LBB Note #4: Ar-gen-tina!

On the topic of eating too much, this is a food episode from this past Sunday.

There is a fairly large group of South American immigrants in Valencia. I can immediately pick out their accent from a mile away. It's the lisplessness of their Spanish that automatically betrays them (and I can only imagine it gives me away too).

One of the largest groups here are Argentinians. When deciding what restaurant to eat at at the end of the week's supplies of groceries I decided to go to an Argentinian asado place that was a five minute walk from our front door, dragging along my two roommates. Anyone that knows about beef knows that Argentina has arguably the best beef in the entire world. Superior than it's Uruguayan and Brazilian cousins, and, in my personal opinion, narrowly besting Texas beef (Please don't tell anyone I said this, they won't let me back in the state if they find out); if I was stuck on death row and had to pick a final meal, I would bring in some guy fresh off the Pampas to cook half a cow for me.

Walking into the front door we were greeted by the sing-songy Spanish of a mid-thirties guy in chin-length dirty-blond hair. This guy looked (and sounded) as Argentine as they come; we were in the right place.

We ordered the house standard: a parillada for three. The food took a long while to come out, but the just the smell of beef on the barbie and the charcoal beneath it was almost worth the wait. When it finally arrived, it was a pile of sizzling meat on a small portable grill. There were red-hot charcoals at the bottom of the contraption, and the heap of meats on top were spitting and splashing their juices all over the tablecloth. It was beautiful. The IGD (Improvised Grilling Device) radiated its heat all around the room and into our faces. I swear I could feel my eyebrows curling to the heat of it.

There were four cuts on the grill:
-Chorizo criollo is heaven in tube form. Pork and various spices crammed into pig intestine and gently grilled at a different heat than the rest of the cuts.
-Secreto de cerdo was honestly the wild card of the meal. I didn't know anything about the cut except that it came from a pig (It's kind of in the name). Apparently it was the cut that's between the paletilla, which is the front ham, and the panceta, which is in the chest area. It was tender and light without being mushy and just the perfect pork taste.
-Tira de asado was the third cut. It was a cut of beef I'd also never seen before: ribs cut parallel to the spinal cord instead of perpendicular to it. What you're left with is the cross section of four or five ribs, and obviously the meat around it. It was my least favorite of all the cuts, but by no means bad.
-Bife. The pièce de résistance, the main event, the moment we were all waiting for. The best cut of beef in the entire world, this particular one was cooked just right. Sitting between rare and medium rare, the point where it's still tender and flavorful without it being a literal bloody mess, the taste is simply the best. You can't go wrong with ingredients this good.

I also want to send out an honorary mention to the unsung, supplimentary staple of the asado: chimichurri. A mixture of herbs in olive oil, it adds a special taste that no other condiment does.

Tale of the tape, against the three of us I estimate we were served around five pounds of meat.

Pictured: Five pounds of meat.

While we did have to take several breaks, and we did go through about three liters of water to wash the food down; we soldiered on and finished the whole thing (I did have to help my roommates at certain points, but the goal was ultimately reached).

This meal is now the best one I've had in Spain. (The Spanish have to step it up)