Move to Buenos Aires?

[ElQueso]

I find the food here on average very below par. That's not to say you can't find good food - nothing in nature is 100% (except death or entropy...). You can even find some good bargains.

I'm from Houston, which in the last 15-20 years or so has grown tremendously in terms of restaurants. I could go half a mile in any direction from my house (in the NW suburbs - the city density of restaurants is even greater) and easily find 10 places to have a relatively cheap dinner with good food - of just about ANY ethnicity.

I used to turn my nose up at the all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurants, except for lunches during a workday or maybe with the family after a little league game or somethng, because the food was usually mediocre.

I've come to respect those places now after finding that the best Chinese food restaurant I've found here in BA only compares with the lowest of those all-you-can-eat places.

I just got back from cooking meat on a parilla. Argentine-style. I cooked two lomos, 8 chicken thighs with barbecue sauce, 20 chorizos and 3 kilos of tira de asado. It all came out juicy, from medium to very rare (my family doesn't care for anything over slightly pink and most of my expat friends like rare), tender and very tasty.

At Most parillas I visit, the lomos are small and not very tasty and are usualy overdone. Forget the bife de chorizos. Many times the chorizos are good, but I've never had a grilled chicken at a standard parilla with much more than a few paltry spices sprinkled on top. Hell, even without barbeque sauce (sparingly applied in layers over time so it glazes, not dripping), a little olive oil, garlic, pepper, pimenton (can't remember the English word!) and salt makes a piece of chicken on the grill come off extra tasty. Most parillas serve chicken cooked for a long time, which is can be dry, though tender for sure, and with not much excitement.

Again, I'm not saying you can't find good food here, but it's not the norm. And when you do find it at a place, it's not very often consistent at most places. And forget variety...

 

[PhilipDT]

I just got back from cooking meat on a parilla. Argentine-style. ...... It all came out juicy, from medium to very rare

 

[steveinbsas]

Steve, perhaps you could try actually reading my posts instead of inventing your version in your own mind. ..... I honestly take umbrage at multiple unwarranted and incorrect attacks in this thread.

The post on deaths happening in USA in your own home was tongue in cheek..and if I had to chose yes I'd say I'm pro Democrat, so shoot me (NRA signed up Steve?) - I lived in one of the most Republican states and have really good Republican friends - having a politicial opinion is just that, an opinion but it clearly upsets your delicate constitution to have anyone defend Obama every now and again...

I frequently witness your Jeckyl and Hude personality being helpful one post and then chosing an enemy of the week who you then viciously attack. So I'm on the list now so attack at will you sad bitter old man.

Perhaps I should take umbrage at the suggestion that I would shoot you for any reason?

I am sorry YOUR CHILD SUFFERS FROM ADICTIOMN AND IT IS \OBAMA WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH THE us constitution, not me.

What a mindless thing to say.

I hope neither of us or anyone we love are ever the victim of any kind of violence.

I have read your posts and I remember them. I hope your older child doesn't shoot you so he can realize his dream and compete on American Idol...as you wrote...OMDB (over my dead body):

Think the winner seems a sweetie but then I recall Lee from last year or even better Adam Lambert from the previous year and how this type of show plays on emotions and then spits out these poor creatures when they serve no more. Hardened ambitious types like Carrie, Daughtry and KClarkson survive but the more sensitive types will be saying to their grandkids "I used to be someone...because Randy Jackson said so"..sad. And yes I do watch it quite religiously as my 7 yrd old is an addict and says one day I'll be an AI whilst I say OMDB..its also on the Sony channel that advertises call girls in g-strings and arse in the air @ 5pm on a Sunday afternoon so needless to say we have been limiting viewing somewhat even if Guillo and Lee think its prudish to deny our 7 yr old these tiitillations!

If I was a member of the NRA I would be happy to teach him target practice...and gun safety...no matter how mad he is at his mother. I promise to teach him not to shoot his mommy because she would not let him compete on American Idol.

And please cite any examples of my "multiple unwarranted and incorrect attacks in this thread" that you can.

I am sorry your child suffers from any addiction and it is actually Obama who has a problem with the (US) Constitution: he despises it.

 

[ElQueso]

@PhilipDT:

Are you trying to say it's impossible to get meat to come out juicy, tender and tasty on an Argentine-style parilla? Heh. Most parilleros seem to have that feeling - or at least they don't understand how to cook meat.

I must have turned those damned lomos 100 times during the half hour I cooked them. They came out a single, solid color from the outside all the way inside along the length of the lomo (color depending on location - thinner cuts were medium, thicker cuts rare).

There are few secrets.

