Buenos Aires, part 3: The best meals I ever had

Liz: All of humankind has one thing in common: the sandwich. I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich. 
Jack: What a surprise, your worldview is food-based. 

- 30 Rock


Buenos Aires is really only a cool city if you like food, art, sports, history, architecture, nightlife, or culture. I'm going to focus for a second on the first of those things:




The Chivito (Montevideo):

Man cannot live by bread alone. He can live by bread, mayonnaise, steak, hard boiled eggs, ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, peppers, aioli, and mozzarella baked in an oven. This is a Chivito--and it is Uruguay's best food. I had a total of three meals in the country, and ate this for every meal. Two were at the most famous chivito places in town, and the third was in a bus station at 8 am.

It comes with a bowl of french fries. And here's a recipe, because I know you want one. Oh, and it's only about $6.

The Milanesa (Buenos Aires):

A country fried steak, covered in ham, eggs, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and mozzarella. Served with fries. What's not to love?

Steak (Buenos Aires):

At one point on this trip, I realized that I had eaten steak for my past eight meals. This isn't a complaint. It's easily the most famous Argentine food, and we made a point to eat where it was the best. Saturday night, we went to La Cabrera--which, according to magazine reviews, Google searches, and random Argentines we met on the street--is the best restaurant in the city. It was also about four blocks from our hostel. The die, as they say, had been cast. It was popular too; we put our name on the list at around 10:15, talked to the Argentine, American, and European crowd waiting outside, and managed to sit down to dinner at 11. We were done by 12:30, and there was still a line of people waiting for a table. I had 16 oz pepper encrusted tenderloin, Nico had a braised pork shoulder, and Dylan had a bleu cheese filet. They also include a lot of side dishes with your meal, like a small salad, and then some random things, like a pumpkin soufflé, hearts of palm, and a lot of interesting sauces. It was unbelievable; here's a picture of our table:

The best part--our meal for three, including two bottles of Malbec and a tip? $90. I'm going back as soon as I can.