The steaks in Argentina are indeed glorious, however feedlots are today actually the main way cattle are being raised. See John Torode in: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2i1imr
I hate this kind of gluttony over meat. No one needs two steaks a day, and just because it is part of some countries culture (although, is it?) doesn't mean it should be glorified. Anyway, it's also ignorant to think all the cows are roaming around free in some grassy bovine nirvana until they get slaughtered.
Studies (recent and past) have linked red meat consumption to certain cancers. Are Argentina's cancer rates actually any higher than anywhere else or is it basically negligible?
But I guess red meat is just one of several (many?) things that can affect cancer. For example, it seems that there is an inverse correlation between selenium in the soil and cancer:
My dentist, who also has a phd in chemistry, always tells my about beef. Beef has to rest for a while in the cold storage until it becomes soft and eatable for humans. During this time, which counts as a quality time for the meat, it actually rots. Yes, beef lovers (me included), it rots! - It is called ageing in the ads, as if it were good, red wine.
The phd thesis of my dentist was about the number of poisonous substances that build up during the ageing process. He found 200 different poisonous substances! This is most likely the reason why colorectal cancer can be statistically related to beef consumption. Problem is: it only shows after 20-30 years, so there is room for procrastination.
<irony>Enjoy! And ignore the facts. Looking at facts makes life so much less enjoyable.</irony>
The fact is that the decay that occurs during aging does not foul the meat. This sort of distinguishes it from rotten fruit or whatever (unless that fruit happens to be rotted by carefully selected yeast, leading to a good red wine).
No source link. As I have written, my dentist told me. His thesis is published but certainly rots in some archives.
If you want to know about the statistical correlation between beef consumption and cancer risk - do yourself a favour and just type some keywords into a search algorithm, please. You will be overwhelmed with results (ignore the ones from south american steak distributors, steak houses and also the ones from vegan activists :o).
If you think this is bad, you need to spend a lot more time learning about the incredible diverse array of things that humans ingest without any apparent problem. We eat lots of things that can be characterized as having "rotted": Cheese, beer, wine, which is then double-"rotted" into vinegar, in fact fermentation opens a whole door of its own. Plus with all the recent discoveries about the importance of gut bacteria, arguably half our digestive process could be called "rotting" the food.
Interestingly, in many cases the "rotted" foods are better for us than the raw. Among our many adaptations that allow us to carry around our enormous brains is the fact that we've offloaded non-trivial portions of our digestive systems to exterior systems via cooking and deliberate food treatments like fermentations. Eating carefully "rotted" food is arguably intrinsic to our species now.
If you're going to a good butcher, yes, the outside of the beef does rot. After which the butcher cuts off the rotted bits, leaving behind some fantastic tasting steak.
However, if you buy an aged steak from a supermarket, they'll have done what's known as "wet ageing". Basically they vacuum pack it, and then leave it to sit for 30, 60, 90, or whatever days. During which nothing much happens because oxygen is needed to make the ageing process happen, but it does mean they can sell you a "30 day aged" steak without having to throw away any meat.
I don't want to alarm you, but there's a good chance that food is rotting inside your digestive system right now. Bacteria in the human gut is an all-too-common condition, and can lead to breakdown of food proteins if not treated in time.
Perhaps this is relevant: meat in Argentina isn't aged. You never see it in marketing either... it would seem weird here. Cattle is trucked in to the city (a third of the country is in Buenos Aires), butchered here and sent out to carnicerias (butcher shops) that day. It's a common sight to see refrigerated boxtrucks with cow carcasses hanging in the back double parked outside markets/butchers/etc.
I spent 2 months in argentina and I ate enough meat and drank enough Malbec for a lifetime. 2 reasons: they were DELICIOUS and they were CHEAP.
I live in the USA and the dollar was strong vs the peso during my visit- so cheapness was relative to me but my Argentinian friends told me that they produce meat 10 their needs (they export the rest).
