Macondo

Occasion: Huijin's birthday dinner, with Yining and Melissa
Location: Macondo, on E Houston and Allen (macondonyc.com)
Edibles: clam ceviche; chorizo and shrimp; pork belly flatbread; mofongo de pulpo (mashed plantains and octopus), feijoada (a Portuguese stew) and duck tacos; two desserts to share - chocolate cake filled with dulce de leche and French toast stuffed with lemon cream cheese

Musings: I've passed this place a hundred times and never felt the urge to go in. That sign, maybe - it just looks cheesy.

But now that I've been, I'm definitely going back. The reason? Their awesome and totally addictive pork belly flatbread with tomatoes, lima beans and mahon cheese. It's super crispy and savory... just wonderful. If we hadn't ordered so much other food, I'd've insisted we get another one.

If the flatbread was the winner of the table, the feijoada was the loser. It was a special, not on the regular menu. One of the most expensive dishes of the meal at $15, the stew just sort of muddy and didn't have any depth or pizzazz.

Everything else was tasty. The portion on the duck tacos is perhaps a bit small and hard to share, but they were delicious. I also really liked the clam ceviche. Very refreshing, and it's a generous serving.

The French toast dessert (torrija) is HUGE - even with four of us eating it, we barely made a dent. Both it and the chocolate cake (brazo de gitano) were very, very sweet. I personally would have had trouble finishing a whole dessert by myself but it was great to have just a few bites.

With a round of cocktails, tons of great food and two shared desserts, our dinner came out to a very reasonable $40 per person including tip and tax.

Libertador

Occasion: Cinco de Mayo! Dinner with Brigid after an Opera Hispanica showcase.
Location: Libertador on Second and 89th
Edibles: chicken, beef and spinach empanadas; skirt steak

Musings: All the Mexican places were crazy packed, natch. We were too hungry to wait out the crowds and so ended up at Libertador, figuring that Argentinean was sort of in the ballpark.

It had been a long and frazzling day, so I took full advantage of their fantastic half price Cinco de Mayo drink specials. (I think they offer the awesome prices for regular happy hour too.) I had something that tasted like boozy Welch's grape juice and then their sangria. Both packed quite a punch. I like a bartender who pours generous.

Good empanadas. I liked the beef the best; Brigid liked the spinach. But all were yummy.

We sat at the bar around the grill, and watched quite the parade of sizzling meats before our dish came up. By that time, I was positively drooling and pretty much dove in headfirst. Awesome skirt steak with some nice garlicky fries on the side. Not cheap but so very, very good. Meat-tooth happy.

I'll definitely be back. I've been looking for another restaurant within walking distance of Brandy's for ages!

Social Eatz

Occasion: Lunch with Meredith and Mike, with lots of ex-Death Star crew
Location: Social Eatz on 53rd between 2nd and 3rd (socialeatz.com)
Edibles: I had the bulgogi burger and fries, and a bite of Meredith's spring rolls and chop salad

Musings: Social Eatz is the new eatery of Top Chef Season 7 finalist Angelo Sosa. It's Asian fusion - not exactly a shocker for anyone who's seen Angelo cook on TV. But I actually like the concept here - Asian-inspired burgers, tacos, etc. Casual streetfood, in a yuppie diner setting. The menu's got some cheeky, fun items like the Imperialist Hot Dog, and some cringingly pretentious ones like the Chili-Kissed Tilapia Tacos.

The shrimp and chicken spring rolls were flavorful, but surprisingly heavy considering the ingredients. The chop salad not a hit with the table - it's a tiny little portion, and the so-called six minute egg was barely cooked long enough to hold together. Meredith rightly avoided the egg; the runny yolk would have completely drowned the small amount of lettuce.

I got the bulgogi burger with a side of fries. First of all, potatoes are dirt cheap, Angelo - your burgers should come with fries. Second, my burger was way underdone. I mean, it was literally half raw. Not rare. Raw. I practically like my steaks still mooing, but that burger was on the borderline of what I'd eat (v. what I'd send back and ask them to cook longer). Another person in our group left her burger patty half uneaten for the same reason. So please ask your diners how they like their burgers.

