Buenos Aires Highlights: Part 2 - Food and Wine

Argentina = beef, right?  Right.

Kitchen view of Cabana Las Lilas.

Argentinian steaks are famous the wold over, and rightly so.   Even before we arrived, I carefully planned out a tour of the best parrillas, with the goal to eat my weight in steak before leaving the country.  Ugh, some days it definitely felt like I was reaching that goal!  

Argentinian food culture, at least from my limited experience, can seem very European in some ways, very different in others.  But everything, I believe, arises from their unique relationship to beef.

First, this is not a "big breakfast" culture like the US.  A small coffee, maybe a sweet medialuna (literally "half-moon" or croissant), and that's it.

Breakfast of campions.

Comparatively, people generally start their day a bit later too, much like in Spain.  And I totally get why: people typically eat dinner starting at around 10pm.  Usually, it's a dinner that consists of a 1 pound slab of beef, with maybe some potatoes and decorative lettuce thrown in.  If you eat a slab of beef at 11pm accompanied by half a bottle of wine, how likely is it that you will be up with the sun frying up an omelet with bacon.  Not likely.  

Anyway, I quickly found out that the late, rich and filling dinners we were having would totally knock me out well into late morning.  Really I was not good and hungry until 1 or 2pm.  

Lunch generally involved some form of beef as well.  At cafes, light sandwiches often meant  lomo (a thin strip of tenderloin) covered in melted cheese and a slice of ham!  With a side of chips or french fries dipped in salsa golf  (ketchup and mayonnaise mixed together) of course.  

Salsa Gold and the local Quilmes Cristal beer.

We did this type of lunch once, but my arteries did protest too much, so we often resorted to a light snack in our hotel room of fruit, cheese and little bread.  Or a helping of gelato from Freddo (yes, they know their way around gelato in Argentina too).

Dulce de leche, rum and chocolate gelato for lunch.

Really, all day was just a slow preparation of the beef bonanza to come, commonly referred to as dinner. It meant having a bit of a siesta in the afternoon, just so we would be alert enough to eat it.  (Ok, a couple times we broke down and made reservations for 8 or 8:30pm, but usually we tried to hit the peak dining hour of 10ish to feel the happy buzz of a restaurant going at full steam.)  Interestingly enough, our tour guide mentioned that like in Spain, the habit of siesta is slowly going away, however people who live close enough to home still go home in the middle of the day for their lunch.  

Now for the dinner itself.  Most restaurants offer you an empanada (little pie stuffed with ground beef) soon after you sit down.  On the rare occasion you have to order it yourself, but either way it seems many meals start off with this tasty little morsel of lard pastry and fatty beef.  That's just to whet your appetite a bit as you peruse the food and wine menus.

But in reality, you can just go ahead and put those menus down, because it seems every restaurant has colluded with one another to bring you the same experience no matter what:

Here is the bread basket I assembled back in 1994.  Nobody dares eat it but we'll charge you for looking at it because that is what we do.

Now, what part of the cow do you want us to bring you, and how bloody do you want it?

Okay, now, you can have ANYTHING you want as a side, so long as it started life as a potato.

Still worried that a true vegetable hasn't crossed your lips in days?  Okay, we'll bring you a salad but under no circumstances will we put something on it.  Salad dressing is too rich, we worry about your health.

Oh, and you better have a bottle of Malbec, it helps cut the artery clogging enough do we can stuff you in a taxi at the end of the night.

Done.

I think we ate at 6 or 7 different parillas, and routine was very consistent. Not that I am complaining.  They have steak down to an art form and it was delicious every single time.  Sure there were variations in the cut of the meat, or the creaminess of the mashed potato, but I suppose when you get something as right as meat and potatoes, you don't mess with the formula.

Which brings me to my other observation - where is the spice?  Everything was usually served in it's purest form.  You want french fries, sure, you get potatoes, sliced and fried.  They will not be shaking them with chile powder or tossing them in garlic.  You want salad, okay, but it will be served naked, with a couple whisps of tomato.  You want carrots?  Ok, here is a bowl of carrots.  You get exactly what you order.  Very little is done to food, and you get the purest flavor.  This works great on steak - it's so good it would be a crime to slather it in A1.  But have you heard of table salt?  Usually missing from the table, it was begrudgingly brought out only when asked.  These people are hard core!

My favorite grill restaurants:

El Mirasol - Near Recoleta, said to be one of the best parrillas in town, it was pricey but delicious.  The atmosphere was more of a business dinner crowd, so subdued and professional, but very nice.   Order the Copa Recova with a friend - it's a boat of gelato and meringue which you could literally sail away on.

La Brigada - Right in the charming neighborhood of San Telmo.  They take their meat so seriously here, they would not let us order a ribeye done "medium well".  As the waiter explained, it simply doesn't do justice to the meat, so the chef won't cook it.

Cabana Las Lilas - In Puerto Madero with water views, this is one of the most famous parrillas in town.  I read reviews that this had now become "over-rated" and too hyped up on its own fame, but it was absolutely our favorite place by far.  We had a table outside overlooking the water and the wine and food were simply amazing.






Las Nazarenas - By Plaza San Martin, a little touristy, but a nice asador (steakhouse) with great service and food.  And a neat spit at the front where you can see meat being roasted.




Juana M - A spot that seems more for locals than tourists, a great underground dining room and the most affordably priced dinner we had.  Great steaks and amazing salad bar where we finally got some good vegetables in our gullets!

Oops, I was halfway through before I remembered to take a picture.  

A note on prices:  On average, a "pricey" dinner at a top restaurant meant about $100 for two, including wine and desert!

Now, on to the wines... 

Argentina is known for their amazing Malbecs, so we decided to take a private wine-tasting session with a sommelier at Gran Cru, a wine shop in the Recoleta area.  It was one of my favorite experiences, and well-worth the time and money. We got to try a range of Malbecs, nibble on local cheese, and learn more about the history and wine-production methods in Argentina.  I'm glad we did this at the start of our trip, as it made ordering wine less daunting at dinner the following evenings.  

After days of Malbec and beef (actually, I was convinced I started to smell like steak), we did have one non-typical meal I want to share with you.  See, one of my other goals, beside eating steak to the point of silliness, was to go to a casa cerrada, or closed door, restaurant.  Buenos Aires (and other cities all over the world I imagine) has these secret little restaurants which don't really advertise but operate more on a word of mouth basis.  Essentially, very talented chefs open the doors of their own homes to a handful of people once or twice a week, and you have the privilege of having a very unique and carefully thought out experience.  

We were fortunate enough to get reservations to Casa Mun, a closed door restaurant of Asian fusion style.  Chef Mun, who studied under Iron Chef Makota Okuwa, carefully prepared and explained each course, each of which was paired with an lovely wine.   Not only was it a wonderful break from beef, but it was simply amazing in its own right.  The delicate balance of flavors and textures and some of the best sushi I have EVER had.  Yes, right there in Buenos Aires.  I couldn't recommend it more.

Spicy seafood and vegetable broth.

Lightly seared tuna with crispy onions.

Sushi selection - the fried rice with spicy tuna on the right was amazing!

Momofuku style pork buns - I could have eaten a huge pile if only I weren't so stuffed from the previous courses!

In fairness, there was a lovely chocolate cake for dessert, but I was too busy enjoying it to realize I'd forgotten to take a picture!  

It was a perfect ending to our Buenos Aires experience, because it really reminded us that the city is a thriving cosmopolitain center to Latin America, and more than just the food stereotypes it's famous for.

Next up: shopping!