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Given the whole reversal of the magnetic poles, which direction it’s warmer and all that, one would think that here in Argentina we’d be looking for Northern charm, and Northern hospitality, and talking about the Deep North… but, it seems there’s just something about going south that brings all that out, even when south is a frozen glacier… Admittedly the glacier’s only a small part of Patagonia, which actually encompasses several provinces “down that-a-way”, and also offers up ingredients for cuisine that are unique in regard to the rest of the country – particularly in the world of game animals and seafood.

Buenos Aires is home to a small, and growing number of restaurants that specialize in the cuisine of Patagonia, ranging from simple neighborhood hangouts to among the poshest of restaurants in the city. Easily the most fun to be had is at one of the former, Mítico Sur, hidden away at number 389 on the narrow cobblestone Pasaje San Lorenzo in the barrio of San Telmo. This rustic two-story converted home offers up a literal sampling of tidbits from the deep south in the form of what are called tablas. We might call them an antipasto if we were going Italian, but we’re not… Mítico Sur serves an array of different platters, ranging from vegetable and fruits, to cheeses, to seafood, to meat, and combinations of all four – smoked, pickled, cured, and fresh, ingredients that Patagonia is famous for are laid out in little dishes to be nibbled upon. Among the best, the smoked trout and the cured wild boar, or jabalí. You can order a tabla by yourself and have more than sufficient for a meal, or you can share with friends, the most fun – and wash it all down with a glass or bottle of one of the region’s excellent wines – and this spot offers up one of the best selections of Patagonian wine to be found in the city – and very well priced.

The following two reviews got left off the page, which, given the start of the column takling about a number of restaurants, made no sense. Reproduced here:

If you like a homey setting, but want something both a little less rustic and also more classically styled for dinner, head out to Palermo, at Honduras 5710, and grab a seat at Divina Patagonia (they also have a branch in San Telmo, at Balcarce 958), where you can treat yourself to a hearty and creative meal that again ranges the food world. Amongst the more interesting dishes, a roasted loin of wild venison served up with an elderberry and currant packed bitter chocolate sauce, a slow cooked breast of wild boar lacquered in a fresh raspberry puree, or crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside “meatballs” of smoked trout served with a Patagonian Dijon mustard sauce. The wine list carries a good selection of the major commercial brands from both Patagonia and other regions of the country and is fairly priced.

Possibly you’re in the mood to up the ante and head for one of the lugares de lujo, or ritzy, upscale spots. While everyone likes to make fun of the Puerto Madero refurbished warehouse district and its tourism oriented dining, one of the things to note is that that often means some pretty high quality food – lets face it, tourists can be pretty demanding. For a place that’ll live up to high standards, head on out into the Puerto and get yourself a table at Aires de Patagonia, Alicia M. de Justo 1798, a handsome room, done up in exotic woods from the south like lenga and rauli, that give the room a very classy feel. The food, likewise, with beautifully presented, creative dishes like a fresh crabmeat (centolla), zucchini, and apple salad stacked with phylo dough, or a rack of Patagonian lamb, cordero, leaning up against a slice of leg of lamb, and all juiced up with a reduction of Malbec and a delicious tomato confit. The wine list, strangely, focuses more on selections from Mendoza than Patagonia, but there are definitely some southern gems to be found – not surprisingly, given the locale, both food and wine here are expensive.

When it comes to wines, Patagonia isn’t the first spot that comes to most folks minds in regard to Argentina. It’s still a relatively new area for commercial wine-making, with three of the provinces, Rio Negro, Neuquen, and Chubut weighing in with selections. It’s a cool to cold climate for grape-growing, and so not surprisingly, grapes that do well in a chillier environment are showing up as some of the region’s best. On the white side, that has come to mean Semillon, either on its own or blended, and the current reigning champ in that arena is the Infinitus Semillon-Chardonnay blend with its beautiful flavors of stone fruits, a touch of lanolin, minerals, and a mixed bag of spices. On the red side, unquestionably, Patagonia is producing Argentina’s best Pinot Noirs – in fact, the quality has been so superb that the owner of the famed Sassicaia super-Tuscan blend, Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, snapped up a vineyard planted to the grape and has started producing a small quantity of pricey but spectacular Pinot under the name Bodega Chacra. For those whose budget and searching patience doesn’t stretch that far, there are a wide range of lesser priced and more widely available Pinots and other grapes, including a personal favorite blend from NQN winery (Neuquen sans vowels), called Picada 15 – a ripe, fruity, spicy, and delicious blend of Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.

In October 2006, I started writing for this Spanish language magazine, covering their English language section for travellers. I wrote for them for about two years. The copy editor, apparently not fluent in English, used to put each paragraph in its own text box on a two column page, in what often seemed to be random order, making the thread of the column difficult to follow. I’ve restored the paragraphs to their original order.

