Gringos' first asado

To celebrate Thanksgiving way south of the equator, our expat friend Peter (pic’d) reserved his apartment building’s “party room.” The party room sits open and white on the top floor, looking out over Palermo Hollywood and the Melrose Place-like communal swimming pool directly below (pic’d). It was outfitted with little else but a nifty parrilla for grilling meat. But did we gringos dare use it? Ok, grilling a turkey was out of the question. But grilling beef... We were inspired by an article in Página 12 on the man controversially crowned the country’s best asador (roaster) who shared his secrets: Rough salt, low heat, 3 hours of cooking (2 hours on the side closer to the bone and then another hour flipped). In the spirit of Thanksgiving, a meal that can easily last 4 hours or so, we had the time to cook. So, while I went to my Spanish lesson, Ian headed over to Peter’s at 6 PM to prepare for a 10 PM dinner.

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By the time I arrived, the asado was well underway. Ian had mastered the parrilla, first burning the carbón de leña to one side, and then pushing the embers over to the main cooking area for the perfect slow-cooking heat (pic'd). A few hours later, our other 2 guests arrived—Stephanie, a New Yorker who had just stepped off the plane the day before, and Pablo, an Argentine who had lived in New York for 5 years. Needless to say, the Argentine headed straight to the parrilla to see what the gringos had done with his country’s cooking style. His hands went straight over the embers, he lowered the rack slightly and then declared that it all looked pretty good. When it was time eat (at 10:30? 11?), we had way too much food for five, but it was good. Our last photo shows a happy postprandial Pablo. Success.