After their football team, the object of Argentines’ national pride is their meat – and they have every right to revel in one of the deadly sins. It’s widely accepted to be some of the best in the world and, as a consequence, they also indulge in another deadly sin: gluttony.
In Buenos Aires, the only thing that is slow is the melancholic tango. As a tourist here you can feel like you’re being whisked away in a tornado – sometimes you just need to escape from the hectic city life before someone orders you to “tranquilo!”
If you’re looking for somewhere to eat in Buenos Aires that won’t break the bank, here are our top tips on finding some traditional Argentine food establishments when out and about in the city.
Christmas in Argentina, as those with even the most rudimentary grasp of geography will know, occurs at the height of summer. With that in mind, you’d be forgiven for assuming that the locals in this part of the world have sensibly revamped their yuletide festivities to take account of the hot weather. Assume again.
Mention to anyone from Buenos Aires you’re going to Córdoba and they’ll make a drinking notion with their hand, and usually a sound like ‘wa-hey’. But Córdoba also has a rich cultural heritage and fascinating history just waiting to be explored.
Recently my vegetarian mate Brian came to Argentina – land of the cow – on a ‘meat sabbatical’. OK, that’s not strictly true – he came here to go skiing in Bariloche, but what he discovered in Buenos Aires was so much more enriching, literally: parrillas
Choripán – Sausage in a bun, Argentina style. It took me two years of living in Argentina to figure out that choripán – the ultimate Argentinian street snack – is cunningly named from the words chorizo, a sausage, and pan, meaning bread. (Of course, it took me four years to realise that ‘chile con carne’ is ‘chilli with meat’ – so what can I say.) What’s in choripán? Only the finest cuts of pork or beef. Ha ha, not really…
Granted, it doesn’t help that chinchulines look exactly like what they are; namely the small intestine, but these little innards are an indispensable part of that indispensable Buenos Aires experience: the asado barbecue. Closing your eyes is one tactic. Another is to quaff enough Malbec to not really care what you throw down your throat. But those who do have the, er, guts to order dangly bits of cow will be rewarded with a tasty treat, or at least a good story to tell your mates at home…