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Tag Archives: barrio chino

Learning to Cook Seafood in Chile (aka, A Cry for Help)

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Anonymous in algarrobo, chile, tips & how to's, travel

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

algarrobo, barrio chino, chile, fish, food, grilling, grilling seafood, machas, pacific ocean, razor clams, santiago chile, seafood, shellfish, steaming seafood, the beach

Pulpo a la Plancha

Pulpo a la Plancha from Sur Patagónico in Santiago, Chile

I’ve often lamented the lack of delicious, fresh seafood in Buenos Aires. Despite the city’s location on the Atlantic coast, seafood’s not always a common sight on restaurant menus. Sure, there are some gems like Crizia where you can find oysters and fish beyond merluza, but they’re not the norm…and certainly not always budget-friendly. And buying seafood to make at home can also be a challenge. The fish markets in Barrio Chino are affordable, but quite the hike from San Telmo. El Delfín is a great pescadería within walking distance, but paying $100 pesos for two servings of salmon is a tad too rich for my blood.

That is why we were freaking out over all the frutas del mar during our recent roadtrip to the coast of Chile. We spent some time in the beach town Algarrobo, overdosing on seafood. I’m happy to report that every single restaurant we entered had a robust selection, and the pescaderías were plentiful and affordable.

Pelicans outside the pescadería in Algarrobo

Pelicans outside the pescadería in Algarrobo

When we’re on the road, we try to cook for ourselves as much as possible to keep things healthier and cost-effective. The thing is, cooking seafood is not my specialty. So these were experiments, which I’m happy to report turned out quite well.

We cooked our fish fillets on the grill, wrapped in foil with butter and plenty of lemon slices. They were super quick and easy, and crazy flavorful. Win!

Fish Fillets on the Grill

And then we got ambitious. We picked up some machas (razor clams), which we’d been spying everywhere and which made our little cabaña smell absolutely heinous for the rest of our stay. And of course, once we had them in our possession, we realized we had zero clue what to do with them. After searching the internet using the painfully slow and completely unreliable WiFi connection, there were conflicting reports. Some sites advised hours worth of scrubbing, rinsing, soaking and repeating. Some advised soaking in salted water, or water with cornmeal to draw out the sand. Still others advised that if shells were open, we should knock on them and if they don’t close, they’re bad. This was all way more labor and stress than I’d had planned for my vacation, thank you very much.

Machas - Razor Clams

I ended up scrubbing them and soaking them for an hour or so in salt water before deciding to just crack them open and rinse them out by hand, dammit. I’m sure this is some sort of seafood cooking no-no, but I’m really glad I did it. The sand was completely embedded throughout those bad boys, and we would have been crunching our way through dinner. After a good rinse, I put the clams on their half shells in foil, with crushed garlic, chopped onion, some butter, and beer. We wrapped them up so there was space for steam, but made sure they were shut tight, and cooked them over the grill for about 5 – 10 minutes. The one thing I was sure of was that overcooking these suckers would have resulted in a rubbery chewy mess that would make me regret the hours spent on preparation. Luckily, the timing was perfect, and the machas were a success.

Razor Clams on the Halfshell

My ultimate takeaway is, razor clams are a bit more labor intensive than they may be worth. They were good, but the sauce really made the difference. The clams themselves, for all their stinking when raw, didn’t have a very powerful flavor. And all that preparation works up an appetite that won’t be satiated by those tiny pieces of clam-flesh. Still, it was worth the effort for the experience. The moral of the story is this: I need your tips, suggestions and recipes for cooking seafood on the grill or open flames if we’re going to survive three months on the road.

Barrio Chino, A Culinary Treasure Trove in Buenos Aires

25 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by Anonymous in buenos aires

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

barrio chino, Buenos Aires, chinatown, seafood in Buenos Aires

As a non-native Spanish-speaker, one of the first things I did upon moving to Buenos Aires was enroll in group Spanish lessons. Best decision ever. Not only for the obvious reason: being able to communicate is preferable to being clueless and crying at the supermarket. (Shut up, it happens).

