EPIC Argentinian Food TOUR In NEW YORK!

Chimichurri, no worries. The best empanada I've ever had. Very simple in its ingredients, but it really packs a flavor. Who got the better steaks, Argentina or Brazil? Guys, Messi is the GOAT. Argentina just won the World Cup. And I actually just realized I had never really had Argentinian food. So basically we're gonna go on this huge journey through New York City trying to find out exactly what it is. And I mean, I've heard it's Spanish, Italian, and indigenous flavors. I also heard that per capita, they eat the most beef in the entire world. I'm looking forward to eating a lot of steak in Chimichurri. Our first location on this massive Argentinian food exploration through New York City is Sabor Argentino. Sabor means taste. Argentino obviously means Argentinian. Taste of Argentina. They just won the World Cup. Messi is the GOAT. They got pictures of Maradona, who is actually kind of the GOAT before Messi, all over the wall here. And here on our spread, you can actually see all the different influences. You have your Spanish side with the empanadas. These are wheat, not corn, and they're not fried, they're baked. And then you have the Italian side right here with the gnocchi. You know, there's a lot of Italian immigrants in Argentina. Here you have the steak. This is what they're very famous for. The beef industry is booming. This might be attributed more to kind of the grasslands and the indigenous side of things, you know. And per capita, Argentinians actually eat the most beef in the entire world. Fun little fact. Here you have fries. And then here is the choripan. I believe that breaks down to chorizo pan, which is bread. A lot of chimichurri there. All the parsley and oil and olive oil right there, guys. There's another popular sandwich here that's also out of chicken. This is an Argentinian lunch food. The chorizo is tasty. I snapped in my mouth. Got that nice layer of kind of chimichurri sauce with a little bit of lemon zest. Let me just put on a little bit more mayo here. Argentinians eat twice as much beef as Americans do. Let me cut this open. Of course, they recommended getting it medium. You know how it is. Oh, OK, that was cooked pretty nicely. And guys, I think one of the best side sauces for steak ever is chimichurri. It's a blend of parsley, lemon zest, olive oil. It just works perfectly. I think more people should try this sauce if you haven't had it. Chimichurri is delicious. Argentinian steak. Here we go. Here we have the beef empanada, and it has actually bits of eggs and a lot of spices in there. You can kind of see it right there. I think the interesting thing about Argentina is that a lot of people kind of consider it somewhat of a European country in South America because it has so much European, Mediterranean, Spanish influences. I mean, some of the most famous people from Argentina are like Manu Ginobili, who's, you know, Italian or Messi, who might have other roots. However, Maradona, I think, is, I believe, half indigenous, too. So, you know, there's a lot of indigenous representation, especially on the soccer field. So you got to check it out. But here, let me just throw on these sauces just a little bit. Boom. Wheat baked empanada, light and flaky. That's how you do it in Argentina. Hmm. One thing you'll notice about Argentinian empanadas is that they're a little bit lighter. They're made out of wheat. They're baked. They're not usually fried. They can be, but they're supposed to maybe feel a little bit more European, I'd say. So this is a ham and cheese one, of course. Peep the stretch. Wow. Guys, I think the side sauces here in Argentina might win right here, man. These are delicious. This right here is called salsa Criolla. I think more and more people need to get on this side dip game. That was it. That was it. Guys, I have a feeling that we're going to be eating a lot of French fries in this video because I always see pictures of steak and French fries at Argentinian restaurants, especially even if you Google Argentinian steak. So I'm looking forward to it. Maybe the fries are a little bit thicker cut in Argentina. These kind of look like your McDonald's sized ones, but are good. Of course, you have an Italian dish to represent the Italian bloodlines that are so prevalent in Argentina. Actually, Italian bloodlines is the most prevalent immigrant bloodlines that have come to Argentina and mixed in with people. So, you know what, guys? Let's just try the gnocchi first and foremost. So they do Italian food well, too. Mmm. Argentinian sized sauces. I'm a slap it on everything, guys. Wow. Mmm. Adds a kick. And here, ending off our meal here at Sabor Argentino, we have a very Europeanized dessert, man. And on the outside, you can see it looks pretty unique, but they kind of have like the sugar crust on the outside around a white cake. Man, this looks delicious. Mmm. Every Argentinian spot that you go to is going to have some dulce de leche dessert. It's super sweet, but that is super good. I totally recommend you guys have it. And I think Argentinian food is just going to get more and more popular, not because they just won the World Cup, but, you know, I just even think that soccer even getting more popular worldwide, especially in America, is going to help the popularity of Argentinian food. And man, I think people really got to check it out. I'm looking forward to the next spots that we go to, too. OK, so it's all in one. So we get the Argentine feast, $80 for two people. I don't got to get anything else. All right, I'm going to sign up for it because this is dine like a gaucho. Exactly. It's a gaucho. It's