The Argentinian food festival at the Latino House offers a taste of an indigenous cuisine with a refreshingly European twist
Don’t cry for me Argentina - the song from the musical Evita is perhaps the closest I have come to anything South American. Not to forget footballer Maradona, whose ‘hand of God’ statement made him a sportsman to be reckoned with on the field.
Argentinian cuisine, to be honest, didn't feature at all in my must-try list of gastronomic delights to be sampled in a culinary melting pot like Dubai.
A country of immigrants, Argentinian cuisine is heavily influenced by Italian, French, Spanish and German fare. So it was curiosity more than anything else that lured me to the Latino House at the Al Murooj Rotana which is currently hosting an Argentinian food festival to find out how 'authentic' can be the cuisine of a country which unabashedly claims to be influenced by practically every other European cuisine there is.
And in Latino Chef Cesar Ramirez's specially created menu of select traditional dishes from the land of the 'Gaucho', we not only got to sample Argentinian flavours but received a lesson in their history and tradition as well.
The Empanadas Criollas - pastry stuffed with onion, lamb, beef and cheese filling - proved to be an apt start to our South American culinary adventure. Served in an appetising mushroom sauce, this traditional dish popular all over Argentina came along with a small bowl of Chimichurri - a typical Argentinian sauce made of parsley, mint and garlic. The Empanadas, we have to admit, looked and even tasted a lot like Indian samosas - a fact verified by the Chef himself!
The Escabeche De Mar - steamed seafood marinated in a simple lime and olive oil dressing and served with roundels of sweet corn and onion and capsicum shavings that followed was so mild that my companion’s palate used to a more pungent taste found it a bit too light for his liking. We were informed that unlike Asian cuisine, Argentinian food is sometimes cooked first and marinated afterwards to retain its flavour.
Though seafood is not as common in Argentina because of the abundance of red meat, the menu had a great selection of fish preparations and with the help of the chef we were soon dipping our spoon into a delicate tomato broth which proved the perfect foil for a succulent poached sea bass surrounded by shrimps and mussels. A side order of rice with red beans and baby potatoes did more than fair justice to the dish.
The menu, however, is a meat lover's delight with Argentinian beef taking pride of place. Be it Sirloin, Rib Eye or Tenderloin, it is all there for the taking. "Argentinian beef is particularly tasty, and is a major part of most South American's diet," says Ramirez.
Meanwhile, my companion had gone in for Cordero Patagonico – lamb encapsulated in puff pastry served with baby carrots, morel sauce and potato mille feuille – a concoction of potato slices, cheese and egg placed one on top of the other and baked to a melt-in-your-mouth texture. We were more than happy to down spoonfuls of it until the cheese factor was brought to our notice...
After the heavy main course, we opted to wait for our food to settle than give up on our just deserts! The dulce de leche rolled up in a thick and soft-as-butter crepe lived up to its reputation as a ‘national obsession.’ "You have to boil two litres of milk with sugar, to get about 200 grammes of the dulce de leche," explains Chef Cesar. The chocolate pana cotta served with a drizzling of orange sauce brought a sweet ending to our Argentinian fest. Or so we thought.
Initially the tiny cup like device with a steel straw placed on the table looked like a novelty piece to us. We were soon to learn about the mate (pronounced as maa-te)– a drink made of twigs of the yerba mate plant without which no Argentinian meal is complete. “If you do not drink mate, you are not an Argentinian,” as Chef Cesar puts it succinctly. Ever so often one mate is served for a group with the host preparing the mix carefully for each guest which is then passed around. The cup made of gourd and inlaid with silver or some other metal is infused with the herbs into which nearly boiling water is poured. The concoction is sipped through a steel straw called a bombilla. Much like the Japanese tea ceremony, drinking mate is considered a social ritual in Argentina.
As we sipped along like true-blue Argentinians, we were struck by how just a simple meal can turn out to be an enriching experience in more ways than one.
The Argentinian food fest is on at the Latino House at Al Murooj Rotana till November 2.
Chef's Special
With over 10 years of experience Latino Chef Cesar Ramirez has come a long way in a short time. Ramirez who boasts of Spanish and Italian genes, typifies the 'Gaucho' cuisine of Argentina in himself.
"During Sundays in our family, my grandmothers used to get together to cook huge meals for us. And I remember as a small boy helping them make pasta," he reminisces.
But surprisingly as he grew up he opted for a career in medicine. It was only a few years into the course that he realised his heart lay elsewhere and left it to become a Chef. After working in La Bourgogne in Buenos Aires for a while, Ramirez moved to Chile and from there to London where he built up his credentials in Michelin star restaurant Foliage.
"I am passionate about food and am always in search of new tastes and dishes," says the Chef who has been in Dubai for a couple of years but took charge of Latino House very recently. "I want to keep the Latino flavours and at the same time infuse the dishes with a European twist and of course the Argentinian touch,” he asserts.
Pastel de papas - Beef and Potato Pie
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Matamhre relleno -Stuffed Flank Steak
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Panqueques de dulce de leche - Crepes with Dulce De Leche
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PHOTOS: SHIHAB