It may seem cliche, but let’s face it, younger travelers, e.g., those in their early 20s, are an under-appreciated market by most of the wine and restaurant world. It’s not that there’s not food and drink out there for them, nor that they’re not treated well, but that the focus of most of the hospitality industry’s public relations is aimed at either business travelers, retired travelers, or successful couples from their late 30s to early 50s. It’s just the way of the world, and a reality based look at where the money is.

It’s also, perhaps, that the younger generation, as a stereotype, tend towards a more limited palate when it comes to food and wine – burgers, pizza, and these days, sushi; and inexpensive wines that are fruity and easy to drink. That’s not to say there’s not a good sized group of “gen-x-ers” who aren’t out to try anything and everything, they’re just not the norm, and it’s one of the reasons they stand out.

There have been attempts in various places to market directly to this untapped market – the most famous, and unfortunately now passed on to other pastures, the magazine Wine-X. But the real spot to get to this market is, as might be intuitively sensed, the internet. The most common are blogs – and there are a lot of them when it comes to wine, and quite a few oriented towards the youth market. Almost every expat or traveling blogger in Buenos Aires writes at some point about the wines that they try, but there’s not a dedicated wine blog here, regardless of the age of its readers – a wide open market for someone who’s up for the task.

The newest use of the internet, however, is the world of videocasting, and for younger wine drinkers, the guru of that world is Gary Vaynerchuk and his Wine Library TV (tv.winelibrary.com), where he uses casual street slang, lots of energy, gadgets, and a “hey, I’m one of you” approach to educating younger consumers about just exactly what wine is all about. Having talked with some local wine experts here, his marketing skills are held up in awe, and I’d think it won’t be long before Argentina offers up its own version of this sort of online marketing.

These two reviews were left off the page, inadvertently, when an art editor left the bottom half of the page blank, and no one caught it.

So, assuming you’re one of the folks I’m talking about, where do you go to find yourself surrounded by locals, or even expats, but those “in the know” when it comes to food and wine. First off, we know, part of the reason you’re here is the steak. But the last thing you want to do is go hang out at a smoke filled parrilla packed with families with screaming kids, guidebook toting tourists who haven’t quite figured out they’re not in a country where English is the primary language, or surrounded by couples who’ve been coming in and having the same meal at the same place for the last thirty years. You want hip, hot, and happening, and you want good steak and good wine. Not surprisingly, head yourself out to Palermo Hollywood, and grab a table at Miranda, Costa Rica 5602, where the music rocks, the decor is casual, modern industrial, the staff speak your language (no matter what your native tongue is), the portions are decent, and the prices are fair. You can eat at the bar and chat with your neighbors, grab a low couch in the lounge, or hit that table right up by the open kitchen and make friends with the guy cooking your steak.

Now, if you’re here for any length of time, we know you’re going to want your sushi fix. Buenos Aires isn’t known for its sushi – there’s plenty of it here, and it’s decent quality, if a bit heavy on combinations with cream cheese. But, it tends to be limited to salmon, and possibly salmon. Yes, you’ll get the occasional white fish, or a shrimp, or canned tuna, but there’s simply nowhere here offering the variety of sushi that folks from most other food capitals are used to. However, for a decent variety, and a room with a trendy vibe, good cocktails, an actual selection of sakes and wines, and service with just the right dose of attitude, head out to the new restaurant district in Las Cañitas and pop upstairs to Moshi-Moshi, Ortega y Gasset 1707. You’ll shell out a few extra pesos over what you might spend at most sushi bars in the city, but the quality, variety, and the chance to find yourself in a crowd of local twenty-somethings makes it worth every centavo.

On the wine front, one of the most common things I get asked, is how to learn the differences between different grapes. Beyond the old adage of just try, try, try, until you get it, which can cost a fortune, is the opportunity to find someone producing wines that are designed with just this in mind. Well known producer Bodegas Esmeralda produces a line of wines called Rodas Colección 12 – a dozen different individual varietals, white, pink, and red, made without oak aging, so they emphasize the pure flavors of the individual grapes. Best of the lot, their Petite Verdot, but they’re all a great way to educate your palate.

In October 2006, I started writing for this Spanish language magazine, covering their English language section for travellers. I wrote for them for about two years. The copy editor, apparently not fluent in English, used to put each paragraph in its own text box on a two column page, in what often seemed to be random order, making the thread of the column difficult to follow. I’ve restored the paragraphs to their original order.

As we move into colder weather, locals rejoice in the return of favorite winter stews to restaurants. For five or six months of the year we have the chance to enjoy locro, carbonada, lentejas, mondongo, and chacarero – dishes that have a tendency to simply disappear off of menus nearly city-wide during the warm weather months.

