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© 2008 Dan Perlman
Casa SaltShaker
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chef: Dan Perlman
Host: Henry Tapia
October 24-25, 2008
With United Nations Day upon us, the simplest approach to a Casa SaltShaker dinner was to offer up one dish from each of the five continents. Now, yes, I know there are more than five - but we’ll start by eliminating any conversations about the Arctic or Antarctic as not having any particularly appealing cuisine for me to undertake preparing, and then Africa because, well, because I had to eliminate one more. In terms of various other versions of what constitute the official continents, I’m sticking with the five I learned growing up many decades ago, and I’m not budging.
Enlace al blog de una comensal
Comments from some of our guests:
"Thank you so much for such a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed every part of it: The coziness of your place, the fantastic food, the choices of wines, the company and the opportunity of meeting with you both." - C.C.
"Hi there...it was just wonderful. I have nothing to add..I wouldnt change a thing. You are both marvelous hosts. I can certainly see why you Dan, fit into the Bastianich-Batali empire ( for all the right reasons ;)" - S.M.
"What a great evening. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with both the food and the company. We met the couple from LA a few days later as we were on our way to Iguazu Falls and then were on the same return flight to the US. as S... from NYC just last night. Such a delightful way to make new friends. A suggestion would be to have a website where similar ventures around the world could be listed along with diner comments. We will look around our own SF Bay Area for new adventure in dining." - C.G.
"Les damos las gracias por las exquisiteces que saboreamos en vuestra casa, como así también el excelente clima que allí reinaba, alimentos, bebidas y compañía de lo mejor, los felicitamos y los volveremos a visitar en el futuro, un saludo cordial a ambos." - H.B.
"I thought everything worked. We enjoyed your company, the other guests were delightful and the food marvelous. Thanks for a lovely evening." - S.K.
[I love finding flotsam, even when negative and completely at odds with the other guests that evening (as you can see above), out on the internet about us - this one, from the Extravigator Haute Travel Talk website:
"Casa Saltshaker (extremely hyped private restaurant) : food wasn't good, service was bitchy and they were stingy with the wine, but we still had a great time at a dinner party with people we had just met." - J.T.
...now, I can't speak for the "extremely hyped" part - I mean, what does that even mean? We've gotten lots of good reviews over the last few years from people who love dining here, and restaurant reviewers who've come (never comped, they pay) - as I've said before, not everyone does. I have been accused of being a bitch, but generally only by ex-boyfriends. As to the wine - it's "all you want to drink" - there's no limit, at least until we run out, so I don't know how that's stingy - we have 10 bottles available (2 for each course) for 12 diners - maybe she just felt we didn't pour enough upfront and didn't feel comfortable asking for more...? But here's the weird part of this particular post - this woman's husband contacted me the week after the dinner, telling me not only how much they loved the food, service and ambiance, but that, he being a publisher, wanted to contract with me to write a book about the whole Casa SaltShaker experience including our recipes! (in the works) So what to make of something like this posting?]
