Barrio Chino

It's true that there are lots of items from home that you cannot find in Argentina - our unbelievably full luggage on the way back from the US can attest to that - but there is one place that seems to have more variety than anywhere else in Capital: China Town.

If you're looking for something, and you have exhausted all other options, venture on over to Barrio Chino - you may just find what you're looking for.

Barrio Chino is located in Belgrano, a little area that is (at the most) 4 blocks of stores, restaurants and kiosks.  Most of the grocery stores smell pretty foul.  Most of the kiosks have cheap toys and little knick-knacks that you don't really need.  All in all, pretty much what I think of when I imagine a China Town in the US.

I will say that the prices are far better than anything I've come across in my neighborhood, and the fish quality is regarded as the best in the city.  So, when I need to stock up on seafood, Barrio Chino is worth the trip.  My favorite shop is Casa China, Arribeños 2173, which is one of the few places that is open 7 days a week (most shops are closed on Monday).  They have remodeled within the last year or so, so the place is a bit more spacious and organized than before.  I prefer it because it is one of the cleaner markets that I have seen in China Town, especially the seafood department.  Don't get me wrong, it still smells weird and there are always flies in the summer months, but the preparations areas are clean and the staff is more or less friendly.

In the seafood department, if you're buying fish, you can purchase whole fish or have them filet the fish for you.  Salmon can be ordered with or without skin, the price goes up the "cleaner" you want the fish.

Here is the guy filleting my salmon order today:

 There are also lots of other seafood options to choose from as well, many of them are things I don't recognize.  If you are an adventurous chef who cooks mussels, whole squid, clams and snails, look no further than the seafood section...

Looking for feta cheese?  They've got it.  Soy milk (sweetened or unsweetened).  They've got it.  The only place I've been able to consistently find jalapeños - Casa China.

This has also been the sole source of our supply of soy sauce, coconut milk, rice noodles, rice vinegar, sesame seed oil, brown sugar (when I'm not making it myself), bags of uncooked frozen shrimp, lots of herbs and filo dough.  They also stock items you wouldn't expect in Asian food like salsa, peanut butter, cream cheese (used in most sushi here - so this is considered an Asian dish ingredient) and nuts, that are significantly cheaper to purchase in this area of town versus closer to home.

There are a few catches, most places are cash only, the is no delivery so you can only purchase what you can carry, and items are generally imported from Asia so you need to know what you're looking for - you may not recognize the label.  It's a great place to go for some key items, or just to peruse the aisles and see what goodies you can find.

The China Rose

Today I met a friend for lunch and a very fruitful shopping trip in Barrio Chino, the perfect outing for a hazy Tuesday afternoon. Barrio Chino, or Chinatown, in Buenos Aires is pretty small version of the Chinatown you may be used to in other big cities. It's 2 square blocks to be exact. This mini-barrio is located in Belgrano, right next to the Belgrano train station, and there are treasures to be discovered all over the place. There are little trinket shops all over the place, most of which are filled with cheap, Chinese-imported plastic junk; little waving cats or plastic beads, but sometimes they have hidden treasures.
I originally saw this style of tea cup at Sirop Folie, a cool little tea room across the way from Sirop the restaurant (which was also really liked). I loved that the mugs are perfect for loose leaf tea and then you can balance the leaf strainer on the mug lid - genius! I was really excited to find them available for purchase, not to mention the adorable patterns, blue and yellow, just like our kitchen, and blue and white, which my Grandmother once told me was timeless. There are plenty of other ceramic patterns as well, I thought they were a good mix of practical and gimmicky. Now I just need to buy some loose leaf tea. Moving on.

We stopped at China Rose - Mendoza 1689, Barrio Chino - for lunch, and it was surprisingly good. The restaurant is clean, nicely furnished and (very importantly for the 2 pregnant ladies) has really nice bathrooms. I've been to China Rose once before and it was good then too, so it seemed an appropriate place to go for a second visit. I am no expert, but the items I've had here were tasty, non-greasy and straightforward, basically, everything that I'm looking for when I order Chinese.

They offer a fixed price menu for lunch, either $28 or $32 pesos which gets you a drink, appetizer, entree and dessert or coffee. The entree items to choose from are pretty standard, rice or noodle dishes on the $28 peso list - chow mien, fried rice, etc and $32 pesos gets you a meat based dish - pineapple chicken, broccoli chicken and such. As an appetizer, we each ordered the veggie spring rolls which, hilariously, came on a plain white plate. No garnish, no sauce, just rolls. In fairness, there are sauces available on your table, it just looks funny having the spring rolls loose and moving all around your plate.

I ordered the chicken fried rice as my main dish, which is maybe my favorite item on any Chinese food menu and it didn't disappoint. My friend had the pineapple chicken, which was good but would have been better if it had come with a side of rice.

