Argentine Asado 201: Play by Play of Our First Meaty Blow-Out
If you've read Argentine Asado 101, then you should be ready for the terms and meaty blow-out referenced in this post. After a full two months in Argentina, we finally were invited to our first Argentine asado. Complete with meat, meat, more meat and wine, it was everything we hoped it would be and more.
We arrived at our friends house around 11pm and the wood was just starting to glow and fall into the embers needed for slow-roasting the meat. It was us, our fellow travel companion, Kelly, three winemakers, a dentist and a lawyer...this was not going to be a boring night!
We started with a cold-cut Chori and Fernet and Cola before moving into homemade wine. Our host for the evening lived on a vineyard and made delicious Malbec and Cab. They were both true to the varietal, not overly oaky and perfect with Asado. He hasn't put it on the market yet, but we're crossing our fingers he does soon!
By the time we finally sat down to dinner at 2am, we'd split about six bottles of wine between the eight of us and were ready for some food. We ate outside at a blue and white checkered table, under a full moon, right next to the vines at the home vineyard. It was surreal and delicious...and late enough at night that I literally thought I might be dreaming.
We started by passing around fresh bread, hot Chori, Cerdo and the one onion that served as our obligatory vegetable. A funny note about the onion-- they literally just stuck the whole thing in the embers. There was no chopping, sautéing, carmelizing, or anything; they just plopped it into the fire and let it cook...it was probably the sweetest, most savory onion I'd ever eaten.
After the first round of meat and onion, they passed around the beef. We had Vacillo and Bife de Chorizo cooked more or less well done, and of course, more wine.
We brought a 2005 Rutini Malbec-Merlot blend and a 2008 Escorihuela Gascon Malbec-Syrah blend. Both were fantastic with Argentine BBQ, but the final vote unanimously favored the Rutini. Rich, inky, and with a deep spiciness, it was especially fantastic with the savory Bife de Chorizo.
In case we weren't already in a meat coma, the third round of meat came off the grill and we got to try Conejo and Molleja. I took a few bites of both, and like the conejo, but I just couldn't get into the Molleja. I couldn't get past knowing what it really was.
Finally around 4am, after eating our weight in meat, drinking a little too much wine, and feeling totallyArgentine, we settled into that perfect wine and food induced daze. The three of us called a cab, headed back home, crashed into our beds and spent the next day lazily recovering from the late night.
