Category Archives: South America

Posts about countries in South America

I Cried Tio

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Honduras

Image result for honduran passport stamp

The weekend started bad for the Culinary-Passport.  My first choice was going to be a repeat country but when I rolled into the parking lot there was a sign in the door that they were closed due to a power outage.  With this setback I had to get of my lazy behind and find someplace else.  OK I didn’t really get off my behind but I did some furious Googling, Binging & Yelping to find some restaurant that represented a country I hadn’t already done.  Success!  I found Restaurante Lempira which had Honduran food.  They have multiple locations in Charlotte and I opted for the one nearest me on South Boulevard.

I got there a bit after noon and the parking lot was already just about full so that was a good sign.  I walked in and immediately saw the clientele was heavily weighted towards the Latin American end of the scale.  Another good sign.  I was seated quickly and had my drink order taken immediately.  FYI they don’t do unsweet tea.  Since I didn’t know what I wanted in the first few seconds I suffered the one dip in service for the day.  The young lady who was supposed to be my server got involved in other things including an involved conversation with a coworker.

The standard chips & salsa were delivered rapido.   The salsa was a little thicker than some with chunky bits of onion and cilantro and a bit of heat. I munched on those sparingly since my intended entrée looked like it was going to be a good deal of food.  My order was eventually taken by a different lady that had an air of authority and a different uniform so I’m guessing she was a boss of some sort.

The menu has a lot of different options from the standard Mexican American fare to items from other Central / South American countries weighted just a bit in favor of Honduras.  I went with the Platillo Hondureño.  Boy was I right it was a gracious plenty.

Let’s start from the bottom left and work our way up.  We have cubed grilled steak that was lightly seasoned so you got the full taste of the beef and it was very tender.  The yucca was just a filling starch and didn’t have much flavor and by itself would have needed salt but in concert with either of the meats was just fine.  The next row had pico de gallo, cabbage salad and an avocado, onion and vinegar combo.  All of these were good in their own right and a nice way to add a little something to the meats.  The back row had an empanada and what they called fried pork skin.  The Honduran empanada was filled with a ground meat and rice combo with a few stray bits of other vegetable matter.  It was deep fried and deeply fried and didn’t have a lot of flavor of it’s own, at least not compared to the other foods.  The fried pork skin was an unexpected surprise.  I expected something akin to crackling or fried fatback and while this was definitely close it was at least 80% meat.  Now it was fried to within an inch of its life which kept the fat from being…well, fatty. There were a couple of wedges of lime to squeeze on whatever you thought needed lime.

There was easily enough food for two here and I called uncle and dropped the fork before this plate was clean.  The food was good, the price reasonable and the supervisory lady checked in on me several times during the meal so aside from the one hiccup the service was good.  I’d definitely eat here again.

Be sure to check out the Tell Me More page for a quesadilla recipe like you’ve likely not seen before as well as music, facts & top Amazon searches.

Don’t Cry For Me

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Argentina

Argentina_Entry_Stamp

This week after spending a week at the beach chowing down on seafood pretty regularly hitting Parrillada Che Gaucho seemed like a good idea.  This is a restaurant that is supposed to have food authentic to Argentina and Uruguay.  I think it started as an Argentine place and now is owned by Uruguayans based on what I could determine from some light research.

The restaurant is in a, let’s call it a well established, strip of shops off Old Pineville Rd in Charlotte.  Not far off the interstate and easy to get to.  So my first gripe is that the website is awful and inaccurate.  It indicated the place opened at 10:00 on Sat. which seemed odd but what did I know.  When I get there at 11:30 they’re closed still because according to the door sign they open at 12:00.  WTF, where’s the food?

When they do open there’s no line beating down the door so I get a chance to check out the place.  Lots of flags of Argentina, Uruguay and USA along with soccer paraphernalia and one wall has a number of pictures of gauchos covering it.  There’s also a small bar along one wall and a few TVs going.  My waitress spoke enough English to make up for my lack of Spanish. She was friendly but not chatty.

The first thing I ordered, Matambre, she came back and told me they were out of but had other blah, blah, blah.  I was really looking forward to that stuffed flank steak (see the recipe on the Tell Me More page).  My back-up was the parrillada for 1.  It was pricey but had a ton of meat as you can see.

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The meat was delivered on a warmer that had some hot stones or something in the bottom to keep the metal cover warm.  Nice idea.  The parrillada consisted of a chorizo sausage, a blood sausage, sweetbreads, chicken, short ribs, stuffed small intestine, and flank steak.  I got rice and salad as my two sides.  To drink I got what was allegedly tea.

The chorizo sausage was good but I was really expecting some spicy heat and there was none.  The blood sausage had an interesting texture.  It was less dense than most sausage and mixed with some rice it was pretty good.  The Argentine chitterlings were fried and stuffed with some kind of ground something that was pretty much a paste.  Based on the taste and texture I’m guessing it was some sort of organ meat.  It was a bit chewy and didn’t taste bad but the visual and texture made enjoying it beyond me.  The chicken was lightly seasoned and a nice palette cleanser after the intestines.  The sweetbreads were pretty good.  They were a little crispy, again lightly seasoned, and they were probably my favorite of the lot I ate.  I did wind up bringing home the steak, short ribs and a couple of sweetbread chunks.

The salad was just some lettuce, a couple of tomato slices and slivers of onion.  No dressing offered and nothing included when it was delivered.  The tea.  Oh the tea.  If you are a tea fan and especially if you are a Southern iced tea fan just don’t even stop here.  The glass I got had two cubes of ice, which normally I would be fine with if the tea had already been cold but it wasn’t.  The only way I knew this was supposed to be tea and not rusty water was that rusty water would have had taste.

