Argentine Beef

[naomikritzer]

We went out to a restaurant for dinner tonight. There's a tiny restaurant on Franklin Avenue that I noticed a few months ago, called El Gaucho. It's an Argentine steakhouse, and has a little sign outside that says "Best Steak In Town." The audacity of the claim made me grin the first time I saw it -- we have some really excellent steakhouses in Minneapolis, but they tend to be downtown (not in Seward) and in an entirely different stratosphere for pricing.

El Gaucho serves Argentine and Uruguayan beef. A recent short review in the Star Trib noted that the beef is less tender than American beef, but with much more of a "distinctive beefy flavor," as it is not corn-fed. They also noted that Argentine is #1 in the world for beef consumption.

My father is a Political Scientist, and some years back one of his graduate students wrote a paper on whether it was possible to do fieldwork as a social scientist in Argentina if one were a vegetarian. I believe he concluded that no, it was not possible: beef is so much a part of Argentine culture that it is a grave insult to refuse to eat it when a guest at someone's table. (I'm not sure if he decided to do his fieldwork somewhere else -- Nepal, say -- or if he started eating meat.) Surprisingly, El Gaucho does have a vegetarian menu, but we ignored it. We were there to eat beef.

We ordered the girls a steak and fries to share. Ed and I got the parrillada (tabletop grill) for two. You can also get it for one, should you happen to visit El Gaucho with a dining partner who looks at the list of what's included (short ribs, flank steak, chorizo sausage, sweet breads, and blood sausage) and turns pale. It was amazing. We'd had blood sausage (aka black sausage) as part of our Irish breakfast at a B&B while in Ireland years ago, and I have to say, it's way better when it wasn't made by the Irish. The best thing on the grill was the short ribs, though. They were so, so good. Chewy but not tough and yeah, I could totally see after one bite what they mean by "distinctive beefy flavor."

Mmmm. Wow.

The girls both behaved impeccably. We had dessert but didn't linger over coffee or anything since they were starting to get restless (and it was getting late). It had been rainy when we drove over; just as the waitress was running our credit card, the skies opened and it started to come down in sheets. I got soaked to the skin leaning over to buckle Kiera in (you can't really juggle an umbrella while buckling up a carseat -- in any case, the umbrella was only keeping me damp, not dry).

Still, it was well worth it. Mmmmmm. We've got to go back there sometime.

Comments

Being a carnivore

[jimlawrence.livejournal.com]

A few years ago on a business trip to Vienna I came upon an Argentine steak house and (if memory serves) I liked it so much I ate there three times during the course of a week. Yummy.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

It replaced a hamburger joint called Fat Olaf's. Which may be a metaphor about Minneapolis's changing population.

Mmm. Beefy

[http://users.livejournal.com/_contingent_/]

My introduction to Argentine beef was also quite recent -- Reb's cousin and her wife down in Miami took me out for Argentine beef just last month. We had something that looked kind of like a larger version of the German dish Rolladen, kind of like giant Fruit Roll-Up made of beef. A Euro-American steak lover would certainly have called it tough, but since it's always been a strech for me to buy that the ideal is eating almost raw cow (raw fish seems so much tastier), I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

The magic, though, was in the chimichurri -- a traditional sauce that is apparently just about as unique to a given restaurant or cook as garam masala. Kim and Alyce assured me that this was the best chimichurri in Miami. Since it was also the closest to their house, I was slightly suspicious, but it was tasty enough that they just might not be exaggerating.

Anyways, after that experience I was quite primed to notice El Gaucho when I drove by last week, so I'm glad to hear that it won't disappoint.

Re: Mmm. Beefy

[notthatedburke.livejournal.com]

I don't have a baseline for comparison, so I can't say how the chimichurri stands up to other preparations. I thought it was decent enough, but it didn't blow me away. The beef was definitely where it's at.

[joxn.livejournal.com]

I'd go for some Argentine beefcake of the kind currently burning up the World Cup. Crespo is hot!

[naomikritzer]

They had TVs showing soccer, so you could probably enjoy some beefcake with your beef, should you eat there...

[joxn.livejournal.com]

Idle Words (home of this brilliant article on the Space Shuttle, which contains a hilarious image involving goat carcasses) spent time (a year?) in Argentina, and has some stunning blogging about the soujourn. Most relevant to your post is this one, Argentina on Two Steaks a Day. A great writer, and well worth reading. I should make a livejournal RSS feed for him.

And I get soccer...

[pinguim.livejournal.com]

I noticed that restaurant when they first moved into their space on Franklin and have several times wondered about it when going to Pizza Luce nearby.

Not only does the food sound great, getting the table-top cooking option may satisfy part of my longing for Korean barbecue that I haven't been able to find in the Twin Cities.

Capping that off with the ability to watch the World Cup has just made it a place I can't avoid going to any longer. I think I'll be making a visit during a World Cup game this week.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

We have an Argentine steakhouse near us. Oh, the yum. My husband has taken to making chimichurri sauce and trying to learn how their beef works, and it's good, but it just isn't the same...

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Everything is better when it isn't made by the Irish.

[naomikritzer]

I thought they made pretty decent lox but for some reason they didn't understand that it's supposed to be served on bagels.