I'm in Buenos Aires right now and that's pretty spot on. Beef is of incredibly high quality and it's incredibly cheap. I've been here for a couple weeks and will be staying until December (I've taken a year off with my girlfriend to travel the world). So far, I love it. The Spanish is spoken with an almost Italian accent, so I find it much easier to understand than, for instance, Chile's Spanish, which is impenetrable. One idiosyncrasy is that the double ll is not pronounced like a /y/ as in most other dialects, but like a /j/.
The wine is wonderful as well, provided you like the sort of big acidic wine that goes well with a nice hunk of meat. Luckily, that's my thing.
To be honest, if the economy and politics weren't so unstable down here, I'd consider buying a place. Unfortunately all weirdness with the blue dollar and the petty crime make it somewhere that I'll just keep on the radar.
Also, the thing he didn't mention when it came to booze was that this is the only other place in the world that Fernet Branca is distilled. Argentines drink the most Fernet per capita, as well as the most Coca-Cola (the second is related to the first).
That's probably right, Fernet with Coke is a kind of national drink, especially in the province of Córdoba, where everything suggests it was invented.
If you order a Fernet in Argentina, it is assumed that it includes Coke. Nobody that I know of drinks it alone, and it sounds weird to us to do that.
In the movie "The Dark Knight Rises" there's a scene in which Alfred goes to Florence and drinks Fernet Branca alone. The comment from many Argentinians was "What? No Coke? That's gross!".
Maybe I'm missing something, but asado de tira is one of the two most common cuts in Argentina's parrillas, the other one is vacío (flank steak). It's so common that you can just order "asado" and you will get that.
Definitely planning a trip. We were going to make a run last week to get out some Yankee bucks but it turns out that Xoom seems to work fine for the purpose (when you factor in the price of the ferry ticket and so forth). But yeah, I think we're going to catch the ferry over at some point.
Uruguay has a higher murder rate than Argentina [0]. This is also true if you compare the city of Buenos Aires with Montevideo[1], though exact numbers are harder to find and I don't have a reference handy. If Buenos Aires has more crime(I have never been able to find numbers on amounts of roberies), it is not as dangerous.
Having spent a short amount of time as a pedestrian in both cities, I'll just say that way people drive the cars and buses in Buenos Aires could easily be described as murderous, though that's certainly not reflected by the murder rate.
I fell in love with Uruguay when I was there last year-- really an amazing place with a great climate of living and enjoying life fully. People seemed very happy in Uruguay.
I was in Buenos Aires about three years ago, in the Palermo Hollywood area. And very much to our surprise there were a lot of vegetarian restaurants as well. One of which my wife and I still talk about how good it was. Regretfully I do not know the name anymore. It also seemed as if those restaurants were more expensive then the 'normal' ones.
One really good vegetarian restaurant in Palermo Hollywood is called Buenos Aires Verde. It's so good it can't possibly be healthy, but it is vegetarian!
Probably either Bio (vegan) or Artemesia (not-so-strict-vegetarian). Or green bamboo.
But the reason you found lots of vegeterian restaurants is not surprising: you were a tourist in a touristy area, and it's mainly tourists that look for vegetarian restaurants in Argentina!
Source: I'm Argentine, and I live here. Also, I eat at those restaurants.
They don't skimp on the steak (despite the name "chivito" it's made with beef, not goat), or the ham, cheese, or egg. There are many fried potatoes on the plate as well. And they'll also throw on a huge variety of vegetables, fresh and pickled.
I ate many of these around my early teens at The Manchester in Montevideo.
Interesting, in Spain we have Chivitos which is basically a baguette with practically the same ingredients. Never heard of it served on a plate (al plato) before!
Yep, that's Argentina. I definitely agree with most of the author's points, especially the Argentine skittishness around seasonings and spices. The beef is fantastic without any embellishment, though. Two things that I'm surprised at is the author's lack of mention of the Argentine obsessions with mayo, and the separate but equally baffling obsession with ham and cheese (as a combo). I saw mayo abused very frequently when I was in Argie. I also saw ham and cheese plastered onto every menu.
"Items are preventatively glazed with sugar whenever there is be the slightest doubt as to whether they are supposed to be sweet or savory; this is what prevents the otherwise excellent Argentine croissants (medialunas) from being the king of breakfasts."
