by admin | Oct 12, 2016 | Estancias Buenos Aires, Traditions
Exporting Argentine Asado : The argentine chef Francis Mallmann develop a fancy way of the typical Argentine asado, and he did it for two another celebrities: David Beckham and Guy Ritchie in Ashcombe, in England.
Francis create a dome where there are hanging pieces of meat, vegetables and fruits, surrounded by wooden coals on fire set in a pit.
He name it: cooking “al hilo” and he has being producing it in restaurants, events and Estancias all over Argentina.
David Beckham and Guy Ritchie BBQ
Francis called this last event: “Early tease of coals and smoke at Ashcombe. A fire palace of grace, taste and hope. @guyritchie @davidbeckham The busy bee has no time for sorrow.”
And Beckham answer “Thank you to Mr Francis Mallmann for an unforgettable and never done before BBQ… Also to Mr Ritchie for always being the graceful host… Lovely day in the country.. Btw don’t try this at home it was carefully watched by Francis and his amazing team…”
David Beckham and Guy Ritchie BBQ
About the chef
Francis Mallmann: Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the work of his father took him to live in Patagonia, where he fell in love with the kitchen. He began his culinary training in France with the nouvelle cuisine. Years later he returned to Argentina, and for several years devoted himself to different projects between Europe and Buenos Aires.
Finally, in 1983 he opened his first venture: a restaurant at night and cooking school day. Gradually, he abandoned the foundations of nouvelle cuisine to devote to the rustic kitchen, which is the return to basic, everyday ingredients, simple utensils and classic preparations, combined with the passion for the combination of flavors and a gourmet twist.
He is also the creator of “Siete fuegos”: This proposal is for lunches or meals outdoors with a tour through seven fires cooking techniques like a sophistication of the original Argentine asado. The same can be done in the pampa fields, desert, snow or at the beach. For them it requires adequate space where they can ignite fires using firewood and charcoal. These techniques were inherited from some ancestors of the native peoples of South America and other ones in the life of the gaucho and the European migrations in Argentina.
Chef of the argentine asado
Where to enjoy an argentine asado
You can enjoy your real gaucho asado in this Tour in the Pampa Argentina and Estancias: Estancia and gaucho town San Antonio de Areco
More about Gaucho culture: The Gaucho Experience in Spanish
Pasajes a San Antonio de Areco en bus: Arecobus
You can check more than 500 5 stars reviews in Tripadvisor here: Tripadvisor reviews for Buenos Aires Gaucho Tour
by admin | Oct 7, 2016 | La Pampa, Traditions
The gaucho pulperias in the pampa (popular name for a sort of bar or tavern) was the main place of reunion and entertainment for both rural gauchos and urban popular sectors until the close of the XIX century.
They were places where popular classes found possibilities to share the “freedom” to drink, to play, to negociate, to manifest their disagreement and express everything that was repressed by the stiff rules of social control during that period in Argentina.
Pulperias established within the confines of estancias, or accompanying troops on their way to the frontier in the pampa, acted as the fundamental venues for these bonds. They reinforced ties between “boss and peon” or among armed men.
The characteristics of the pampas inhabitants made this specific form of sociability unique even within traditional sociability. The instability of work, liiving arrangements, and forms of family life made it difficult to establish lasting bonds.
Gauchos at the old gaucho pulperias
Social reason for the gaucho pulperias
The weakness of social ties made the situation of the rural population more akin to that of the individual in modern society than to that faced by a member of colonial society in Buenos Aires. The type of egualitarian relationships that flourished in the pulperias was yet another characteristic that distinguished these social encounters from those found in a traditionally hierarchical society.
Moreover, since the pulperia was the only meeting place for an isolated and heterogeneous population of gauchos working in Estancias, it was not only a center for spreading the news – a necessary condition for any modern political culture – but also a place to sing folkloric songs and recite poetry, the cultural forms in which gauchos’ sorrows and joys were expressed.
In other words, it was a forum for “gaucho discourse,” instituted on the basis of the traditional sense of liberty and equality.
Extracted from: Revolution and Restoration: The Rearrangement of Power in Argentina, 1776-1860 edited by Mark D. Szuchman, Jonathan Charles Brown: This and some other related thoughts in: The gaucho experience
Todays gaucho pulperias
Travellers at a Gaucho Pulperias:
The pulperias in Argentina are the rendezvous of the gauchos, who set no value upon money, and spend it only in gambling and drinking. Their custom is to invite all present gauchos to drink with them; they have a large pitcher full of canespirit (for they dislike wine), which they pass round.
