Cuisine & Vins
La revista de la buena vida

November 2007, Page 118

 

 

Strangely, this was an article about parrilla etiquette, but in the editing process the title given is a little odd, since only one is recommended, it was more about the whole process, and then a couple of recommendations that had been left off from a previous article on outdoor dining were tacked on... Here's my original, unedited copy for this article:

Here in Buenos Aires, when it’s time to celebrate a grand occasion, it’s time for an asado, what we might call a backyard barbecue or a cookout... It’s not that anyone really needs an excuse for an asado, simply being Saturday or Sunday is quite sufficient. But make it a special day and it’s time to pull out all the stops - which basically means, tons of meat, smoking hot, right off the parrilla. I thought this column would be a good chance to introduce you all to some of the basics.

You probably don’t need an introduction to asado etiquette - it’s pretty much the same as any grilling session on any patio anywhere in the world. It’s a guy thing. Everyone stands around, drinking beer or cheap wine, giving advice to the guy who’s doing the grilling, while he ignores all suggestions and does it his way, like it or not. Sound familiar?

But what is different here is what’s coming off the grill, or parrilla. First off, there’s a whole lot of innards. I know, I know - but here in Argentina, the innards, or achuras, are an absolutely integral part of the day, and you probably should know what you’re getting yourself into. First, a couple of glands, because you’re going to see them everywhere - mollejas and riñones - sweetbreads and kidneys. The former, here, come in two varieties - "de cuello", or from the neck, which means the thymus gland, and "de corazon", or from the heart, which really isn’t from there, but further below - the pancreas. Creamy and soft on the inside, lightly crispy on the outside, these are a special treat for those willing to sample. Riñones are kidneys, and if they’re prepared right they have a just slightly chewy texture beneath their grilled exterior, and a rich, pungent flavor.

The other biggie, and it’ll be offered up to you as a test of your willingness to participate, are chinchulines. These are the grilled small intestine - the best coming from a very young animal that has only been fed on milk, with the milk having curdled inside from heat and enzymes. Yeah, I can hear you saying "ewww". Go ahead and try one anyone, I’m amazed how many people become converts once they try one.

Follow up the innards with the sausages - there are usually three offered up - chorizos, morcillas, and salchichas parrilladas - the first, a slightly spicy pork sausage, different from the Spanish or Portuguese chorizos that you may have encountered elsewhere, and every butcher shop here has its own recipe. Morcillas - black pudding, black sausage, boudin noir - blood sausage - you didn’t want to think about it, but that’s what it is, and it’s oh so good. The last, usuaally a thin, coiled sausage, a touch on the smoky side.

Then on to heaping platters of meat - and while every family has their own choices, some of the most common are the tira de asado, which are cross-cut ribs, entraña, which is a skirt steak, bife de lomo which is more or less a sirloin, bife de chorizo, similar to a t-bone or porterhouse, without the bone, cuadril and which is rump steak.

Now, here’s the thing - if you’re really lucky, and you have friends here with a parrilla, you’ll probably get invited, to celebrate one thing or another. But even if not, you can, of course, sample these all at a good restaurant style parrilla - and to get the whole experience, order yourself... or more likely selves, since it’s a whole lot of food, a parrillada, or mixed grill. One of my favorite spots to recommend for the grand experience is El Yugo, Ayacucho 1629, 4806-2009, in the heart of Recoleta, where they serve it up on a tabletop grill to keep things hot and smoking, offer some of the best french fries in the city, especially the thin papas pais, and a salad bar on the side, just in case you need something green.

© 2007 Dan Perlman

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It may seem cliche, but let’s face it, younger travelers, e.g., those in their early 20s, are an underappreciated market by most of the wine and restaurant world. It’s not that there’s not food and drink out there for them, nor that they’re not treated well, but that the focus of most of the hospitality industry’s public relations is aimed at either business travelers, retired travelers, or successful couples from their late 30s to early 50s. It’s just the way of the world, and a reality based look at where the money is.

It’s also, perhaps, that the younger generation, as a stereotype, tend towards a more limited palate when it comes to food and wine - burgers, pizza, and these days, sushi; and inexpensive wines that are fruity and easy to drink. That’s not to say there’s not a good sized group of "gen-x-ers" who aren’t out to try anything and everything, they’re just not the norm, and it’s one of the reasons they stand out.

