Nobody can say that we haven't had many great dinners in Argentina and Uruguay . For some reason most of them involve meat… When we were in the Caribbean we sometimes dreamt of a real tender and juicy beef. Then our thoughts went to South America – we had heard that the beefs down there are unforgettable.

In the 17th and 18th century the gauchos who roamed freely over the pampas were allowed to kill cows and eat whatever they wanted – as long as they left the valuable hides for the owner. The gauchos used the asador technique, hanging the meat on cross-poles round a fire. Another technique is to prepare the meet as “carne con cuero” – half a cow barbequed with the hide on and turned against the fire. It is always the men who do the asado.
In the provinces it is still custom to eat meet twice a day, less is not regarded as real food. In Buenos Aires it is not unusual to see construction workers or other laborers who has set up a primitive grill on the working area to prepare their lunch.
In the weekends is it usually a cloud cover of barbeque fumes over most of the city. In the parks family and friends gather around the grill and the children play nearby. Along the big parks you usually find several parillada stalls – as popular as the hotdog stalls at the Norwegian national day. In the late afternoon you might here clapping, it is customary to call for an aplauso para el parillero .
In the parilla restaurants in Argentina parts of the cow are grilled above an open fire as the old asado technique. Usually it is possible to order what ever part of the cow you prefer, but a real parilla is sheared between several people and you get a good selection of the cow. Offal, sausages including blood sausage, ribs, flank, entrecote, sirloin, rump steak and fillet steak.
The size of a real Argentinean beef can scare most of us. For us Northerner who are not used to these big, tender and juicy beefs, it is possible to order a medio bife de lomo , half a piece of fillet steak – and that is more than enough for a normal stomach. Potatoes, vegetables and salad if desired have to be ordered separately.