Ah yes, the heavenly medialuna. I don't consider them to be ultra-sugary, but they do have a lot more sugar than a typical croissant. I know my girlfriend (who is Argentine) is crazy for medialunas, and I quite enjoy them also. They're much more flavorful and properly sized (small) than other croissants I've had-- I even prefer them to the Parisian kind.
"Thank God, therefore, for the ice cream. When the Italians came here at the start of the century, they took one swig of the fine pampas milk and knew what they had to do. The ice cream in Buenos Aires is easily the best I have ever eaten, and the parlors that serve it are everywhere."
Yes. The ice cream in Argentina is heavenly, and they will deliver right to your door. The other icecreams I've had don't remotely compare. Definitely visit the chain called Freddo if you find yourself in BA.
"What Tim Horton's is to Canada, mate is to Argentina - a national obsession whose appeal is inexplicable to outsiders."
Mate is gross, and my gourd rotted away because I didn't cure it properly.
EDIT: But the coffee is sublime. Having coffee in Argentina ruined coffee for me... nothing else state side is remotely as flavorful and smooth.
arg coffee is probably the worst thing ever invented. its a fact. they import it from brazil where it super cheap. hence all the booming columbian cafes. just ask anyone.
My feeling with Argentinians has always been that they could easily come from the South of Italy and you would notice no difference. There is a very strong connection between Argentina and Naples too. It's amazing how an Argentinian and a person from Naples can feel more connected than, say, Naples and Milan.
This is very true. I'm from Argentina and visited Italy earlier this year. Naples felt very much like Buenos Aires, and a lot of people understood me even when I spoke in spanish.
I loved Argentina. The funny looks and the rolling of the eyes when you ask for a side salad or worse, fries, with a steak. The half cow that they fling on the flaming parrilla (BBQ). So much meat and do much nice red wine. Yum.
Lovely welcoming people too. I'd love to visit again once my kids are old enough to stomach the flight from Europe.
Argentina is lovely, and not just Buenos Aires. Good god, the wine. You can have an incredible wine-tasting vacation in Mendoza or Cafayate. If you love the outdoors, there's Tierra del Fuego - which is also the jumping off point for Antarctica. There's more that's purported to be great, too.
At the moment, the key is to bring all your money in American dollars, and never touch a credit card - the official exchange rate is set by the government, and has no relationship to reality. Exchange your money into pesos on the black market, and an already affordable country gets even more so.
I had good luck using Xoom.com to transfer money. The rates were very close to (and occasionally even better than) the blue rate. You just have to find an office to pick it up from.
Also, make sure you don't end up with too many extra pesos at the end of your trip. It's almost impossible to change them back to dollars.
Nobody here eats 2 steaks a day..anymore.. Their buying power has been reduced ( inflation here is 25-33% per year ) with salaries always lagging behind.
I moved to BA in 2006.. the dollar was 3:1.
It's now 15:1. But again, with less power.
The avg middle-class person used to have weekly 'asados' aka bbqs at their home with friends and now most can't afford the beef. The really good beef is exported to 1st world countries ( and recently the US : http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/08/us/argentina-beef-ban-lift...)
Life quality however ( if earning USD ) is 4x what you will find in NYC ( where I grew up ).
Live in a the best neighborhood in a 2k/sq ft house'
and pay for a house-cleaner/nanny, 5-star health insurance, and top private school for my son. ( total 3k USD ).. the same exact lifestyle would cost 4x that in SF/NYC.
Hardest thing was leaving my friends,family, and learning spanish. But I'm significantly ...way happier.
Interesting story. Where are you from in the US originally? Your comment is worth expanding into a longer blog post - I would happily read it. @simon on twitter if you want to connect.
Actually im writing a how-to book on this ;-) ..
Small world! Simon we met 3 years ago when you visited StartupChile! We had ceviche with some friends.
Just had myself an asado (barbecue) here in Buenos Aires the other day! :)
A few things about the culture and article:
The meat is not universally great. One has to find the right butcher- he will be a lifelong friend. Also, the chicken here is really pumped full of hormones, so I hear...