My last gripe is the wait I had to get my bill.  I asked for a box which would normally have indicated I was finished and just might be ready to leave but apparently that was a bit subtle.  When she was bussing the table and asked if everything was okay and I said “Everything was fine but I’m done.” I thought that was also a clue but it apparently wasn’t.  So I finally asked who I had to see to pay the bill and she figured it out.

So in spite of all the meat options I have to say this is the first time I have been disappointed over all with my experience.  This is the only place I’ve been to I wouldn’t go back to.

Just so this doesn’t reflect poorly on Argentina as a nation check out the Tell Me More page for a matambre recipe and what looks like an Argentine Moon Pie.

 

Colombia Calling

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Colombia

Colombian Stamp

From NW Africa last week to NW South America this week.  For the food of Colombia I visited Los Paisas Restaurant in Charlotte.  It’s tucked away in the corner of a shopping center just north of Pineville.  The parking lot was busy but the restaurant wasn’t bad and I got seated immediately.  The restaurant has a bar and a few tables in the bar area where I was seated.  They had soccer games going on a couple of big screen TVs as well as some Latin music playing in the background.  The staff hung around the bar area chatting and prepping when they weren’t helping customers.  It was a very relaxed atmosphere.

It only took a minute with the menu to pick out my selection since it was named Bandeja Tipica Colombiana.  I didn’t know what Bandeja was but I could figure out Tipica Colombiana and the waiter confirmed the menu suggestion that it was a “house favorite”.  I was originally going to have just water but they have an interesting array of juices you can get made from water or milk.  I went with mamey with milk since I’d never heard of a mamey before.  Since it was my first trip to Los Paisas the waiter brought a complimentary empanada as an appetizer.

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This was smaller that most empanadas that I’d had before but it was tasty, especially with the salsa verde he brought.  Speaking of the salsa verde that stuff was pretty good and to paraphrase that old lady from the Frank’s Red Hot commercial, I tried that $@*T on everything.  When they brought out the Bandeja Tipica Colombiana I was pretty impressed with the volume of food.  I thought it was going to be a typical menu picture that maximized the appearance and amount of food but if anything the picture undersells it.

There was steak, sausage, crackling pork, an egg, avocado, plantain, beans, rice and an arepa all piled on that plate.  Two people could have shared that an walked away happy.  As it was I managed to do some major damage but had to leave some rice, beans and pork behind to leave bloated and happy.

The grilled steak was a thin cut and didn’t have much seasoning at all but not bland in any way.  The sausage was good but I honestly expected it to be spicy and it was not.  In fact nothing was spicy with heat and the waiter mentioned it wouldn’t be and he could bring some hot sauce if needed.  As mentioned earlier I did try the salsa on everything.  The plantain was a sweet variety as opposed to some of the simply starchy varieties.  Beans, rice and eggs were nothing special but did their job as competent fillers.  The crackling pork was just that, cooked to crackling on the top and less so closer to the skin.  Also not much seasoning so you got the true taste of the fried pork meat.  My first thought was it was a bit bland but it paired nicely with the arepa.  The arepa is a thick corn tortilla and the consistency reminded me of the cornmeal dumplings my Grandfather used to make.  By itself it was also kind of meh but it went with everything and I could see why it is their bread substitute and why there are so many different recipes with it if you look for them.  I wasn’t sure what the avocado was really supposed to go with so I just scooped it out of the skin and ate a little bit with everything and it worked.

The mamey milk juice was pretty good too.  It was a little sweet and the flavor reminded me of a mild strawberry more than anything else.

I mentioned my Grandfather earlier and I couldn’t help but think of him as I ate.  This meal, aside from the avocado and plantain, felt like something he would have thoroughly enjoyed.  Yes I’m sure that Southern American would have like this South American plate.

Check out the arepa recipe and other tidbits on the Tell Me More page.  Below is the restaurant website and you should use it to get the address and check them out.

Los Paisas Restaurant

 

 

Getting started

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Up First

Peru was the first stamp in the Culinary Passport.  Represented by Viva Chicken in Ballantyne.
The restaurant is in a shopping area with lots of restaurants and shops.  The traffic patterns and parking are odd but I didn’t have any problem finding a spot.  The restaurant was fairly busy and obviously a popular place as I heard several people talking about previous trips.  You place your order and they give you a number and will bring your food to the table.  They pack a lot of seats in the space so even though it was busy there was no problem finding a spot.  It is a bit loud so if you are looking for a place for a quiet lunch, keep moving.

I went with the Pollo a la Brasa, rotisserie chicken, marinated in their signature herbs and spices and for sides decided on the quinoa and canary beans, both advertised as organic if that is your thing.  I got the maracuya, passion fruit punch, to wash it down.
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The chicken was flavorful by itself but they have three sauces you can try.  It was convenient that the sauces were self service and you could pump them into little cups.  I tried the mild yellow and medium green.  The yellow Aji Amarillo was mild as advertised and a bit tangy.  The green huacatay is made from Peruvian black mint and herbs with just a bit of a kick and was my favorite of the two.
The quinoa caught me off guard because it was a cold dish.  It was made with red quinoa, onions and some other items.  It was a bit like a potato salad with quinoa instead of potatoes.  After the surprise of it being cold I decided I could definitely eat it again.
Canary beans were new to me and I was interested to see if I could figure out where on the canary they came from.  Still a mystery.  They were peppery and like most other white beans to me.  Good balance to the cold quinoa.
Overall my verdict is the food was good and definitely worth visiting again.  I didn’t get a Peruvian vibe from décor but they were good at moving the traffic in and out.
Here’s the link to their website.

 

Tell Me More!