Mumbai Restaurant (Photo: Rafa López Binaghi)

When it comes to curry, my standards are pretty high.

Having grown up living next door to a Sikh family of Indian descent, the smell of curry cooking would waft into our house, and we would escape next door for food whenever we could. It tends to be one of the first things I eat when on a visit to the UK, a country whose national dish is Chicken Tikka Masala, a kind of culinary colonisation direct from the Commonwealth.

I can whip up a pretty mean curry myself, but I’m no chef and often crave something that goes beyond my cooking prowess. So the quest began to find a real curry in Argentina; I’m not talking a pub-grub (though very tasty) Bangalore version, but the real deal. And not the kind where copious amounts of curry powder are thrown onto any old dish. No, no, my friends! A real curry is made using a variety of spices to give the dish nuanced layers of flavour – cumin, garam masala, coriander, tumeric, chilli, garlic, ginger…

I heard of a new place in San Telmo, but was left disappointed – a decent casserole it was, a curry it was not. It was the kind of place where they bring you a pot of chilli sauce if you want it hotter, adding one-dimensional heat where a spicy flavour should be. A curry crime, as the owners of Mumbai rightly know.

Manoj Menghani could be considered the godfather of Indian food in Argentina, having been in the country for the best part of three decades, and opened Buenos Aires’ first Indian restaurant nearly 20 years ago. This has now closed, but not before Manoj opened Mumbai, in the heart of Palermo Hollywood, some four years ago. I had heard good things about Mumbai, but was sceptical due to continued disappointment, and went along expecting to criticise. I came away pleasantly surprised.

As soon as you enter you are transported out of trendy Palermo to somewhere altogether more exotic. Beautiful, colourful fabrics and wooden tables with intricate carvings set the tone. The decor seems straight out of the Orient, and as it turns out, most of it is, having been shipped in from India over the years.

Refreshing fresh orange, lemon and ginger cocktails appeared. They were wonderful – if a little too drinkable – and the perfect contrast to what I was hoping would be a spicy experience. Chef Istayaz Mohd, also imported from India, did not disappoint.

Chapatis and various dips (Photo: Rafa López Binaghi)

We started with a selection on a platter: chapatis and various dips, served with pieces of chicken, lamb, and king prawns cooked in a variety of spices, garlic, ginger and yoghurt. My first bite was like taking a stroll down curry memory lane. This was the real deal.

We followed the starters with Gosht Saagwala, the restaurant’s flagship dish of lamb with spinach, which brought my palate to life: the lamb was perfectly tender and the subtle tones of cardamom and coriander were carried throughout the entire dish. Highly recommended. The classic Chicken Tikka Masala also impressed, as did the Navratan Korma, a mixture of curried vegetables served with Mumbai’s own homemade cheese and yoghurt, all accompanied by basmati rice and garlic naan.

My mouth was left tingling, but not on fire, although Manoj had accommodated the heat for our Argentine photographer. However, when ordering you can request the dishes to different spice levels, and we were assured that “hot means Indian hot, not Argentine hot”.

I noticed there was a group from India on the next table, who seemed very happy with their food, a good indication of how authentic it is. Manoj also confirmed that staff from the Indian embassy regularly visit too.

We finished with a platter of different desserts, of which Ras Malai and Gulab Jamun, two different variants on the same dish – little spongy balls made with a milk-based dough, one with cardamom, the other fried and served with syrup – were my favourites. And the classic pistachio ice cream, a real treat for those after something sweet.

I think my quest may be over, and as long as your wallet can take it, I recommend going now, during winter and enjoying the heat to the max.

When a person moves to a new country, it’s usually hard to find the ingredients that make up the flavours of home.

Certainly, the food in Argentina is not known for its intricate flavour infusions or delicate spicing. The country’s national dish is grilled meat, and most Argentines will balk at the mention of anything hot or picante.

As such, every local grocer carries the Argentine basics – things like oregano, basil, parsley, provenzal, ”rice seasoning”, salt, chimichurri and pepper can be picked up anywhere. But if you’re looking for something outside of the culinary canon, you’ll probably have to take a few steps further than the local Chinese supermarket.

That said, Argentina’s varied immigrant influences give it a leg-up on other Latin American countries with regards to cuisine. Arab and East-Asian influences can be seen throughout Buenos Aires, especially with regards to the access of foreign ingredients.

