it’s a perfectly valid reason to come here for vacation, even an extended vacation. Anybody who moved down here just for the cheap cost of living thinking it’ll stay that way given Argentina and any country’s history of economics, Argentina has had economic crisis before and they always have hyper inflation for the next five or 10 years until it gets back to a quote-un-quote normal level. …. I hear from people, it’s like they take it personally like it’s been done to them. It’s a recovering economy. The fact that their entire economy collapsed wasn’t done to make their life cheaper.

SG: How much longer do you think you’ll be living in Buenos Aires?

DP: No idea.

SG: Do you miss the United States?

DP: Not really. I miss things about it like the access to certain ingredients. It’s much easier now than it was a few years ago to find things. But a few years ago it was hard to find ingredients to do stuff. Now it’s gotten a lot easier. … then friends, family. It’s just a place to live.

It was a wonderful evening of tasting some excellent cooking without the stress of ordering in Spanish or struggling with explaining what I need from a confused server. I enjoyed my time at Casa Salt Shaker and meeting all the people who gathered to taste Perlman’s dishes.

Special thanks to Chef Perlman for letting me hangout as he prepared our dinner, and for a wonderful home-cooked meal!

If you’re in Buenos Aires and would like to learn more about Perlman’s home dinners, check out his blog at http://www.casasaltshaker.com/.

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