Our Stuff

Barbecue and mate, our folklore

Asado (grilled roast)
The practice of “asado” is deeply mooted with argentines.

It came down from the original form of cooking of the Pampa “gauchos” and has now become an urban phenomenon.

Nowadays, weather permitting, in every neighborhood, in every corner of the country, you can perceive the unmistakable aroma of charcoal. This is argentine vice of excuse to get friends to meet around the barbecue (“parrilla”).

Bife de chorizo (sausage steak) it is the beef that is on the opposite side of the tenderloin on the t-bone steak. As it is separated from the bone before being cut into steaks, it has a sort of triangular, cylindrical shape-hence it is called “chorizo” (sausage). The steaks are cut thick to give them the typical argentine flavor when cooked medium rare.

Suck your fingers

This is a country saying meaning the roast tastes very good. The only cutlery the “gaucho” used on his long and solitary rides across the Pampa was his “facón” (large knife). When it was time to eat, he held a piece between his fingers from the main roast, which he cuts off with his knife and took this morsel straight to his mouth. This must be from where the expression arose.

The mate

Mate herb (yerba mate)
is the name of the herb used to drink mate. Scientific name: flex paraguariensis.

Mate:
is the name of the container used to serve.

Cebar:
is the action of preparing and serving the mate

Bombilla:
metal tube throng which the infusion is suched from the container into the mouth.

Anyone can serve or make mate, but it is not easy to find a good mate server. A person who can keep serving it at the perfect temperature and tasting just right for a length of time is considered a good “cebador” (server)

As compared to tea, serving mate does not only mean pouring hot water into the container, but the art of maintaining it in the right conditions to be taken. This job, in colonial days, was given to special female servants. Even nowadays, be it among gauchos and drovers, in a group of friends, at a workshop, at an office or a bank, there is always a “specialist” at this.

For fussy mate drinkers, a badly server mate is almost considered an insult. It is not unusual to hear someone give it back and say “this is a foreigner’s mate” implying that the mistake is due to his nationality.

Mate can be taken in the following ways: without sugar is “amargo” (bitter), “cimarrón” (wild) or “verde” (green).

“mate dulce” has sugar and “terere” is bitter mate served with cold water.

The infusion, it is also the name of the infusion itself.




Mate:
Also called yerba mate, mate is a tealike beverage, popular in South America. It is brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of a perennial tree, Ilex paraguarensis. Derived from the Quechua word 'matí', 'mate' names the gourd (Lagenaria vulgaris) that is used for the drink. Mate is sipped through a metal straw, called a bombilla, and out of a small gourd or cup. Mate contains caffeine as well as vitamins and minerals and is usually brought out for social gatherings. 
The basics of the custom: There is one person, called the servidor, who prepares the drink by packing the gourd 3/4 full with the tea. The servidor heats water which he pours into the gourd and passes it to one person in the circle. Once the person has sipped all the tea, he passes it back to the servidor. The servidor refills the gourd and passes it to the next person in the circle. If someone no longer wants mate, when he passes it back to the servidor and says, "gracias."