There have been attempts in various places to market directly to this untapped market - the most famous, and unfortunately now passed on to other pastures, the magazine Wine-X. But the real spot to get to this market is, as might be intuitively sensed, the internet. The most common are blogs - and there are a lot of them when it comes to wine, and quite a few oriented towards the youth market. Almost every expat or traveling blogger in Buenos Aires writes at some point about the wines that they try, but there’s not a dedicated wine blog here, regardless of the age of its readers - a wide open market for someone who’s up for the task.

The newest use of the internet, however, is the world of videocasting, and for younger wine drinkers, the guru of that world is Gary Vaynerchuk and his Wine Library TV (tv.winelibrary.com), where he uses casual street slang, lots of energy, gadgets, and a "hey, I’m one of you" approach to educating younger consumers about just exactly what wine is all about. Having talked with some local wine experts here, his marketing skills are held up in awe, and I’d think it won’t be long before Argentina offers up its own version of this sort of online marketing.

So, assuming you’re one of the folks I’m talking about, where do you go to find yourself surrounded by locals, or even expats, but those "in the know" when it comes to food and wine. First off, we know, part of the reason you’re here is the steak. But the last thing you want to do is go hang out at a smoke filled parrilla packed with families with screaming kids, guidebook toting tourists who haven’t quite figured out they’re not in a country where English is the primary language, or surrounded by couples who’ve been coming in and having the same meal at the same place for the last thirty years. You want hip, hot, and happening, and you want good steak and good wine. Not surprisingly, head yourself out to Palermo Hollywood, and grab a table at Miranda, Costa Rica 5602, where the music rocks, the decor is casual, modern industrial, the staff speak your language (no matter what your native tongue is), the portions are decent, and the prices are fair. You can eat at the bar and chat with your neighbors, grab a low couch in the lounge, or hit that table right up by the open kitchen and make friends with the guy cooking your steak.

Now, if you’re here for any length of time, we know you’re going to want your sushi fix. Buenos Aires isn’t known for its sushi - there’s plenty of it here, and it’s decent quality, if a bit heavy on combinations with cream cheese. But, it tends to be limited to salmon, and possibly salmon. Yes, you’ll get the occasional white fish, or a shrimp, or canned tuna, but there’s simply nowhere here offering the variety of sushi that folks from most other food capitals are used to. However, for a decent variety, and a room with a trendy vibe, good cocktails, an actual selection of sakes and wines, and service with just the right dose of attitude, head out to the new restaurant district in Las Cañitas and pop upstairs to Moshi-Moshi, Ortega y Gasset 1707. You’ll shell out a few extra pesos over what you might spend at most sushi bars in the city, but the quality, variety, and the chance to find yourself in a crowd of local twenty-somethings makes it worth every centavo.

On the wine front, one of the most common things I get asked, is how to learn the differences between different grapes. Beyond the old adage of just try, try, try, until you get it, which can cost a fortune, is the opportunity to find someone producing wines that are designed with just this in mind. Well known producer Bodegas Esmeralda produces a line of wines called Rodas Colección 12 - a dozen different individual varietals, white, pink, and red, made without oak aging, so they emphasize the pure flavors of the individual grapes. Best of the lot, their Petite Verdot, but they’re all a great way to educate your palate.

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As we move into colder weather, locals rejoice in the return of favorite winter stews to restaurants. For five or six months of the year we have the chance to enjoy locro, carbonada, lentejas, mondongo, and chacarero - dishes that have a tendency to simply disappear off of menus nearly city-wide during the warm weather months. Like many culinary treats here in Argentina - pizza, empanadas, pasta, and gelato being at the top of the list - these dishes engender passionate discussion, defense, and denigration - whether it’s who makes the best, or my opinion of your grandmother’s version. Still being an outsider (I’m informed that no one becomes a porteño until they have an immediate ancestor buried in either Recoleta or Chacarita cemeteries), I have the advantage of no personal attachment to these dishes, and enjoy exploring a variety of styles.