The coffee at the end of the meal was by far the worst thing I had, it was so bitter I couldn't stomach it. All in all it was a good meal and I'm happy to have a standard lunch spot for my China town adventures.

After lunch we went to the grocery store two doors down, the Oriental Asia Market, and picked up some cooking goodies, including quite a few seafood items. Bs.As. is not known for it's seafood, but if your looking for ingredients, Barrio Chino is known as the best place in town to purchase fish and other seafood items for a reasonable price. A word of warning, be ready for the smell, the markets have lots of open air seafood departments which make for a pretty smelly shopping experience.

Puratierra

3 de Febrero 1167, Belgrano, +54 (11) 4899 2007  - During our delightful evening at Casa SaltShaker, we asked our chef, Dan, to name his favorite restaurant in the city and the answer was Puratierra.  We waited for a chance to go with some restaurant savvy friends and that chance came last weekend.  We called on a Friday night for Saturday reservations and they had plenty of availability, especially for our requested 8pm dinner time.  We were the first ones to arrive, obviously, and the restaurant stayed empty until 9:30 or so when a stampede of people filled the place to capacity.

The restaurant looks to be a converted brownstone, with exposed brick accents and incredible lighting.  I loved every lighting piece in this place.  The tables were a little tightly spaced together, but the atmosphere was comfortable to converse over dinner.  The dining room has large windows to the kitchen, so you can enjoy watching the chefs work, while not having to battle with all of the kitchen noise.  Over the kitchen window is a large chalkboard that displays the night's specials. 

I wish I had taken photos of our food, each dish was a work of art.  We started with an amuse-bouche (my Top Chef phrase of the day) that was sent to our table by the chef, of diced vegetables and lengua (yeah, that's tongue) that was good, although I had trouble getting over the lengua part.  We ordered a small pizza and a roasted vegetable appetizer for our starters and they were the perfect size for four to share.  As a main entree, our friends ordered the squid ink linguine while Jon ordered the lomo (tenderloin, obviously, he has a new found obsession) and I had a chicken breast with potatoes.  All dishes were delicious, and as stated before, they could have been works of art.  We ordered specific entrees from the menu, but there is also an option to order a certain number of courses and have the chef decide what's best.  From what I remember, you can order anywhere from 3 to 9 courses, similar to the menu option we chose at Tegui.  This is a great option if your in the mood for an adventure, but as Jon and I still squirm when someone mentions sweetbreads, we are not quite ready for this type of experience.

We splurged and ordered dessert, although I don't think anyone really needed it.  We had an upside down apple tart that was delicious.  If you go to Puratierra, be sure to order a dessert, it was worth every bite.

This is definitely a special occasion place, the prices are higher than we spend on a weekend dinner.  if you have someone to impress, or are on a first date, this is a perfect place to go - it's impressive start to finish.

Coldplay!

Coldplay's tour brought them to Buenos Aires last night - huge bonus for us! They played at the River soccer stadium in Palermo, an outdoor stadium that looks alot like RFK in Washington, DC. We got tickets with our friends Juan and Sole and planned to meet them for dinner before the concert. Unfortunately for us, our bus got stuck in the worst traffic ever and a 30 minute trip turned into a 1.5 hour marathon bus ride to their house. We skipped dinner and had to run to the concert. We missed all 3 opening bands and got to the concert just in time to swallow a plain hamburger before they started playing. The concert was amazing - we had such a great time! According to Chris Martin, Buenos Aires is their favorite place to play. And I believe him.

It rained for a few minutes at the beginning of the concert, but considering that we virtually ran 1.5 miles to the stadium, it was kind of nice to get cooled off.
Coldplay is awesome for many reasons, but I like them even more now because they gave our copies of a live album as we left the arena. It was like a little present at the end of the night - and I LOVE presents! After the concert we grabbed some much needed dinner at Marshall in Belgrano. We were dying of thirst and pretty hungry, so it was lucky for us the service was quick with regard to drinks. The food was good, I got a Caesar Salad (something that you don't find much around here) and Jon got beef milanesa with mashed potatoes. Overall it was a good meal, with a few hiccups in the service; forgotten dishes, incorrect orders and the waiter went MIA more than once. I would go back but earlier next time, by the time we left dinner it was 1:30am, so I'm thinking that our waiter just needed some sleep.

The adventurous part of the night came when we were trying to get a cab. Even though the concert let out at 11:15pm, the streets were still lined with people looking for rides home when we left dinner. The only empty cab that we could find had a moron driver that tried to rob us by charging over six times the fare that we should have been charged - we didn't take the bait. There have not been many times that we have missed owning a car here, but this night was one of those times. We are lucky enough to have amazing friends here and Juan drove us home at 2:30 am - he was our hero. A very fun, and very long, night - we slept like babies.