A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

Chef Andrey Durbach Gets Down To Business In Buenos Aires…

steakout_2This is Dispatch Number Two in a series of several posts from Andrey Durbach, co-owner/chef of La Buca, L’Altro Buca, and Pied-a-Terre. Durbach is guest-blogging for us as he eats and drinks his way through Argentina, land of quality beef, very good and inexpensive wine, and a culture that deeply values the marriage of the two. In his first post, Durbach was mugged at gunpoint upon arrival in the South American country. Now recovered, the chef gets down to business. If you’re a vegetarian, you might consider taking the day off.

Steak Out – Eating & Drinking in Argentina, Part Two

by Andrey Durbach

I once worked for an Italian chef, an unloveable sociopath from whom I learned exactly one thing. We did a fair amount of function work, and the amount of food on offer was over the top, grotesquely generous, indulgent in a sort of Roman Empire way. When I commented, on more than one occasion, that the volume of food was way in excess of requirement, and that a great deal of it would soon end up as landfill, I was berated, and made to understand that it wasn’t just about having “enough”. It was about providing a banquet so ample that no one could or would ever consider if it was “enough”. Guests could eat to their heart’s content without thinking about if they were consuming the last quail breast, and felt like they were welcome to indulge in another three or four or ten smoked-salmon-and-caviar blinis to soak up some of the champagne.

And so it is here in Argentina. Except that very little ends up as landfill. These people are trencherman. I watched with a mixture of disbelief and unfettered glee as a svelte middle aged woman and her eightysomething mother at the table beside us put away a blood sausage, a large salad, what must have been 24 ounces of striploin, a bottle of wine and a chunk of flan for dessert. At lunchtime. People eat with gusto and real enjoyment here, and the restaurants in turn provide them with more than “enough”. So, if the waiter tells you that you’ve over-ordered, best listen to him.

We discovered this our first night out, at a fantastic parrilla called Parrilla 1880. Bright lighting, futbol memorabilia, hardwood grill front and centre, and old boy waiters in bow ties.

10:30 table for two? No chance, come back in forty five minutes.

OK, we’ll get a drink at the bar up the street. At 11:15 we are comfortably seated at the end of a long table in an absolutely heaving dining room, and presented with menus. Everything on the grill looks fantastic. We set about ordering. Grilled provolone, green salad, blood sausage, papas fritas provencale (fries with garlic and parsley), ojo de bife (ribeye).

Si, gracias, says our waiter as he tries to take our menus. Oh, I say, and a bife de costilla (grilled beef ribs). Raised eyebrows from waiter. No mas, he says. Pork ribs, then. Also no mas. OK…we’ll try the entrana (skirt steak). He was trying to warn us but sensed our enthusiasm and let us order the second steak.

We just hadn’t realized that the skirt steak by itself was going to be a full pound of meat. Christ knows how big the ribeye was. Big. A big slab of charcoal grilled perfection, with crispy charred bits of untrimmed fat, served on a metal plate without so much as a piece of parsley to interfere. Juicy, beefy, caramelized and plate sized. Enough for two, easily, especially after blood sausage and grilled cheese. Then the one pound skirt steak arrives. We resolve to listen to our waiters more carefully for the rest of our trip. After our meat eating frenzy is complete, our waiter suggests postres, so we heed his advice. Ice creams and dulche de leche pancakes. Seriously, dulche de leche pancakes. I’m hooked.

Our bill for this dinner – including a bottle of Catena Malbec, two huge glasses of local brandy, a local digestif called Legui, two coffees, and bottled water – was about 80 dollars.

We left 1880 at about 1:45 am, with many others still eating and drinking. Will return here before we’re done.

———————————-

There is 1 comment

  1. I am a real restaurant addict and I made a blog about the restaurants I have visited in Buenos-Aires during my travels. So if you want to read some reviews about some buenos-aires-restaurants then visit my blog. I hope you will enjoy your stay and hope to here from you real soon!