The look of bewilderment on my British friend’s face when I threw a 600g beef joint on his barbecue in London is something I will always remember. “I’ve never cooked meat that way,” he remarked, sceptically. In retrospect I can imagine the inverse situation – a Brit slicing a bife de chorizo into steaks before putting it to cook on a flaming parrilla – and shudder at what an Argentine’s reaction would be (chances are, there would be more than just beef grilling in the following hours).

A traditional asado (photo by Helena Andell)

No matter how you choose to translate it, an asado simply isn’t a barbecue. Such is the reverence for beef eating in Argentina that it has taken on quasi-religious significance. And with this divine status have come the rites and dogmas associated to any cult. So if you’re hosting an asado or simply want to blend in with the worshippers on a Sunday afternoon, here are eight commandments to abide by:

Use a ‘Proper’ Parrilla

Invite friends to an asado and greet them with one of those black UFO-shaped portable barbecues and they probably will stare at you as if you really were from another planet. The proper brick-built parrilla is one of the most important elements for a good asado. Ideally it will be a large grill with something to catch the grease from the meat and a lever to adjust the height. If it has a separate space to make a fire and its own light to illuminate the meat, you are off to a good start.

Hot Coals, No Flames

Whether you choose coal or firewood to fuel your asado one all-important rule is: start early. You need the fire to burn for a while so that you get red hot coals. No proper asador would put meat on the grill if there are still flames under it as it effectively burns the outside of the meat without cooking the inside. Keep the fire burning on the side of the grill throughout the asado, while shovelling hot embers under the meat from time to time to regulate the temperature.

Know Your Cuts

If you’ve never bought meat in Argentina and you step into a butcher’s shop you’ll probably be in panic at not recognising any of the cuts. Fear not. There are a few well-known cuts that mean you can’t go wrong. Bife de chorizo (sirloin) is many people’s favourite as it comes with no bones and is one of the tastiest parts of the cow. Other classics at asado time include the vacío (flank), tira de asado (ribs), lomo (fillet) or cuadríl (rump), while you can impress your local friends by picking out the more exotic entraña (skirt).

Achuras on the asado (photo by Helena Andell)

Achuras and Chorizos

After choosing your beef cuts, don’t think your meat-buying is over just quite yet. Achuras, other cuts of meat of which you probably wouldn’t want to know the exact provenance (read no further), are essential to keep your guests waiting while the main pieces grill. Two examples of popular achuras are mollejas (sweetbreads), one of the cow’s glands usually served with lemon, or chinchulin, part of the cow’s intestines. The most common appetiser to keep guests waiting is chorizo, a pork/beef sausage that easily becomes choripán by putting it in a sandwich.

Gauge Quantities

So you’ve chosen what type of meat you want to buy, what’s going to go alongside it, and stocked up on coal. Now the question is, how much meat should you buy? Another culture gap here: quantities of meat that Europeans wouldn’t dream of are consumed in a single meal. Argentines generally count, at least, 200g of meat per person, sometimes double that. When your arm nearly falls off as the butcher passes you the bag of meat, you question the sanity of buying the equivalent of half a cow. But if there are locals around the table you don’t want to commit the faux pas of running out of meat; you’ll probably be surprised at how little – if any – beef is left at the end of the day.

Condiments

Purists will say that if the meat is good, then it barely needs any condiments at all, just some salt. Not just any salt though. To make things easy, they say fine salt is too fine and coarse salt is too coarse. So what you need is sal parillera, an intermediate size that is supposed to be perfect for meat. There are two schools of thought regarding when you have to salt your meat: one says adding it to the raw meat is the way to salt more homogenously, while the other says it takes out too much of the juice.

Chimichurri

Although as said previously Argentine meat really doesn’t need condiments, one typical sauce, chimichurri, will always be available at an asado. The ultimate chimichurri recipe is probably a debate as old as the gaucho, but it generally contains parsley, garlic, oregano, red pepper, and olive oil. Although chimichurri is widely available in supermarkets, many will say that only the homemade ones are really worth dousing your meat with.

‘Un aplauso para el asador’

If you’ve ever taken a plane in or to Argentina, then you’ll know that the locals are especially prone to spontaneous applause. Although the thought of congratulating a pilot for successfully landing the plane you’re in may seem a bit odd, there’s no doubting the worthiness of the aplauso para el asador. If the asador has gone through all the previously stated hoops and you add to it that he’s been standing in front of the equivalent of a sauna the whole time, he well deserves the traditional round of applause at the end of the meal.

