The most important word to learn when eating out in Buenos Aires is not asado or malbec, but bodegon.
A family-style restaurant that serves everything from pasta and milanesas to empanadas and fish, a bodegon’s menu is the closest you can get to an Argentine take on the notion of comfort-food. While the word bodegón is a derivative of the word bodega (Spanish for winery), the fare is much closer to that of a tavern or a diner, with heaping portions served on thin metal plates that keep an order of lasagna or entraña (skirt steak) piping hot.
A self-described “neo-bogedon”, Mengano honors Argentine tradition and takes it further, offering a contemporary, upgraded reinterpretation of popular, everyday dishes like Gramajo scramble or matambre con rusa (a beef roll with a mayo-bathed potato, carrot, and peas salad). The restaurant was one of the few Argentine restaurants to obtain Michelin’s Bib Gourmand recognition — which praises high-quality food at a good value — and made it into the World’s 50 Best ranking of Latin American Restaurants list in position #82.
Facundo Kelemen — the brains behind Mengano — was a lawyer until he decided to make a U-turn and start an impromptu career in the food industry. While he never finished the Argentine Gastronomy Institute’s program — the basic training ground for most Argentine chefs — he nevertheless started to learn on the side with different chefs and stages at Michelin-starred restaurants in Buenos Aires (Tegui) and New York (Estela and Atera, among others).
Upon his return to Argentina, he was already clear that his goal was to cook Argentine food, and felt bodegones had been neglected by haute cuisine. He partnered with his friends Diego Borrero and André Parisier and opened Mengano in July 2018. The venue was another typical Argentine feature: an old refurbished casa chorizo (a long, rectangular-type building typical of early 20th century Buenos Aires homes), with an interior design that includes Kelemen’s old family pictures.
A traditional set for a modern experience
Mengano serves between 12 and 14 dishes, ,of which there are 5 or 6 that can be considered the menu’s backbone. But even in those cases, don’t expect to find the same thing on very outing.
“Just because they are permanent, that doesn’t mean they’re static,” says Kelemen in the restaurant’s official presentation.
The restaurant’s dishes feature well structured and defined ingredients in new combinations, while staying within the familiar side. Such is the case of the fish, a catch of the day alla putanesca, served with an emulsion made out of the fish’s own bones. The “not-so-revuelto gramajo” (“not-really-scrambled Gramajo”) adds a twist to one of the most common bodegon dishes: in addition to new features like goat cheese and prosciutto, patrons received the eggs pre-cooked and have to finish scrambling them themselves.
SOURCE: buenosairesherald.com