That said, I think the concepts of the bulgogi burger, bibimbap burger and Korean taco are genius. I love the salt-sweet flavor of the beef, accented by the tart bite of the pickles. I'd come back to try those latter two.

Mmmm... steak fajitas

Occasion: Movie Night (The Cutting Edge - how's that for craptastic?) at Mike and Gerald's

Steak Fajitas

I based the marinade for the steak on Tyler Florence's (original recipe here) - I feel like that justifies using his glamour shot.

Steak Marinade:

juice of 1 orange

juice of 2 limes

2 tbsp adobo sauce

a fistful of chopped cilantro
a good glug of olive oil
1 tsp cumin

salt & pepper

Marinate the steak for about an hour. No more than two - there's too much acid in this marinade to let it sit overnight.

Traditionally, you'd use flank steak or skirt steak but since I don't have any experience cooking those notoriously finicky cuts, I went with ribeye. Which is fine, except that ribeyes are much thicker and the marinade will not penetrate as well. (You can compensate for that when you cook it.)

For cooking the meat, I'd recommend a good sear at high temp for color (and flavor). Rest for 10 min. and slice. If you've used a thick steak like I did, try giving it a quick stir-fry with some more adobo sauce or reduced marinade. (Note: normally, you would throw out a marinade you used with raw meat. But it's safe to use if you bring it to a boil and cook it through, so to speak.)

Serve with sautéed onions and peppers, on warmed flour or corn tortillas. Sour cream, guac and salsa to garnish.

Salsa

I also made a tomato-corn salsa, based on a Martha recipe (original here). It's just 1 ear of fresh corn, de-cobbed and sautéed in butter, and one or two tomatoes, de-seeded and chopped. Dressing with red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. I also threw in some chopped cilantro, because I just love the stuff.

Guacamole

I made some standard guacamole. You know the drill - avocado, tomato, red onion, cilantro, jalapeño, salt and pepper.

On the avocados: Don't expect to buy avocados from a grocery store and make guacamole that day. They will be underripe. In a pinch, you can sometimes get ripe ones from those little outdoor fruit stands. I had the boys get the avocados two days earlier and leave them out at room temp to soften. But even then there was one that stayed waxy and hard and couldn't be used. The avocado has to be pretty mushy to make good guacamole, in my opinion.

Some ideas for leftover steak and veggies: Make quesadillas. Do a makeshift pasta puttanesca with some olives, or a chicken cacciatore. Make a frittata or omelet. Throw in some Asian sauce (hoisin, bbq or sriracha) and make a stir-fry to serve with rice. Throw together a hearty lunch salad with some greens. It's all good.

Pio Pio

Occasion: Strategy session at Kathy's, with special consultants Atticus and Yining
Location: takeout from Pio Pio on 34th between 2nd and 3rd (piopionyc.com)
Edibles: rotisserie chicken, avocado salad and saffron rice

Musings: Pio Pio roasts a kick-ass chicken, full stop. It's seriously some finger-lickin' good stuff. My brother gets takeout from them all the time, and I can always smell those spices as soon as I walk in the door. (Whereupon I follow my nose and confiscate a piece or two. Older sister's prerogative.)

An entire chicken will run you $10, just slightly more than a grocery store rotisserie chicken and leagues better. With two of their generously portioned sides, a meal for four comes in at around $5 a head - which is cheaper than McDonald's. Can't beat that.

Endless Summer

Location: Bedford and N 6th St in Williamsburg (endlesssummertacos.com)

Winnie and I passed this truck on our way to The Yarn Tree for craft supplies. I noticed: 1) a delicious meaty scent in the air; 2) lots of people waiting in line. Both promising signs of good eats. On the way back, I campaigned hard for a snack break.

I tried a beef taco and a pork taco, and both were lovely. They're garnished with a white sauce and a green sauce (thinned-out sour cream and tomatillo, respectively, I think), a few slices of radish and a wedge of lime. Winnie thought the beef was a smidge dry, but I hardly noticed it under all the sauce and lime juice. The corn tortillas were wonderfully fragrant and pliable. You get two per taco, and you could conceivably refashion two smaller tacos for daintier eating if you were not standing at a streetcorner, as we were. Or you can just stuff them in your face as-is - I can say from personal experience that it works just fine.