Mate with kettle (Photo by Daniel Horacio Agostini)

I learned to drink mate during my first months in Argentina on slow lunch shifts while waitressing. At first, I watched my co-workers pass the little gourd of steaming herbs around with intrigue, too intimidated by their unspoken cultural codes to accept it.

Finally, I got up the nerve to ask about mate-drinking etiquette. As they named off “dos” and “don’ts”, I remembered the single observation I had made while watching them: they do not touch the straw. Eager to show off my know-how, I shouted excitedly, “And you don’t touch the bombacha!”

The entire kitchen turned and gaped at me. In my still-sketchy Spanish, I had confused the words for “metal mate straw” and “panties”.

To help you avoid learning the hard way, we have broken it down. Pretty soon, you will be cebando a rueda de mate yourself.

Basic How-To

1. Bring the water to 70-80°C, never boiling, which “burns” the yerba and ruins the taste.
2. Fill the cup three-quarters full of yerba.

Mate hand dust (Photo by Benjamin Pender)

3. When pouring your herbs into your cup, a cloud of green dust will rise. That dust, when wet, dissolves into the water and travels up through the bombillaupon the first sips. Unlike the steeped leaves, it has an abrasive, gritty taste. To remove the dust from the leaves, place your palm on the rim of the cup, turn it upside down, shake, and turn it right side up again. You should have a faint green circle on your hand. Blow it away and repeat until no more circles appear.

4. Turn the cup right side up carefully, letting the yerba settle at a 45-degree angle.
5. It is polite to ask how your friends prefer their mate: amargo or dulce?
6. Pour in a bit of cold or warm water into the cavity at the bottom. Wait about 30 seconds for the yerba to absorb it. Repeat. Place the bombilla in the cavity. Then pour the hot water, filling the mate to the brim.
7. When pouring, some yerba will get wet and some might float to the top. Do not worry about dousing all of it. The dry yerba will submerge in time, allowing the mate to maintain its flavour a little longer.

The mate is ready! What Now?

The cebador will now prepare and distribute the mate. Firstly they will take one for the team in drinking the first few sips, which can be disagreeably strong. They will then pass the mate along to the first friend, who will drink and pass it directly back to them for water refills.

Do not touch the bombilla! Hold the mate by the gourd or cup. Unlike a soft drink, the straw is never held between the fingers when you drink. If it gets clogged, tell the cebador, but do not stir.

The mate cup will always be passed to you full and if you accept it, you will pass it back empty. It is fine to drink slowly, just make you sure you do not keep others waiting for more than a few minutes.

Handoff (Photo by Beatrice Murch)

Do not blow bubbles. Yeah. Don’t do that.

Do not ask for sugar, complain that the mate is too hot, or ask if this is hygienic. Criticising can offend the cebador, who is often very proud of their role. While some are concerned at sharing the bombilla, mate enthusiasts say that is exactly the point: sharing a bombilla is an honour, a gesture of intimacy and trust. If you do not want the mate, just politely decline.

Don’t say thank you. That is, unless you have had enough. A “gracias” when passing the mate back to its owner is a signal to stop passing you mate.

After the yerba becomes lavada, scoop it out into a bin and wash your cup so it is ready for the next rueda de mate.

Of course, everyone makes their mate differently, so you will likely hear plenty about your friends’ own methodologies. But regardless of how quickly you become a gran cebador, remember that the best part of mate is not actually mate, but the conversations it brews.

Fields of Argentina Yerba Mate in Establecimiento Las Marías, (Photo by MateRojo)

Have you ever wondered where would be the best place to go out on a Saturday night? Where would have the type of music you like, the kind of people you want to be around, if there’s going to be too crowded or too empty and the exact location of the club in question?

Well, wonder no more people of Buenos Aires: GEOclubbing guide has come to Argentina! Using the Facebook platform, the web page basically takes all the information on the events posted by promoters on Facebook, packing all this data together in one place.

In the words of director Dave Blue: “Every single event listed on the site comes directly from Facebook. All updates made by the promoter, and all RSVPs made by clubbers, are automatically synced between Facebook and GEOclubbing. This requires no time, effort, or cost on the part of event organizers, and allows anyone to get a fast and simple overview of all clubbing events with just a few clicks. In other words, GEOclubbing complements Facebook’s ability to answer ‘What are my friends doing tonight?’ by using the same information to answer ‘Show me all Trance events in Amsterdam next weekend’.”

Blue has been in the clubbing scene since 2007, when he started DJing and throwing parties while at university in New Zealand. He says he had “always been kind of a geek”, mapping all the clubs around the area where he lived. He had what he calls his “eureka moment” in May of last year, when he realised he could use Facebook to upload events from all over the world without having to develop face-to-face relationships with the local nightlife players. After 15 months working in the technical groundwork, the website was finally launched in August of this year.

