For days I've noticed that, on weekends, phenomenal queues of customers form in front of the Argentine butcher shop on Lepant street, corner of Mallorca. It is one of the three establishments that the Delicatessen Argentina chain has in Barcelona ---it also has one in Sant Cugat del Vallès---, dedicated to the sale of premium (sic) meats from Argentina, Uruguay, Nebraska (United States), Ireland, Girona, and Galicia. In other words, a paradise for beef lovers: classic Argentine cuts like bife de chorizo, tira de asado, vacío, and entraña, but also traditional entrecots or steaks. They also sell a fantastic malbec to accompany these meats.
Do you like meat? I'm enthusiastic about it. If you are also proudly carnivorous, you're in luck because in Barcelona, in recent years, a series of restaurants dedicated to quality meats have been opening. Establishments that display large pieces of intense red meat framed by a yellowish strip of fat inside refrigerated display cases, as if they were jewels or works of art.
I'm thinking, for example, of Lomo Alto (Aragó, 283), a meat restaurant where they serve sensational ox ---animals fed for more than five years on pastures--- and old cow ---cows over three years old fed with top-quality cereals. Meats at their perfect point of maturation and cooked with precision. The secret? Very high-quality product and a very refined cooking process: they temper the meat and leave it at a certain distance from the embers so that it gains heat without cooking. When the inside of the meat has reached its point, they sear it.
Classic Argentine cuts like bife de chorizo, tira de asado, vacío, and entraña, but also traditional entrecots or steaksAnother restaurant to consider is the Bardeni (Valencia, 454), themeatbarof chef Dani Lechuga,a small and cozy space specialized in meats. Of theSteak tartarofAngus beefto the Charolais Cow with Café de Paris sauce. The fact that meat has a pull is demonstrated by the fact that Lechuga (Chef of the Year 2011 and Young Chef 2010) years ago evolved Caldeni, a bistronomic that marked an era, into the current Bardeni.
Although I am not too much of a fan of hamburgers, gourmet burgers that have opened in recent years also play a prominent role in Barcelona's carnivorous offer. Establishments that have nothing to do with fast-food chains, where they prepare hamburgers ---made with high-quality local or imported meats--- in a thousand ways. I'm thinking of places like Anauco (Valencia 428), Oval (Valencia, 199) or El Filete Ruso (Enric Granados, 95).
There is, therefore, a proudly carnivorous Barcelona that coexists with an equally wide and quality offer for people, increasingly numerous, who choose to follow a meat-free diet. For years, science fiction films have insistently depicted a future in which we will only feed on shakes or pills. Without going any further, the industry is already working to produce the synthetic equivalent of meat in the laboratory.While this dystopia does not become a reality, we will continue to enjoy the pleasure of eating meat.If you are also proudly carnivorous, you are in luck because in Barcelona, in recent years, a series of restaurants dedicated to quality meats have been opening
Galician old cow with more than 500 days of maturation at Lomo Alto.
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