Argentina

Beef and Wine

Buenos Aires

May 30th 2024 – June 3rd 2024

Table of Contents

Argentina was our first foray in to South America. The culmination of months of thinking “What if?” and “Well, we might as well”. Our Southwest Asian trip only 7 months earlier was supposed to have satisfied the desire to travel for a little longer, but instead, it made us hungrier. There were only two continents left, South America and Oceania, and we were so close to the other America, so why shouldn’t we?

Read on and adventure with us on our 2024 South American Trip.

First Impressions

After a long night of no sleep (Emily slept the entire way. Shocking.), we landed at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires. This was country number 22 and our fifth continent.

After an hour drive from the airport we arrived in our home for the next couple of days, Palermo. It was around 11am and we were the only ones out. Emily had been excitedly telling me early in the week, “Argentinians don’t leave their houses until the afternoon!” so she was quite proud her TikTok research had proven true. Obviously it was a weekday, but you do expect to see people in capital cities out and about, no matter the day.

Palermo was a cool little neighborhood located in the northern part of Buenos Aires. The streets were quaint and filled with murals and graffiti. It was beautiful and urban. Our research had led us here. Almost every recommendation we found was pointed towards Palermo, and we could immediately see why. The air was cool and crisp. We were going to like it here.

Early Eats

Back in the USA, Emily has made it her mission to visit as many different coffee shops as possible. Every Saturday or Sunday, we go to a different one nearby. This has led to the discovery of many cool little spots you wouldn’t usually find otherwise. Anyways, this tradition has carried over into our international adventures, so the first thing we had to do in Argentina was find a nearby spot, and luckily for us, Full City Coffee was a short walk away. It was also our first chance to try the Alfajore, an South American cookie with Dulce de Leche inside. We went with the almond version and it was great. The coffee was average.

Next, it was time for some Argentinian lunch and there was only one spot on our mind. Earlier in the day, a little yellow corner shop had caught our eye. Chori specializes in an Argentinian favorite, Choripan.

We went with the Chori de Cancha, sausage with chimichurri. It’s essentially a hot dog with an Argentinian twist, and is a very popular street food or something to eat while watching a soccer game. A sausage is sliced down the middle, thrown on a grill, and loaded up with chimichurri. Simple as that. The bread was crusty, the sausage smoky and fatty, and the chimichurri gives it a fresh, spicy kick.

Satisfied and full, we did what we always do when visiting a new area, walked around and explored. And there were some pretty cool spots.

Hotel Boutique Rugantino

During our time in Argentina, we’d be staying in a small Boutique hotel nestled away in Palermo. Rugantino was wonderful. Walking in you immediately smelled fresh bread, as it was made every day to be served at breakfast, alongside homemade jams and preservatives. Its tiny courtyard was filled with vines of all colors; green, orange, red, yellow. We walked up a small staircase and down a corridor overlooking the courtyard to get to our room. Inside, the room was decorated with vintage movie posters and looked over the street. We immediately fell asleep.

Our First Asado Experience

Argentinians eat late. Real late compared to us. I’m talking anywhere from 7pm onward. Because of this, certain places do special Happy Hours at times that Argentinians can’t comprehend eating at: 6pm. Luckily for us, that’s when we usually eat, and even luckier for us, a nearby barbeque spot, La Cabrera, had a great 40% off Happy Hour deal going on.

The process to get into this Happy Hour was quite interesting in itself. We showed up to La Cabrera at 5pm, where a line had already formed. Once we got to the hostess, we gave her our name and how many people were in the party. “Come back here at 6:15” she replied. Our name was on the list and our foot in the door.

Now, before we get into the actual food, it’s important to understand the significance of Argentinian barbeque. Every neighborhood has their local Parilla, or grill. Here, at these Parilla’s, is where the Asado experience is had. Asado is not only Argentina’s National Dish, it’s also not only just a way of grilling meat, it’s a cultural and social event where family, friends, and even strangers come together and share food together.

Now that you’ve got an idea of how special Asado is, let’s get back to La Cabrera at 6:15pm. We were among the first 10 people to arrive outside of the Parilla. We stood in a group that had formed around the hostess stand and waited for something to happen. 15 minutes went by without anything happening, except now the size of the crowd around this stand had increased to around 100 people. Eventually, the hostess said something in Spanish and began reading out names. If your name was called, you raised your hand and made your way through the crowd into the restaurant. Someone jokingly raised their hand, claiming to be someone they were not which drew a laugh out of the crowd. The atmosphere was lively, everyone was having a good time. It was in this moment I started to ‘get it’, why Asado was this big, social experience.