$2.50 for the pork, $3.00 for the beef. Another reason to venture out into the hinterlands...

Diego Felix NYC Dinner

Occasion: A private dinner cooked by Diego Felix. Elizabeth co-hosted, and our fellow diners were Jessica and Davinder, Bindi and Eric, Mamie, Brigid, Yining and Summer Brother as a last minute replacement for Jill.
Location: my place
Edibles:

Musings: Diego is the Real Deal. I am more obsessed with him than ever after seeing him in action. The man at work:

He was so happy about the fish, he kept exclaiming about its freshness, stroking it fondly, and holding filets up for anyone nearby to sniff. It was adorable.

Putting the finishing touches on the huancaina sauce. Sanra told me that in Argentina they use a locally produced cheese sold as feta. The feta in New York is more authentically Greek, and is consequently much stronger and saltier than the recipe calls for. When in the US, they substitute a queso fresco.

Looking for a place to stash the roasted veg.

Closeup of the veg. How gorgeous is that?!

The rest of the Colectivo: Sanra and her sisters. Diego explained that when they're on the road (mostly stateside to visit with Sanra's California-based family), he likes to think of their various adventures as the "Colectivo Felix." The Casa is in Argentina, and it's a separate endeavor for him. (If you're in Buenos Aires, I highly encourage you to experience Diego in his natural habitat - Casa Felix.)

The dinner was amazing. My favorite course was the app - that ceviche blew my mind. I think this is how he did it. (There were so many things going on, I could hardly keep track!) Plunge the seafood very briefly in boiling water; immediately remove to an ice bath to stop the cooking (a.k.a. blanch and shock it). Julienne some red onion; keep it and the seafood in ice water until needed. Dress with lime juice just before service (presumably to keep the acid from overcooking the delicate seafood). This method departs somewhat from the traditional way to make ceviche - that is, adding acid to raw fish, and using it to chemically "cook" the fish. I will definitely be attempting to replicate it sometime soon.

The shrimp, scallops and fish (trimmings from the fish filets in the main course) were all incredibly plump and moist and flavorful. A really refreshing dish for the weather. Just awesome.

Diego also served us each a shot of the savory, puckery ceviche liquid. He claimed it's a South American hangover cure, and I believe it.

The main was a quinoa-crusted blackfish on a bed of roasted vegetables. Although yummy to be sure, I thought the crust on the fish could have been crisper, and found the Malbec-berry sauce a tad sweet.

The chocolate-covered alfajores for dessert were just decadent. Chocolate, cookies, dulce de leche - you had me at hello. We also got to try some Argentinean dessert wine (late harvest Torrontés) and mate.

For me, the best part about the dinner was getting to watch the magic happen. It was like peeking into a restaurant kitchen, but also surprisingly like the controlled choas of my family's kitchen when we're doing holiday meals - chatty, messy, fifteen things going on simultaneously, spoons stuck in people's faces for tasting.

This meal was as good a representation of my food philosophy as any: techinque but no fuss; local, seasonal ingredients; unbridled passion and enthusiasm for food; friends and family to share it. Thanks to all the participants - hope everyone had a great time!

Boca Chica

Occasion: Liz in town from Brussels!
Location: Boca Chica on the corner of 1st and 1st (a.k.a. the nexus of the universe)
Edibles: avocado salad and skirt steak chimichurri for me (didn't really taste anyone else's food since I was enjoying my own so much)

Musings: We ended up here after Lil' Frankie's got pissy about the logistics of our large party (I mean, come on. It's New York - people are always coming late or leaving early.)

I was completely frazzled from dashing all over town on errands and traversing nearly the entire length of Manhattan to get to dinner (yes, I was one of the guilty late ones!) so the prompt service on my passionfruit margarita was a good start. They also had tasty thick-cut plantain chips on the table to munch on instead of the usual stale tortilla chips.

The $5 avocado salad was nothing special - basically half an avocado, sliced and fanned out, dunked in vinaigrette and plopped on a little side plate with some pickled onions. Either the price or the presentation could use some rethinking. They were redeemed by the skirt steak, which was tender, flavorful and perfectly cooked. The chimichurri was fresh and bold, if a bit overloaded with garlic. The enormous plate with sides of rice, beans, and a delightful coleslaw-like salad of cabbage with cilantro and tomatoes, was a very reasonable $17.50. Plenty for two to share, even by my meat-tooth standards.

