Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Dear Osaka,



I anticipated visiting your Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant in Palermo Hollywood for months. I had heard rave reviews from several friends and was expecting one of my best meals in BA. Maybe because of these enormously high expectations I was disappointed. The pedestal upon which I had placed you was undeserved, and while I had a decent meal, it was certainly not deserving of the absolute praise so many have afforded you.

C and I had a 10:00 reservation and the place was hopping. People were moving in and out, and I think by the end of the meal, we had sat through about two table turnovers. The menu was enormous (literally), very awkward to look at sitting at the small table. Didn’t you test these? It had many items from sushi to tirrados, tapas to entrees, and we had no idea how much to order. I had a couple ideas of what I wanted, so we asked our waiter in broken Spanish how much would be appropriate. We settled on two sushi rolls, two tapas, and a ½ portion of two different kinds of tirrados. The waiter indicated that would be sufficient.

The first course arrived (not long after we ordered), little scallops in a sweet mustard sauce with crunchy bits of potato (?). This was probably the best dish of the meal. The presentation in large white spoons was lovely, and it was very good, although a bit over-salted. However, it did seem a bit large for a tapa, which is traditionally one or two bites and something to snack on. The idea of the large tapas (not “regular” tapas) was confirmed when our Thai shrimp arrived two bites into the scallops. It was huge! And it looked more like a shrimp stir-fry one would order at a Chinese restaurant instead of the elegant dish I had expected. It tasted okay, but not any better than the shrimp takeout my dad brings home from Oriental Gourmet.

The next dishes, the two sushi rolls and the two plates of Tirrado, came in rapid-fire succession. Our table was packed; there was no time between courses, no clearing of tables, no time to digest. This was probably the thing that irked me the most about your restaurant. I like to enjoy a meal, each element, take it slow and drink my wine. It was also embarrassing having so many plates on the table. We certainly did not know what we were getting into when we ordered.

As for the rest of the food, the Dos Salmons sushi was decent, but no better than at your average New York sushi joint. I suppose sushi is still a new phenomenon in Buenos Aires, something you have yet to perfect. Much of the sushi menu also included the words “tempura” and “Philadelphia” which shows the level of adventurousness in the average porteno sushi diet. The other roll, which was shrimp with Parmesan cheese on top was definitely off. The flavor profile was all wrong, cheese and sushi to do not mix! C despised this dish.

The Tirrados were decent, the sauces tasty and the fish fresh, but any Japanese person who saw that sauce diminishing the flavor of the fish would have thrown a conniption! , Mango on salmon may have been where you tried to work the Peruvian element in, but it didn’t really seem too Peruvian to me. Maybe I would have been better of trying the ceviche. It was really the only element where I saw anything Peruvian mentioned.

Well Osaka, I’m afraid the meal wasn’t all I expected it to be. While some might be awed by the rolls with big names and the giant (literally) menu, the food just didn’t show, and things were not as neatly pulled together as they should be at a restaurant with those prices. Luckily I was in good company, and we were able to joke about the seven plates piled on our table.

Sincerely, Sophy

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Casa Felix

All over Buenos Aires, Casa Cerradas, or “closed door” restaurants, are popping up to meet the need for a more personal dining experience. I was lucky enough to try one of these restaurants, “Casa Felix,” with C the other night while he was visiting. The restaurant is pescadarian, meaning no meat, and most of the meals are vegetable based. I was interested to try this drastic diversion from standard Argentine fare.

From the exterior, “Casa Felix” appears to be a normal house in the residential barrio of Almagro. The inside presents a fine and intimate dining experience. Before dinner the owner/cook Diego and his girlfriend/hostess Sandra gave us a tour of the whitewashed rooms and the lovely back garden. Diego grows his own indigenous herbs and emphasizes them in his cuisine. He had us smell and taste various plants he would be using in the dinner that night.

After drinking some Clerico in the back garden, we were escorted to the side patio where six little tables with white linens and candles were set – very romantic. Sandra handed us little menus on artisan paper as well as the handwritten wine list. It had some very interesting selections of whites, reds and bubblies, and we chose a bio-dynamically grown Torrontes from Salta. While waiting for the “botanic,” delicious homemade bread was served with what looked like an olive tapenade. Upon tasting, it turned out to be a terrific lentil spread that I could not stop myself from eating…until the first course.


And what a lovely first course it was! Halibut Tirado over Bolivian lime and burrito causa. A little swirl of halibut with a sweet pepper sauce, Peruvian mashed potatoes, and the sour burrito sauce on the bottom. The sweetness of the pepper with the sour lime and burrito was the highlight. All of the ingredients complemented each other fantastically, and I scooped up every last bit. The next course was called Sopa Paraguay, accompanied by an iris salad with lemon verbena dressing. The Sopa Paraguay was actually a moist corn cake topped with a peach salad. It was very well cooked, not dry and brittle like so many breads made with corn.

In between the first two courses, we were served a melon ice. It was not particularly exciting, and I think something more interesting could have been created. The main course, however, was a vegetarian’s dream. Organic ricotta and Portobello stuffed pepper, black rice, and homemade tomato sauce. Onereally couldn’t have put together a tastier vegetarian meal–and hearty enough to satisfy the most diehard carnivore. Even C, who disdains vegetarianism, was impressed. The dinner ended on a bit lower note with a rather bland cookie and ice cream. I was still impressed with the other dishes and did not let this get in the way of my enjoyment of the meal on the whole.

In the middle of a city filled with mediocre nouvelle cuisine, a lot of meat, bland vegetarian and boring Italian, Casa Felix presents a new outlook on Argentine cuisine. The three staff members were very gracious, explained all of the dishes, and made us feel comfortable and relaxed. Using fresh and organic ingredients, Diego Felix creates a memorable dining experience in his lovely home.