Step by step

The day of rest – and asado

Annabella Mutto and Denise Fevre have strong feelings about asado. Technically the Spanish for a cut of beef comprising the ribs, the Buenos Aires asado is so much more, the pair of city guides breathlessly assure me. Most Sundays porteños, as residents of the city are known, get together with family and sometimes friends for a multi-course, ritualistic barbecue made up almost entirely of meat. “We get together, we talk loud,” Anna says, “and we eat!”

Annabella, Anna for short, disagrees good-naturedly with Denise. Anna extols the virtues of lean meats; she likes the thin, sizzling entraña. Denise, horrified, insists that juicy, fatty cuts — the bife de chorizo, say, cooked through to firmness in the traditional Argentine style — are far superior. Luckily, I don’t have to choose.

I’ve been in Buenos Aires two hours, most of which I’ve spent at , one of the best parillas(steakhouses) in the city. I’ve already eaten five courses, two of them consisting entirely of steak. Outside, people are queuing around the block to get a table. Waiters, taking pity on them, offer sparkling