The good meat, however, is great. And it is given the proper respect it deserves. At a proper asado it is served without condiments and enjoyed by all. The asador is a hero when the meat is well-cooked.
I was surprised to find that people from Argentina love to drink beer along with mezze like we usually do here in the Middle East. Maybe this was the result of the influence of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants on their cuisine.
Yes, picadas (which means chopped in Spanish) are pretty common in Argentina and people usually drink beer with them. You can order them at pubs and they are something standard in social gatherings.
But I think mezze includes more elaborated food; the typical picada includes cheese, cold cuts, olives, peanuts, bread, snack food and that's it. The things served are more similar to the italian antipasto, but the way of serving them (many small dishes distributed over the table) resembles the mezze.
66 comments
[ 312 ms ] story [ 941 ms ] threadhttp://www.wcrf.org/int/cancer-facts-figures/data-cancer-fre...
But I guess red meat is just one of several (many?) things that can affect cancer. For example, it seems that there is an inverse correlation between selenium in the soil and cancer:
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/128/11/1845.full.pdf
My dentist, who also has a phd in chemistry, always tells my about beef. Beef has to rest for a while in the cold storage until it becomes soft and eatable for humans. During this time, which counts as a quality time for the meat, it actually rots. Yes, beef lovers (me included), it rots! - It is called ageing in the ads, as if it were good, red wine. The phd thesis of my dentist was about the number of poisonous substances that build up during the ageing process. He found 200 different poisonous substances! This is most likely the reason why colorectal cancer can be statistically related to beef consumption. Problem is: it only shows after 20-30 years, so there is room for procrastination.
<irony>Enjoy! And ignore the facts. Looking at facts makes life so much less enjoyable.</irony>
So probably no harm looking at the facts.
If you think this is bad, you need to spend a lot more time learning about the incredible diverse array of things that humans ingest without any apparent problem. We eat lots of things that can be characterized as having "rotted": Cheese, beer, wine, which is then double-"rotted" into vinegar, in fact fermentation opens a whole door of its own. Plus with all the recent discoveries about the importance of gut bacteria, arguably half our digestive process could be called "rotting" the food.
Interestingly, in many cases the "rotted" foods are better for us than the raw. Among our many adaptations that allow us to carry around our enormous brains is the fact that we've offloaded non-trivial portions of our digestive systems to exterior systems via cooking and deliberate food treatments like fermentations. Eating carefully "rotted" food is arguably intrinsic to our species now.
However, if you buy an aged steak from a supermarket, they'll have done what's known as "wet ageing". Basically they vacuum pack it, and then leave it to sit for 30, 60, 90, or whatever days. During which nothing much happens because oxygen is needed to make the ageing process happen, but it does mean they can sell you a "30 day aged" steak without having to throw away any meat.
If you get a chance, visit a Wegmans. http://catillation.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/dry-aging....
I live in the USA and the dollar was strong vs the peso during my visit- so cheapness was relative to me but my Argentinian friends told me that they produce meat 10 their needs (they export the rest).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnography_of_Argentina#Itali...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Latin_American#Argentina
The wine is wonderful as well, provided you like the sort of big acidic wine that goes well with a nice hunk of meat. Luckily, that's my thing.
To be honest, if the economy and politics weren't so unstable down here, I'd consider buying a place. Unfortunately all weirdness with the blue dollar and the petty crime make it somewhere that I'll just keep on the radar.
Also, the thing he didn't mention when it came to booze was that this is the only other place in the world that Fernet Branca is distilled. Argentines drink the most Fernet per capita, as well as the most Coca-Cola (the second is related to the first).
It is an Italian accent!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Argentine
If you order a Fernet in Argentina, it is assumed that it includes Coke. Nobody that I know of drinks it alone, and it sounds weird to us to do that.
In the movie "The Dark Knight Rises" there's a scene in which Alfred goes to Florence and drinks Fernet Branca alone. The comment from many Argentinians was "What? No Coke? That's gross!".