The user selects one of the five cities in the world that the company is present (Buenos Aires, London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Amsterdam) and then can check the dates to the most popular nightlife events put on by order of people attending it on Facebook. It works even better if you have a profile on Facebook because you can allow the GEO application into your account and see which one of your friends are attending which parties.

“You can of course ask your friends or chat up promoters, which is still a good idea, but I want to know all of the parties, and which are truly hot – not just being hyped by somebody. And I want know this very quickly for any given night so I can focus on enjoying the experience rather than fussing around with my computer,” states Blue.

It also has innovative tools such as a sound (so you can hear what kind of music the DJs on the event’s line up will play) and video (to show you the club’s atmosphere).

A map with all the events that will take place in the city is also available and are marked by dots – the bigger the dot, the more people will be attending it.

Keeping this in mind, Blue likes to interfere the least possible on picking which events are worthwhile getting on his nightlife guide, since there’s the online RSVP factor, measuring the popularity of the event. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t appreciate the efforts of promoters who are just getting started and don’t have much money to invest in parties. “With one of these questionable events a few weeks ago in BA, I actually checked out the Facebook page of the promoter and saw that at one of their previous events they decorated the venue by putting playing cards on the mirrors around the bar. So this nice simple touch showed me that the promoter is actually making an effort, and I’ll spend some time to ensure their future parties make it onto GEOclubbing.”

In his opinion, what makes the BA nightlife scene stand out from other cities in the world is by far the great amount of “free agents” (meaning actual people) there are working in promoting the nightlife instead of generic brands or clubs that do their own promotion and advises the clubbers: “Just as you would cling to a good hair stylist, once you find a good public relations in Buenos Aires, make sure that relationship is tight because this is how you get access.”

Future plans for GEOclubbing guide are to expand to all global cities, adding Rio de Janeiro and Mar del Plata soon to the list. The company also has plans to promote events in other Latin American metropolis such as São Paulo, Lima, Santiago, and Bogotá.

In your average travel bookshop, the Buenos Aires shelf will be sagging under the weight of a thousand and one guides to the city. When the pressure of choosing is too much, you grab the most colourful one, probably with a picture of a sleazy tango duo wearing an offensive amount of hair gel, probably costing about 15 pounds, and you probably spend about ten minutes flicking through it on the plane before leaving it accidentally on your seat. Nothing says obnoxious tourist quite like a binocular-carrying, flip flop-donning type navigating the metro in a brash English voice with an iPhone akimbo, and there are obvious disadvantages to loitering on a street corner brandishing your apple. But though you may look like a numpty, it seems apple apps are the way forward.

Or so thinks Shafik Meghji of ‘Buenos Aires *Essential* Guide’: “I think this is definitely where the Market is going,” he says. Having penned many a Rough Guide, (Bolivia, India, Chile, Nepal, Egypt to name but a few…) the seasoned travel writer adds that the advantage of electronic apps, as opposed to weighty paperbacks, is that “they are so much more current and up to date”.

Spotting the gap in the Market, he and fellow travel writer Sioned Jones put their knowledge of the city to task, coming up with an interactive, electronic alternative for visiting tourists. Having lived in the city themselves rather than passing through on a whistle-stop tour like most guide book authors, they combine a local expertise with a foreigner’s perspective and eagerness to explore. As a result, Shafik explains, the Buenos Aires *Essential* Guide “covers both the classic BA attractions with off-the-beaten-track entries that a tourist would struggle to find without us”.

Indeed, the listings range from tourist to local and anywhere in between, divided into 14 headings; Accommodation, Attractions, Bars and Nightlife, Cafés and Restaurants, Escaping the City, Getting Around, Getting started, Hidden Gems, Museums and Galleries, Neighbourhoods, Not to Miss, Shopping, Spa & Fitness, and Tours & Travel info.

Far simpler to navigate than any other app I’ve come across, the bare necessities that would require an arduous phonecall, especially for those non-spanish speakers, are laid out before you. The Restaurant section for example gives you the cost of an average main, contact details, as well as a series of photos so you can avoid the misery of splashing out on a slap up meal only to find you’re dining next to the motorway.

The Accomodation section is particularly comprehensive, with pricing for the cheapest double, reviews of the restaurant, alongside photos and an interactive Map. This latter feature really sets the app apart from others. No matter where you are, it will find you, and tell you how to get to any of the listed attractions by bus, car, foot or subway, and how long it will take, saving you hours of aimless wandering.