This ceremony they repeat so long as they have a penny left, and they consider it as an affront if any one declines the invitation.
Every pulperia nearby an Estancia is provided with a guitar, and whoever plays on it is treated at the expense of the company. These musicians of the pampa never sing any other than a continuous tour of yarabys, or Peruvian songs, which are the most monotonous and dismal in the world. The tone is lamentable, and they always turn upon a tour of disappointed love, and lovers deploring their pains in deserts; but never treat of lively, agreeable, or even indifferent subjects.
Some gauchos at the pulperias
After all, these gaucho pulperias in the pampa, miserable as they are, are not much inferior to some of the inns, as they are called, in Spain herself. It is very true, that in the larger post-towns improvements have been made of late years in the accommodations for travelers; but in other situations, where they are obliged to remain during perhaps the whole night after a long day trip, the buildings are literally nothing better than huts, or low public-houses frequented by the poorest peasantry: they sometimes do not consist of two stories, or even of two rooms, but a separation is made by a curtain, the harbour of all kinds of filth and vermin.
At the pulperia near Buenos Aires they are frequently provided with a guitar, but the performaces upon it are the most wretched that can be imagined.
Picturesque Illustrations of Buenos Ayres and Monte Video: By Emeric Essex Vidal
How you can visit a real pulperia:
For experiencing some sort of old gaucho pulperia bar try this: Day trip to the gaucho Town and Estancia
by admin | Oct 5, 2016 | Traditions
Gaucho Empanadas are everywhere, ranging from elegant cocktail parties in Buenos Aires to rough and ready outdoors barbecues in an Estancia with the company of the gauchos.
Many beef restaurants in Buenos Aires and around the country serve a complementary empanada to keep you happy while you face difficult task of choosing from the menu.
Gaucho empanadas as popular food
Pizza parlours and take-away food shops deliver a tour of piping hot empanadas at the call of a phone. Gaucho wives pride themselves on their special style of empanadas, and the filling is still a carefully kept secret.
Gaucho empanadas in estancia el ombu
The basics for making an empanada appear to be simple, and they are, yet a number of important and subtle touches are necessary.
The pastry is part of the secret and the heat of the oven of frying fat also has its influence.
The key of an empanada
Gaucho empanadas experts insist that the most important factor of all is how the filling is prepared, at least when this is based on beef, which comprises something like 80% of empanadas eaten in Argentina.
A true gaucho empanadas has its beef finely chopped by hand, not passed through the mincer. This is an important point to bear in mind because the juciness of the meat – and the final juiciness of the filling – depends almost wholly on this factor.
A mincer squeezes much of the juice out of the meat, and if used at high speed and for more than a minute or two, heats up the blades and cooks the beef slightly.
Using a sharp knife by hand produces a natural mince wich retains all the basic goodness of the meat.
Fried empanadas
Argentine gaucho empanadas are either fried or baked, and the pastry used is prepared accordingly. But most pastry is multipurpose: any pastry made with lard, butter or margarine is apt for frying and baking.
( you can check the customers reviews of the empanadas in this page )
In all cases the filling is cooked before, so it is essential that the process should be rapid, just time enough to brown the pastry and heat the contents. Very hot fat for frying and a very hot oven for baking is this essential.
Extracted from “El gaucho gourmet” by Derek Foster: Buy the book Gaucho Gourmet
You can enjoy your own gaucho empanadas while in one of these Tours in the Pampa Argentina and Estancias: Full Day Tour Estancia and gaucho town San Antonio de Areco
If you prefer to stay overnight to enjoy many different times the gaucho empanadas look for great Estancia lodging here
by admin | Oct 4, 2016 | La Pampa, Traditions
The american gaucho: Walt Disney in Argentina
Why Walt Disney visit Argentina
In 1941, on the eve of America’s entry to World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt wanted to curb the influence of Nazis and fascists in South America.
So the President enlisted someone who embodied the American capitalist spirit: Walt Disney. Guest host Mandalit del Barco talks to film director Ted Thomas, who’s new documentary ”Walt & El Grupo” chronicles Walt Disney‘s adventure and public relations mission to South America:
Sketch of a gaucho Mickey Mouse
“The Argentine theme, on the contrary, was not so easy, nor so obvious.
Here was a temperate country, with none of the glamour of the rich jungle background of flora and fauna. The most conspicuous common denominator of understanding was the pampas and the hardy colorful gauchos. The vast seas of grass, the simple humor and hardships of those rugged horsemen of the plains seemed the source and the clue to our best efforts.”
