Carnivore's paradise

To add a bit of a twist to our log, we thought we'd do a special on food... another favourite of ours.. Vegetarians please look away now.

In London, we´ve always been spoilt for choice by the many colourful cuisines of the world. In South America you have generally just a couple of choices, stewed meat, fried meat and barbecued meat or what is locally known as parilla... Surprisingly little fish, mostly trout.
Just like I didnt realise potato could be prepared in so many other ways other than fries or baked chunky potatoes, nor that there are hundreds of types of potatoes?!

Also we took extra care with eating tap-washed vegetables so we stuck to cooked vegetables. As a light meat eater and more a vegetable and fish eater, much effort has been needed during meal times to find alternatives. In Peru there was an alternative "cereal" or barley soup (Quinoa) but they were obsessed with adding cinnamon in everything: ever tried cinnamon tea? For a tourist missing home food, you can always opt for Pizza and Pasta, which are ubiquitous across this continent, though it´s safe to say the best pizza can still be found at Casarecia in Kilburn, London. As we said earlier, we probably had the best meals during our Salkantay-Machu Picchu trek: 4 courses, varied, awesome scenery and all prepared by 2 cooks in the dark on a campfire.
Bruno thankfully is a meat lover and had no problems.

Bruno: <<Obviously i had been looking forward to Argentinian steak for some time, since 1993 to be precise, so when we arrived here the first thing we tried was... a hamburger? Let's just say i wanted to wet my appetite for a day or two. I might add that the burger was not from a well-known american cardboard processing factory, but home-made from organic, home grown, sound argentinian beef. one word: flavour!

The next day we had lunch at a very simple local place, which was great value for money with meatballs, puree and salad + flan and coffee for desert. It seems that lunch here still takes the central place in the day which it deserves. Lunch breaks are spent over a 3 course meal with coffee to end, all for the grand value of 4 pounds, or the value of a moist sandwich at Pret´s.

Most of you probably know people in Spain eat later than elsewhere in Europe. Well Argentinians eat even later! Lunch is still at 13h-14h but they have a snack at 18h, then dinner some time after 22h00. It is nothing unusual to see diners arrive at midnight in a restaurant! We fitted right in and quickly adjusted our eating habits.

First we tried PARILLA: this is a basically a great barbecue in the middle of an otherwise normal restaurant with amounts of meat equal to the annual production of some small pacific islands. If required they can actually garnish your plate with lettuce.
Another great invention here is the "tenedor libre" (Trever please take note): for anything between 9 and 15 pesos (3 to 5 USD) one can eat as much meat, salads, potatoes and desert as one´s heart desires! The meat is of ok quality with a large choice of pork, spare ribs, steak, chorizo, blackpudding, and some of the less desirable animal parts...

Argentinian wine is of course well known: the choice is endless and very reasonably priced: red, white, syrah, cab sav, malbec,... Yesterday in the supermarket the most expensive bottle i could find was worth 34 pesos (12 US dollars!).

On our trip to Montevideo, Uruguay we were referred to a nice restaurant (Los Leños in calle San Jose) where i sampled a "Pamplona" : tenderised flattened pork with layers of pancetta ham, olives and egg, rolled and barbecued. highly recommended!

Back in Buenos Aires we shared a great dinner with our friend Tomas at Rodizio´s in Puerto Madero, where Irene feasted on salads (can you believe it?). This was a luxury "tenedor libre" where the waiters came around with more skewered meat than you cared to even see. In the end, I had to beg them to stop feeding me! Finally one secret we will share with you is restaurant "El Desnivel" in calle Defensa near San Telmo. Simple but outstanding value and not small with as many locals as tourists attending. The steak was sublime! Succulent, tender, juicy, perfectly cooked and tasting of herbs and barbecue. A large portion and a great bottle of Mendoza later my stomach was happy...>>

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