I couldn’t believe my good luck. A friend invited me to lunch at Sucre, which is on every list of top places to eat in Buenos Aires. Critics praise it as cutting edge, prestigious, super trendy. Could it be that good?
Judging by my lunch, it is. By chance, I ordered what may be the best dish there—bondiola. Never heard of it? Neither had I, so I had to ask. In Argentina bondiola is pork shoulder, and Sucre’s bondiola de cerdo braseada was the finest pork I have had in a restaurant.
The meat was amazingly tender, light and slightly smoky. Although the menu indicated it was braised, the pork had tantalizingly crusty brown edges, and I wondered if it had spent some time on the grill. That would explain the smokiness too. Golden slices of batata (sweet potato) and a salsa verde composed of parsley, celery and rosemary added color to the plate.
The other dishes that day were fine too—grilled goat cheese provoleta and tiny croquettes of raw ham and manchego cheese for appetizers, along with salmon ceviche that was more delicate than the highly seasoned, acidic ceviches I had been eating in Lima. Perhaps that reflects local taste.
My companions were happy with their shrimp risotto and salmon. And the desserts were good looking. Pale cocoa foam coated mine, a composition of dulce de leche cream, banana biscuits and pecans. Coconut cheesecake came with mango ice cream and cilantro oil. The prettiest of the three was lemon-ginger mousse in a bowl of melon and tequila soup with nectarine slices and blueberries.
Sucre’s wine list is so long, you could devote the whole lunch hour or evening to making a choice. Because we had to match a variety of dishes, we picked Mounier Torrontes 2005, an aromatic white wine from Finca las Nubes, a winery near Cafayate in Salta province.
Sucre is stark and industrial, but not austere. The design elements are interesting. The open kitchen stretches dramatically across the restaurant, and a wall of bottles behind the bar extends as high as one can see. The food stands out against the dark, subtle colors. Perhaps that was what the designers intended.
Sucre, Sucre 676 (the restaurant and street names are the same), Belgrano, Buenos Aires. Tel: 4782-9082.
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