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention... [1]: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/156754/un-argentina...
But the reason you found lots of vegeterian restaurants is not surprising: you were a tourist in a touristy area, and it's mainly tourists that look for vegetarian restaurants in Argentina!
Source: I'm Argentine, and I live here. Also, I eat at those restaurants.
They don't skimp on the steak (despite the name "chivito" it's made with beef, not goat), or the ham, cheese, or egg. There are many fried potatoes on the plate as well. And they'll also throw on a huge variety of vegetables, fresh and pickled.
I ate many of these around my early teens at The Manchester in Montevideo.
"Items are preventatively glazed with sugar whenever there is be the slightest doubt as to whether they are supposed to be sweet or savory; this is what prevents the otherwise excellent Argentine croissants (medialunas) from being the king of breakfasts."
Ah yes, the heavenly medialuna. I don't consider them to be ultra-sugary, but they do have a lot more sugar than a typical croissant. I know my girlfriend (who is Argentine) is crazy for medialunas, and I quite enjoy them also. They're much more flavorful and properly sized (small) than other croissants I've had-- I even prefer them to the Parisian kind.
"Thank God, therefore, for the ice cream. When the Italians came here at the start of the century, they took one swig of the fine pampas milk and knew what they had to do. The ice cream in Buenos Aires is easily the best I have ever eaten, and the parlors that serve it are everywhere."
Yes. The ice cream in Argentina is heavenly, and they will deliver right to your door. The other icecreams I've had don't remotely compare. Definitely visit the chain called Freddo if you find yourself in BA.
"What Tim Horton's is to Canada, mate is to Argentina - a national obsession whose appeal is inexplicable to outsiders."
Mate is gross, and my gourd rotted away because I didn't cure it properly.
EDIT: But the coffee is sublime. Having coffee in Argentina ruined coffee for me... nothing else state side is remotely as flavorful and smooth.
I'm not Argentine, and find mate to be extremely delicious. Just to provide another data point :)
Au contraire. He talks about how it is sold in two liter bags, and reflects upon how fun they are to drop off of balconies.
Lovely welcoming people too. I'd love to visit again once my kids are old enough to stomach the flight from Europe.
At the moment, the key is to bring all your money in American dollars, and never touch a credit card - the official exchange rate is set by the government, and has no relationship to reality. Exchange your money into pesos on the black market, and an already affordable country gets even more so.
Also, make sure you don't end up with too many extra pesos at the end of your trip. It's almost impossible to change them back to dollars.
Today Xoom is giving you 13.8 Official Blue rate = 15,19
Follow me for more contact info @arturmakly
I moved to BA in 2006.. the dollar was 3:1. It's now 15:1. But again, with less power.
The avg middle-class person used to have weekly 'asados' aka bbqs at their home with friends and now most can't afford the beef. The really good beef is exported to 1st world countries ( and recently the US : http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/08/us/argentina-beef-ban-lift...)
Life quality however ( if earning USD ) is 4x what you will find in NYC ( where I grew up ).
From here I was able to bootstrap 2 profitable startups ( hiring local talent ) http://JuicyCanvas.com & http://POPteam.io
Live in a the best neighborhood in a 2k/sq ft house' and pay for a house-cleaner/nanny, 5-star health insurance, and top private school for my son. ( total 3k USD ).. the same exact lifestyle would cost 4x that in SF/NYC.
Hardest thing was leaving my friends,family, and learning spanish. But I'm significantly ...way happier.
Still, I think I should have eaten more steak while there.
A few things about the culture and article:
The meat is not universally great. One has to find the right butcher- he will be a lifelong friend. Also, the chicken here is really pumped full of hormones, so I hear...
The good meat, however, is great. And it is given the proper respect it deserves. At a proper asado it is served without condiments and enjoyed by all. The asador is a hero when the meat is well-cooked.
But I think mezze includes more elaborated food; the typical picada includes cheese, cold cuts, olives, peanuts, bread, snack food and that's it. The things served are more similar to the italian antipasto, but the way of serving them (many small dishes distributed over the table) resembles the mezze.