Still being an outsider (I’m informed that no one becomes a porteño until they have an immediate ancestor buried in either Recoleta or Chacarita cemeteries), I have the advantage of no personal attachment to these dishes, and enjoy exploring a variety of styles. Locro is probably the top of the heap for the various stews in Argentina. It’s a hearty, rich dish, that is based on hulled white corn or hominy. From there, the variations are endless, and there are meat, chicken, fish, and vegetable versions. A good percentage include a thickening agent in the form of pureed cooked squash, some include beans, various vegetables, and the cuts of meat can vary from high grade steak to “parts is parts” sorts of things that you’re best off not inquiring about. Carbonada is a beef or veal stew that includes dried fruit, usually peaches, to create a mildly sweet stew. Lentejas, or lentils, come in a wide variety, from stews with meat to vegetarian versions – you simply have to ask. Mondongo is a tripe and potato stew, often with beans or peas added. And chacarero is a chicken and sausage based stew, usually with some form of pasta added to it at the last minute. All these, are, of course, subject to your grandmother’s interpretation.

There’s one spot I recommend time and again to visitors and friends to sample some of the best Argentine “regional” cuisine. In specific, it’s the region of San Juan, along the western border of the country, just north of Mendoza. The restaurant, El Sanjuanino. They have two locales, one in Palermo, and my preferred one for both ambiance and service, at Posadas 1515 in Recoleta. They serve up one of the more “variety meat” laden versions of locro, and if that doesn’t bother you, it’s one of the better ones out there. On request, they’ll bring a bit of oil laden with chili flakes to spice it up a bit. They also offer some of the city’s better empanadas – their carne picante version is actually picante, and their “gran sanjuanino” is a deep-fried version packed with a filling reminiscent of a delicious homemade sloppy joe. Other dishes worth checking out, their matambre recoldo, a rolled flank steak packed with peppers, ham, and cheese and roasted in the coals, is a spectacular dish to share for two; and for those who are feeling adventurous, they offer stews of antelope and vizcacha, a sort of large rabbit-ish creature from the mountains.

A classic in any of a dozen tourist guides is often a reason to simply avoid a place. It means the likelihood of being surrounded by others who are just as mystified by everything going on around them as you are. Yet, somehow, La Querencia manages to make visitors feel at home, and still attract a good following of locals. Located at the corner of Junín and Juncal, this spot offers up a mix of regional Argentine cuisine with a focus on the Tucumán area in the far northwest. Here you can sample locro, carbonada, or lentejas, in versions that are perhaps, suited to a slightly more refined palate – prime cuts of meat and sausages won’t challenge anyone’s sensibilities as to just exactly what part of the cow has been set in front of them. They also offer many other local specialties, including a great pastel de papas – more or less a shepherd’s pie; and revuelto gramajo – a fascinating scrambled egg, ham, potato, and (depending on whom you’re talking to) pea platter that’s served not just for breakfast, but lunch and dinner as well. La Querencia offers up some interesting empanadas that you won’t find in most other places, including several special vegetarian ones – the eggplant and mint ones are outstanding; a bacon and plum version; and the “del tambo” – a blend of seven different cheeses that’ll have you asking for another.

The last place I’d recommend is a personal favorite for locro alone. In fact, all they offer are empanadas and locro, and for most of the year, not the locro. But when they have it, the stew at la cocina, Pueyrredón 1508, right off of Avenida Santa Fe, is the best I’ve had. It mixes up a bit of the best of all the rest – sliced steak and sausages, a few bits of “other”, it’s simply packed with sweet white corn, beans, and squash, and is offered in picante and non-picante versions, the former using a fiery homemade chili oil, and with or without cheese melted into the mix. Their empanadas are pretty outstanding as well, with kudos going to the amusingly named “pikachu”- a caramelized onion and cheese empanada that’s absolutely delicious.

With stews like this, you want to go either with a simple carafe of whatever the house wine is, and just not worry about swirling and sipping – drink away and don’t worry; or, a big, bold, spicy red. I’m quite fond of a relatively new Syrah from Xumek, the 2004 of which shows off easy drinking flavors of blackberries, black pepper, and a host of other spices. It’s inexpensive and a great value. Easily my favorite Argentine Syrah is from Tempus Alba, a version that reminds me of a good quality Rhône Valley Syrah with flavors of red plums, smoke, and bacon fat. The 2003 is available right now and is drinking beautifully. It’s a bit pricier, but still shouldn’t top more than 35 pesos in stores and maybe 50 in restaurants.

