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	Meat quality Meat preparation Sauce Frites Garnishes Sides

Guido 1946, Recoleta
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Tel: 4801-1281
 

I had heard tales of Argentina, but as yet no brunch.org representative had dared cross the Amazon to the fabled land of steak, leather, and Evita. Armed with my one Spanish phrase, “Nada más que todo un hombre,” I flew straight from the refined culinary pleasures of Paris to la vida noche of Buenos Aires.

My first appointment was to get the keys to the flat I would be in for 9 weeks from the previous tenant. He took me to a local hole in the wall a mere three blocks away. As soon as our food arrived, I realized that leaving my camera in the hotel was a terrible mistake. A fantastic steak arrived with salad, frites, and wine. After lunch I stumbled back to the hotel to recover from my 30 hour journey and hibernated for the next 15 hours. The next day, I moved into the flat and that night, after a six hour walk and feeling exceedingly non-adventurous, I returned to the scene notebook and camera in hand to record the experience for posterity.

The highlight of the meal wasn’t even the steak, but the frites, which were perfect. They had that light skin which is soggy enough to be soft and absorb the salt, but is not oily and retains texture. The salad was effortlessly fresh in a way the French strive for and New Yorkers dream of. The “Bif de Lomo” was actually about half the size it had been the previous day, which was a little disappointing, and not quite as juicy, but any more would have given me severe indigestion, and it was delicious nonetheless. The other shocker was that the waitresses were cute and friendly, another hint I wasn’t in Paris anymore. When the bill came, it was US$24, two thirds of which was on the wine. The ambience could have been a little better, but with all that food for $8, not to mention being a new contender, I realized I’d experienced a paradigm shift. We’ve always conceived of our scale as being logarithmic, but if a hole in the wall can do this, it looks like the next few weeks may introduce our first decimals, or force a wholesale revision downwards of our past reviews.

On the way out they packed up the remainder on my wine, and I picked up the movie Evita on the way back to the flat. Awful movie (except for the one catchy tune), but thankfully Buenos Aires has a lot more to offer in its steak.

Submitted by DO Jr.
October 15, 2005