a man who works in the earth, like, I don't know. With the cows, right? Cowboy. Cowboy, exactly. Argentine cowboy. We're going to be eating like gauchos here at Balvenera. Yeehaw! All right, you guys, right now we are outside one of the most popular Argentinian restaurants in all of New York City. It's called Balvenera. If you guys do not know about Argentinian cuisine, which I did not know anything before this, Argentina is known for a couple of things. Soccer, tango, and beef. Guys, we're about to eat like a gaucho. Let's check it out. All right, you guys, we have the Argentino chorizo right here. Like we said, a lot of people debate whether Argentina or Brazil has the best beef in South America and maybe even the world. I'm going to have the blood sausage with the salsa Creole. Ooh, ooh. The blood sausage is soft, bro. Oh, that's bloody. Oh. Hey, guys, it's authentic, man. Listen, guys, for me to call this blood sausage very decent is a huge step for me. I'm just not a huge fan, but this one was the best one I've ever had, to be honest. A little bit of salsa Creole. OK, you guys, we got the roasted garlic with the skirt steak. Like I said, obviously in Argentina, the cuts of meat are in Spanish. Oh, my goodness, guys. This is the ribeye with the chimichurri on it. Surprisingly, I think the other cuts were even better and usually prime rib is my favorite. Last but not least, guys, we've got the strip loin. This is a particular cut of the cow. I'm going to dip it in the chimichurri. Asado. With the chicken strips. This is a ahumita empanada. Ahumita is typically actually more like from the indigenous people. It's actually an Argentinian tamale. So it's actually wrapped in a corn husk. This one, they took the filling from the tamale, but they put it in an empanada. Empanada is obviously more from Spain, Spain to Latin America. But like we said, Argentina is a mix. It's probably like Italian people following Spain culture. And there's some indigenous influence as well, because those were the original people. Oh, my goodness, guys. Believe it or not, with all the delicious carne asada that I had today, this is still absolutely one of the best things I had. The ahumita flavored empanada. All right, you guys, I'm finishing it off. I got the peppers. I got the greens. I got the steak, ribeye. OK, and for dessert, what is this? That one is a torreja. Torreja is from Argentina. This is like a French toast with some banana, strawberries and dulce de leche from real Argentina. Honestly, there's almost like a slight like cheesy vibe to it. This is really good. To be honest, I've never really had dulce de leche that much before in my life. So this is very cool, especially to have it through Argentinian food. The one thing that I noticed about Argentinian food so far is that they don't use a lot of spices. The recipes are pretty simple, but the flavor is unique. And I don't know if that's a result of the Italian influence or the Spanish influence, but we are going to our next spot, which has a clear Argentino, Italiano vibe to it. Aren't you guys? We're in the closest thing that I've ever been to Buenos Aires. I don't even know if you're supposed to put the chimichurri on the bread like that, but why not? Why not? Aren't you guys? We're looking at the garlic shrimp. This is camarones de ajajillo, possibly some Portuguese influence, Spanish influence. I'm not sure. Oh, my goodness, guys, just globs of garlic. Any sort of European influence spot. I'm telling you, this is probably the most overlooked dish, in my opinion. I rarely see people get it. But here I know this is one of the most popular things on the menu. It's not just for beef, guys. You can put the chimichurri on shrimp, too. Of course, we're looking at the Argentine empanadas, guys. Every sort of country that has been influenced by Spain, Portugal, Italy. They have similar dishes, but they do them their own way. This empanada is jamon y queso, which is the prosciutto and cheese one. I've never had one baked with this filling before. One thing that I noticed about this spot and this restaurant, it's called Buenos Aires Restaurant, is that the European influence is really, really strong here. And I heard that of all the cities in Argentina, Buenos Aires is where you will see stuff that feels more directly ported over from Italy, Spain, or Portugal. Oh, my goodness. This empanada with the chimichurri, I have trouble calling that an empanada because it is such a flaky pastry crust. But man, that's probably the best empanada I've ever had. I don't know if it's because a lot of Asian people actually immigrated to Argentina and then are in America now. But I'll tell you this, there's a lot of Asians here right now. I guess, you know, that's the cool thing about New York City. You're in an international place, and you'll just see all types of people who have all types of connections to all types of countries. By the way, I'm very resourceful. I'm taking the crust of the empanada. I'm dipping it in the garlic oil. I'm going to eat it all together. We got the main event. We have a New York strip steak done Argentinian style. Now, the cattle industry in Argentina is very, very well developed because they have a lot of grassy lands, and it's great for raising kind of like lean and tasty cattle. And then obviously you got fries here. These fries are done a little bit differently, man. You can see how soft they are. And these are freshly cut. They call this bife de chorizo. I probably butchered the name, but, ooh, cooked perfectly. Let me cut off a little bit. Beautiful, everybody. Of course, you got to top it off with a little bit of