The gaucho walt disney in argentina
The focus in Argentina
Gaucho culture became the group’s primary focus. Ted Sears’s pretrip story suggestions for a gaucho series were now augmented with direct primary research into the customs, costumes, and lore of the real gauchos.
Members of the group visited gaucho museums and gaucho libraries, attended gaucho concerts, and entertained authorities on gaucho culture at the Alvear Palace.
Disney dancing Argentine Folklore
Larry Lansburgh took his pursuit a step further by going to Mataderos Municipal stockyards to see working gauchos in action. After putting his command of Spanish to the rest, explaining his purpose there, Lansburgh was allowed inside.
Thanks to Jim Brodero´s contacts, the entire group was invited to a tour in an all-day asado, an Argentine version of an outdoor barbecue, at Estancia El Carmen on Sunday, 14 September.
Walt Disney dressed like a Gaucho
How was the visit of Walt Disney
This was the first sight of the Argentine pampa countryside for the group as whole, and the artists feasted on a banquet of mouthwatering food, sketched animal and plant life, shot copious amount of 16mm film and still pictures, and were treated to an exhibition of gaucho riding and roping.
The locals enjoyed costuming Walt Disney in Argentina as real gaucho. This was a token of their sincere affection for him and, happily, he looked the part. “He had the dark eyebrows and the dark eyes and the mustache” Herb Ryman later pointed out.
Source:
Extracted from the book: South of the border with Disney by J. B. Kaufman
Walt Disney in Argentina
You can visit this and some other gauchos museums, galleries and culture attractions in this Tour: Estancia and Gaucho Town Day Tour
Also in Spanish: Orígenes de las Estancias de Buenos Aires
More information here: Full Day Tour Estancia with Argentine Beef and horseback riding
Best gaucho experience in the Pampas near Buenos Aires
by admin | Sep 30, 2016 | La Pampa, Traditions
Florencio Molina Campos, the gaucho painter:
“I try to look in the distant years of my boyhood to find the first feeling of what was eventually to become, with music and reading, the passion of my life: painting.” Florencio Molina Campos.
Gaucho image in the Subway of Buenos Aires
On October 3rd, 1891, in the Buenos Aires parish of San Nicolás, Eduardo O´Gorman – brother of the famous Camila – baptized with the name Florencio de los Angeles the man that we know today as Florencio Molina Campos.
He was the son of Florencio Molina Salas and Josefina del Corazón de Jesús Campos y Campos.
The gaucho painter Florencio Molina Campos
School vacations – he attended the Colegio La Salle, Colegio El Salvador, and Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires – were spent at his father´s family Estancia , “Los Angeles”, in El Tuyú, and later at “La Matilda”, an Estancia leased by his family in Chajarí, in the Province of Entre Ríos.
From an early age he drew landscapes, country people, and the scenes of country life that he had observed and recorded during his school vacations.
Calendar of Molina Campos
After his father’s death, in 1907, he had to take jobs at the Post Office, the Sociedad Rural Argentina, and the Department of Public Works. His efforts to achieve independence first as a cattle dealer and later on a farm in the Chaco were doomed to failure.
In 1926, at the age of thirty-five and encouraged by a friend, he exhibited a number of drawings and paintings at the annual exposition in the Central Hall of the Sociedad Rural.
President Alvear visited the show and bought two of Molina Carnpos’ works. The rest of his pictures were quickly sold out and he became the popular gaucho painter in Argentina.
Molina Campos in his Studio
The next year, he exhibited in the old Rambla in Mar del Plata, where he met María Elvira Ponce Aguirre, who later became his second wife.
From 1931 to 1944 he produced calendar illustrations for the Fábrica Argentina de Alpargatas, and these are now considered his best and most important painting.
Molina Campos and Walt Disney
Walt Disney, an admirer of Molina Campos´ work, hired him as and adviser on several films, but the results did not satisfy the artist, who saw that the image of the Argentine gaucho was being debased.
His illustrations for Estanislao del Campo’s Fausto, published by Kraft, are unforgettable.
From 1944 to 1958 the gaucho painter illustrated calendars for the Minneapolis-Moline farm machinery manufacturer.
These calendars became famous throughout the United States, where he lived for many years.
Famous gaucho calendar
Florencio Molina Campos, born in Buenos Aires on the twenty-first of August 1891, died in the city of his birth on the sixteenth of November 1959.
Based in Juan Carlos Ocampo´s book.
Pintores y Artistas de San Antonio de Areco aquí en: Areco chat
You can visit this and some other gauchos museums, galleries and culture attractions in this Tour: Cultural & Arts Legacy of the Gauchos Day Tour
