Behind Closed Doors

It’s 9.30 on a Saturday night in Buenos Aires, and we are waiting outside la peurta cerrada (closed door) of a residential house in the neighbourhood of Chacarita.

We have invited ourselves into the home of Deigo and Sanra and tonight they are making us supper. Although “supper” could be selling short the five course tasting menu, created from ingredients sourced from as close as their back garden to the most far flung parts of South America.

 We were given the warmest of welcomes and ushered into the beautiful courtyard to catch up with the other guests over aperitifs of Lemon Verbena Clerico, amid the big question of “how did you ever find out about us?”  

  A mixture of Argentines, Europeans and Canadians were mingling over drinks whilst wandering around the courtyard, herb garden and of course where the magic happens…the kitchen. As for the hosts, despite being in the midst of creating dinner for 12, as yet strangers, the atmosphere was so relaxed and one of several friends throwing together brunch, whilst simultaneously answering all manner of questions about the food, the concept and how we all ended up here!

 
 Courtyard at Casa Felix

 An amuse bouche of bok choy, paico and squash flowers. was served to tantilise the tastebuds and amid flowing conversation we were ushered into the quaint candlelight dining or should I say “front” room. 

 
 Amuse bouche...certainly is amusing!  

I should mention that after being stuffed to the gunnels with steak for the last few weeks, we were glad to find out that this was a pescatarian casa and that the menu had been designed with healthy fresh ingredients, each course coming with a commentary on the origins of the food, how they came to encounter it and why they wanted to share it.

First up then was a spicy peanut Bolivian soup, a spicy little monkey not dissimilar to it’s Indonesian satay counterpart and utterly delicious.

Bolivian peanut soup

We then got to sample their loot from a jaunt to Salta, a province in the North of Argentina, which came in the form of an Andean Potato Tasting course! Four different types of potatoes, dressed and presented in four different ways. Definitely risqué, but on consideration we decided that it was a fitting tribute to the humble potato – this is where Sir Walter Raleigh swiped the first British bound potato after all, and changed our turnip eating habits forever!

Diego enlightened us as to the 250 varieties of potato cultivated in South America today, (such a shame there were no Irish guests tonight!) and among our carefully chosen selection came the ullocos which were sweet and had the consistency of a beetroot and the green ullocos which looked like they belonged more to the olive family. 

So with the Andean potatoes firmly under our belt (so to speak!), we proceeded to the main course of calamari stuffed peppers, humita cream and suico pesto – an interesting melange of European and South American, which was delicious but didn’t leave much room for the squash and coconut milk pie with quinoa crust for dessert! Not a problem in itself, as dessert unfortunately looked like a plate of fancy sweet potato mash and after the quadruple complex carb course that had preceded it, it was one member of the starch family too many for one meal!

Squash and coconut milk pie 

And so the evening came to an end just as it had started; buena onda (good vibes), drink in hand and chatting food and travel with our fellow supperclubbers. We’d had a top notch, non-meat orientated dinner, which in Argentina is no mean feat and we’d managed to sneak a peak behind the beautiful closed door of the new wave of BA foodie elite.