Aramburu

This post is mostly for my mom :)

I turned 23 last week and to celebrate went out to Aramburu in Recoleta. This was my first time doing a tasting menu and it was a fun time. I had to get to a concert later, so I ate on the early side for Buenos Aires (6:30pm - might as well have been lunch, right?). As a result, I got to sit at the bar with a view into the kitchen. For a while I was also the only person in the restaurant (sad or luxurious? jury's still out) and had about a 4:1 waiter-to-me ratio. One would ask me if I wanted still or sparkling water and as soon as I answered, another would already be pouring it into my glass. They explained that the tasting would happen in 17 Steps, but I honestly don't know how that numbering plays out. Here's what all the pictures are, though!

1. The view into the kitchen. An exhilarating amount of assembly lines.

2. Potato/pepper chips cut into Fall leaves and onion soup in the ceramic rock

3. Eggplant spread + lime leaves, something they called a kimchi taco, and a beet extravaganza

4. Some mysterious scallop cloud (when I asked what it was, they said some poetic thing about the clouds of the sea melting in your mouth), a pumpkin cannoli, and a strawberry cheese tart

5. Baby goat donut. Definitely a favorite.

6. Carrot and red quinoa "cake"

7. This is the one that caught me by surprise. They introduced it in Spanish, so I caught the fact that there was coconut milk, granita, and a third item. Pairing that with the visual of the purple flowers I figured I was about to get something fruity and light and sweet. It turns out that third thing was oyster and my tastebuds got a really weird slap when I first bit in.

8. Mushroom soup

9. Perhaps the most delicious salad I've ever had - kale chips and shrimp and magic I think

10. The fish of the day! I missed exactly what it was but it was great.

11. Quail with crispy leeks and a white carrot sauce

12. Deer!

13. A palette cleansing grapefruity jello

14. An ice cream taco with popcorn?

15. Thyme ice cream with meringue spikes plus a dulce de leche cake

16. Because it was my birthday, the restaurant also supplied this incredible puddingy cake, some nice tea, and bon bons (chocolate/ginger, citrus jelly, and a Marroc). And of course because it's Buenos Aires, even the candle was held up with dulce de leche.

17. :)