Day 7 - A Taste of Argentina

Argentina VS Korea
Greece VS Nigeria
France VS Mexico

During the break between the second and third games today, I took a quick venture out on Queen Street. I stopped off at arepa café. I was able to pick up an Argentinean sweet, an alfajore. It’s made of dulce de leche (an Argentinean caramel) sandwiched between two cookies. The cookies contained some lemon zest and perhaps some orange zest giving them a light citrus flavour which (wasn’t in the cookies that I tried while in Buenos Aires). There was a lot of icing sugar on top. I was being careful not to breathe in as I took bites of the cookie but I failed on one bite and coughed before I could cover my mouth, sending icing sugar flying. Good thing I was at home.



For supper I met some friends at Sky Ranch just north of Eglinton at Dufferin and Roselawn. Our waiter was from South America but I didn’t catch the whole conversation since it was mostly in Spanish with my Peruvian friends. We ordered an appetizer. I believe it was the Picada de Casa. There were four pieces of palm hearts, some red pepper, prosciutto and cheese sitting on what I think was eggplant, some pickled tongue (which I tried for the first time in my life), some olives and some pickles. I tend not to stray from the standard North American cuts of meat so the tongue was the first oddity of the night for me. I actually liked the taste but did not go back for a second piece.



For my main course, I played it safe and ordered the Argentinean steak. I didn’t ask if the meat was actually from Argentina but I don’t eat steak often enough to be able to taste the difference. To me, it was Argentinean parilla either way. For the side I told him to give me whatever they would eat in Argentina, which was fries.



One of my Peruvian friends ordered the Parillada for one. When it arrived it looked like it was for two or three people. There was mixture of meats. The things I was familiar with included a chicken leg, beef ribs, brisket and a sausage. The things I was less familiar with were kidney, blood sausage and sweet breads. I had a bite of each of the things I was less familiar with and they were all pretty good but I knew what they were and wasn’t prepared to go back for a second bite. If I had been raised on that kind of food I’m sure I would be fine with it but there is something about eating organs and blood that just doesn’t sit well with me. I guess this might be how some vegetarians feel about eating meat in general.



While we were eating, the waiter disappeared for quite a while. We came to the conclusion that he must be watching a World Cup replay on a small TV near the back. It took us a while to get his attention to get some additional drinks and eventually to get the bill.

Overall, it was another good meal.