Rich One
Registered
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 10,038
- Likes
- 6,525
Ready to sample the best Italian Cuisisne in B.A.
talian cuisine: pasta and beyond
LA PAROLACCIA CASA TUA
I love Italian food; one of the reasons is my last name which is not “de Palermo” –that’s just my foodie pen name- but Della Croce, fourth generation Argentinian-Italian. My family follows some of the culinary Italian traditions and on any given Sunday you can find us all gathered around a long table eating homemade spaghetti with a wonderful meat sauce magically concocted by the expert hands of mum. Add to that the fact that I had the chance of visiting Rome for the first time short ago and I had a blast feasting on the local cuisine, and you’ll understand where I am coming from with these recommendations.
Ever since I started my eating out days and kicked off my sybarite quest, I was introduced to La Parolaccia, a restaurant which was already a good tradition among Buenos Aires Italian eateries in the pre Guia Oleo era. Out of their many branches, in my humble opinion the Botanico house is their loveliest venue, with its stately chandelier and boiserie; the atmosphere in the large room is really pleasant, full of family joy symbolized by the “happy birthday” balloons decorating big wooden tables which bring grandparents, parents and grandchildren together here and there.
One of the distinctive features of this restaurant has always been its bread basket and green mayonnaise (now replaced by sour cream with chives) as a spread while you wait, as well as the service: a Bellini to welcome you, a lemoncello as a farewell cup, and a piece of complimentary tiramisu to blow the candles if you are celebrating your b’day.
One of my favorite dishes is homemade, delicious “fusillis al fierrito” (a ringlet-shaped pasta framed around a piece of metal), which you can mix and match with the sauce you prefer; my sauce of choice was Florence sauce au gratin (spinach, cream and cheese). For the toast, we chose a great red wine, Clos de los 7, a full-bodied blend that was a very good match at a very good price. Who could ask for anything more.
CUCINA PARADISO
I visited the new restaurant, recently opened in Belgrano (near the corner of Castañeda and Sucre; I recommend arriving early, since they don’t take reservations and the place gets crowded before 9pm). In this new location, where they open for lunch and dinner, Donato –chef, owner and TV personality- and his wife have poured a truly colorful and joyful ambiance that is palpable and contagious from the moment you set foot into the restaurant.
The festive atmosphere welcomes everyone: romantic couples, sixty something ladies who ask for the recipes the chef teaches on his TV show, grandpa’s birthday and noisy parties of 10 in the large, central community table making toasts and taking photos with the host, who hovers around the room making sure everything is fine and dandy. The owners are an Italian/ Armenian couple and the international look and feel also has to do with the smiling and super nice personnel, who seem to have been taken right out of a Benetton campaign photo.
If you ask me for a fitting slogan for this restaurant, I would say: ‘Variety is the spice of life’, since the menu changes every day so as to offer the best pick from the market in 6 starters and 6 dishes du jour. When I ogled the antipasti, for me it was love at first sight -I fell for the frog legs, a dish I had never tried before but was my grandma’s favorite. I couldn’t have been more right, they were delicious in their Provence, lemony sauce! The entree was another delightful dish: I ordered a creamy polenta with braised beef jowls which, according to our waiter, has two secret ingredients, sage and a generous helping of love.
We washed it all down with a glass of Dante Robino Bonarda (my favorite local variety when it comes to Italian food) and the sweet farewell was tiramisu again (you guessed it, my favorite Italian dessert). Everything is so scrumptious that you leave the place with a full belly and a happy heart.
BICE
Bice is a classic with a capital C both in Europe, since its headquarters in Milano, Italy opened in 1926, as well as in NYC and other cities, and in Buenos Aires, where it is one of the pioneers in Puerto Madero: this beautiful, elegant restaurant, with awesome waterfront views opened 19 years ago. One of the keys that explain the long standing fame of Bice is excellence in service, something that becomes apparent from the moment you are welcomed by Florencia, the hostess and public relations manager.
Then, as you check out the options in the special menu that commemorates their 87 anniversary and celebrates their classical dishes (a 3 course menu for only AR$200 for dinner), they bring you a complimentary glass of San Felicien sparkling wine and a bread basket with small pizza slices as amuse-bouche which are the perfect prelude to a great dining experience.
The set menu contains a selection of the signature dishes that have defined Bice’s quality: beef carpaccio with parmesan shavings, breaded mozzarella sticks, papardelle (broad flat pasta noodles) with melted cheese, penne arrabiata (spicy furrowed cylinder-shaped pieces). I chose eggplant parmesan au gratin with lots of melted mozzarella cheese as starter, and a creamy risotto with ossobuco stew (braised cross-cut veal shanks) that was a wonderful duet.