Locro is probably the top of the heap for the various stews in Argentina. It’s a hearty, rich dish, that is based on hulled white corn or hominy. From there, the variations are endless, and there are meat, chicken, fish, and vegetable versions. A good percentage include a thickening agent in the form of pureed cooked squash, some include beans, various vegetables, and the cuts of meat can vary from high grade steak to “parts is parts” sorts of things that you’re best off not inquiring about. Carbonada is a beef or veal stew that includes dried fruit, usually peaches, to create a mildly sweet stew. Lentejas, or lentils, come in a wide variety, from stews with meat to vegetarian versions - you simply have to ask. Mondongo is a tripe and potato stew, often with beans or peas added. And chacarero is a chicken and sausage based stew, usually with some form of pasta added to it at the last minute. All these, are, of course, subject to your grandmother’s interpretation.

There’s one spot I recommend time and again to visitors and friends to sample some of the best Argentine “regional” cuisine. In specific, it’s the region of San Juan, along the western border of the country, just north of Mendoza. The restaurant, El Sanjuanino. They have two locales, one in Palermo, and my preferred one for both ambiance and service, at Posadas 1515 in Recoleta. They serve up one of the more “variety meat” laden versions of locro, and if that doesn’t bother you, it’s one of the better ones out there. On request, they’ll bring a bit of oil laden with chili flakes to spice it up a bit. They also offer some of the city’s better empanadas - their carne picante version is actually picante, and their “gran sanjuanino” is a deep-fried version packed with a filling reminiscent of a delicious homemade sloppy joe. Other dishes worth checking out, their matambre recoldo, a rolled flank steak packed with peppers, ham, and cheese and roasted in the coals, is a spectacular dish to share for two; and for those who are feeling adventurous, they offer stews of antelope and vizcacha, a sort of large rabbit-ish creature from the mountains.

A classic in any of a dozen tourist guides is often a reason to simply avoid a place. It means the likelihood of being surrounded by others who are just as mystified by everything going on around them as you are. Yet, somehow, La Querencia manages to make visitors feel at home, and still attract a good following of locals. Located at the corner of Junín and Juncal, this spot offers up a mix of regional Argentine cuisine with a focus on the Tucumán area in the far northwest. Here you can sample locro, carbonada, or lentejas, in versions that are perhaps, suited to a slightly more refined palate - prime cuts of meat and sausages won’t challenge anyone’s sensibilities as to just exactly what part of the cow has been set in front of them. They also offer many other local specialties, including a great pastel de papas - more or less a shepherd’s pie; and revuelto gramajo - a fascinating scrambled egg, ham, potato, and (depending on whom you’re talking to) pea platter that’s served not just for breakfast, but lunch and dinner as well. La Querencia offers up some interesting empanadas that you won’t find in most other places, including several special vegetarian ones - the eggplant and mint ones are outstanding; a bacon and plum version; and the “del tambo” - a blend of seven different cheeses that’ll have you asking for another.

The last place I’d recommend is a personal favorite for locro alone. In fact, all they offer are empanadas and locro, and for most of the year, not the locro. But when they have it, the stew at la cocina, Pueyrredón 1508, right off of Avenida Santa Fe, is the best I’ve had. It mixes up a bit of the best of all the rest - sliced steak and sausages, a few bits of “other”, it’s simply packed with sweet white corn, beans, and squash, and is offered in picante and non-picante versions, the former using a fiery homemade chili oil, and with or without cheese melted into the mix. Their empanadas are pretty outstanding as well, with kudos going to the amusingly named “pikachu”- a caramelized onion and cheese empanada that’s absolutely delicious.

With stews like this, you want to go either with a simple carafe of whatever the house wine is, and just not worry about swirling and sipping - drink away and don’t worry; or, a big, bold, spicy red. I’m quite fond of a relatively new Syrah from Xumek, the 2004 of which shows off easy drinking flavors of blackberries, black pepper, and a host of other spices. It’s inexpensive and a great value. Easily my favorite Argentine Syrah is from Tempus Alba, a version that reminds me of a good quality Rhône Valley Syrah with flavors of red plums, smoke, and bacon fat. The 2003 is available right now and is drinking beautifully. It’s a bit pricier, but still shouldn’t top more than 35 pesos in stores and maybe 50 in restaurants.