Buenos Aires Experience Blog

What is a parrilla?

A “Parrilla” is a restaurant where they serve grilled meat, also referred to sometimes as a grill and is simply meat cooked on a grill over hot coals.

What is the difference between “asado” and “Parrilla”?

When we are going to make a barbeque at home we say, lest have an asado.

Technically, an asado is the very tasty ‘Strip of beef’ that all Argentines adore.  To visitors the asado is often a little fatty for their tastes.

A parrilla is also the grill we use at home and an asado is an essential part of argentine life; it is not just a meal, but also a celebration, a sacrament. On any given Sunday, you can smell charcoaled meat and chorizo flavored smoke rising form gardens and balconies all over Buenos Aires.

Argentina, would sell the best cuts of meat and exporting the best to maximize on profit often left the “asado de tira” and the “vacio” and therefore these cuts and also offal became a part of our daily diets – we developed a taste for what Americans and Europeans call the off-cuts.

In addition, most of the population was poorer and there were times even for the wealthy landowners when food might be a little scarce, therefore using all edible parts of the cow is pragmatic, we are not a prissy race. Oh! Apart from liver, which most of us despise as much as many Argentines avoid very green vegetables.

Anyway, meat is so good in Argentina and after it is professionally grilled (Argentine men all think and tell they are  all professionals, but only one man per family really is, the rest just enjoy!) carefully seasoned and dripped with chimichuri and lemon during cooking, you can almost eat the bones.

Beef up the  history

You may have asked yourself why Buenos Aires has such good Parrillas. Obviously, it has to do with the great quality of our meat.

Cows came to Argentina as early 1536 with Pedro de Mendoza’s first foundation of Buenos Aires. By 1541 they were forced to abandon their settlement and went home with some people moving to Asuncion. On the hurry and persued by the angry Rio del la Plata tribes they left their cows behind happily grazing and reproducing in the Pampas for 44 years. In 1580, Juan de Garay re-founded the city of Buenos Aires for a second time from Asunción.

He found that Pampas full of cows thriving in the wild with no predators and the Indians not too keen at this stage on these animals left by the white devils.

And so, the Argentine cattle trade begun. Settlers would organize “vaquerias” (from the Spanish word for cow: vaca), these consisted of permits for hunting cows across the Pampas. They would take the leather, eat what they needed and leave the carcass to rot. There really was no way of conserving the meat.

Eventually, they started drying the meat with salt. This meat was destined to the miners of Upper Peru and to feed the slaves of Brazil and United States of America .The real boom of the cattle industry came at the end of the 19^th century when the refrigerated chambers of ships and trains meant export.

This made it possible to export fresh cuts and Argentina’s geography (South Atlantic) and opposite seasons gave Argentina a unique competitive edge. Crossbreeding with the mighty Scots and American breeds improved the quality of the cattle and today Argentina is the third largest exporter of beef and its population consumes 63 kilos per capita.

The typical Asado

A typical Asado begins at 11 am when the Asador (he who grills) starts the fire. The accouterments of choice are vegetable charcoal and you may add a log of oak or pine to add flavor.   We remind you that Buenos Aires Experience offers asado cooking courses.

Guests also have role, it is to ensure that the Asador is happy. This means that you have to make sure his glass is always full with Malbec and he gets anything he may need, be it an empanada, or an extra knife.

The Asador will have to stand and cook for many hours and then serve the asado. This means getting dirty, being burnt and smelling like smoked beef jerky. He will not have a moment to sit down to enjoy his masterpiece – he eats directly from the grill whilst cooking.

The reward is that he chooses the best cuts for himself.

A good asado begins with a “copetin”, this is an aperitif accompanied with salami, cheese and potato chips. Then comes the “choripan” (sausage and bread) which works as a hunger reliever so as to give the asador more time before everybody gathers at the table.

Once the Asador thinks the asado is ready, the he will convene everybody to the table. They will enjoy some fried empanadas before the achuras (starters) are served. This consists of blood sausage, sweatbreads, chorizo pork sausage, provoleta (grilled provolone cheese) chitterlings, and veal kidneys.

Usually you accompany the asado with a variety of salads and grilled vegetables. Once we f finish the starters, we begin with the cuts. They consist of skirt steak, sirloin steak, rumps tail, rib eye steak, rib strip (asado de tira), tender loin, flank steak (vacio) and some chicken; the Asador will keep bringing the chopping board with the cuts until the diners say stop!  Enough already! We are ready to pop!

At this point, the Asador will emphasize what is left and encourage eating more. Often two or three will volunteer their stomachs for the sake of the asador’s pride. The whole process finishes at about 4 pm in the afternoon. At this point, if the diners are satisfied they will offer a big rounded applause to the Asador.

This is the tradition “¡un aplauso para el asador!”He will now finally join the table for a well deserved rest .After the “sobremesa” (a necessary ritual where one remains at the table chatting and drinking, which can last more time than the actual meal), the ladies will proceed to bring the dessert. Obviously something light like a sorbet, fruit salad flan or rice pudding.

Next comes more sobremesa with lots of coffee followed by a digestive like lemon cello or port.

The whole sacrament of the asado finishes at sundown. That night one usually eats just dome sandwiches made of the leftovers. To someone that is not used to this feast, it may seem a little bit like gluttony. The fact is that most Argentines only commit this most wonderful sin once a week and if they are lucky, every Sunday. We recommended that you praise the Asador so as he is willing to do it again.

By tradition, each family has a chosen Asador – generally the man of the house, but not necessarily.

My tango teacher always says that a man that does not know how to make an asado, no man at all.

Therefore, if you are a not so smooth gringo with an appetite for Argentine cuisine I suggest you get yourself to my course on the double….or your masculinity is at risk!

Ladies beware

We make no apologies that this sometimes horrendous and dirty deed is a ‘man job’ and we ask you ‘lady asador suffragettes ‘ to LAY OFF and realize that this is part of our culture, it is not becoming for one’s lady to blacken herself with charcoal after church, on her day of rest, in her Sunday best!

Learn asado – crash course!

My next article is about the best Parrilla´s in Buenos Aires

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