For those who are not familiar with Argentinian cusine, there is one basic componet: MEAT! MEAT! MEAT!
Well, that is acutally three componets, which is still accurate once you witness the portions.
After licking a peanut butter jar while on my nine day treak through Torres Del Paine, I vowed to gorge myself on steak dinners once in Buenos Aires. I actually waited about four nights before starting the bloody feast. But, once the meat got rolling there was no stopping it...and for four nights in a row I stuffed my face with a steak! What made it all the more special was the fact that every night the steak´s got better...
Night One: San Telmo District. Meet some friends, they are on their third bottle of wine, Alvaro and I have just come back from the futbol match, "let´s eat!" My friend Anne-Laure knows a small place nearby, which she says isn´t much to look at, but the meat is very good. I´m convinced. We enter, order some more wine, which they bring in small penguin shaped decanters, and proceed to eat and drink. The steaks were excellent, juicy and tender. Great Dinner.
Night Two: Following the drum concert we head to the Plaza Armenia for dinner. It´s St. Patrick´s Day, so we have been participating in the holiday spirits. We sit for dinner, and I order the Ojo de Bife...Rib-eye steak. They bring me an extremely large, very soft, cut of beef. My mouth explodes with flavors and I thank the little green leprechauns that I now see running across the street. Much better steak than the night before.
Night Three: Party of eight. Palermo District. How can it get any better than the night before I am thinking to myself...little did I know what was about to arrive. I order the Bife de Lomo...filet mignon. The steak arrives on a wooden platter accompianed with a large, ceasar salad. I look for my steak knife, there is none, only this butter knife...turns out that wasn´t even needed, because I could cut the steak with my fork! The most tender steak I have ever had. I looked at the table across from me and noticed an old couple who had placed their dentures on the table and were chewing their steaks like they were in their teens and had all 32 teeth firmly in place...okay, maybe I was seeing things again. But, in all reality, this was the best steak I have ever had. Two bottles of wine for the table, bottled water, price 33 pesos each, about 11 dollars. C´mon!! You gotta be kidding me!! (This includes the tip!)In our group is girl from Argentina who recommends to us a restaurant even better than this one...Yeah Right! I think to myself...but, I´m willing to give it a try.
Night Four: Our fourth night in a row for a steak dinner. By now, this has turned into a quest of sorts. This is not just going out to dinner, this is a mission. An epic adventure of flesh devouring. A carnivorious conquest. We arrive. Forty minute wait. Sure, no problem, due to the fact that they give complimentary champagne to their waiting guests. Then, the weather quickly changed, a strong wind began blowing, and then it proceeded to rain. Too bad for the six tables having dinner outside. We had to wait a little longer...now I´m getting hungry! Finally we are seated, party of four. Order a bottle of wine, and a caprese salad to start. For dinner, we will share two orders of meat, an Ojo de bife, and a Bife de Lomo with a pepper crust. What they brought to our table was something I have never witnessed in my 12 years of fine dining experience, nor in all my years of ordering "steaks". This was not normal. This was beyond comparison or description. This was a STEAK!... tender, juicy, moist, succulent, a thesauras of flavors. The lomo order actually consisted of four filets, and the ribeye order was straight from the introduction of the Flintstone cartoon. As a sidenote, each platter contained 7-8 small helpings of olives, egg salad, eggplant, peppers, and various other small dishes, thereby giving every bite a new taste sensation. We feasted is an understatement!...
Our holy grail was discovered. Our quest was complete. We had acheived the elixir of dining pleasure. However, there was a loss in all of this gorging. I have since lost my desire for ordering a steak. I have vowed to never order another steak again. For anything that I were to order would be a mis-steak.
In Argentina I learned one thing, you can´t beat the meat!
Viva the vegetarians!!!