In October 2006, I started writing for this Spanish language magazine, covering their English language section for travellers. I wrote for them for about two years. The copy editor, apparently not fluent in English, used to put each paragraph in its own text box on a two column page, in what often seemed to be random order, making the thread of the column difficult to follow. I’ve restored the paragraphs to their original order.

We know you came to the Gran Manzana for some slabs of beef, pizza, and the café culture. If you’d have wanted a bagel with a schmear, you’d have headed to the Big Apple. But then, some of you are from the latter, and believe me, bagels are amongst the topics that expats here talk about missing more than almost any other foodstuff. You might just find yourself wandering around and thinking – “please, not one more milanesa a la napolitana, just give me a deli sandwich…”.

So for those of you looking for a taste of home norteamericano style, we’ve searched out and sampled what Buenos Aires has to offer. Leaving aside the fast food joints, there are, of course, the reliable staple chain places, like the Hard Rock Café, TGIF’s, or even a new Hooters (where, according to friends who scoped the place out, the food isn’t bad but they missed the raison d’etre that it exists when hiring the staff).

There’s the next step up that evolutionary chain as well – Kansas, which is a knockoff of the Houston’s chain (right down to menus that list “Houston’s Barbecue Ribs”), and Tucson, more of an Outback Steakhouse imposter (you can get a Bloomin’ Onion, should you desire) – both good in their own right, but I wanted something a little more specialized. The first spot is one that nearly every ex-patriot norteamericano male in Buenos Aires who is interested in the world of sports knows about. It’s a spot that when you walk into it, you could be in any bar in the East Village (or, come to think of it, the equivalent in any city in the U.S.)… Shoeless Joe’s Remember The Alamo, more commonly referred to here, as simply, Alamo, located at Uruguay 1175, in Recoleta. It’s the ur-bar – wood wainscotting, mirrors on the walls, a long bar, beer on tap, television screens showing football (not futbol), basketball, baseball, hockey, you name it, if it’s in season up north of the equator, it’s on display at Alamo – 24 hours a day. And, you can eat the food that goes with sports – a quite tasty hamburger, reasonably spicy buffalo wings, steak sandwiches, fries, onion rings, nachos, or for those with a bit more elegant taste in mind, club sandwiches, or even a steak or grilled chicken breast, and even a wine list that has some nice choices on it. Then, of course, just like any pub doing that “we’re not just your average bar” thing – they offer a couple of pastas and a couple of Thai dishes. Just to be different. Me? I’ll just take a platter of wings with extra hot sauce, a beer, and a Wolverine’s versus Buckeye’s game and enjoy the afternoon.

You can find bagels in Buenos Aires at nearly any café. I mean, a bagel is just a bread roll shaped in the form of a ring, right? Not. We all know the disappointment of one after another spot that seems to think that if they get the shape right, more or less, that’s all it takes. We want the texture, we want… the chew. So, we head out to Belgrano, to Big Mamma’s, at Juramento 2156, where, while no re-creation of the Second Avenue Deli, we can get a bagel that could actually pass for the real thing in, say, Chelsea, if not the Lower East Side. We can get it with lox (okay, smoked salmon, but they’re in the ballpark) and cream cheese. We can get a pastrami sandwich on house-made rye bread, with all the works – deli mustard, cole slaw – they even went for the names – The Big Fresser’s Hot Pastrami on Rye, it makes your mouth water just to think about it. We can get chopped liver, liverwurst, chicken soup, borscht… It may not be quite like back home, but it’s at least a reminder. Now, let’s face it, all of the above places pretty much cry out for a mug of beer, frosty cold, and on tap. And, that’d be my choice at any of the above.

This section was cut from the published page to stick in an advertisement.

At the same time, I wanted to think about what sorts of wines would remind me of “back home”. The obvious choice would be something like Zinfandel, and there are one or two producers experimenting with the grape, but not with impressive results yet. While not unique, by any stretch, to the U.S., in fact, pretty much scattered all over the globe, I’d have to say that a really good, big, bold, Cabernet Sauvignon would have to go at the top of my list. There are some truly outstanding Cabernets available here. For a style that’s very elegant, structured, and with a wide depth and breadth of flavor – or as some might put it, layers – I’d have to opt for La Celia’s Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s barrique aged for one year, in French oak, and comes out supple and velvety. Harder to find, and worth seeking out, I think my true favorite is probably the Chakana Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon. Bold, rich, and simply packed with intense flavors, it’s a delight to find it on a wine list here. Both of these are on the expensive side, but worth every centavo.

In October 2006, I started writing for this Spanish language magazine, covering their English language section for travellers. I wrote for them for about two years. The copy editor, apparently not fluent in English, used to put each paragraph in its own text box on a two column page, in what often seemed to be random order, making the thread of the column difficult to follow. I’ve restored the paragraphs to their original order.