YUM! SLURP!
A wine drinking carnivore’s paradise. Massive top quality sirloin steaks at five pounds a pop accompanied by some great big red wines for even less.
It’s not on overstatement to say that vegetarians would not fit in here. The choice on most menus is not what type of food to eat, but rather what cut of beef to eat (or part of cow for that matter). Parrillas can be found on most street corners – the meat eating equivalent of a Bavarian beer hall. Communal steak fest.
The kitchen of a parilla steakhouse
Typical dishes would be:
Parrilla – A mini bbq at your table with beef, chicken, blood sausage (morcilla), local pork sausage (chorizo) and some gubbins like intestine or pancreas (collectively mondongo – my new favourite Spanish word)
Bife de chorizo – not to be confused with chorizo – the paprika spiced sausage you’re used to at home, the bife de chorizo is the headliner of most menus. A whopping great sirloin. Nothing else.
Lomo – Fillet – more tender, but arguably less tasty than the chorizo.
Other parts we didn’t try so often or at all are skirt, rump, kidneys, testicals.
Mondongo - pancreas I think - tastes a bit like hot pork scratching
Other national delights: Empeñadas – kind of like mini pies. Usually carne - cornish pasty esque or jamon y queso – ham and cheese.
Coffee culture is big, and a common accompaniment is an alfajor – a biscuit sandwich of dulce de leche - a caramel style goo. It’s a bit like a posh Wagon Wheel, if you remember those. You can get milk, dark, white chocolate, different fillings, good, bad, dry, sugary, double, triple (I’ve not seen a quad yet) -there’s a whole world of alfajors!
The alfajor
What more… Mate is a local drink / culture – a tea like brew made from various different leaves. I never tried it, but you will find most people with their mate contraptions and hot water thermos flasks in their bags.
The Italian influence in Argentina resulted in an ice cream culture. Almost as common place as steak restaurants, you are never too far away from an ice cream parlour, with flavours such as “dulce de leche with cookies” or even “vanilla with malbec”.
Icecream galore! Notice the Mendoza infuenced "Vanilla with Malbec..."
Good foods to be had in Argentina and definately a place for steak lovers!
