Buenos Aires Café is celebrating their 10 year anniversary this month. To kick off their celebrations, co-owners and mother-daughter duo, Paola and Chef Reina invited a few of us lucky souls to Chef Reina’s beautiful home for a traditional asado. Traditionally an asado or Argentine barbecue is an all-day affair and the social event of the week.
Upon arrival, we were greeted with a gorgeous table of olives, cheeses, and delicious breads. Every piece of bread we ate was expertly baked by Paola.
Paola and Chef Reina welcomed us to their asado. They spoke of how happy they are to work and own a restaurant together, something neither of them thought they’d do. Paola shared, “I was supposed to be an architect!” To which her mom laughed and exclaimed, “And I was supposed to be an engineer!”
After some mingling and heavy snacking, Chef Reina walked us through a hands-on empanada making demo. Thank you Jennie Chen for this photo of me! It was great fun getting our hands dirty.
And then the main event! We sat down to a beautifully set table to enjoy charred meats, cooked on the “parrilla”, open fire grill, as is tradition in Argentina. Argentineans use all parts of the cow so we were tucking into blood sausages (morchilla), chorizos, sweetbreads (mollejas), and tenderloins with chimichurri sauce to dip. I brought my friend Himanshu as my guest and I can still hear him gushing with his mouth full.
This photo really captures the essence of our day. Lovely weather, Malbec that never stopped flowing, glorious amounts of meat, and merry laughs. I couldn’t ask for a better Sunday and felt so much gratitude to be sharing such a day with kind and passionate people. To my right sat Chef Reina and she regaled us with stories of how much sharing dinners with loved ones is important to her. She told me of how her family used to pick a country and each member had assigned roles. Recipes were gathered, maps were displayed, and cultures researched as they then sat down and ate and talked about what they learned during the week of preparation.
And then when I thought I couldn’t eat one more bite, alfajores, also known as magical delicate cookies that melt in your mouth were served. Sigh.
Many happy sighs happened that day. Happy 10th Anniversary, Buenos Aires Café! Thank you for including us in your celebrations.
Note: I actually first wrote about Buenos Aires Café five years ago. The location I featured then is no longer open but they are still going strong with two locations.
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