I remember Jana liked her dish (something porky?) and Shana and her husband were pleased with their food, while Liz was indifferent on her sandwich (the Cubano?). If I had to choose, I'd probably give the edge to nearby Molé's superb carnitas tacos. But if Molé's tiny dining room is full (or Lil' Frankie's is giving you attitude), Boca Chica is a great fall-back.

Manolo

Occasion: Lunch in San Telmo
Location: Manolo Restaurant on Bolívar and Cochabamba in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires
Edibles: a cold marinated eggplant dish and tortilla española for me; ham-and-cheese omelet for Elizabeth

Musings: Meh. Manolo is basically an Argentinean diner. Definitely not as nice as Time Out Buenos Aires would have you believe.

I sampled the local beer, Quilmes, which was pretty good. The eggplant needed salt but the slippery coolness of it was delightful after all the morning's running around. My tortilla española was huge, if clumsily made and overcooked.

Elizabeth's omelet, on the other hand, was so runny in the middle that a moat of uncooked egg formed at the edges of the plate. After I pointed out that it wasn't melted cheese, she freaked out, thinking she'd get food poisoning and be miserable on the flight home. (Thankfully, she was okay.)

I was a little grumpy that they said they had free WiFi, but it didn't work. I had to bum a password from a guy staying at the hostel next door. Ahh, the kindness of strangers...

[Whew! Finally caught up on Argentina posts.]

Finca Adalgisa

Occasion: A quiet dinner at our boutique hotel
Location: Finca Adalgisa in Mendoza (fincaadalgisa.com.ar)
Edibles: informal tapas dinner - spicy artichoke hearts; goat cheese sampler; jamón; lots of bread and house wine

Musings: We stayed at two boutique hotels in Mendoza, Lares de Chacras and Finca Adalgisa. They were about five minutes apart, in a neighborhood that was basically a nice suburb. Of the two, I liked Lares de Chacras better - bigger, more charming room and cheaper rates - but Elizabeth liked Finca Adalgisa better for the atmosphere and food.

Finca Adalgisa is ostensibly on a vineyard, but that "vineyard" is a bunch of grapevines in the house's backyard. They make some table wine once every few years but mostly sell their grapes to real winemakers. While I enjoyed our stay, I thought their advertising bordered on fraudulent.

They do have a very lovely Greek-influenced sunroom where we spent a lazy evening nibbling on simple tapas and playing Scrabble (with a letter distribution based on Spanish - tricky). [Coincidentally, we ran into some guys who had been on the ferry with us to Colónia. They contribued their two cents on some disputed Scrabble words, but didn't help us much as they were split themselves. Later, I was vindicated by Merriam-Webster online.]

Las Negras

Occasion: Dinner on our first night in wine country
Location: Las Negras in Mendoza (lasnegrasrestaurant.com.ar - as listed on their business card, but the site was down when I tried it)
Edibles: I had three apps for my meal - the empanadas, followed by octopus, and beef carpaccio; Elizabeth had the chicken rollatini

Musings: A swanky but intimate restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. (It's a strange walk, though. Mendoza doesn't have many sidewalks so you're either on the side of the road like a hitchhiker or on the gravel shoulder, alarmingly close to the deep irrigation ditches.)

By this time in the trip, we were both getting a little glutted from our indulgent vacation meals. Instead of steak, I went with the carpaccio. (My version of light eating.)  They say the better the ingredients, the less you have to do to them. By this measure, Argentinean beef proves its mettle by being superb without any cooking at all. Subtle, buttery and coolly unctuous, I could have eaten this dish all day.

The other dishes were less exciting. They make their empanadas with a puff pastry, which I found too greasy. The empanadas also came out room temperature on the outside but burning hot in the middle, which made me suspect that they had been microwaved. Elizabeth's rollatini was slightly dry, but that's a pretty endemic problem with that technique.

The wine was cheap and excellent, no less than we expected based on the location.

