The Argentine Experience

This is a fun dining experience that I recommend to book in advance as it is very popular.

This was a whole other kettle of fish than my dinner at I-Latina. Again this was a closed door restaurant that one particular patron thought was too good to keep behind closed doors and supported them in opening up their current location. 

So what’s it all about?

This is a night for travellers no matter where you are from, if you are with a group or alone… everyone and anyone is welcome to come and enjoy an evening of Argentinian food and fun.  So different to the night before at I-Latina. The fact this it is run by Pomms and an Aussie from Perth doesn’t matter, it’s what you do and what you eat and drink that matters. 

The concept is simple. Gather travellers from around the world, mix them up on two separate tables, give them Argentinian wine and food and let the games begin. It is an interactive and funny  evening with the hosts always energetic despite the fact they do this every night of the week… but its always a different audience which no doubt changes the mood and feel each time. 

My fellow tour buddy Nic and I met a number of other tavellers. On arrival we were given an apron along with a chefs hat, and a wine is happily poured into the empty glass that somehow appeared in our hands. This seems to get refilled the whole night as I don’t think the glass event got to half full at any stage.

Empanadas hey? This should be easy.

The first thing after introductions and learning about how this all came into being is that we were taught how to make a true Argentinian Empanada. This is a local version of the samosa but the edges are closed and folded in a very specific way so that it is known by sight what sort of empanada it is, as these are bought as breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes and ordered like we order pizza, so people need to know which ones to grab in a hurry at a glance.

We were all making a beef empanada so we had to fold a certain way and I thought I did a pretty good job. 

Epic fail

When these were sent off to the oven for 15 mins to cook we had a competition to make the most original shaped empanada. Winners got a prize. Now given you all know how artistic I am, you will not be surprised to know that not only did I NOT win, but what I set out to create looked nothing like the end product. My intention was a wine glass…… Hmmm looks like I forgot the base of the glass for starters! However it was again very delicious and went down a treat, just like the first one. 

I’m officially in love

After this, and in between learning about how the Argentinan’s cook their meat and ordering how we wanted our main course, we were treated to something that I fell in love with. This piece of heaven (I can’t even remember the proper name) was a tostada crispy base with a piece of cooked chorizo on top (need I go on) followed by melted cheese (need I go on x 2) and a delicious and just tangy enough salsa to top it all off. Pop all that in your mouth in one go and it is the most delectable thing EVER. Oh My God. I literally had about 8 – 10 of these, I couldn’t stop myself. 

The staff then took us through a rather hilarious interpretation of about 10 Argentinian gestures which we had to replicate (for our own learning benefit) and funnily enough, came out with some hilarious new gestures of our own. The staff were so great all night with jokes, stories, history and information about the food and wine that we were making and consuming.

Do you send it back or not?

When the beef main dish was served I was not even hungry anymore. I actually sent my beef back to the kitchen as my medium rare request would equate to rare in Australia and that does not work for me. So despite the fact I sent it back, I barely got through half. Man I could not eat another thing. Those cheesy chorizo thingy’s were my undoing, Big time…. but soooooo worth it.

Oh no! I couldn’t possibly.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw that we were not done eating yet. Dessert was served not long after mains and it was a make it yourself version of the Argentinian Alfajor. This meant that you had shortbread biscuits, dulche de leche (a caramel style filling that you put in between two biscuits) then roll it in melted chocolate and add coconut over that if you so wished. Oh My God this was too much.

But when in Rome right…. (right?)… so I had to have at least one and fought my way through it. 

I was so very full at the end of the night and literally waddled out to a taxi to take this belly home to bed. What a great night, very funny and great company with the other global travellers. Another good recommendation if you are in Buenos Aires. Just don’t be a piglet and eat everything you see in one go… in Argentina there is ALWAYS more food coming. 

Travel is the (very filling) best.