To stay in Argentina has one obligation….asado!…because the Argentine meat is known as the best meat in the world! Of course there is the possibility to eat in one of the many excellent restaurants with a parrilla (the name of the grill) in Buenos Aires, but maybe you have rented an apartment with us with a parrilla. Most of the time you will find the parrilla at the terrace of the building which is for general use of the people who live there. The rules are simple: use the parrilla and leave it behind as you found it.
O.k., first you have to know what meat you can place on the parrilla. The meat has a typical cut here in Argentina, so we have to give you a shopping list for the butcher:
“Tira de asado” and “vacio”(cow), bondiola ( pig), morcilla and chorizo (sausages) and maybe you like chinchulín.
The classical Argentine “asado” comes with a mixed salad as the side dish ( lettuce, tomatos and onions) and of course a lot of bread. Then also the “chimichurri” should be on the table, a mix of oil and vinegar with garlic, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, paprika powder….just give it your taste.
Don’t forget to buy charcoal to make the fire !
And now you should prepare the fire, take your time, watch out for the cooking points of the meat (rare doesn’t exist here, the list is “jugoso, al punto and cocido” which will be “medium, medium/done and well done”).
Enjoy it with good company.
Bon apetite!
If you just want to eat something that seems to be common, but which is worth while to eat here in Buenos Aires, start to think about the pizza. It sounds crazy, but in the period that all Buenos Aires was invaded by Italian immigrants, the pizza made it’s name. And to be honest, it is an awful fact that they are so bad according to the fat percentage and that they are so dammed tasty, nice, delicious and therefor so hard to ignore.
Here I can give you some names of the most famous restaurants to eat pizza, but I can assure you that if you ask to a Porteño where you can eat the best pizza in town, you will be in the middle of a discussion which starts between you and him or her and ends with a great amount of Porteños whom will all know the best, oldest, most historical and they are all in different places.
So just try it yourself and have fun!
Tip: you can eat your pizza with a faina and drink it with a moscato, a sweet white wine. Also it is a great adventure to eat one portion of each pizza. Just see for yourself, this pizzas are GREAT according to us from Stay in Buenos Aires and the restaurants are historical.
El Cuartito… Talcahuano 937
Las Cuartetas….Av. Corrientes 838
Banchero….Av. Corrientes 1300 y Talcahuano
Guerin …..Av. Corrientes 1368
Angelín…….Av. Cordoba 5270
To snack in Buenos Aires in the street is funny and you have a few options. To begin with the salty ones there are hotdogs or panchos, sausage on bread or choripan and hamburgers or paty. It will cost you about 2,50 pesos until 5 pesos and you have various additive sauces to decorate you snack with. If you want to be sure that the stand with the offered food is a good one, just watch the movement a while and if you see a lot of people attacking the standkeeper to have a quick snack, you can be sure of a “healthy” fast food snack!
If you prefer to snack something sweet, there is a choice between an sugar topped apple and a sugar tenon.
To eat something quick just standing in the food shop, the most easy thing to do is to buy a portion of pizza. Also very popular and a nice “bad” habit in Buenos Aires. Just add a “faina” to your slice of pizza and at least you will be satisfied for a while. And for me there is no better pizza than the pizza in Buenos Aires. When you are at holidays you can take the pizza away with a classical moscata, a sweet wine drink.
Cheers!
What about making a nice warm soup today?
If you need to buy some uncommon spices, you can go by train straight to Belgrano neighborhood and next to the train station you will find Buenos Aires’ China Town, with a lot of chinese specialized supermarkets. Just nice to do on a cloudy or boring cold winterday and get back to your apartment in Buenos Aires and explore your kitchen! Underneath I suggest the cosmopolitan recipy of the famous Russian red beet soup, called borsch (or borsj).
Enjoy the trip and the meal (with the horseradish you bought in the mentioned neighborhood).
RUSSIAN BORSCH:
- 600 g chopped red beets
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 400 g chopped root vegetables (traditionally celery root, parsnip, cabbage, carrot)
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- juice of 1 lemon
- salt, black pepper to taste
- vegetable broth
- chopped fresh parsley leaves
- sour cream (to garnish)
- horseradish (to garnish)
Peel the red beets and chop into bite-sized pieces. Heat the oil in a pan and brown sliced onions and garlic. (if you re thinking about the meat version, add the sliced pork/beef cubes at this stage and brown properly). Add the cumin seeds and the chopped vegetables. Coat well and fry over low heat until the veggies are soft, but crispy. Add the broth to cover the vegetables. Bring to boil, cover and let cook until soft. Add the black pepper and salt to taste and squeeze in the lemon juice.
Pure half of the soup (unless there is meat in it) and bring back to the boil. Mix in the parsley leaves and serve.
Shred the horseradish very finely and mix in with the sour cream. Serve the soup with a slice of rye bread and a good dollop of the spicy sour cream dip.
It’s a great soup to to serve with a good Argentine wine. A warm heartening excuse to invite your family or friends in your “own” flat in Buenos Aires and show them how you fill being a local in the city.
