The best food in Buenos Aires
What I really should say is that the heart of Buenos Aires is a place of ultimate indulgence. I am pleased to experience it, but I am also relieved that Buenos Aires is the first stop on my list and I have enough money to spend here with the knowledge that onward cities will be kinder to my bank account. I can’t deny that the inflation which sees prices hiked every year is staggering and leaves food and alcohol with a price tag that is more expensive than London (despite wages not being raised at the same rate). And yet the favourite pastime for the majority of Argentinians is eating late into the night with friends. Enter the Asado. Roughly translated as barbeque this staple plate of food is more or less a pile of tasty, succulent meat such as steak and sausages taken straight from a grill (known as a Parrilla) and is the traditional way of cooking here in Argentina. The ritual takes many forms and can be found occurring at the side of dusty streets in the Buenos Aires suburbs on plastic chairs and paper plates, right up to high end restaurants in the city. And what unites all of these asados is the universal knowledge that the quality of the meat is beyond anything you have ever experienced - and I can certainly vouch for that. Of course we embarked on a quest to find the most authentic hole in the wall food option and after an extensive search, set our hearts on ‘El Litoral Parrilla’ located in the small suburb of Balvanera. The unassuming place has the combination of an utmost local and vintage feel. In this tiny compact corner, the vintage painted signs, plastic chairs and family of elderly waiters hark back to a different era and allow for a real experience of good, hearty Argentine food. The bright orange inner walls add to the hint of a Latin American vibe amidst the backdrop to harsh kitchen lights yet the queue still lingers out of the door at all hours (a true sign of it’s quality). It was 10pm and the night was just getting started as children and parents chatted alike to the backdrop of a sizzling grill. The £5 bottle of wine was flowing and our food quickly arrived (it was basically meat stacked on even more meat). What was wonderful about this setting was that the air was warm and smelt like food, and the ambience of sharing a happy moment with friends was spread across every table in this vast maze of diners. Each dish was shared, all the wine was passed around the table and if you cast your gaze in any direction down the street you could count more than a handful further Asados occurring. The asado to share cost us 220 Pesos, which when roughly divided between two diners cost around £5 for a huge pile of grilled steak, sides, bread and of course wine. The food was as incredible as the atmosphere, yet as a queue of people waited to be seated we decided to quickly allow for the next lucky diners to take their place. It was around 11.30 before we had finished food and even thought about beginning pre-drinks (pre-boliche as they say here) before partying until daylight. It seems like I’m finally beginning to blend in with the locals here.
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Tamara DavisonNepal, China, Malaysia, Australia, Argentina. Archives
November 2017
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