One must turn the meat often (about every minute or so), so that one side doesn't get too cooked while it's exposed to the heat. The meat tends to have the same temperature all over (in cross-section), slowly rising, all through the thickness. I've heard so many people say that you should leave the meat on one side and cook it x minutes, then turn it and cook it x minutes, and voila! Not so - it causes the outer layers to be cooked more than the inner layers and dries out the outer layers. you get gray on the outside and varying sizes of slivers of pink in the middle.

Cook a whole lomo, not lomo cut in slices (average lomo about 1.5 kilos).

Find good meat. There's a place in Mataderos, where I get my meat, that sells prime whole lomo for 48.50 a kilo (and they deliver free! I swear to you! Last I looked in Disco, lomos were around 110 pesos a kilo vacuum-packed, and I haven't bought a lomo from a super in over a year...). Of course, lately, there's been a shortage of lomo...

And lastly, something which no parillero here would ever do, due to pride - use a meat thermometer and take that puppy off when the thick parts of the lomo reach between 130 and 135 farenheit. Technology was invented for a purpose

I cook weekly expat dinners for my buddies most Fridays. Before that, I had a parilla when I lived out in the 'burbs. It took me a good two years to figure out how to get good meat off of an Argentine-style parilla. I'm used to a smoker and slow-cooking with Mesquite. One must adapt.

 

[Crema Americana]

Argentine style = well done / overdone... and definitely does not include the use of a thermometer.

 

[ElQueso]

Argentine style = well done / overdone... and definitely does not include the use of a thermometer.

But I was specifically referring to the use of a parrilla (which means grill generically) of the style Argentina, not actually cooking it in the style that Argentinos cook the meat.

And if you think they cook well done to overdone here - you should see how my wife's family cooks their meat in Paraguay. I've eaten softer, juicier leather! But then again, they slaughter and butcher their own cows and often leave the meat hanging in the trees for a day or more while they prepare it...

 

[steveinbsas]

Wow. Talk about off topic..and it's 12.40 AM and now I'm hungry FOR MEAT!

FI FS FO FUM....

 

[PhilipDT]

@PhilipDT:

Are you trying to say it's impossible to get meat to come out juicy, tender and tasty on an Argentine-style parilla?
.

No actually I was more getting at what Eclair mentioned. I read your post as saying you cooked your meat argentine style, not that the parilla was of an argentine style.

One must turn the meat often (about every minute or so),.....I've heard so many people say that you should leave the meat on one side and cook it x minutes, then turn it and cook it x minutes, and voila!

Why not do both?

My approach to cooking on an argentine style parilla is slightly less delicate than yours but yum. First of all for the parilla I definitely prefer Bife de Chorizo or entraña to lomo but if I'm doing lomo I cut it into thick medallions and usually go for a rosmery dijon marinade. Regardless of which of the 3 cuts I'm using, cooking goes a bit like this.

1. Put coals in an empty tin over a rack on the stove to light coals
2. Transfer red hot coals parilla
3. Position parilla ~3 inches over coals
4. Use bellows to get hot as *#*(*#
5. Spray a lite coating of Olive Oil on the parilla do prevent sticking (if the oil does not ignite on contact with coals return to step 4)
6. Throw the meat on the grill. Cook for 1-1.5 minutes.
7. Flip cook for 1 minute
8. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

oh and I almost forgot

9. Voila!

 

[PhilipDT]

I spelled light as lite. Just kill me now. This is why we need an edit function. To correct embarrassing mistakes like that.

 

[citygirl]

Or that last one about editing posts. Guess I should have put this in that one so as not to triple post. Oh well..


I just wanted to say that while I agree with most everything else in your post, I have to say that fine dining in Buenos Aires is one of the city's strongest suits and one of the last few bargains.

I had an absolutely fantastic meal the other day at Le Mistral and it cost quite a bit less thana comparable meal in nyc.

My point was not that you can't eat well here and yes, I agree with you that a high end restaurant here is significantly cheaper than a high end restaurant in NY. It's just there are VERY few options for good dining here for a city this size, esp compared to a city like NY or London or Paris or Lima or Sampa or... well, you get the idea And the mid-range restaurants are fine but pricey* and IMO, there is only so much pasta, meat and meat one can eat.

For example - the SO and I went to lunch in Puerto Madero last weekend. We shared an appetizer (eggplant parmesan), 2 entrees (mushroom risotto and brochettes) an inexpensive bottle of wine (70 pesos) and 2 coffees. The bill was 495 pesos + tip = 550 pesos. That's not cheap in my book for lunch in a mid-range restaurant.