I was a bit sick of meat, literally. I’d worked out that asado de tira was ribs, bife de chorizo a lump of steak not a sausage and that there are all kinds of other cuts of cow. A milanesa is a thin piece of red meat breadcrumbed; a suprema is the same made with chicken.
And I’d tried the pasta – it’s on every menu. Who knew that Argentina loved Italian food so much (though it’s no surprise really - a vast percentage of the population are direct descendants of Italians)? I’d discovered that turco is a dark red sauce with a smoky flavour and filetto is similar; that pasta is spaghetti, tallarini, ravioli or cannelloni; that it comes with a white sauce or red and not much more. Not exciting. There’s a pizzeria every ten yards but it looked horrible – great slabs of thick biscuit dough covered in greasy cheese – I never succumbed. It’s amazing that Argentines aren’t huge – they live on sweet pastries, fat meat sandwiches and creamy pasta.
Fish is a bit of a foreign object in Argentina – yuck is the response many Argentines have made to the notion of a fish supper. Wandering through the city streets one afternoon I came across a junction that seemed entirely Peruvian. The high pitched music, the dark faces, the gaily painted murals on the restaurant walls – it was very different from the Naples/Paris thing. Anyway for 20 pesos (4 quid) I had a huge mound of freshly made ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime). Yum yum yum.
And I’d tried the pasta – it’s on every menu. Who knew that Argentina loved Italian food so much (though it’s no surprise really - a vast percentage of the population are direct descendants of Italians)? I’d discovered that turco is a dark red sauce with a smoky flavour and filetto is similar; that pasta is spaghetti, tallarini, ravioli or cannelloni; that it comes with a white sauce or red and not much more. Not exciting. There’s a pizzeria every ten yards but it looked horrible – great slabs of thick biscuit dough covered in greasy cheese – I never succumbed. It’s amazing that Argentines aren’t huge – they live on sweet pastries, fat meat sandwiches and creamy pasta.
Fish is a bit of a foreign object in Argentina – yuck is the response many Argentines have made to the notion of a fish supper. Wandering through the city streets one afternoon I came across a junction that seemed entirely Peruvian. The high pitched music, the dark faces, the gaily painted murals on the restaurant walls – it was very different from the Naples/Paris thing. Anyway for 20 pesos (4 quid) I had a huge mound of freshly made ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime). Yum yum yum.
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