Spice shops are littered through the city and, while they too focus on local delights, these stores almost always provide other options. Curry powder is stored on the shelves next to cumin. The scent of a cinnamon peeler’s wife would go unnoticed amongst the thick sticks, which often lurk near the jars of anis and crushed cloves.

This week, the Argentina Independent took a peek inside some of Buenos Aires’ many spice shops and picked a Top 5 to fit your dishes and budgets.

Asian Oriental Shopping (Photo: Allendria Brunjes)

Asia Oriental Shopping

From Japanese miso to Taiwanese snow fungus, this shop carries a wide variety of products that are integral to the continent’s flavours and is sure to satisfy most of your Asian spicing needs.

The noisy store is usually filled to the brim with customers, banging baskets through the thin aisles and shouting in Mandarin and other East Asian languages.

Herbs and spices are at the back of the store, near the refrigerated goods and well within a nose’s reach of the fresh fish and meat sections.

Their spice selection is large and cheap. You can buy a 600g box of curry powder for $80 or 100g of dried kelp for $100. Dried honeysuckle and rosebuds are available, as are dried shitake mushrooms and gastrodia.

Want to make your congee extra special? Gordon euryale seeds can be found here. Not sure where to get the lovely liquorice flavour for your after-curry palate cleanser? Fennel seeds come sold in a Ziploc-style bag.

The store also has an excellent selection of fresh herbs. If you are lucky, there may even be some Thai basil or culantro waiting for you between the chives and coriander.

One of the store’s only letdowns is its popularity. So if you failed to plan your purchases in time for your Saturday sushi party, patience will have to be your virtue. On weekends, you will probably spend more time in the checkout than searching for the seaweed.

While the prices are low per pound, another problem is the large quantities. For instance, unless you plan on feeding an army of strongly-tongued 14-year-old boys, you probably won’t need half a kilo of dried, crushed chilies, but smaller quantities can be found at the Casa China Supermercado, located only a block away on Arribeños 2257.

All told, Asia Oriental Shopping’s low prices, wide variety and good quality make this store a fantastic place to stock up a spice rack with wonderfully strange ingredients, making it our favourite on the list.

Asia Oriental Shopping, Mendoza 1661.

Liniers Market (Photo: Allendria Brunjes)

Liniers Market

If you’re looking for the spices of South America, the Liniers market is the place to go.

Every day of the week, Buenos Aires’ European roots are cast aside on José León Suárez, making room for the people and flavours of Bolivia and Peru.

It is impossible to pick one store out of these haphazard two blocks, especially considering that some “stores” consist of people sitting on the street with their spicy wares. As such, we’re listing the whole market itself as the place to go.

The market hosts a full entourage of ingredients. There are many varieties of aji, like de color, panca and mirasol. Maíz, or corn, is available in a rainbow of colours. You can also pick up a variety of cooking and baking ingredients, like Paraguayan flour and manioc starch.

Fresh herbs, common in Bolivian and Peruvian cooking, are available from established stores, as well as simpler one-item vendors.

As an added bonus, the prices are low, as is to be expected in a market atmosphere like this one.

While you’re shopping for ingredients, you can tame your salivating tongue with salteñas and Peruvian fried chicken with cassava.

The Bolivian-Peruvian Market is located on José León Suárez between Ramón Falcón and Ibarrola, in Liniers.

El Gato Negro (Photo: Allendria Brunjes)

El Gato Negro 

A deep herbal aroma hits you when entering El Gato Negro. It’s the allure of cumin, with a hint of cardamom and aftertaste allspice – the kind of scent that fades in the nostrils after standing around for a few minutes.

Your eyes are in for a treat, too, as the shelves are lined with colourful bottles housing teas, herbs, spices, powders and dried fruits. Deep red sumak is on the same shelf as the baking powder. There are five different curry spice mixes – madrasi, mild, hot, punjabi and assam – ranging from a turmeric-laden canary yellow to a faded brown, the shade of coriander.

A row of dark tea leaves garnishes the cash register, featuring such mixes as vanilla and chamomile, rosehip and hibiscus, and green tea with orange and ginger.

What puts this place so high on our list is its sheer selection, quality and the fact that its goods are sold in bulk. Each spice is sold by weight, each bag measured by a careful hand at the scale. The old architecture and clean style makes you feel more like you’re visiting an apothecary than picking up dinner fixings.

What keeps this place from reaching number one, however, is the price. Prices are not listed on the jars, so customers have to ask – and they’re much higher than other places on this list.

In addition to being a spice shop, El Gato Negro is also a popular café that serves tasty sweets and fresh coffee. It’s one of the only places in the city where you can enjoy a scone with a cafe con cardamomo.