chimichurri. I love how they just put the chimichurri at the side of the table, man. That's one of my favorite things about Argentinian restaurants is this right here. Guys, oftentimes Brazilian steakhouse get a lot of attention, but let me know in the comments down below what you think is better. Who got the better steaks, Argentina or Brazil? And one of the most important things you got to remember when you come into an Argentinian restaurant is on the wall. They might not have Messi. They got Maradona because he came before Messi. So Maradona is like maybe they're Jordan and then Messi would be like the Kobe or LeBron, different generations. But anyways, yeah, Argentinian steakhouses, man, fire. Due to kind of the immigration class that made it over to America, generally food in the city is really not that cheap. It's generally considered kind of expensive. However, one spot is making it easy for you to taste Argentinian flavors, and that's Rubens empanadas. Let's go check it out. All right, we're inside of Rubens empanadas. We're here with our guy, Will. What are the most like popular ones that we should get? Spicy chicken is like the number one. Now, the beef is the second best. All right. And then the Argentinian sausage, chorizo empanada. Oh, definitely chorizo. Could you quickly explain the difference between how maybe Argentinians will make their empanadas versus maybe like a Colombian one? Let's say I'm from the Dominican Republic. So we got patalillo. It's supposed to be an empanada too, but we use corn flour. This is regular flour. OK. Some other people, like maybe Colombians, they use both. They use baked and fried. We use fried ones. OK. This is all baked. Argentinians bake it with regular flour. Yes. Got it. As you can see, guys, it not being fried, it almost has a more like crispy outside, crunchy crust, almost like a Jamaican beef patty more. This is like a Criolla one. Definitely really excited to try this one. This one had the most things inside of it. And you got the spicy beef, right? Yeah. Argentinian empanadas. Hmm. Oh, it definitely feels like a beef patty. David, here we have the classic Argentinian chimichurri, guys. You hit it with some chimichurri. No worries. Hmm. That was the one. Yeah, that was the one. Guys, here I have a spicy chicken one. I kind of like how they are really puffy. They look like almost like pillows. Ooh, spicy chicken. It is a very different experience than eating an empanada from a different culture, though, actually. Way less fried, more stuff inside. I would say the shell is almost more like a pastry, like a European vibe. I kind of like it. I like how it's not as heavy. It's not as fried and oily either. All right, you guys, this is alfajores. This is dulce de leche flavored. And this is the number one flavor that you find in South America and as well as in Argentina. Oh, sweet. On our trip so far, we've gone to Argentinian spots in the city that are a lot more expensive. But I think having a spot like Rubens, where you're able to taste true authentic flavors in almost like bite sized portions, I think it's great. All right, you guys, the next spot on our Argentinian food crawl across New York City is Darada. They actually have chains still existing of this in Santiago, Chile. It's specifically called Argentino Italiano. You know, they used to have restaurants in Buenos Aires as well. And it specifically is focusing on the fusion between Argentine cuisine and Italian. All right, you guys, we are looking at a fugazza pizza. Like we said, this is strictly Argentinian Italiano. There's cheese actually baked into this crust. So it's going to be extra chewy. They said the onions should be extra strong on top. Let's check it out. This is my very first Argentino style pizza. You guys, this is a really unique pizza. Unlike I've ever had before. I'm telling you, the dough is super chewy. You know, to the untrained eye, it might even seem like undercooked. But this is how they like it. This is the fugazza pizza, man. I could see Americans thinking that it's undercooked at first, but it's just due to the fact that the cheese is baked into the dough. I'm telling you guys, this is enjoyable and it's a nice switch up, especially if you're used to eating pizza one way. Guys, I'll tell you this. This definitely tastes like a flatbread because it's missing a lot of like the sauce, I guess, that you would usually get in a typical Italian pizza. But man, I'll tell you this, man. Considering it's just a few ingredients, onions and cheese, it's really tasty. Aren't you guys? We are looking at two different Argentina milanesas. This is the milanesa de Napoletana, which is the most common one that was invented in Buenos Aires. It comes with mashed potatoes on the side. It's come with tomatoes on top. Mozzarella. That's veal. It's got crumbs on it. It's been fried really, really good. This one is called the milanesa de Argentino. Obviously, you know, it's from Argentina with a name like that. Boom, guys, they can make this with a lot of different things. But the primary thing is veal. They can make it with chicken, beef, even codfish. Just depends on like maybe what part of the country you're in. Obviously, more coastal areas are going to eat more seafood. The food we're eating right now is very Buenos Aires centric. Mm, got a little bit of sauteed mushrooms, onions, peppers, asparagus. Mm, the only other thing I got to compare it to is the chicken parm. And this is definitely better than that. Wow, veal is nice. Lots of garlic in that batter, too. What I notice about Argentinian food, it's very simple in its ingredients, but it really packs a flavor.