Argentina Cafe

3055 Sage # 130 (faces Hidalgo)

Over the last several months I have checked out several of our city's Argentinian restaurants - Manena's, Yorktown Deli, El Gaucho and Argentina Cafe - comparing them to long time favorite Marini's Original Empanada House. Argentina Cafe is the newest one, open only a couple of weeks at the time of my first visit, and has the most expansive menu. It's located on Hidalgo at Sage in the same strip center as Alexander the Great Greek restaurant but even as of my last visit the signage was easy to miss. It's a stylish hole-in-the-wall, a family affair so far as I can tell, and everyone has been very friendly.

On my first visit I tried the Sandwiches de migas. These thin, crustless sandwiches are said to be an Argentine obsession and I've had them at Manena's and became fond of them after just one. At Argentina Cafe I had the ham, cheese, red pepper and olives; unfortunately the bread was a little stale and this was not as enjoyable as the palmitos I had at Manena's. The menu said that the palmitos and a couple of other varieties are 'special order.' This just means they are made to order, not in advance like the ones I had, and so take a little longer to serve, but it's not necessary to call in advance unless you're in a real hurry. I would recommend going for one of those varieties.


This was no more than a snack, all I needed at that time, but several other dishes are temptingly on display and I picked up more for later - matambre and rusa. Matambre is a rolled, stuffed skirt or flank steak; I've had this at Manena's (and tried to order it at El Gaucho but they couldn't serve it though it's on the regular menu). The beef roll is cut in slices and served on a crusty and chewy baguette with lettuce, tomato and mayo. The sandwich at Manena's was very satisfying but at Argentina Cafe the slices were much thicker and it was a much more substantial sandwich and very good. The stuffing includes minced carrot and palmitos and hard boiled egg, among other things, I think.

Rusa, listed on the menu just as Argentina Salad, is the Argentine version of Salade Olivier and the version here is the most colorfully appealing I have encountered with carrot, corn, green peas, egg, olive and mayonnaise. Unlike Salad Olivier, Rusa contains no diced meat. This was a little bland, I wanted to taste more of the egg and I think maybe they used a low fat mayo, but otherwise it was good and much better than the one at El Gaucho which had only potatoes, carrots and peas.


On another visit on a Sunday the place was packed (the staff speaks fluent English but my guess is that for the majority of customers English is not the first language) so again I got a sandwich to go, this time choosing the choripan. This is perhaps the Argentine national sandwich, chorizo plus pan (bread), the Argentine version of a taco truck being known as a chorrimobile. It consists of a grilled Argentine chorizo on a baguette with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. This is on the menu at Marini's although I've never had it and also on the menu at El Gaucho where it consisted of a small, split, grilled chorizo on a huge marraqueta roll with chimichurri. Except for the fact El Gaucho serves an excellent, garlicky chimichurri, it was a very disappointing sandwich but at Argentina Cafe it was very satisfying. Some online sources compare Argentine chorizo to Italian sausage; it is very mild and, as I've encountered it, rather lean, unlike Colombian chorizos. It reminded me of a sausage from Prasek's Hillje Smokehouse near El Campo. Besides serving it in the sandwich, Argentina Cafe sells one pound packages of both the chorizo and a morcilla imported from Argentina.


On another visit I needed just a snack and picked up a beef empanada. I had tried a cheese and onion empanada on a previous visit and was surprised when what I got looked like a small quiche. The beef empanada (there are only four varieties on the menu) looks like what I expect an empanada to look like; they are baked here rather than fried and the filling was a very savory ground beef with onions, spices, and hard boiled egg. I have been enjoying Argentine empanadas since the early 70s when I lived very close to the original location of Marini's and the Gaucho there is one of my favorites. I have sampled a lot of empanadas over the last few months, Venezuelan, Colombian, Argentinian, and this is perhaps the only one that may supplant the Gaucho at Marini's as my favorite. The crust is so thin as to make the pie somewhat springy - I thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea to handle it roughly. I got some chimichurri to accompany this. At El Gaucho the excellent chimichurri made an other-wise too bland beef empanada really good, but the chimichurri at Argentina Cafe is too oily and vinegary, with those elements overwhelming the parsley and garlic for me. No problem - this empanada, though it's not at all spicy, doesn't need any help from chimichurri.