Eventually, “Daniel”. I raised my hand and forged a path through the tightly fitted crowd and through the restaurant doors. We were escorted past a grill packed with all different meats and into the main dining room. Waiters were already bouncing from table to table taking wine orders. We were placed at a table with another young couple. Very quickly a waiter came over and gave us a local wine recommendation, which we immediately accepted.

We ordered the Entraña, or a Skirt Steak, an absolute classic here in Argentina. We made eye contact and gave each other the biggest grins. “This is so cool” we both said simultaneously. It really was one of the most incredible culinary experiences of our lives. Here we were at a steakhouse in Buenos Aires, drinking some local Malbec, eating Argentinian Skirt Steak. It was perfect.

The beef was incredible. You could taste the smokiness from the grill on its charred crust. Every now and then you’d get a salty crunch from some flaked salt. It tasted real. No artificial bullshit, just real beef.

Crossing the Bay

The next day, we crossed the bay to Argentina’s neighbors, Uruguay. You can read out that adventure here.

We ended up getting back to our hotel around 6pm and did what we do best: napped until dinner.

Messi’s Favorite Meal

Lionel Messi is a God in Argentina. You see more murals of this man on walls, buildings and sidewalks than you do the actual Argentinian flag. And honestly, it’s not surprising. People are obsessed with football here and Messi has won it all with them, including the World Cup recently. So of course while we were here, we had to try Messi’s favorite meal, the Milanesa Napolitano. In an interview with Marca, Messi talked about this Argentine dish:

Just like most people, Messi enjoys some of his mother’s dishes, most of all her milanesas, similar to schnitzel.

“I think it’s because of the sauce that she puts on top,” Messi explained. “I’ve eaten a lot of them, but the ones I eat at my house with that sauce… Others have tried them and said that they’re very good – really!”

Now we were at El Club de la Milanesa, and it was time to see what Messi was hyping up. In case you didn’t know, Milanesa is beef that has been pounded down, breaded, and fried. The Napolitano version includes a tomato sauce on top with mozzarella.

I thought it was okay. Emily loved it. Try to imagine how breaded beef with tomato sauce and mozzarella tastes. That’s exactly what it tasted like.

The Coolest Library in the World

One of the goals for this trip was very simple: get some banging Empanadas. That goal had brought us to La Morada, a little Empanada making, hole in the wall restaurant in downtown Buenos Aires. Inside was filled with old football photos and memorabilia, specifically for one of the local teams, River Plate (we’ll talk more about them later).

I went up to a the bar and was handed a menu. Research of the place had led me to three different Empanadas: a Carne Suave (regular beef), Carne Picante (spicy beef), and Picachu (cheese and ham). They were great. Super fresh and tasty.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid

The Greatest Steakhouse in the World

A couple months prior to this trip, I signed up to be on a waitlist for one of the most famous restaurants in the world with little intention of actually getting in. Fast forward 2 months and I’d actually completely forgotten about it, until one day receiving an email saying we had been accepted. We would be going to Don Julio.

And now the sought after day had come. We dressed up real nice and took a lovely, short walk to Don Julio. The air was cool and fresh. We could hardly contain our excitement. Once we arrived, a line was already forming for reservations.

We were led into the restaurant and past a group of chefs throwing large hunks of meat onto a grill. It’s got to be a thing at these Parilla’s where you have to walk past the grill before getting to your seat.

We were sat and almost immediately given fresh bread and given options for wine. We went with a Terraces of the Andes, Plot No. 1E El Espinillo. I had no idea what that meant, but the cicerone seemed very enthusiastic about it and we love Malbecs. A quick Google search after showed that that specific plot is in an extreme altitude (over 1650 meters above sea level!), and got an almost perfect score from renowned wine critic James Suckling. Cool, I guess. We also thought it tasted great, maybe we should be wine critics.

We went with a classic Asado experience: A Provoleta, Beets, and the mother of all steaks, an Entrecot (also known as a Tomahawk). In case you skipped ahead and missed why Asado is so sacred here, it’s not just a simple meal, it’s a social and cultural experience. This was serious stuff.

