One of the things that you will never get on any parrilla tour in Buenos Aires is an experience or even a close up look at how real Argentines actually do asado. At a parrilla restaurant (best translation would be steakhouse, but this is actually a totally different concept), you will see an asador (grillman) or group of asadores tending to the parrilla. On the parrilla you will find any number of cuts of beef, pork and chicken, roasting nicely over a bed of hot coals.
But what won’t happen when you walk in the door, is the critical first step in what is a traditional Argentine asado, which is the picada. The picada (which comes from the word picar in Spanish which means “to bite”… so these are little bites) usually comes on a nice wooden platter, campo style (countryside) and is full of meats and cheeses otherwise referred to as fiambres (cold cuts or deli meats). Usually the picada will have ham in many forms: traditional ham, prosciutto ham, salami and perhaps other choices, but basically never turkey or chicken. Turkey in fact, is desperately difficult to find in Argentina 😦
Interlaced with the fabulous cuts of ham and salami are various cheeses, usually stemming from Italian origin: reggianito, romanito, fontina, sardo (which actually takes its name from the island of Sardenia in Italy) and the one outlier of the group that is supremely overrepresented in Argentina and underrepresented in the USA, roquefort. Along with this bounty of meats and cheeses usually comes sliced baguette, chips and or/peanuts.
This step is NEVER observed at a parrilla restaurant. You can order one of these if you must, but having an asado at someone’s house requires this. Also involved in the first step is some Argentine malbec or Fernet, the national drink of Argentina.
Step 2 of the Rituals of Asado to come in our next installment.
Buenos Aires Parrilla Tours 