The restaurant does not have a website and since I can't do justice to the entire menu with this post, I've scanned the menu here.

Keep in mind dishes and prices may differ at the restaurant.

Christmas Eve Day Enchiladas

So I got my Christmas tamales - from Gerardo's this year - and they're very good.

But today I had a taste for enchiladas - Christmas Eve Day enchiladas? A new tradition?


Enchiladas Espinacas with panela cheese, mushrooms and cilantro at La Guadalupana Bakery and Cafe on Dunlavy. Excellent.

Merry Christmas to all.

Taqueria Tacoocho

'Tacos de la Ciudad'
South Post Oak at Beltway 8

This post has been edited to add some explanation of 'rose meat' and another picture.


Boy did I think I had a real find when I first got a good look at this one. I've seen it many times, even tried to stop once but the driveway of the filling station was so crowded there was no place to park. It's a very well maintained unit that I've observed doing a lot of business on numerous occasions.


As I've mentioned I like to look for the less common offerings and the menu here was very promising. On the breakfast menu are tacos de machacado, lengua en chipotle and tacos revolcados. The regular menu includes mollejas (sweetbreads) and machitos de chivo (goat tripe); mollejas are somewhat rare and I've never seen machitos anywhere so I was very encouraged.


On my first visit, however, I wasn't feeling very adventurous and I went for the alambre - beef (sirloin I think), bacon, grilled onions and poblanos and cheese. This was a larger taco on a beautiful, thick, hand-made tortilla and it was excellent with a very generous amount of filling. Although I only sampled it after finishing the taco the salsa verde was very good, too.


I made another stop a couple of days later and was disappointed to learn that both the mollejas and machitos are no longer served so I tried the suadero and chorizo. These were the smaller Mexico City style tacos for only $1 apiece. I haven't had suadero more than a couple of times but this was the best I've had, tender and juicy pieces of both the fatty and lean portions of brisket I think. The chorizo was very mild but excellent. Both salsas were very good with the green one much hotter.

I tried to ascertain what the revolcados on the breakfast menu are but neither of the crew members nor another customer were able to explain it; I didn't ask if the machacado and lengua are even available and since I seldom go out for breakfast it will be sometime before I get there for breakfast but I will stop at this truck again.

Edit 2/7/10: I came across this explanation of suadero or rose meat... "is a cut of beef... or couple related cuts of beef (depends on the butcher you talk to)... that involves the areas adjacent to brisket & belly... its a tough cut of meat that is usually brined or pickled before a long, slow cooking then finished up on the griddle." The authority goes on to compare it to corned beef and said that since it is pink, like pork, this may be where the name rose meat comes from.

Recently I went back to Tacoocho to try it again.


This time the suadero was not nearly as tender but the cabeza was awesome.

While there, I spotted another truck across Post Oak and went over to check it out. Taqueria Salmanca has mollejas and machitos on the menu also and they were able to serve the mollejas. What I got was not as good as Tacambero behind Canino's but was good nonetheless.

Tacos Pacos

Beechnut @ La Roche, Club Creek just south of Beechnut, and Harwin @ Allday

I noted the first two of these on my survey of Beechnut mobil vendors. I passed the list on to Ziggy Smogdust and he hit the unit at La Roche and was really pleased with what he got. I've since been to the La Roche and Club Creek locations.

I had noted the menu of the La Roche location included cesina and chivo but what Ziggy discovered on the menu also was buche which is new to both of us. Buche is either pig's esophagus or pig's small intestine, considered a type of carnitas because of the preparation method. Ziggy had a beautiful picture posted on the other blog showing the carmelization of the exterior.


I got a ton of cilantro on my tacos and although I didn't get as good a picture as Ziggy I enjoyed the buche just as much. This was the most delicately flavored carnitas I've ever had and I was an instant fan. The chivo also was excellent, not at all gamey although the salsa was on the cusp of gaminess. I couldn't wait to try both of these types of tacos again.


