Is Argentine Beef Really That Good?
Friends of mine have been in town visiting and exploring some of the city’s great restaurants. As the owners and managers themselves of a successful Vietnamese restaurant in Denver, they’re keenly attuned to food and its many delicious varieties. I was curious to see what do they’d think of the local cuisine. Excellent, they say, but lacking variety and, in some cases, flavor. “The steaks are fantastic,” says my buddy. “But they can start to taste a little bland after a while.”
All of this got me thinking about how accustomed I’ve become to eating Argentine steak. As good as it is, and there is no doubting the quality of the local cuts, Argentine beef can sometimes seem a bit dull. That’s not to say I don’t love the stuff. I do, especially when it’s cooked the right way. But would it hurt to marinade the meat for a while before serving it? Or how about providing some herbs and spices or sauce options so that people could add whatever additional flavors they like? Is salt really the only viable option? I know sometimes you can get Chimichurri, but it’s not always available and it’s not exactly the most flavorful sauce ever invented.
Local foodies might criticize me for even raising the subject, and I’m sure some of my own family members here will take playful offense, but surely there is no mortal sin involved in thinking that the local beef, as tender as it is, could not be made just a bit better by occasionally adding a little more flavor.
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been here two years. don’t think the steaks here are any better than anywhere else. sometimes i have an excellent steak, sometimes it’s as tough as they come. i can say though ,..that they meat itself is cheap in price compared to other places I have lived.
I am in my mid-40′s and have been here a couple of years. The beef reminds me of the beef I grew up with.
I used to think the best beef was in Japan, fully marbled, cut it with a fork and all that…but I think the beef here is the real deal, it is about flavor and not all about tenderness.
And, having now had a few parrilla’s at our place and at friend’s using Argentine techniques (salt and slow cooking) and it always comes off great–way, way better than I ever expect using such a simple process. Maybe it is the atmosphere or the Malbec, but give me an asado over an American barbeque any day!
I agree with you 100%. I love the steak here, but sometimes you just have to try something new. Eating the same thing and never changing anything just gets old.
Besides, we are going to start getting more feedlot beef so we better start practicing on ways to enhance that taste.
If I’m cooking for myself I marinate with olive oil, garlic and chilli powder but if I do that for a local its considered sacrilege!
Hey Taos.
I think that besides the quality of the meat, it depends on the way you like to eat it. The meat cooked in the barbacue (parrilla) with wood or coal doesn’t need any other flavour, at least to us. The parrilla itself is the added flavour. But you can cook maridate meat in the oven, though, with special sauces or with herbs, as you proposed. You can also maridate meat for the parrilla, but that has nothing to do with our taste.
Congratulations for the site. I visit it any time I can. And I like the changes you’ve made to it.
Marcelo
I am an argentinian living in Europe and I’ve also travelled extensively around the World, including many trips to the US…and I am yet to find a better beef than in Argentina. Argentina may be the worst country in the World in many aspects (corruption, justice, environment protection, economy, etc), but in my opinion it stills top the rankings when it comes to beef.
In many restaurants in the US and Europe you need scuba diving gear to dive into the sauce and eventually (or maybe not) find the beef at the bottom…if you are lucky to find it, it is pretty sure that the beef will taste like…garlic, cream, or any other fluid covering it…but not like beef!
There is nothing like a good argentine steak!! But well prepared! This is not easy to find in the centre of Buenos Aires, no matter how popular a restaurant is…if you want to find the perfect beef, go to the country side and don’t pick a trendy restaurant!
Hey Taos,
I must admit, Argentine beef is pretty amazing. I am a vegetarian but could not resist the allure of such a hyped meat, so I tried a big juicy cut at a fancy steakhouse on the waterfront (how could I not?) and it actually gave me a physical high. Maybe it was just protein overload. Who knows?
To make your survey more authentically Argentine, you should have left off the last two options.
The price to quality ratio is what does it for me. I’ll admit that I do get a little bored with the same, but am content to order the beef straight up from the parrilla. I save any sauce sacrilege for home.
The beef “was” that good, until the last couple of years. As more and more Argentine ranchers have decided to adopt North American ranching practices, with feedlots, grain “finishing”, growth supplements and antibiotics, the quality of the beef has been noticeably going down. It’s very dependent now on the who supplies the particular restaurant or market you’re at – the majority is still pasture/grass fed, free range beef, but things are rapidly approaching the point where it won’t be.
I’m sorry, it was to marinate, not to maridate :S
While in Argentina we buy only La Hacienda or Cabanas Las Lilas and find it to be the same quality we buy in the states but way cheaper. When family or friends invite us to an Äsado we wish we could take the meat because no matter where we´ve eaten it´s tough and fatty yet they think it´s great as they´re used to it. Our favorite place for beef is Chiquilin. In the states we buy beef for Asados from latin markets that sell Argentine CUTS not Argentine beef and it is excellent….taste, tendereness. For my taste Argentine beef is not the best but their technique is the best.
I’m from the states and been down to Argentina several times (again in Jan.) The three best steaks I’ve had are from Japan, U.S. and Argentina. I would say the average filet (bife de lomo) is better in Buenos Aires and the value is difficult to beat. The variety is lacking though. I find in the U.S. every menu has 50 different options, where in Argentina there are 3. I just ate at a restaurant where I was able to get 3 3 ounce filets (bernaise crusted, blue cheese crusted and horseradish crusted), all three types as one dish. But they were nothing to rave about. They just like to keep it simple, which for the most part works but requires a little more searching for the places that mix it up. I think something should be done about the corn-fed b.s. they are moving towards. The fact it is natural is half the allure of the meat. Everyone should fight this trend.