After wandering Chinatown's 3-block stretch (not the mini-city you might see in Frisco or NYC), we heard boisterous partyish noise from an upstairs restaurant & went up. 90% of the clientele was Asian, including a big laughing family. Lunch specials ran $25 pesos a plate, and a Quilmes liter was a ridiculously low $10 pesos. We ordered chicken curry and sweet-and-sour chicken, both of which came with 2 egg rolls (a Chinese-Argentine hybrid with a normal egg roll shell but a decidedly empanada-ish meat filling), fried rice, and agua con gas. We sat near the window, overlooking a Korean Presbyterian Church on a sidestreet, ate and drank for nearly an hour and a half. It was serene & the food was delicious.
From there, we checked out a few of the local shops--full of cheap wares you might not find elsewhere in BsAs. From fake sharpies to incense to HelloKitty notebooks to samurai swords. The communal knife in Casa Bien Bohemio sucks, so we bought a rubber-handled chopper for $15 pesos. Jess walked out with a pair of sunglasses in her hand. Nice looking, but so cheaply made it would have been just as criminal to pay for them.
The big draw for Barrio de Chino, besides its restaurants, is the grocery shopping. Nowhere else in the city (maybe the country) can you get peanut butter. Refried black beans. Curry paste. Tahini. Teriyaki sauce. Red onion. Tofu. Asahi beer. Any spice blend you'd ever need. I was dumbstruck by all the ethnic food options: not only Chinese, but Thai, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indian, and even Mexican. I got an Indian curry blend, a couple of tiny red onions, and a big-ass bag o' brown sugar to make teriyaki sauce with. No peanut butter. I am a fool.
It's easy to get to Chinatown, but it's so small you could walk right past it. We did. Don't ignore the big Chinese-style archway---turns out, that's your gateway in. For clearer directions, ask this guy.