Again, for dessert I couldn’t resist another extraordinary tiramisu (as the great Oscar Wilde would say: “I can resist anything but temptation”). A shot glass of icy, homemade lemoncello is the ideal send-off to leave with a wonderful taste in your palate, looking forward to coming back soon whenever to show off and make a recommendation for a business dinner, for a romantic spot to celebrate an anniversary that deserves to be remembered with a touch of luxury, or to boast of your local expertise around the Buenos Aires restaurant scene.
http://dixit.guiaole...=nota principal
talian cuisine: pasta and beyond
LA PAROLACCIA CASA TUA
I love Italian food; one of the reasons is my last name which is not “de Palermo” –that’s just my foodie pen name- but Della Croce, fourth generation Argentinian-Italian. My family follows some of the culinary Italian traditions and on any given Sunday you can find us all gathered around a long table eating homemade spaghetti with a wonderful meat sauce magically concocted by the expert hands of mum. Add to that the fact that I had the chance of visiting Rome for the first time short ago and I had a blast feasting on the local cuisine, and you’ll understand where I am coming from with these recommendations.
Ever since I started my eating out days and kicked off my sybarite quest, I was introduced to La Parolaccia, a restaurant which was already a good tradition among Buenos Aires Italian eateries in the pre Guia Oleo era. Out of their many branches, in my humble opinion the Botanico house is their loveliest venue, with its stately chandelier and boiserie; the atmosphere in the large room is really pleasant, full of family joy symbolized by the “happy birthday” balloons decorating big wooden tables which bring grandparents, parents and grandchildren together here and there.
One of the distinctive features of this restaurant has always been its bread basket and green mayonnaise (now replaced by sour cream with chives) as a spread while you wait, as well as the service: a Bellini to welcome you, a lemoncello as a farewell cup, and a piece of complimentary tiramisu to blow the candles if you are celebrating your b’day.
One of my favorite dishes is homemade, delicious “fusillis al fierrito” (a ringlet-shaped pasta framed around a piece of metal), which you can mix and match with the sauce you prefer; my sauce of choice was Florence sauce au gratin (spinach, cream and cheese). For the toast, we chose a great red wine, Clos de los 7, a full-bodied blend that was a very good match at a very good price. Who could ask for anything more.
CUCINA PARADISO
I visited the new restaurant, recently opened in Belgrano (near the corner of Castañeda and Sucre; I recommend arriving early, since they don’t take reservations and the place gets crowded before 9pm). In this new location, where they open for lunch and dinner, Donato –chef, owner and TV personality- and his wife have poured a truly colorful and joyful ambiance that is palpable and contagious from the moment you set foot into the restaurant.
The festive atmosphere welcomes everyone: romantic couples, sixty something ladies who ask for the recipes the chef teaches on his TV show, grandpa’s birthday and noisy parties of 10 in the large, central community table making toasts and taking photos with the host, who hovers around the room making sure everything is fine and dandy. The owners are an Italian/ Armenian couple and the international look and feel also has to do with the smiling and super nice personnel, who seem to have been taken right out of a Benetton campaign photo.
If you ask me for a fitting slogan for this restaurant, I would say: ‘Variety is the spice of life’, since the menu changes every day so as to offer the best pick from the market in 6 starters and 6 dishes du jour. When I ogled the antipasti, for me it was love at first sight -I fell for the frog legs, a dish I had never tried before but was my grandma’s favorite. I couldn’t have been more right, they were delicious in their Provence, lemony sauce! The entree was another delightful dish: I ordered a creamy polenta with braised beef jowls which, according to our waiter, has two secret ingredients, sage and a generous helping of love.
We washed it all down with a glass of Dante Robino Bonarda (my favorite local variety when it comes to Italian food) and the sweet farewell was tiramisu again (you guessed it, my favorite Italian dessert). Everything is so scrumptious that you leave the place with a full belly and a happy heart.
BICE
Bice is a classic with a capital C both in Europe, since its headquarters in Milano, Italy opened in 1926, as well as in NYC and other cities, and in Buenos Aires, where it is one of the pioneers in Puerto Madero: this beautiful, elegant restaurant, with awesome waterfront views opened 19 years ago. One of the keys that explain the long standing fame of Bice is excellence in service, something that becomes apparent from the moment you are welcomed by Florencia, the hostess and public relations manager.
Then, as you check out the options in the special menu that commemorates their 87 anniversary and celebrates their classical dishes (a 3 course menu for only AR$200 for dinner), they bring you a complimentary glass of San Felicien sparkling wine and a bread basket with small pizza slices as amuse-bouche which are the perfect prelude to a great dining experience.
The set menu contains a selection of the signature dishes that have defined Bice’s quality: beef carpaccio with parmesan shavings, breaded mozzarella sticks, papardelle (broad flat pasta noodles) with melted cheese, penne arrabiata (spicy furrowed cylinder-shaped pieces). I chose eggplant parmesan au gratin with lots of melted mozzarella cheese as starter, and a creamy risotto with ossobuco stew (braised cross-cut veal shanks) that was a wonderful duet.
Again, for dessert I couldn’t resist another extraordinary tiramisu (as the great Oscar Wilde would say: “I can resist anything but temptation”). A shot glass of icy, homemade lemoncello is the ideal send-off to leave with a wonderful taste in your palate, looking forward to coming back soon whenever to show off and make a recommendation for a business dinner, for a romantic spot to celebrate an anniversary that deserves to be remembered with a touch of luxury, or to boast of your local expertise around the Buenos Aires restaurant scene.
http://dixit.guiaole...=nota principal