El Gato Negro, Av. Corrientes 1669.

Dietetica Once (Photo: Allendria Brunjes)

Dietetica Once

This little corner shop is unassuming in nature. It sits on a shady corner, the kind of place tourists should avoid when walking alone at night. During the day, however, the lights are bright and the store is delightful.

A collection of chimes and bells hanging on the door are constantly tinkling as customer after customer walks in. The queue snakes around bean sacks and mismatched shelves.

In addition to selling spices, this store also keeps people stocked up with its selection of herbal health medicines and baked goods. Large buckets of honey sit waiting to be bought, while sandwiches and salads sit in the fridge. Items ranging from granola to soap are shoved into almost ever nook and cranny.

Spices are spread throughout the store, found in jars of different shapes, sizes and colours along the walls. Rosemary. Sage. Vanilla. Seeds of all sorts. Fenugreek. Paprika. The prices are right, too. Chimichurri, for instance, costs $3.50 per 100 grams.

As wonderful as this place is, the size of its spice selection holds it back. Also, depending on the day, they have been sold out of seemingly-basic staples in the past (like curry powder). The staff can also be a bit supercilious at times.

All-in-all, this is a great general shop to set up a kitchen with its basic herb and spice needs.

Dietetica Once, Valentín Gómez 2902.

La Simbólica (Photo: Allendria Brunjes)

La Simbólica

La Simbólica has been a “symbol” of San Telmo for years. The last in a chain of franchise that have gradually been sold off, Aido Lela runs the place with her son Salvador Graciano and grandson Sebastian Graciano.

This family-run operation welcomes its customers not only with friendly service – which is a refreshing change – but also with the scent of dried fruits. Pomelo, apple, mango, papaya, kiwi and banana and health medicines join the spices on the shelves.

The store carry all the basics, and a little more. There’s ground turmeric as well as whole turmeric. Oregano and basil. Several types of sesame seed, different mustard powders and cumin.

In addition to their spicy selection, they also sell teas and herbal remedies for whatever ails you. They have a behind-the-counter shelf with olive oils, jellies and wines as well – incase you need more than just spice with your meal.

While prices are reasonable, they are still a little higher than the others in our selection. Chimichurri is priced at $5 per 100 grams for example, which might have  something to do with the store’s San Telmo location.

La Simbólica, Carlos Calvo 708.

Photo by Sanra Ritten

We have a bad reputation in the kitchen, us Brits. Unlike our European counterparts – the French with their boeufs, the Italians with their pasta, the Spanish with their tapas – most people screw their noses up at the idea of ‘English cuisine’. Or laugh and make a lame joke about fish and chips.

But contrary to popular belief, the English can cook. And one man and his brand new restaurant seem to be here to throw the misconception out of the window, defying popular belief.

Martyn Scourse has been in Buenos Aires for ten years now, but his steak and kidney pies, beef in ale, and jacket potatoes with chilli con carne are just about as English as they get.

I suppose chilli con carne is not technically English (Mexicans might have something to say about that!) nor would be the curries that are on offer in the new San Telmo spot Mash every night, but if you take into consideration the ‘multiculturalism’ that former PM Tony Blair was always lauding, we can probably claim them on some level. And chicken tikka masala was voted the ‘most British dish’ a couple of years back, proving Tony’s point.

Going into Mash for the first time, the one thing that I felt was the warm sense of familiarity and how much my dinner ‘tasted like home’.

The food will not blow you away with the presentation – that’s not really the point. And when people criticise ole Blighty’s food, they are right in thinking it’s not ‘nouvelle cuisine’ – three lettuce leaves with a prawn on top. What Martyn offers in Mash is good old comfort food – the kind of thing your mum used to serve up. And he does it well and at a good price.

Photo by Sanra Ritten

And what will make Mash a success is probably that he is aware he’s onto a good thing. Martyn knows the market well – he opened the first English pub in BA – Three Lions, which imported all of its beer. The 2001/2 financial crash put an end to that, and after a couple of other ventures and a stint back in the UK, Martyn returned to open Rocket, a restaurant in the centre, which was a huge success.

Rocket recently closed its doors to make way for Mash – and with the news roast dinners are on offer on Sunday lunchtimes, I’m pretty sure the success Rocket enjoyed will be following on shortly.

When I pass by to talk to Martyn, despite Mash only having been open a matter of days, I met regulars who live around the corner from Rocket and have followed him to San Telmo. They are only slightly put out by their new commute.