But the relationships, perspectives and experiences that I gained in those classes were invaluable. And of course, there was the opportunity to feed groups of people who’d never had chocolate chip cookies before.

It was Anouke, an incredibly thoughtful free spirit from Holland trekking her way through South America, who insisted I check out Barrio Chino. With tales of an extensive fish market and barrels of spices and grains, I was quickly convinced that even though Buenos Aires’ Chinatown was far from my neighborhood and I’m lazy like that (#realtalk) it was vale la pena.

In the cities I’ve called home stateside, I took for granted the easy, close access to…well, pretty much everything. So after a journey that takes an hour on public transit, when I find myself face to face with an array of products that used to be available at my local supermarket or with the click of a button online, it’s uhhhhh-mazing! I pretty much danced through the aisles, stocking up on all the random items that I’d never realized I could miss so much, while Gaspar silently (smart man) questioned how and why we would possibly need that much hoison sauce.

Barrio Chino is small, a mere handful of blocks. But what it lacks in space it makes up for with an intense barrage of flavors, colors and smells…for better (Peking duck!) or worse (ewww, fish market). I just love browsing through all the shops, you can always find something new.

Just a sample of the grains and dry goods available at Casa China.

So before we get to the smelly stuff, my favorite stop in Barrio Chino is Casa China, a dry goods store that I love to wander through. They stock everything from sauces, spices and curries to grains and noodles to the most extensive selection of dried beans and mushrooms I’ve ever seen. You can also find cocoa powder, rice and wheat flours, and other goodies lining the shelves that you won’t find at the local supermercado.

Bins full of grains and dried beans at Casa China

Dried tomatoes and a variety of dried mushrooms at Casa China

Another one of my favorite things in Barrio Chino: sushi burritos. They’re not actually burritos, but it’s the best description I have for these massive, un-cut rolls of sushi that we always just end up eating as if they were burritos from a street vendor. More civilized people may take them home and cut them up properly, but where’s the fun in that? When your other hand is clutching a warm import beer you’ve never heard of, it’s no time to worry about appearances.

As anyone who loves raw fish and lives in Buenos Aires can attest, sushi here is generally carísimo ($$$) and often smothered in cream cheese. While there are some cream cheesy options available in Barrio Chino, these hefty rolls include the straightforward options you may be craving, and are a steal at $15 – 30 pesos a pop.

Okay, now for the sort of gross stuff. If you’re vegetarian or quick to get nauseous, chau chau, thanks for reading, now run along. As previously noted, the markets in Barrio Chino are awash with…shall we say, “interesting” smells, partly due to items for sale that the delicate norteamericano psyche may not be accustomed to. Most of the markets have what I like to call the “animal parts” section. This may range from whole chickens with their faces, feets and all wrapped in plastic, to bins full of the various parts and organs that most North Americans don’t like to think about. I’m not generally squeamish about this stuff, and plan to test out some recipes in the near future with some of these options. So if anyone’s completely grossed out or for some reason offended, I just say hey, we are eating animals. There’s no way around that, so it’s better not to be wasteful. And if you’re craving some crispy chicken feet, there’s a pile full of them just waiting to be fried up.

I think I just lost a few subscribers.

On to the seafood! Perhaps Barrio Chino’s true claim to fame, the selection of seafood is pretty outstanding. It smells like….well, let’s not dwell on that, it’s outstanding nonetheless. Despite it’s location directly on the coast, Buenos Aires is not even remotely known as a seafood-lover’s destination. In fact, finding quality seafood options can be hit-or-miss and expensive as import regulations fluctuate. It’s a mystery to me why popular options like salmon must be imported. But I’ve learned to stop asking questions. Es lo que hay.

Piles of pulpito and langostinos

Fish have tongues? Who knew?

Seafood in Barrio Chino

Crabs and oysters and clams. Oh my! 

This is just a slice of what Barrio Chino has to offer, but you guys don’t need pictures of Sriracha sauce, soba and rice noodles, and coconut milk to get the picture. Suffice it to say, if you live in Buenos Aires and love flavorful food, Barrio Chino is non-negotiable. You must go. Just breathe through your mouth.

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