"LIVE! LIVE! LIVE! Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death"
attributed to Mame Dennis

Friday, March 12, 2010

By The Sea: San Clemente

The Río de la Plata meets the Atlantic Ocean near the charming beach town of San Clemente del Tuyú, where we spent a long weekend at the shore surrounded by vacationing Argentine families. The oppressive heat of Buenos Aires was more bearable with an ocean breeze, though both were preferable to the arctic winter we left behind.
It was no surprise that the fish couldn't be fresher at San Clemente's port, where we had a particularly memorable meal.
We were greeted by a pair of empanadas fritas (fried) filled with lisa, which my Food & Wine Dictionary by Dan Perlman translates as mullet. Despite speaking Spanish fluently, this book was a handy resource for this sort of vocabulary.

The first order of business was to obtain a cold bottle of wine. It's not uncommon for Argentines to put ice in their vino de mesa, both red and white. I have to admit the heat warrants it (but wouldn't advise it for anything nicer than a table wine.) Vasco Viejo is Bodega Lopez's dependable table wine and always a winner at a reasonable price (about US$3 in a supermarket, and usually US$5-7 in restaurants). This refreshing white blend features Torrontes and Chardonnay grapes.
 We ordered the lisa, of course, a la provencal. The classic porteño provencal sauce is a rustic mixture of olive oil, garlic and parsley, that I also love on french fries.
The simplicity of the preparation on the grill really made the fresh fish shine. I'll have to give this method a go this summer, maybe with some local lake trout.

1 comment:

Memória said...

Corinna!!

You won the giveaway on my blog!! Please email me your address so that I may send the cookbook, "The Food of Portugal" to you!

Congratulations!!

By the way, you're so lucky to have been in Argentina. I would love to go there soon. Lovely photos.