Terry and Elizabeth can’t get enough of the food, and Elizabeth is enthusiastic about how good the salads are. “They’re not just a mixed salad to have on the side as a gesture of healthiness – these are full-plate ‘meal salads’ with everything in.”

As it’s barely spring on the day of my visit and raining to top things off, I take on board the English climate and opt for beef in Guinness instead. It’s warm, hearty and hits the spot.

And I realise there is really nowhere else that has done this. It’s quite ridiculous given the number of expats who are flooding into the city, that Mash is – and probably will remain – quite unique in its authenticity.

Photo by Sanra Ritten

Looking around the restaurant, while a nice spot, it is not a slick Palermo kind of place. It could almost be called no frills. But the décor is not important – the food and perhaps a laid-back chat with Martyn thrown in is what Mash is about.

If you are British you will recognise the food and love it, if you are Argentine you will ask for the curry to be toned down, and if you are French you will probably turn your nose up at the presentation.

But the promise of roast dinners and curry in the heart of San Telmo will surely be enough to make people go and keep going back.

Mash – México 518. Open Monday-Friday for lunch (12.30-4.30pm) and dinner (7pm-midnight). Open Saturday nights, from 7pm and Sunday for lunch, 12.30-4.30pm.

My favourite dish: the promise of roast chicken

Some people will love: Martyn’s yarns

Likely to be sitting next to: a Brit asking for more spice

Likely to spend: $30

  

Photo by Kate Stanworth

The ever-expanding muddle that is Palermo has so many parts that it is quite confusing which is what and where is which. My beloved corner of Palermo is known as Hollywood due to the TV and film studios that are spattered along the cobbled streets. I think it should be called Palermo Bars and Restaurants – hmmm, doesn’t quite work but it really is astonishing how many restaurants there are in the barrio now – full ones, empty ones, good ones and shoddy ones. To add to the eclectic (for porteño standards) collection, Mumbai has just made the move from the centre to Honduras and Bonpland.

Hurray hurrah and a wee jump for joy as there is Indian nosh a hop and a skip from my front door. Pre-review appointment I ordered a daal and some naan to munch on in casa and I was very pleasantly surprised. Review appointment came round and off trundled I to sample the delights from a continent that, from a culinary prospectus, is worlds away from Buenos Aires. Refreshing fresh orange, lemon and ginger cocktails magically appeared from behind the bar as I perused the slightly comic cocktail list – you can try John Lennon’s favourite cocktail or have a Calcutta Crazy Sex if you are up for it.

  

Photo by Kate Stanworth

We then feasted on a variety on nibbley starters, the most notable of which were the light samosas which stood out from the fried spinach and potato mouthfuls. This was followed by pretty pots of biryani, rogan josh, tikka masala, daal and naans. The chef has cooked in the curry capital of Europe – Manchester – and knows his stuff. The lamb in the rogan josh was succulent and tasty, the naans were nice and the mint one was a variety not known to this curry fan. The colours and flavours brought memories of England flooding back although I am adamant that one must ask for ‘Indian Spice’. We asked for some spice to add which was indeed hot hot hot and I understand entirely the point of the charismatic owner – we are in Buenos Aires and, however macho the porteños may try to be, they cannot handle the heat – maybe the spice levels should have two scales: 1, 2 or 3 I’m Argentine or 1, 2 or 3 I’m not… If you are interested in spice then I also recommend you waddle round a couple of corners and try the chilli in honey at the Azema Exotic Bistro – Indian Ocean food which is very different to Indian and adds to the growing hotch potch of interesting eateries.

I think that Mumbai are rather clever to have moved to the area – full of fresh foreign blood and I expect that the level of spice may turn up a notch quite quickly. The photos and the elephants in the restaurant are super but – as many friends of mine have pointed out – it needs to turn the lights down a little bit and maybe plonk a rug or two on the floor to give it a touch of added onda and a more welcoming look.

We finished Mumbai with a good helping of pistachio icecream –something which didn’t sound too enticing to me but actually a jolly yummy way of finishing up a satisfying curry. The staff are charming and the food means that I will be there many a moment and ordering take-away to chomp upon in the warmth of my home.

Mumbai, Honduras 5684, Palermo Hollywood, Tel: 4775 9791, www.mumbai.restaurant.com.ar

My favourite dish – samosas

Most likely to be sitting next to – intrigued locals or adopted locals

Some people will love – the Indian hot spice

Likely to spend – $60