(Pre-wedding) Honeymoon, Part II - Buenos Aires Continues!

Great success on dinner last evening…although San Telmo was a bit seedy and filled with strange antique shops, we did manage to find a chihuahua trivet made by a local Argentine designer for $6.

Before dinner, we walked across the river to visit Puerto Madero, a former warehouse/industrial district that has been aggressively developed as a new arts district care of the Phillip Starck designed Faena Hotel + Universe which just opened during my first visit to BA in 2005.  Now, the area has become highly developed with an entire waterfront eating plaza and walkway and tons of high rises that did not exist when I was last there.

We enjoyed a poolside cocktail and a snack of nachos while we stared at the infinity pool that had a big crown plopped right in the middle (I would never be able to swim laps in that piece).

Then we wandered back to San Telmo and the restaurant at a leisurely pace to arrive just in time for our 9p reservation (for which we were a few mins early still)...
We were seated at the simple, intimate, bi-level loft space and it was explained to us that we were in store for a three hour 16 course meal where our only choice was to select a wine (we went for the Martino Gran Reserva Malbec 03).  What followed was an onslaught of molecular gastronomy wizardry from the chef who trained at El Bulli.

Our menu for the evening at La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar...

The meal began with some aperitivos…

A shot of warm cauliflower soup with liquefied steak

Some fried fish skin (think pork rinds but fish not pork) to dip in a soy foam

Following that, another aperitivo course…

Olive oil flan with parmesean and dehydrated black olives – amazing!

“Crispy Chicken” with Quinoa

Octopus Seafood Ceviche/Sorbet

Next came the “Ensalda” featuring wild mushrooms and breadcrumbs

Then, the top dish of the evening – Pan Huevo Trufa.  A slow poached egg, enveloped in soft bread with a truffle oil “powder” on top with chicken wing stock.  Insanely good. GG said she could eat that course three more times in the same meal.  That was before the next 10 courses arrived.

Pulpo con Pimenton was next – warm, tender octopus atop a bed of potatoes and sprinkled with “coffee salt” (the name says exactly what it tasted like).

Mar y Montana followed.  This was a seafood soup.  It was presented first with a pumpkin “ravioli” filled with foie gras (which was really just fresh, steamed pumpkin wrapped around foie), dehydrated shrimp and scallop powder, and seaweed.  Next a warm chicken stock was poured over top to rehydrate the seafood.

Next came another bout with “Salmon Blano” (the same fish from Casa Felix the evening before).  Pesca Ajo Panceta.  The fish was wrapped in pancetta and served with green beans and a black garlic puree swiped across the plate.

This next course was much more interesting than tasty.  This was called the Trufa DSG.  There was a small jar filled with what we were told was truffle marinade and on the other end of the plate was the truffle.  We were to put the truffle in our mouth and hold it there.  Then we were to take the shot of truffle marinade and swish the two around in our mouth re-creating the whole truffle which we did.  It was fun and funny.  What we found out afterwards was that it was a “false truffle” made of garlic immersion, chicken stock and some other things I can’t recall.  A friend of the chef’s played a joke on him back in the day about finding a truffle in south argentina (which is not possible) and he built this dish based on that.  Something along those lines but I’m sure I’m not doing it justice as the story was written in Spanish…

Action shot!

Talk to the hand...i'm eating a false truffle!

Cordero con Palleres was next – Lamb with white beans, saffron and a balsamic “jelly” laying on top.  The meat was very tender and with the sauce actually was reminiscent of short ribs.

Cerdo con Mani followed.  This was quite tasty since it was based around pork belly.  It was served with bok choy and a caramel/pineapple “brittle” to be cracked and eaten with each bite.  The salty and sweet worked well here.

The final savory course – Bife, Batata, Criolla.  Argentine Beef.  Cooked sous vide with a pickled spring onion and “charcoal” sweet potato – a potato cooked/covered in the char of the beef.  The beef was delicious but the other components were somewhat lacking…

Just as we were about to give up the generally “light” desserts made their way to our table and we could start to see the light at the end of the very enjoyable, albeit voluminous meal (the courses were quite large for such an extensive tasting).

A refreshing and bitter pineapple-campari sorbet arrived as a palate cleanser (Pina con Campari)

Next came a due of sorbets (grapefruit and mandarin) with a small shot of hot tea and apple cake (Mandarina – Te – Pomelo – Manzana).

Next we saw a plume of dry ice smoke and out came Sierra Bruma – a chocolate tasting with 4 distinct textures which was quite interesting and dramatic.

Finally, another favorite for me during the Petit Four course was the deconstructed alfajore.  The cookie was dehydrated and the liquid dulce du leche was in a shot glass.  Again, we combined both in our mouths, swooshed it around and swallowed a liquid alfajore.  Yum.  A wonderful finish to a very memorable meal.

We definitely recommend this one to any fans of molecular gastronomy who pass through BA.  And since it’s unclear if El Bulli will ever open again, this may be one of the closest substitutes (and I know it’s still a very far substitute).

After awaking early to catch our 10am flight to Iguazu this morning, we rushed to the domestic BA airport to find our flight cancelled.  We were never contacted and the LAN folks took their sweet time dealing with us so we were not even re-booked on the next flight but now have 5 hours to kill in a primitive airport with no wifi nor airport lounge.  So this is all being typed on word in the hopes that soon we’ll be back online to post.  At least it gave us plenty of time to recount some of our BA adventures for everyone!

Only three more hours until we board.  At least they gave us a voucher for a terrible airport lunch while we wait…

Our Iguazu saga continues here...