Rant: If you don't know how to make the drink, just tell me...

[Napoleon]

I'm sorry, KatherineAnn, but while I agree that there is room to adapt a lot of time to the local culture, make concessions to things being done differently, and loosen up in general, a dry martini is a dry martini without a lot of room for interpretation. This is why there are bartending schools and bar guides that tell how to mix a drink and in what quantities. This is why, generally speaking, the world over if you walk into a bar and order a "dry vodka martini" you'll be served a glass filled with vodka and vermouth in a more or less 5:1 ratio. I don't think that it's right that in order to "cater" to the tastes of the Argentines that a timeless recipe should be bastardized by putting sugar in it. If that's how Argies like their martinis, fine, but it shouldn't be called a dry martini.

If someone gave you a sugar cookie and called it an onion bagel, would you just say, "huh, I guess this is how they make onion bagels in Argentina"? No, you'd most likely say, "they don't know what they are talking about and I can't believe I just got conned into paying 50 pesos for a dozen sugar cookies. Now what am I going to do with all this lox and cream cheese?" My bet is that you don't put it on the sugar cookie and concede to local interpretation.

Oh SNAP!

 

[gouchobob]

Any chance the bartender didn't understand what you wanted, how good is your Spanish? Or perhaps he just made a mistake.

 

[Davidglen77]

I'm sorry, KatherineAnn, but while I agree that there is room to adapt a lot of time to the local culture, make concessions to things being done differently, and loosen up in general, a dry martini is a dry martini without a lot of room for interpretation. This is why there are bartending schools and bar guides that tell how to mix a drink and in what quantities. This is why, generally speaking, the world over if you walk into a bar and order a "dry vodka martini" you'll be served a glass filled with vodka and vermouth in a more or less 5:1 ratio. I don't think that it's right that in order to "cater" to the tastes of the Argentines that a timeless recipe should be bastardized by putting sugar in it. If that's how Argies like their martinis, fine, but it shouldn't be called a dry martini.

If someone gave you a sugar cookie and called it an onion bagel, would you just say, "huh, I guess this is how they make onion bagels in Argentina"? No, you'd most likely say, "they don't know what they are talking about and I can't believe I just got conned into paying 50 pesos for a dozen sugar cookies. Now what am I going to do with all this lox and cream cheese?" My bet is that you don't put it on the sugar cookie and concede to local interpretation.

Now I must say that I had a rough day today and after reading this comment I laughed really really hard from deep down in the diaphragm so thank you for posting it!

Anyway, my 2 cents is this, when CADBURY started selling chocolate on a large scale to mass market in Argentina, it wasn't well received. Surveys and testing was done and the end result was adding 30 percent more sugar and 30 percent more milk to the chocolate to fit Argentine market tastes, and voilá.......a marketing success!

So next time in New York I am going to ask for a frosted apple turnover and think "oh this must be an empanada de carne, but that's just the way they make them in New York" (I am laughing at my own version of this joke right now)

 

[argsteve]

I had to laugh at the post since I have also had some really terrible martinis here... they all put a ton of vermouth in them... they just dont know how to make them.... it is really just very few people order that here.... lets face it ....it is 90% of the time fernet and coke or bad quilmes beer here....... I look forward to the cooler weather for some good red wine days..
well the post made me laugh... cheers

 

[Hop]

and yet another thread on how Argentina/Buenos Aires is inferior to Europe/the US etc...

Buenos Aires is Buenos Aires, not New York.

 

[Napoleon]

and yet another thread on how Argentina/Buenos Aires is inferior to Europe/the US etc...

Buenos Aires is Buenos Aires, not New York.

Correction: "and yet another thread on how Argentina/Buenos Aires is inferior to Europe/the US, Mexico, Central America, South America minus itself, Africa, the secret watering holes in the Middle East, Asia, Australia, watering holes in Antarctica ..."

There are many things that are nice about Argentina, but rampant dain bramage amongst the bartenders here is not one of them.

 

[jenandj]

This rant has been entertaining, to say the least! I'm a sommelier, so have a bit of a biased perspective, but definitely believe that classic drinks should be made the same around the world.

Part of the fun in travelling is learning about local spin and renditions of familiar drinks, though when a bartender modifies a drink they should make this as clear as possible by giving the drink a new name.

Everyone has a different take on the exact proportions required for a great martini, and some would say that vodka has no place in a martini, or that the bottle of vermouth should only be waived near the martini but no vermouth actually included in the drink! An Italian movie that tackes this subject humorously is "Como Se Fa un Martini."

 

[EvanB]

Surely he can make a mean fernet y cola

 

[Hellek]

Well, in all of the world I have trouble getting consistently good dry martinis. It is true though, that barkeeping in BsAs seems a casual job more than in other cities/countries. Order anything more complicated than a fernet con coca and you are asking for too much.
Gotta be flexible here.

Thames 878 is a nice bar with good drinks. Name = direction

 

[Churchill]

Why the hell were you ordering a dry Martini in the first place? You big girl's blouse!