First came the Provoleta, an Argentinian favorite. This is quite literally just a slab of Provolone cheese that is grilled and sprinkled with Oregano. It sounds simple, and that’s because it is, but biting in to the crispy exterior and getting a mouthful of gooey cheese was so satisfying. It was cheesy, salty, and a little herby. And we just love cheese, so it was perfect.

Then came the moment we had been waiting for. Over came our server with the beast itself. She began sharpening her Don Julio branded knife and expertly sliced the meat off the bone and onto our plates. It was a perfect Medium Rare. The crust was glistening, the meat juicy, and our stomachs rumbling. We each took a bite. My god it was good. It was so rich and just, beefy. I lathered some Chimichurri on and took another bite. Absolutely beautiful. It’s not hard to find a good steak, but there are levels that ascend them to something other worldly, and this was definitely in another universe.

5 out of 5 stars. Would definitely Don Julio again.

La Boca

The next day we dedicated to each of our favorite things, soccer and theatre. We snapped a quick photo with one of the millions of Messi murals in town and hopped in an a Uber across town to the Boca neighborhood.

In case you didn’t know, football in Buenos Aires is a serious affair. The two biggest teams in the city, Boca Juniors and River Plate, absolutely despise each other. It’s a passionate, violent rivalry that started in the early 1900’s. And with our luck, the Uber driver who would be driving us to Boca was an older man…… who loved River Plate.

He immediately asked us something in Spanish, and repeated in English once he saw our confusion, “Why are you going to Boca?” “We are touring all the stadiums, River is next”. That eased the tension as he happily told us he was River Plate. He ended being a great guy, and the drive their was filled with him just talking shit on Boca and their team. “Boca is a poor neighborhood and their stadium is tiny. River is rich and our home is huge.” Once we reached Boca, he started pointing to the buildings, “Look how poor and terrible it is here”.

It was all fun until at one point, he said very seriously, “Once it gets to 5pm you get out of here. Do not be here when it is dark”. I had heard Boca was considered the ‘bad place’ of Buenos Aires, but I actually thought it looked charming. Almost every building was painted blue and yellow in support of the team. It was a great show of unity.

We were dropped off in front of the stadium, La Bombonera, as our Uber driver gave one last scoff. It was incredible. The entire street was covered in Boca Juniors colors, flags, badges, and scarves as the famous stadium sat looming over everything.

We went inside and took the Museum tour. I was in awe. Boca Juniors is up there with one of the most iconic teams of all time. Seeing things like a shirt worn by Diego Maradona, the Copa Libertadores trophy, and boots worn by Riquelme was incredible.

Food wasn’t hard to find. Right across the street from the stadium was a small Parilla decked out in Boca memorabilia called La Glorieta de Quique. We took a seat and ordered a Choripan, a Lomito, and a giant Quilmes cerveza. We’d been to a Michelin Star steakhouse on this trip, but this might have been my favorite restaurant atmosphere so far. Behind us were four, giant, open grills filled with meat and fries.

We were handed our food quickly. It was literally just a sausage in bread (Choripan) and an entire steak lumped in a sandwich (Lomito). We lathered them both in chimichurri and dug in. It was simple, but damn it was good. The bread was so crispy and fresh, the meat was smoky, and the chimichurri was fresh and spicy. If this was my neighborhood, I’d be here all the time, and it was cheap as hell too. $5 for the Choripan and $8 for the Lomito. Can’t beat those prices.

Fancy Theatre

Later that day we had tickets for a tour around Teatro Colon, one of the most renowned opera houses in the world. It was so renowned that they didn’t have any English tours available, and instead, we were stuck in a Spanish tour. Oh well, we thought, Emily speaks a little Spanish, maybe we’ll understand a bit that’s going on. Spoiler alert: we had absolutely no idea. But that didn’t take away from how awe inspiring this place was. Similar to the Vatican City, every square inch of this place is meticulously decorated. Marble, gold, velvet, stained glass. It was fancy as can be.

The tour culminated in us sitting in our own box overlooking the concert hall. The acoustics in this place are supposed to make it one of the best places in the world to perform. Even just sitting in here and hearing ourselves and others talk, you could tell it was different.

We ended our last day in Argentina by getting a late night treat. They really love their Gelato here.

On to the Next Country

The next morning we woke up early to catch a flight to the next country on our list. It was still dark out when we came to the lobby and we were greeted by the hotel cat.

We loved our time in Argentina. It was a great introduction to South America. Join us as we continue our foray in the continent as we visit Paraguay!