TableConversation.com

Torrontes: The Anti-Malbec

I´ve discovered a delightful wine while traveling in Argentina. It´s Quara Torrontes produced by Finca El Recreo in Cafayate, a northern wine district where this grape thrives.

Torrontes is Argentina´s signature white wine, just as Malbec is its signature red. Floral, spicy and intense, it´s a little like Gewurztraminar, and Argentina is the only country that produces it.

Quara is a fine example, elegant, light and dry. I drank it with an antipasto platter at an Italian restaurant in Cordoba, Argentina´s second largest city. And it was just as good from a paper cup on a long cross-country bus ride.

The quara, a short-haired type of llama, was prized by the Incas for iits ability to carry heavy loads over steep mountains, and Quara Torrontes is just as useful. I would serve it with  chicken, Thai food, curries, even sushi--anything except, perhaps, a hardcore steak or beef stew.

Steak in BsAs: Cabana Las Lilas

Some say Cabana Las Lilas is the best steak restaurant in Buenos Aires. I can't say that for sure until I've eaten a lot more steaks here, but I will say that the one I had was juicy, tender and still  pink in the center, whereas very well done seems to be the standard for local tastes.

 

This restaurant does a fine job with more than steaks, however.  The souffle potatoes on the side were as appealing as the meat, which was rib eye, a cut known here as ojo de bife. And an appetizer platter was impossible to resist, despite  the threat of eating too much to appreciate the main attraction. Marinated mushrooms, eggplant, thin slices of marinated rare beef and fresh salmon with dill, accompanied by a cup of  very fresh gazpacho and assorted tempting breads  were only the beginning. The waiter then brought a savory grilled chorizo; chewy, crusty slices of grilled provolone and a salad of Belgian endive and lettuce in a balsamic vinaigrette.

 

Dessert was just as opulent. A coupe of vanila and dulce de leche ice creams, separated by an almond tuile, was more than enough, but  but then came a plate of cocoa-covered truffles, tiny cookies and candied orange peel.

 

With this, my friends and I drank Mumm sparkling wine from Mendoza and Trumpeter Malbec 2005. And we finished with espresso. The bill was amazing. Although Cabana Las Lila is considered pricey, we paid just $33 each for this feast.

Cabanas Las Lilas, Alicia Moreau de Justo 516, Puerto Madero.  Tel: 4313-1336.

When in Buenos Aires...Empanadas

What better way to start a dining tour of Buenos Aires than with the quintessential snack, the empanada (turnover). At Las Cholas in Las Canitas, a newly trendy dining destination, the empanadas come on a wooden plank, delivered hot and steaming from a wood-fired oven. There are three fillings--hand-cut beef, ham and cheese and humita, a paste of fresh corn, onion and milk that is  almost as sweet as a dessert. Accompanied by the house red wine, a Finca Natalina Syrah-Malbec, this made a fine meal, enhanced by refreshing breezes drifting through the trees that border this open-air restaurant.

Las Cholas, Arce 306 in Las Canitas, located between Belgrano and Palermo in Buenos Aires.

Hasta Luego

TableConversation.com is taking off for Argentina to report on great food and wine and  the upcoming vintage in Mendoza, the main wine-producing region.  The seasons are reversed, so it's summer there now, and the grape harvest takes place in what we think of as spring.

Media coverage in the United States concentrates on flashy, trendy, upscale restaurants in Buenos Aires, but I'll stick to my favorite haunts—a neighborhood bistro so tiny you have to come early to get a seat, a café that serves the rustic dishes of northwestern Argentina along with spectacular desserts, and a "restaurant" that operates in a private home, where the host, a chef and sommelier, applies his expertise to pairing wine with imaginative food.

I'll also go to a steak house where the sweetbreads and French fries are legendary, an old fashioned Italian restaurant where crusty waiters can't hide the twinkle in their eyes, and as many other places as possible.

The charm of eating in Buenos Aires isn't just the food and wine but the enthusiasm for the good life, for art, music and conversation that permeates the atmosphere. So hasta luego--until many fine meals later.

Roasted Squash Soup With Indian Spices

I've made many versions of butternut squash soup, but this is my favorite, so brightly flavored with Indian spices that I can imagine I'm  somewhere in south India, spooning up the soup as part of a delicious vegetarian lunch.

Don't be put off by the unfamiliar spice radhuni. A friend sent me a packet from an Indian shop in Jackson Heights, New York, so I've been experimenting with the tiny seeds in soup, rice and other dishes.
Celery seed is an excellent substitute, because radhuni tastes a little like celery blended with cumin, and both of these are in the soup already.

A glowing orange as if to match the intensity of the spices, this soup makes a fine first course. But if I were really in south India, I would probably copy local custom and mix it with a plateful of rice.

ROASTED SQUASH SOUP WITH INDIAN SPICES

1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut in chunks
¼ pound carrots (2 small), peeled and cut in chunks
1 red bell pepper, quartered and seeded
¼ pound roma tomatoes
Olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
½ small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon radhuni seeds or celery seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon hot red chili powder
2 stalks celery, trimmed and sliced crosswise
4 cups water
1 ½ teaspoons salt, or to taste
Finely chopped celery for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the squash and carrot chunks, the bell pepper quarters and whole tomatoes on a baking sheet and coat lightly with olive oil. Roast until lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Remove the vegetables from the oven and cool slightly. Peel the bell pepper quarters. Peel the tomatoes and cut out the cores.

Heat the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. While they cook, add the coriander, turmeric, radhuni or celery seeds, cumin seeds and red chili powder and stir to blend.

Add the squash, carrots, bell pepper, tomatoes and celery and mix with the spices. Add the water and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly, then puree in a blender or with a blender wand.

Serve at once or, for best flavor, let stand overnight in the refrigerator, then reheat just before serving.  Serve in heated bowls, garnished with finely chopped celery.

Makes 6 servings.

In the Market for Hawaii B.B.Q.

I'm not a fast food eater, but every so often I crave the teriyaki chicken combination at Hawaii B.B.Q., a busy stall in the middle of the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. The combo is cheap, but unlike a lot of cheap food, it's really good, and that means well-seasoned, lightly cooked and very fresh.

There's a generous amount of boneless chicken on top of rice accompanied by two vegetables--broccoli and green cabbage last year, and now bok choy and green cabbage. The teriyaki sauce is light too so that it plays up the natural taste of the food rather than drowning it in syrupy, salty, goo.

The teriyaki chicken combination is $2.25 at Hawaii B.B.Q., Stall E-10 in the Grand Central Market, 317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. Open daily,
9 a.m. to 6 p.m.