Argentina BLOG

Buenos Aires’s ethnic restaurants

The column I wrote recently regarding Chilean cuisine, and Valparaiso restaurant, where some of this authentic and attractive food can be discovered, seems to have opened a door whereby more information regarding South America food is requested. 

I have long claimed that Buenos Aires is filling up with an unceasing series of so-called ethnic restaurants covering most parts of the world, much of which is more imagination and wishful thinking than anything else. I have also pointed out that while most of the world seems to have obtained at least a foothold in the local restaurant scene, one glaring gap has still to be filled. That gap bears the generic name of South America.

For far too long South American cuisine, insofar as the offering of BA restaurants would have it, has been circumscribed to practically two sources: Argentine and Uruguyan beef on the one hand, and Brazilian food (mostly feijoada and spit roasting) on the other. Recently the Peruvians have thankfully come to our rescue, opening a series of good to very good restaurants that tell us that all is not confined to barbecues and empanadas.   

A couple of weeks or so ago the Chileans — who on many fields are no buddies of the Peruvians, as for example when you say Pisco — came to help their Pacific neighbours with Valparaíso restaurant, giving South America a further nudge into the culinary limelight. But this is but a start to what could, (and should) be a far more varied and exciting venture into the many delights that this continent has to offer.

There are 13 countries in South America and I have been fortunate to visit every single one.

Save for French Guiana and Paraguay, I have visited every single one at least three times, and in some cases — Chile, Peru, Brazil and Uruguay —  a good many more. These visits have entailed visiting at least 26 different cities and enjoying the local cuisine under varying circumstances. To say that I have more than just a passing knowledge of the main cha- racteristics of each country is, therefore, more than just an idle boast, to the point that, today, I would like to provide a brief overview of what South America could mean at table, in much the same was as Asian, Mid-Eastern, or Arabic means to us.

As it is too obvious, I will eliminate any mention of Argentina and Uruguay, and draw your attention to what Peru and Chile are providing  us with today as can be enjoyed by visiting already existing Chilean or Peruvian establishments. Brazil is also on easy tap, so I think that it can be taken for granted. That still leaves us eight countries to examine,all of which, to some major or minor degree, with something to add to our SA menu. Not all of them are on an equal level. In my admittedly very subjective and personal opinion these eight can be divided into three groups: the truly grand; the mid-level, standards, and the truly poor. The first group comprises Surinam and Colombia, the second Ecuador, Guyana and Venezuela  and the third Bolivia,  Paraguay and French Guiana.

When I visited what is now Surinam it was still Dutch Guiana, just as todays Guyana was British Guiana. By far the highlight of my round the continent trips was my stop in Paramaribo, at the Krasnopolsky Hotel, where I always managed to arrive on a Friday because Saturday evenings was  Rijfstaefel day. It was here that I ate and enjoyed a delicacy that is now (officially) no longer served: monkey brains. I did not know what they were at the time, but a later visit to the kitchen revealed the whole process. I still remember those brains as being one of the tastiest foods I can still recall having eaten. While the three Guianas based their cuisines on a good deal of local produce — manioc, shrimp, crab, varied fruits, okra and cornmeal, plus Cayenne pepper and Demarara sugar, both local contributions to world gastronomy —as well as African and Indonesian influences, the Dutch diversified a flavour packed  series of dishes where rice assumed an important role. The French, in their enclave, passed by in their effort to maintain French flavours and traditions. As for the British, their stamp was all to homely to provide anything more than edible, forgettable food.

Colombia, while sharing much with Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela, has managed to combine all these influences into a typical, national style where the potato, amongst other elements, plays a significant role. Papas choreadas, ajiaco de pollo and sancochos, along with the widespread use of rice, and the abundant use of tropical fruit, gives Colombia its particular profile.

Ecuador, like its neighbour Peru is famous for its ceviche which, like Peru, is made with Seville oranges, unlike other South and Central Anerican ceviches. Ecuador can be described as a sort of cross between Peru and Colombia, but perhaps a little more relaxed and less varied. Venezuela has certain similarities with Colombia and the Caribbean, but most people seem to be more interested in the quality of their whisky than the quality of their meals.

Bolivia and Paraguay are simple exponents of what the earth provides, with an inclination towards the potato (Bolivia) and locros (stews of meat and corn), Paraguay.

The only Colombian restaurant in BA which I know of is called Antojito Colombiano and is found at Cordoba 3883. I have not visited it, mainly on the advice of someone who has and gave it a thumbs down. Perhaps I do it wrong. As soon as I can I will visit it again and report.
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SOURCE:
“That South American flavour”
By Dereck Foster
for the Herald
?Feb 7, 2010?
Buenos Aires Herald
http://www.buenosairesherald.com
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/24636