A Question NEVER Asked in Argentina, "Where's the Beef?"

Thursday, November 14, 2024

"Argentines are artists at the grill. Average beef consumption in Argentina is around 58kg per person per year." Lonely Planet Argentina Travel Guide

With all of this information clearly in mind, we decided to Go For the Gold today, lunch at Parrilla Don Julio, a one star rated Michelin restaurant.

Don Julio is considered by most people to be the best parrilla, i.e., steak house, in all of Buenos Aires, pairing classy, highly organized service with incredible portions of high quality beef.

Reservations are needed and we had none but we were told that if we showed up by 10:30 a.m., they might be able to squeeze us in for lunch.

It was worth a shot.

We boarded the subway to try our luck.

Subway station tile work

More of the same

After a short subway ride and a ten minute walk through the Palermo district, we arrived.

A great parrilla and a Site of

Touristic Interest to boot

Would we get lucky?

YES!

We were told to return at 1:45 p.m. and they would have a table for us.

AWESOME!

Now we just had to kill some time and what better way to do it than roaming at our leisure through the ever so interesting Palermo district.

We all needed some coffee, so

we headed to the nearest café

While enjoying our café con leche

this Dog Whisperer strolled past us

with 13 well behaved hounds in tow

That's a lot of dogs!

This Argentinian flag painted shop

sells Mate related paraphernalia

Mate, I was told, is an extremely

popular infusion beverage

Cool world map in brick and

plaster at La Mateada

"What would you do for a year of free beer?"

Who's your dentist?

I would look SO good in this

if only I could get into it

"Ways to recharge our battery: WINE!"

Laurie and Koreen are big believers in this sage advice.

Good colors in Palermo but nothing to

match La Boca's El Caminito yesterday

Messi and Maradona images

are literally EVERYWHERE!

The first Mexican restaurant

we've seen in Buenos Aires

Sun and Shadow

I liked the understated designs

A random lush but hidden garden

A Moorish Patio for all to enjoy

Laurie: "George take a photo of that flower."

So, I took a photo of the flower.

At about 1:30 p.m., we returned to a

much more chaotic Parilla Don Julio

Would we get in?

When they offered us champagne

while we waited outside, we were sure

that meat was in our near future

Right on time, at 1:45 p.m., the hostess escorted us to our corner table inside the busy parrilla.

The Menu was . . .

. . . extensive

When noting prices on the menu, please remember that $1.00 U.S. Dollar equals about $1,000.00 Argentine pesos.

Laurie: "George, take a photo of these doors."

So, I took a photo of these doors.

This unique Don Julio knife

was for sale for only

$143, 500 Argentine pesos each

You do the math.

No, we are not bringing one home with us.

Time to order

We'll start with a bottle of Malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina.

For starters we would like to order grilled Marie Head sheep cheese, grilled onions and grilled yams.

For the main course give us a rib eye and a prime rib steak both bien jugoso (rare).

Our friends would like a rib eye steak and a butterfly sirloin steak both grilled a punto (medium well).

Could we also get an order of French fries to share?

The Grill Masters were all hard

at work preparing the closest thing to

heaven that we've had in a long time

  

This was destined to become the best, high end quality meal we were to revel in since we partook in the meat-fest at Mastro's Steakhouse in Thousand Oaks, California with the entire Sabolić Clan to celebrate their son Jason's El Camino Real H.S. Los Angeles City DII Championship football team of 2021.

The Malbec was amazing

The 500 gram/1.1 lbs. rib eye was

OUT OF THIS WORLD!

It was juicy, rare and absolutely delicious making me ever so proud to be a carnivore.

Animal flesh consumed, we still needed something else.

We would like to order one espresso and three café con leches.

Also, could you bring us and order of caramel crepes, a scoop of almond ice cream and a flan for us to share?

Yes they did and, of course, our

four person band of locusts

devoured it all in no time flat

While our work was done . . .

. . . the Grill Masters' work for the

day was decidedly not!

What an AMAZING dining experience

that definitely lived up to and easily

surpassed all of the hype

Back at our flat, we were all experiencing

food comas at different levels of intensity

Still, there was some housework needed to be done.

After a week on the road,

we all needed to do laundry

Thus, our Adventure led us ito our building's basement laundromat for a couple of hours to round out our day.

Good times!

Not my best exercise day of the

trip but solid nonetheless

Our agenda calls for a day trip to Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay via a one hour ferry tomorrow.

Stay tuned . . .