How to Eat and Drink in Buenos Aires, with Elvis Abrahanowicz

This article is supported by Air New Zealand, who offer flights from Sydney to Buenos Aires via Auckland. We sent Sydney-based, Argentinian chef Elvis Abrahanowicz back to his hometown to explore the city's burgeoning scene of discreet kitchens. You can watch the video and read our interview with him below.

Chef Elvis Abrahanowicz left Argentina for Australia when he was young, but has spent his adult life bringing the flavours (char-grilled meats, smoky eggplant, creamy dulche de leche) to Sydney at Bodega 1904 and Porteño.

Still, there's nothing like the real thing, so Abrahanowicz recently went back to Buenos Aires to reconnect with the old school bodegones (bistros) and hit the city's growing scene of home, or "closed" restaurants.

It's as personal as dining out gets, and—as he explains—it's best explored with a bag full of Fernet-Branca.

VICE: As a chef, one of the best things about returning to Buenos Aires must be hitting the food spots. What's the first thing you eat?
Elvis Abrahanowicz: I have my standards as soon as I arrive. I always go to a parilla, a grill, and get pickled veal tongue and pickled eggplant. Then I'll have the beef short rib, cut thin, and an onion-tomato salad. For dessert, I'll have sweet potato and cheese. It's basically equal parts sweet potato jam or quince jam, put on top of cheese to make it look like a cake. These are my go-to's, every time—my first meal when I arrive, and my last meal when I leave.

It's been about eight years since you were back. What's changed?
Buenos Aires has always been cosmopolitan, so none of that's changed. But in Palermo there seems to be more restaurants. The energy was like I remembered: really lively. I grew up just outside of Buenos Aires in Berazategui so we'd go into the city to visit. For me, so much of my memory is tied to the streets and the corner shops; they aren't like what we have in Australia, and I still miss them.

What's the street food like?
There's not a huge street food culture in the city. I mean, there are carts in parks where you can get a steak or chorizo sandwich, but the further out you go the more food you'll find on the side of the road, and the better it gets. Or the greasier it gets! My favourite places to eat are the bodegones—your classic Argentinean bistros. Nothing fancy. They usually have a little bit of Italian or Spanish heritage and are really old world. Some have been around for a long time; they are 50 or 60 years old and have stayed in the family.

There's also this culture of home restaurants, or private restaurants. Are these specific to Buenos Aires?
I don't think so. I'd never been to one until recently, but Alejandro from La Cocina Discreta has been doing it for over 10 years, so it's not like a new trend.

You visited three home restaurants. What did you think of the food they served up?
Everything was cooked nicely. They had good techniques and the seasoning was great. It was like they were trying to be a little more innovative. One of the guys did Asian-inspired cuisine, which I thought was going to be shit because they don't eat a lot of seafood in Buenos Aires. It was actually really good. I was surprised. In general, there's lots of meat. I had braised beef cheek with mash, which was so soft you could eat it all with a spoon, and a great meal of beef fillet with chips.

Are places like this hard to find? Can visitors have this kind of experience?
All the online guides have a lot of the good stuff now. Even the hard-to-find places are covered, like La Cocina Discreta and Casa Bares in Colegiales. The old-school bodegones aren't really online though, and they don't get too many tourists, unless you go to the ones in La Boca, which is a tourist area. In Palermo and the surrounding suburbs you will find great places. There are a lot of them. Just look for the busy ones and it's hard to go wrong.

Any local tips or tricks?
There aren't too many rules in Buenos Aires. Just don't be a rude asshole. The people are friendly and helpful. There are no real customs that you need to follow, but people don't really start dinner till 9pm, and most places serve food till after midnight. Just have a good time. And drink Fernet-Branca.

That's an Italian liqueur, right?
It's an Italian aperitif, but it's also the national drink of Argentina. They consume more Fernet-Branca than anywhere else in the world, so they make it there too. I had a shopping bag full of it every day. I like it straight up out of a bottle. I don't like it cold. I don't like it mixed, but most people there drink it with cola. With Argentinean wines, I'm a big fan of malbec reds or torrontés for white.

Any favourite local neighbourhoods or spots?
I think San Telmo is quite beautiful. That's the antique part of town where they have all the markets. Palermo is a great place to stay, because it's pretty close to the city but you have the restaurants and bars. A cool place in Palermo is this indoor soccer club called Club Eros. It has this tiny restaurant inside and it's kick arse. If you go at night all the old guys are playing indoor soccer; they run around a bit then have a barbecue and smoke and drink. In general, stick to the old places for food. The old pizza joints as well. Pizza is huge in Buenos Aires and there are awesome pizza places. Another thing I really enjoy is eating at places where the old school waiters still work. There's a new generation that's starting to service the old places, which is really cool, because it means the expertise, traditions, and service are all getting passed on.

This article is supported by Air New Zealand. You can find out more about their flights from Australia to South America here