Enfundá La Mandolina

Occasion: Dinner with Elizabeth
Location: Enfundá La Mandolina on Salguero in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires
Edibles: I had the mixed seafood plate (battered and deep-fried white fish, clams and baby octopus), followed by steak; Elizabeth had the pan relleno ("stuffed bread" with tomatoes and cheese), then a baked casserole dish I forget the name of

Musings: We tried this place on the recommendation of a guy who worked at our hotel. He told us it was "very authentic" and once there, I agreed. The place is low-key, dim and shabby-chic, and (major plus) had zero tourists other than us as far as I could tell. The downside is that the rather complicated menu is only in Spanish and the waiter's English was a bit spotty. However, he was very friendly, tried really hard to help us understand the dishes, and never gave off any hint of impatience.

I liked my app - the waiter's rec - a lot. The fish, in particular, was wonderful - piping hot, moist and flaky. The three dips that came with the dish were all distinct from each other and all very tasty. My steak was just average, by Argentinean standards. (Here three days and I'm already totally spoiled!) Elizabeth's pan relleno was sort of like a calzone, but one made with great market-fresh ingredients, and the portion was big enough to serve as a main.

While our dinner was very good, I had the feeling that there were really amazing dishes to be had if you could read the Spanish menu in detail or knew more about South American cuisine than I do. If I'd had a second chance to go, I would have just walked around the restaurant, shamelessly looking at other tables' food and ordered by pointing.

Mmmm... dulce de leche

Dulce de leche, or caramelized milk, is a real wonder. Strongly reminiscent of caramel sauce, dulce de leche has all the rich gooeyness of its sister confection, but a more complex flavor and sweetness. (Caramel owes all of its sweetness to sucrose, or table sugar, while dulce de leche takes advantage of the native lactose in milk.)

Put it on some toast and you've got yourself a breakfast of champions. YUM!!!


Dulce de Leche
(based on Alton's recipe - a video clip from Good Eats with the demo is available here)

1 quart milk
1 to 1½ cups sugar (I like it with just 1 cup; Alton's original recipe calls for 1½)
½ tsp baking soda
1 vanilla bean or ¼ tsp vanilla extract (not both)

Add the sugar to the milk and, while warming slowly, stir until all the sugar is dissolved. When the milk is just below a simmer, add the baking soda. If you're using a vanilla bean, split it and add it now. Keep the milk at a bare simmer and cook, uncovered, for 1 hour. Stir occasionally. It will gradually start to darken in color.

(You will need to fiddle a bit to find the right stove setting. Be careful not to let it bubble over - you'd be surprised how easily it can happen once the baking soda is in, even at low temp. I didn't keep a close enough eye on my first batch and the result was edible, but had a grainy texture. Also, don't worry about the foam that forms on top. Try to leave it as undisturbed as possible when you stir. If it really bothers you, you can skim it off.)

One hour in, remove the vanilla bean. Continue to simmer and stir for another 1½ to 2 hours, until the mixture had reduced to a quarter of its original volume. It should be a dark caramel color. If you're using vanilla extract, add it now and cook for just a few minutes to incorporate. Strain.

The dulce de leche is thin in the pot but will thicken as it cools. Refrigerated, it will keep for about a month. As Alton says, "it will keep longer than it lasts, if you know what I mean."

Serving suggestions: The possibilities are practically endless. Off the top of my head, it would be great with Greek yogurt or cottage cheese. As a dip for sliced fresh fruit and biscotti. The Argentineans use it to fill cookies called alfajores. You can use it to make homemade dulce de leche ice-cream, or as a topping for store-bought ice-cream. Make a trifle with pound cake and whipped cream, maybe some toasted sliced almonds. Fill crêpes. The sky's the limit!

Bar Uriarte

Occasion: Dinner with Elizabeth
Location: Bar Uriarte on Uriarte in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (baruriarte.com.ar)
Edibles: burrata cheese with confit tomato app, followed by the skirt steak; Elizabeth had the white polenta and risotto croquettes (two separate dishes) to start and ordered the zucchini salad for her main but got a spinach one with apples, radish coins and avocado instead

Musings: A modern and trendy place with a Meatpacking sort of vibe.

