March 2nd: We toured downtown Buenos Aires today. We experienced the crush of humanity on the subway ride in. Actually, it was no problem since the riders were all tolerant, cheerful, and respectful of each other. After touring the downtown for 5 hours, we needed lunch so we hunted for a restaurant called “El Obrero” (the worker) in a rough part of town called La Boca. I had to show the cab driver the street on my map. The restaurant was recommended by a fellow who flew on the same planes with us from Providence. He and his wife, an Argentinean, bought an apartment here and he assured us that we would find “comida tipica” at El Obrero. We also found the restaurant in a very helpful online guide to the restaurants of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately the guide wasn’t helpful enough because El Obrero was closed. I still don’t understand why “mediodia y noche” didn’t apply to 3PM. So we asked our sympathetic cab driver to take us to a really good “big beef” place (My Spanish is not at its best yet). He dropped us off at Estilo Campo where we had a very enjoyable meal.

Estilo Campo is the quintessential upscale Argentinean steak house dripping with ambiance, complete with the “merry go round” style roasting pit, scads of committed professional waiters, and a full line of appetizers, wines, desserts, brandies and Cuban cigars. They take pride in actually selecting the beef that they serve. At our waiters recommendation we ordered the Asado al Asador (Roast on a Spit) and the Vacio al Asador (Flank Roasted on a Spit). It is going to take a while to adjust to the meat here. Last month there was a wonderful article by Richard O’Mara in the Christian Science Monitor, about understanding how they raise the beef. The article goes on to describe the different ways they cut the meat and of the asado (barbecue) and asador (barbecuer). We got the costilleta or meat near the short ribs. We would ordinarily consider this stew meat needing a long slow cooking process to break down the connective tissue. One thing, for certain, you have to cut it into small pieces. The flavor was good. In the photo you can see the concentrated outer layer of barbecued goodness. I would describe it as meatier than our beef. Oh well, I expect to explore these questions over the next three weeks of dining and make my peace with the Asado.

The wine we had with the meal was a generous Malbec, the 2004 Alamos from Catena, described very well in this review.

We completed the meal with a Chocolate Mousse that was very densely flavored, an espresso, and a generous warm glass of domestic brandy, Reserva San Juan, which I will have again.

I of course took some photos.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.