snapshots: the best steak of my life

26th April 2012

Salta, Argentina

On the night preceding the Salta road trip and upon the recommendation of the Belgium Gunther, a friend of Steph´s, we all jumped into a taxi and headed towards the Monument parilla steakhouse where for 65 pesos (9 pounds) we were all delivered a hugely juicy rump steak straight off the parilla grill that sizzled in the corner of the restaurant.     

Argentine food can be summed up in one word. Beef. The people here live and breathe meat and the product of the wide open green pastures where they raise their cattle is this fine slab of meat. It was hands down the most succulent, juicy and flavoursome piece of meat I´ve ever eaten in my life. A bottle of the local house red also helped matters.

It didn´t stand a chance. The lightly salted meat was so succulent and tender that it melted in my mouth. The steak in Argentina is usually served without any sauces aside from the traditional chimichurri which consists of olive oil with salt, garlic, chilli pepper, vinegar and bayleaf.

The barbecue or asado constitutes the heart and soul of Argentina´s restaurant scene.The asado is prepared on a parrila (above) and huge slabs of beef are slapped down, grilled and served up as the nation´s favourite dish in restaurants also known as parrillas.

People in Argentina start to eat and drink very late and it´s fairly standard for people to head out for dinner at around 10pm at the earliest and then rarely hit the clubs before 2am. On my final night in Salta, I went for a beer with Damien and Alex from the road trip and looking around town for a place to have a beer we ended up in a bustling bar/restaurant where animated waiters darted from table to table brandishing ice cold bottles of Salta cerveza and platters of meat. Just as we were finishing our final Salta Negras - a delicious Argentine stout -  at 1am a wave of customers entered the restaurant to start their dinners.

Gunther, Damien, Me and Steph. Stuffed.

After dinner at the parrilla steakhouse we headed off to a local Bodega - which translates as cellar - where a local  pena  was  taking place. 

A pena is effectively a gathering or meeting place for groups of musicians. Finding a table at the crowded house, locals were sat around drinking the night away whilst listening to a few old boys in the corner singing some folk songs and strumming away on their guitars. It´s not too clear in this photograph but the guys with their backs to me in the other room were singing traditional Argentine folk songs well into the early hours.

No Argentine gathering would be complete without food of course so the regulation parrilla was out back and I came across our man here hacking away at a fresh chunk of beef to grill up for the singing locals inside.