The meal started off with a great selection of breads. Which we wolfed down, as it was 10:00pm. New Yorkers think they eat late, but they have nothing on Argentineans. As we were leaving, at well past 11:00, several tables were just sitting down to eat.

The first course was a home-run - Elizabeth loved her polenta and I practically swooned over my burrata, fresh, plump and serenely simple. It makes a certain amount of sense that a country so famous for its steak would also have really good dairy. The mains were a bit anticlimactic. There was a mix-up with Elizabeth's salad but she decided to just keep the one that came. My skirt steak was good, but got increasingly rubbery as it cooled.

Still, we continue to be impressed with the calibre of Buenos Aires' restaurants.

Las Familias bakery

Location: the corner of Armenia and Honduras in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires

I had a ham and cheese knot and a meat empanada (I think it was beef, with chopped-up hard-boiled eggs, olives and mushrooms). Awesome and dirt cheap at just 5 pesos (a little over a dollar) total. With a cup of overpriced coffee from Starbucks - purchased only to be able to sit at their outdoor tables, mind you - it was the perfect breakfast and prelude to an extended ramble in La Recoleta Cemetary.

[Note: I had empanadas three more times during the trip, including once in a fancy restaurant, and the ones from Las Familias were the best. If your hotel is nearby, I recommend picking some up for the plane ride home.]

Casa Felix

Occasion: A much-anticipated dinner
Location: Casa Felix - literally, Chef Diego Felix's house in the Chacarita neighborhood of Buenos Aires (diegofelix.com)
Edibles: mango pisco sour apéritif; first course - sautéed oyster mushrooms over lime mashed potatoes with argula flowers, suico sauce and chili-infused oil; second course - papaya and cucumber salad with a mandarin vinaigrette; intermezzo - apple and mint granita; main course - achiote-marinated sandperch with pea and fennel purée, broccolini and salsa criolla; dessert - coconut and lavender panna cotta

(Note: At some point, I will get around to uploading my pictures from the dinner. Until then, you can find pictures of Diego's gorgeous food - though not the exact stuff that we ate - here.)

Musings: Amazing. Amazing. Thanks go out to Sabrina for the rec!

The evening started with drinks in Diego's backyard. He showed us his herb garden, still in progress, and talked a little about his background and food philosophy. He spoke animatedly of his love for obscure local ingredients and his fascination with the indigenous cuisines of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. As it turned out, he'd just returned from an impromptu North American tour, where he cooked for private parties and supper clubs.

All the guests briefly introduced themselves. Everyone there had heard about place by word of mouth and Diego speculated that every guest could be traced back to one of his friends, the original guests of his home, now restaurant.

Eager to start tasting his creations, we all headed inside to our little tables in their living room. (When the weather is warmer, everyone sits together at the big table in their courtyard.) From the first course of his pescetarian tasting menu on, Diego surprised and challenged us with his dishes.

For example, I never thought cold mashed potatoes with lime would be good, but they were an amazing base for the oyster mushrooms in the first course. The edible flowers from his garden were a charming touch. I wasn't crazy about the slightly slimy manioc pancake in the second course but the salad was lovely, the citrus in the dressing picking up the lime note from the previous course. I think there was an accident with the intermezzo in the hall (all we heard was a loud crash with shattering glass), but they were still able to serve each of us a tiny scoop of the refreshing granita.

The sandperch main course was lovely, substantial and satisfying but still delicate enough to stay in line with the rest of the light menu. We finished the meal with vegan coconut panna cotta with lavender. Coconut makes me gag so I couldn't really evaluate this one objectively, but it was silky-smooth and I loved the crust. The lavender was perhaps a touch overpowering.

The bill was a ridiculously low 110 pesos (about $30). In my opinion, he could easily charge twice, if not three times, as much. Wine is extra, but as Argentina is a robust wine-producing country, the local selections were great and very reasonably priced.

I simply cannot recommend this place strongly enough. Diego's passion for fresh and modern food was evident in everything that came out of his kitchen. A truly spectacular dining experience.

Minga

(Munchings and Crunchings abroad! The first of our many wonderful meals in Argentina...)