It tells you too, how much you should expect to spend on a taxi from A to B: Porteño taxistas are renowned for their ability to find the long and winding road that will leave you paying double, so this way you can avoid being scammed.

Screenshot courtesy of BA Essential Guide

Where most guidebooks and apps give you an exhaustive selection of thing to do within the city, few cross the frontier into the province. This is a shame, as the countryside has a lot to offer, and a trip away is a welcome break from the chaos. The ‘Escape the City’ guide puts you in direct contact with reliable, affordable estancias, as well as telling you exactly how to get there.

Admittedly, the app has a little way to go- the listings are not as exhaustive as they could be- but I couldn’t recommend it more to tourists heading to Buenos Aires for the first time. All the vital information you need is condensed- good tour guides, meeting points, what to do in an emergency. It will allow you to plan your holiday in matter of twenty minutes- all for just £1.99.

Shafik and Sioned’s Ideal Day Out:

“For Sioned and I, a perfect day in Buenos Aires would start off with breakfast or brunch at Malvon, a fantastic bakery-restaurant near our home in Villa Crespo. We´d then head into the centre and take a public bus from Congreso into La Boca – the route takes you through the “real la Boca” and past places of historic importance like Parque Lezama, giving you an insight into Buenos Aires´ heritage. After a beer or cortado at Fundacion PROA´s rooftop cafe, we´d then head to somewhere like MALBA or Centro Cultural Recoleta to check out the latest exhibition or a performance – we saw the excellent Fuerza Bruta at the CCR late last year. In the evening we´d head for a cocktail mixed by Argentina´s best barman at Home, and then to a Puerta Cerrada like Cocina Sunae or La Cocina Discreta, before finishing up in a late night Milonga at somewhere like La Catedral.”

 

Courtest of Urban Running Tours

Running in Buenos Aires can be challenging. Whether it’s the maze of cobbled backstreets, crossings at every corner and cars jumping red lights, or simply getting stuck behind an ambulating porteño who manages to take up the whole street with about 16 dogs on leashes.

But I love running, so when the prospect of Urban Running Tours (URT) popped up I was rather intrigued to see how it functions in a city such as Buenos Aires.

Having spotted a gap in the tourist market, Juan Lapadula decided to create something that offered people the chance to see Buenos Aires – burning a fair few calories in the process. With a fresh perspective and a desire to inspire his passion for exercise, you can now run the city, taking in the sun, sites and all its vibrancy.

Having spoken with Juan and arranged a time to do a run, I have to admit to feeling slight trepidation at the prospect of doing it at all. Despite liking running, I feel myself to still be in the hauls of post-New Year flab and generally undesirable levels of fitness. I just don’t know whether I can run round Buenos Aires taking in the sites without this inducing physical collapse.

Yet any apprehension vanished on meeting the warm and ever-smiling Juan, who spoke me through the route we were going to take. And having warmed up with a few stretches, we were off. From the moment we started, we went at a pace that suited me down to the ground, stopping sporadically at some of the sites that typify the Palermo and Recoleta barrios.

Juan’s skill of talking to me whist running extended beyond physical excellence in that the information he imparted to me was hugely interesting. Particularly impressive was the Rosa Genérica, as was UBA’s Law Faculty building; the grand front doors of which are subject to decades old superstition; but you’ll have to do the run to find out what it is.

Perhaps it is because you are constantly on the move, with the odd pause for photos and hydration, that touristic information is kept succinct and fascinating. By the time we ended, despite looking more as if I’d been swimming than jogging, I felt that the whole experience had been really rather rewarding.

You can tailor-make your run online. To this end you can choose where you want to go, whether you want a male or female guide, and, although the average time for a tour is around 1 hour 15 minutes, this can probably be tweaked if you don’t think you can manage more than an hour.

URT is a personal product, and although you can do it in up to groups of four, it is essentially a one on one programme, so that if your group is bigger, you will be allocated two tourguides. And having a guide, especially one as charming as Juan, allows you to discover the city in a very unique way, avoiding crossings, crowds, and those pesky cobbles. I will most definitely be doing another tour soon, and I urge all of you who don’t mind working up a sweat – there is a lot of sweat – to do so too.

For more information check out www.urbanrunningtours.com.ar. Prices range from US$50 for one person to US$140 for four people, and this includes: the experienced running tourguide, the tour itself, either one that the company has to offer or one specified by the client, a running t-shirt sporting the URT logo, and digital photographs that are taken of the clients and forwarded by e-mail later. To top it all off, 5% of the proceeds go to the Buenos Aires Cardiovascular Foundation