Yes – we did go to a Parilla. The Estancia – probably – well – definitely – a touristica palace. As a matter of fact, a bus load of seniors arrived after we’d been seated, but you know what? Who cares? You want to talk about food? Maggi – don’t read any further! Vegetarians are not welcome here.
Our waiter was a doll – gave us all the service we needed – the wine, the beer, the water – and then – well – let us at it. For 97 pesos each (about $25US) we had all we could eat. Oh…the meat! Well – first – let me tell you about the 3 all you could eat salad and entree bars – every type of salad – lettuce, dressing, condiments, accoutrements, plus seafood salad (calamari, mussels, etc.), eggplant, miscellaneous other vegetables. Then the hot “bar” –with hamburger patties and mushrooms, potatoes, fried and otherwise, and tons of other various and assorted entrees.
The main attraction? The Parilla. One man – stoking the flames that are kissing full lamb carcasses, splayed out onto spits rotating over the coals. Oh….my! The process works like this: You take you virgin plate to the “hatch” (coined from a British blog we read, must give kudos where due) and ask for your meat. There is a huge selection – chicken, pork, beef, sausage, and of course, lamb (the “famous” meat here in the South). Ask for anything and the Parilla-Man (don’t know what else you’d call him") hacks it off for you. No, seriously. We were there early – the restaurant was nearly empty (the bus tour had not yet descended), so we casually, innocently, walked up to the hatch and asked for Cordero (lamb). The Parilla-Man walked over to the spit and hacked off half the lamb with this big machete looking knife. Yep – whack! You would hear the sound often as you were eating your portion of that wonderful, smoky, hot piping protein serving. Whack. Whack. Whack.
He then deftly quartered off a rib portion and plopped it on my plate. Heaven! That first course, lamb and chorizo. Perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. Meat heaven. The second course – are you sitting down? Blood sausage and Bife steak. Yes, I actually ate and enjoyed the blood sausage. I would have never believed it – but there you have it. Ed matched me with the bife steak, but he got the chorizo so I shared my sausage with him. Yum.
Ed had already hit the salad bar, thus depleting his stomach availability. I was not so short sited – as I only had eyes for the meat. My third, and last visit, to the hatch procured a HUGE hunk of lamb meat. I can’t tell you how sublime that roasted meat was – melt in your mouth, salted and seasoned. I had to let Ed eat his way through the finale because I was just too sated to continue. Didn’t even make good on the “1” dessert serving we were offered. Ack! Protein. We are so good!
The Parilla! Definitely a do again. Although our clothes do reek of the smoky grill – it was so totally worth it. We decided against pictures because, you know? Your imagination is worth more than a picture of the Parilla-Man with his machete hacking off a piece of meat for our enjoyment. Just imagine…..
Indelible images we will take with us on our French adventure….beginning tomorrow….Bon Voyage. Bon appetite. bon….whatever!
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