April 27, 2025 Lunch - Lo del Frances. Dinner - Fodon

April 27, 2025 Lunch - Lo del Frances. Dinner - Fodon

What a contrast in food today and what an example of how our tastes are culturally determined.

I ate a few bites of ham sandwich and nuts for breakfast.  Then Suzette and I taxied to San Telmo market. At the front of the square that was surrounded by antique dealers, was a vendor of fresh orange juice. He cut and squeezed a full glass of orange juice for us for 4000 pesos, which refreshed our energy. We saw interesting silver ware, including knife holders and single asparagus holders in 80% silver but did not buy any. I was getting tired and hungry so we walked two blocks to where we thought there would be a bakery but there was bone. We walked to the end of the block and found ourselves facing a restaurant named Lo del Frances at 500 San Juan.

We looked in an antique store on the same corner and then crossed to the restaurant.

We were amazed that we had stumbled onto a legitimate French restaurant with a 4.5 rating.

It was 1:00 and Suzette was hungry, so we ordered an order of three sandwiches of pate spread on bread with two cornichons and chopped lettuce that we doused with olive oil from the bottle placed on the table.  We decided to order a bottle of Leonardo Gomez rosado of Malbec from the Uco Valle for 22,000 pesos that was fabulous, the best rose of the trip, fresh, refreshing, and dry.

We also ordered a duck Marguet salad with slices of seared duck breast, orange wedges, croutons, lettuce, and cherry tomato halves. We requested and the waitress brought two slices of toasted white sandwich bread and butter. We loved the meal and consider it the best meal of the trip, mainly because French Cuisine is a Cuisine we love. This duck salad was the best since Paris 15 years ago. We were in our comfort zone with good food and wine we loved.

PThen we walked the two long blocks toward the Museum of 

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Contemporary Art. On the side street beside the museum stretched an artisan market for many blocks. We walked about four or five blocks into the market and returned to the San Juan entrance because in that first block Suzette saw colorful fabric headbands she wanted to buy and I bought a lovely small wooden bird carving.

We then entered the Contemporary Museum and found Billy and Elaine in the cafeteria. 

We viewed the museum’s exhibits and then we all hailed a taxi and dropped Billy off near the apartment and Elaine continued with us to MALBA (The National Art Museum) in an ultra modern building with a glass sheathed internal two story escalator like in the Pompidou Museum in Paris. The art was mostly Argentinian artists. I discovered and fell in love with the paintings by Antonio Berni, who started as a De Chirico style surrealist in the early 30’s and later became a Modernist.

There was an emphasis also on women artists and a room devoted to the works of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and their New York years.

After the Museum we returned to the apartment at 6:00 and I napped while the others got ready for dinner.

At 7:30 we hailed a taxi and went to Fodon for our 14 course Asado dinner.

The restaurant seating is a single table with 14 seats all facing a fancy professional asado pit with two cooking areas. The meal included items and sauces prepared in an unseen kitchen with meats prepared on the grills. Next me was a couple from Prague who owned a hotel who had purchased a one week tour to Argentina that included tickets to a soccer match between two of Argentina’s top teams, River and Boca played in the huge Boca stadium in the Boca section of the City. They had just come from the match and still were holding their River banner and the husband was wearing his Prague soccer club tee shirt. They seemed especially happy, probably because they were supporting River and River won 2 to 1.

The pre-appetizer was a small clay pot filled with hum it’s (corn mush) and topped with a thin corn wafer.

There were two appetizers, a soft round of cooked eggplant covered with crumbled Provelone cheese and an ironed wafer of Argentinian provolone cheese garnished with a grilled slice of pear drizzled with a sweet sauce.

Then we were served a split large grilled Patagonian prawn. I loved the grilled prawn because it tasted a lot like lobster.

Next was a small grilled steak of red trout.

Then the grilled meats started. The first was pork flank steak that was a little chewy.

The second was the eye brow of the rib eye that was the piece cut off the larger rib steak when it was butcher into a tomahawk steak. Each cut of grilled meats started was served with a sauce, often as a slash across the plate. If I recall correctly the eye was smoked for an hour with a burning pine one in a steel box to give it a smoky flavor and served with charred smoky corn kernels.

Next was the offal, a wedge of grilled chorizo, blood sausage spread on a thin piece of toast, and a small grilled sweetbread.

Next was beef short ribs that fell off the bone from which most of the fat was removed to yield an incredibly tender brisket.

Next was grilled lamb with mushrooms that was the most unsuccessful dish because of its toughness. Suzette refused to eat hers and I had trouble eating mine.

Finally, we arrived at the tomahawk ribeye that was incredibly tender and was served with a small ramekin of Patagonian sea salt.  Suzette loved the salt and later bought a container of it.

There were lovely wines served with each course.

After the ribeye we were served a yerba mate sorbet as a palette cleaner.

The. Last course was Dulce de Leche served with a late. Harvest Torrontes. 

We started at 8:15 with a cocktail of White Fuerza vermouth, gin, and Argentinian sparkling wine and finished at 11:45 with dessert.

It was really the full asado experience, and I loved it for its elegance, but our French lunch with a great rose’ was the more satisfying meal of the day.

We Ubered home and went to bed but I woke up several hours later as my body was working overtime to digest the incredibly heavy meal.

Bon Appetit