I finally came to the end of this stretch of food vendors and decided that I needed to have one more even though the churrasquito hit the spot. So this time I figured to try the vacio since it is a better cut of meat than what is used for the churrasquito. The vacio seemed like a hit or miss at a cost of 7 pesos. The common theme is that the asador has a piece of vacio already grilling away or on the side after being cooked for the most part. When ordering a vacio, he’ll cut a portion for you and grill it up so it’s not necessarily the freshest; obviously since this is fast street food that you’re being served. I probably would’ve enjoyed a little more red in my vacio as I’ve been accustomed to when ordering a parrillada mix in your typical restaurant.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

After devouring my chorpian I wanted more and my tour of this area of Puerto Madero was just beginning. Rather than eat choripan at every vendor I had to change it up. Next was a the churrasquito, pretty much a hot sliced beef sandwich. Though I’m jumping ahead before my vacio stop, the churrasquito was probably my favorite.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

If the over-priced restaurants located on Alicia Moreau de Justo in Puerto Madero aren’t for you, head down towards the park and there you’ll find a stretch of food vendors set up with their own parrilla selling food that doesn’t cost much but will easily fill you up. The staples for most of these street carts are choripan, churrasquito, and vacio. I’ve already once reviewed choripan while in Córdoba and this time decided to explore the street food scene in Buenos Aires. You’ll spend between $2-$3 USD for a sandwich, coupled with a soda and you’re looking at around $5 USD for a meal; beats the 90 pesos you’ll pay for Cabaña Las Lilas’ Baby Beef.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

At roughly 1,500 Colombian pesos a pop (~$USD0.80!), these juices were seriously one of the bright sides of my trip. After experimenting with many different fruit combination, it came down to fresh orange juice & mango—HEAVENLY, I tell you!

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

Since I love hot dogs, I’ve decided to go on a life long journey which involves traveling around the globe to taste & photograph the most popular food item known to Bastardly Mankind. Let’s pray that I don’t fall victim to any serious food poisoning on this quest. Amen.

All credit for this idea goes to The Wall Street Journal’s Mr. Raymond Sokolov. He wrote a beautiful article about his search for America’s Top Dog. Here’s Raymond’s standard:

I deployed an admittedly personal set of standards in choosing the country’s outstanding dogs. Basically, I was looking for excellent traditional hot dogs in excellent buns in establishments full of character and local color. I shunned almost all high-end, chef-centered establishments as well as ballparks, because places that have foie gras on the menu and mass-service major-league arenas clash with the true spirit of the great hot dog stand.

True hot dog stands are not chic, nor do they operate as part of a chain. They are one-offs, mom-and-pop spots. And, most important of all, their success stands or falls on their classic hot dogs. Sure, some of my favorite places also served excellent bratwursts or other estimable sausages, but the center of their menus was always a basic hot dog in a bun.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

El Obrero is a parrilla located in the La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Now before getting into the restaurant let’s go over the La Boca neighborhood. To your typical tourist, La Boca makes us think of El Caminito (tourist trap) and the Boca Juniors Stadium (smells like piss). El Obrero is not located near either these two tourist attractions of La Boca. In fact, I wouldn’t say the part of La Boca where El Obrero is located is an area with much photo opportunities and forget about the tango dancers. I wouldn’t say that one should fear for their life in this area but just know that it’s rather poor and in some respect, the hood. Taxis don’t make their rounds over here. The only way out is by having the restaurant calling a taxi for you or having your own car. With that said, let’s talk about El Obrero.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

Photo taken using Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

Located in Puerto Madero, Cabaña Las Lilas is widely considered the best parrilla in Buenos Aires. The main reason is because of their beef which they raise themselves; it is considered the best. However, I’ll have to admit that I wasn’t impressed. Argentinian beef is amazing either way you look at it and so unless these folks at Cabaña Las Lilas are doing something different with their beef (like feeding, bathing, and massaging their cows in a combination of red wine & chimichurri or something far-fetched like that) I can’t really justify paying such a higher premium for theirs.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

Photo taken using Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

On a whim, I ended up walking through the Córdoba Sunday street market to the San Martin farmers market. From a distance I could see smoke from a grill and had a feeling I’d be coming across a choripan stand. To my delight I came across this family operation of choripan. The father cooked, the mother put the choripan together, the daughter got the bread, mayo, lettuce and tomato ready for the sandwich while also collecting money while the son topped it off with the chimichurri.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

Photo taken using Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

Solar de Tejada is a restaurant located near the Plaza San Martin area of Córdoba. I know I’ve been pretty fair with my restaurants that didn’t meet my expectations but I can honestly say that this restaurant really sucks and is a tourist trap. The restaurant is located near all the iglesias and I ate here because I couldn’t really find any other place to eat in Córdoba. The food was mediocre, at best, and the service was terrible; straight terrible. You think I’m going to recommend this place? Yup, I’ll recommend for you to stay the hell away from this place.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »

Photo taken using Canon PowerShot SD850 IS

Bandola is a trendy-looking restaurant located in the Palermo Soho neighborhood. Surprisingly I went to a restaurant that had low-lighting and fancy place-settings. Actually I stumbled upon this place because it was lunch time and I was hungry and by this point I just wanted to go to any restaurant but refused to go to any of the restaurants along Plaza Serrano. What I ended up having was a very satisfying 3-course meal and discovering a unique restaurant that interested me to see how the nightime crowd was when the tango show ensued.

Read the rest of this Bastardly entry »