Occasion: A first taste of Buenos Aires!
Location: Minga on Costa Rica in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires (mingaparrilla.com.ar)
Edibles: I had the ojo de bife (ribeye) with a side of spinach gratin; Elizabeth had a penne dish that I barely paid attention to, so focused was I on the luscious grilled meats being served all around me

Musings: Only a few hours in Buenos Aires and I was already champing at the bit for some steak. Elizabeth, who doesn't eat red meat at all, amiably let me pick our lunch spot.

When ordering, we tried to communicate the medium-rare doneness I wanted by using the Spanish words for "red" and "rose" but I guess it didn't translate. When my steak came, I gave it a quick prod with my fork and my heart sank when it barely gave at all. I sliced into it to confirm. The meat proved to be well-done, brown all the way through. Sacrilege, really.

I showed it to the waiter. My Lonely Planet guidebook helpfully supplied us with the word "jugoso" (juicy) to better describe what I was looking for. With a minimum of fuss, he whisked it away to be redone. A part of me winced to see an entire prime steak go to waste, but they really had cooked the bejeezus out of it.

Without being asked, our superlative waiter brought me a second skillet of spinach gratin with the new steak, as the original one was now cold. Full marks for service. Steak #2 was everything I had hoped for. Argentinean beef, famous for being free-range, grass-fed and really delicious, absolutely lived up to the hype. It was rich, tender, and had a robust gaminess that American steak generally does not. If you are a steak-lover, you need to get yourself to Argentina pronto. Oh, and did I mention that this steak cost about $10 USD?

All in all, a great start to our South American adventure!

El Parador

Occasion: Celebrating a Very Exciting Development with Yining (hers, not mine)
Location: El Parador on 34th between 1st and 2nd (elparadorcafe.com)
Edibles:  guacamole to start; we split the fish tacos and the ropa vieja (braised flank steak); tres leches cake for dessert

Musings: Pro: just a block away from my apartment and better than Qdoba. Con: not as good as Molé, and pretty expensive. The ropa vieja was definitely the better plate. The meat was very flavorful, juicy and tender. It came with a side of black beans, but went great with the rice that came with the fish tacos. The tacos were okay, nothing memorable. The fish really needed salt, and a lime wedge would have been nice too. The salsa on the side provided some zip in contrast to the blandness of the fish but it was too spicy for me to really slather it on.

[Note: Anne, who told us about the place, recommended the carnitas special but it wasn't on offer when we went.]

The cake. Oh my god. Way too rich for one person to finish - the "slice" was about 6 inches square - but SO GOOD. (Though the culinary snob in me noticed that their pastry chef burned the sugar he used for the cage decoration.)

Next time I come - and I'm sure there will be a next time, since it's so insidiously close to my apartment - I think I'll just get a margarita, guac and the cake.

Móle, part II

Occasion: Lunch with Yining, between the final two stops of Oktoberfest provisioning

Location: Móle on Allen between Houston and Stanton (molenyc.com)

Edibles: the carnitas tacos with all the fixings and the huevos con chorizo to share

Musings: I wasn't going to post on Móle again - but then I tasted the huevos con chorizo. A new yummy! They really do deserve a post of their own. [Note: You can read my praise for the carnitas tacos here.]

I thought the dish would be scrambled eggs with chunks of chorizo sausage in it, but it's more like the sausage meat was mixed with beaten eggs and fried. There's easily as much meat as egg. It made me a little nervous since chorizo is usually pretty aggressive, but the version that's in these eggs is mild and delicately spiced with cumin and paprika (I think). I wolfed down my portion straight up; Yining reported they're wonderful wrapped in corn tortillas too.

Mexican Radio

Occasion: Dinner with Kent

Location: Mexican Radio on obscure Cleveland Place between Spring and Kenmare (mexrad.com)

Edibles: carnitas plate for me; plantain relleños for Kent

Musings: Kent was craving his old neighborhood hangout, and I never need much convincing to try a new restaurant. The service and décor are pretty... well, rudimentary. But I was more than happy with my house margarita and my accurately named gigantic plate of shredded pork, served with tortillas, rice and beans.

I also bartered for a chunk of Kent's relleños. I love me some plantains, but have never seen them prepared this way. They were cheese-y and wonderful.

[Whew! What a busy weekend! I'm now finally caught up on my posts.]