On my second visit I tried the Club Creek location. This unit sits next to a bottled water kiosk and is not quite as down at the heels as the other location.


The menu here lists birria instead of chivo and adds camaron to the list but I didn't notice the birria before I ordered and I got buche and tripas. As the picture reveals there was virtually no carmelization of the buche and it wasn't nearly as spectacular; the tripas was medium crispy with a little charring on some pieces. The salsa, in a dispenser on the counter along the side of the wagon, looked good and fresh and there were also pickled vegetables to help yourself to.

Since learning what buche is and experiencing it I've noticed it on other taco truck menus too and will have to be trying it elsewhere. It is not on the menu of the Harwin location of Tacos Pacos.

Taqueria Chilangos

4330 W. Fuqua @ Monrad, 1 block east of Hiram Clarke


I've been spending some time on the south side again recently, noting taco trucks of course. I've been to El Ultimo on Long Point for tripas recently, Tacos Pacos for buche and tripas and El Barrio Alto for tripitas; I just couldn't face any more tacos today, especially any involving parts of the digestive systems of other animals, so when I saw a torta I'd never heard of before - Chavo del 8 - I had to try it.


It takes its name from a popular Spanish language sitcom about an orphan who lives on the street and likes ham sandwiches. Okay, sounds like a strange idea for a sitcom but I've never seen it. Anyway, the sandwich involves slices of deli ham, 2 melting cheeses (amarillo y blanco), lettuce, tomato, avocado, and mayonnaise but no refritos, all served up on a very thin and huge telera that was nicely toasted on the griddle. In fact the whole sandwich was heated up. Pretty simple and very satisfying.

They also do gringas and have an alambre platillo for lunch.

Cruising for Street Food: Harwin

This is another in my exciting ongoing series 'Cruising for Street Food on the Southwest side.' I've been making notes about these units whenever and wherever I come across them and just decided to pull them all together and put them out there in case others are interested.

This time I drove Harwin from Hillcroft out to Highway 6; four of the seven units I found were between Fondren and Gessner:

Tacos El Ranchero @ Forney, 1 block w. of Hillcroft - this one was doing a very brisk business at 12:45pm in this neighborhood where there are numerous Indo/Pak eateries and others; I noticed lengua and tripas on the menu.

Tacos y Tortas - a tiny wagon at 8000 Harwin, between Fondren and Gessner; no menu, no customers at about 1pm

La Fogata Mexican Kitchen, @ Allday, in the driveway of a Fuel Depot station - small hut on wheels, this one has been there a long time.

Tacos Pacos - @ Allday, this is another unit of the ones I noted on Beechnut and Club Creek earlier. Ziggy Smogdust checked one of those out and I've checked them out too and will post a review soon. This appears to be a real find. Like the ones mentioned on the other list, this one has buche and tripas but no goat on the menu.

Laoxaquena Tacos y Tortas - 9895 Harwin, close to Gessner


I stopped at this one several months ago because of the name. There is no menu posted anywhere and very little English was comprehended. I inquired about any Oaxacan specialties and was directed to try their Chicken Special.


This proved to be a delicious meal except that the chicken breast meat itself was as dry and tough as leather. The rolled, stuffed chicken breasts were kept in foil on the edge of the griddle; to prepare the plate, they were unwrapped and reheated on the grill, then presented. The stuffing included carrots, potatoes, and ground beef and a portion of a bay leaf. The sauce was excellent; I presume it to be a Oaxacan mole but one I'm not familiar with and I couldn't begin to guess the ingredients, nor could I identify the green or herb in the sauce. This was one of those meals I could have plated up at home to make much more appealing and it would have been an excellent meal had not the breast meat been so dry.

Ricos Tacos Mobil - a blue truck at Boone in a convenience store parking lot. Noted tripitas, lengua on the menu. A sign on side says www.roadstergrill.com - that's the Greek/burger place at @ Bellaire and Bissonnet???

Taquitos Jacala - 66 station parking lot @ West Houston Center Blvd. I was going the wrong way, the traffic was heavy and there was no place to pull over so I didn't get a look at the menu.