The Foodie Within

I feel like I’m now in a position to make an informed summation on the culinary offerings in Buenos Aires. I had not heard many positive things on coming here and I must admit I was slightly concerned about this given how much of a focus food is to me on any international journey. All it took was a few misjudged orders and a few failed experiments to figure out what to do and what not to do when buying food.

The biggest learning was that it is very very common to share when in a restaurant. You do NOT, as I had previously thought, need a full portion as this more often than not will feed an army and it’s a sure fire way to look like you’re fresh off the boat from some obscenely greedy nation.

The second thing I realised is that variety is not what you should hold out hope for. The Argentines know what they do well and they don’t stray too far from that path. With few exceptions the usual suspects will appear on most menus and it doesn’t take long before this starts to feel very one-dimensional. There is a limit to how many times you can get enthusiastic about steak, potato and salad.

And don’t even get me started on the salads. I am confounded at every turn by the state of salads in Argentina. There are no secrets, no hidden pleasures, no straying from the righteous salad path, not even a surprising dressing or two to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. They are simply what they say they are. ‘Ensalada de tomate’ is literally tomatoes; ‘ensalada de zanahoria’ is grated carrot and nothing more. The greatest mystery to me though is the ‘ensalada completa’ which essentially amounts to all the salad ingredients they have in the kitchen neatly laid out in one bowl. Nothing is integrated. No ingredients are considered for their complimentary potential. I have come to refer to these weird little creations as Rainbow Salads, for obvious reasons. And yes, those are rolls of cheddar cheese to the left, ham in the middle and shredded chicken on the right.

There are of course a few things that are done exceptionally well here. Pasta for one is fresh, often handmade at the restaurant, and unfailingly tasty. This also can be found everywhere and is a reliable fallback when your meat intake has been pushed to its cholesterol-bearing limit.

Pizza is also done very well and runs the gammut from basic, cheesy and bad to basic, cheesy and awesome. In New Zealand we have turned the humble pizza into a three course meal but Argentine pizza has strong roots in Italian culture where thin bases and simple toppings are key. James can lay claim to discovering the pizza joint where we found these fine examples below…the softest of cheeses, the slight charring of the onion, the crispy base…outstanding.

That’s me trying to pry my jaw apart with a mouthful of mozzarella.

They also do street food with great style here. It’s plentiful, cheap as chips (no pun intended) and incredibly accessible in what are often thriving little local social scenes. One of my favourite discoveries is choripan. It couldn’t be simpler…a fatty, delicious, pork sausage charred over a ferocious grill, wedged in the centre of a white bread roll, with lashings of the local salsa de rigeur – chimichurri. This divine little condiment deserves a blog all of its own but in short it’s a salsa made from finely chopped red pepper, tomato, onion, garlic and parsley brought together to stew itself to perfection with olive oil, vinegar, chilli, paprika, oregano and bay. It’s a revelation. No sausage sizzle will ever be the same again.

Add to all this the outstanding roadside ‘homemade’ hamburgers (meat pattie, fried egg, charred onion and peppers, lettuce, tomato, salsa verde), the legendary throw-a-cow-on asados, icecream to die for, empanadas worth crossing the city for, cakes as good as your Grandma makes and you have more than enough to keep your stomach happy and probably a little rounder.

All in all I can say I’ve really enjoyed the food here. It’s nothing especially adventurous or innovative but they know what they do well and they stay away from the rest. Having said that I could murder some good strong coffee, cracked pepper, grainy bread and a fish or four. There’s always something you pine for right?