Bier, bier liegt mir im Herzen!

I felt duty-bound as your intrepid reporter to decide whether or not the "German" beer made here in this German-Argentine town of Villa General Belgrano matches up to my totally objective standards of what good beer should taste like. The village even boasts an "Oktoberfest" which is well known in Argentina. Literally thousands of tourists descend upon the place in October. They roll kegs down the street, in order to shake up the contents, then tap the keg about 10 feet abover the crowd below who are all holding out beer mugs. The beer sprays all over the place...what a terribe waste of beer! At any rate, a good time is had by all, as well as a good number of showers afterwards.

I walked into a local restaurant at 7 p.m. and said I wanted a local beer and a slice of pizza. Please note: the Argentines eat dinner between 9 p.m. and midnight. "Pizza!" the waitress exclaimed, "at THIS hour?!" Apparently, they don´t begin to fire up the pizza oven until close to 9. Oh well, just the beer then. Did I want a liter or the small bottle? I said, just the small bottle. Well, in Argentina it turns out the "small bottle" is 3 quarters of a liter.

I was always taught as a child, "waste not, want not." In addition, I had to be mindful of all the starving children in China. So, I drank all of it, on an empty stomach. As you can tell from this, my partying days are long behind me and one glass of beer goes a long way with me. I´m proud to say that I successfully navigated the pot-holed sidewalks and streets back to my hostel. There, I found out that the party was in full swing. For some reason, well into the night, I was able to talk with considerable fluency. Oh yes, back to the beer.

In Argentina and Uruguay, there are several large market beers that are quite forgettable. They´re not as bad as American national brands, but just not recommendable. Micro-breweries in Argentina are called "artesan Breweries" (cervecerias artesanales). Here in Villa General Belgrano, there´s Dos Pinos, Viejo Munich, Brunnen, and Don Otto. I had Don Otto and Brunnen. The brewmeisters make three kinds of beer: clara (clear) which is sometimes referred to as rubia (blond) , roja (red), and negra (black). I sampled all three, since of course I was on an investigative mission of considerable importance. The darker the beer the more flavor it had. At least, that´s the impression I got. The beers were good, but different. They didn´t taste like German beer, to which there is nothing superior. And, they didn´t have the (usually) strong hops flavor of American micro-brews. They were all good, but, again, not particularly recommendable. I think that´s because my preference is for the stronger hops flavor, but without the heaviness, say, of guinness. Bottom line: if you´re ever in Argentina, I heartily recommend these beers from artesan breweries. If you´re in CA, I´d stick to a micro-brew.

I made some terrific Argentine friends in the course of my week here in Belgrano. On one of the evenings, one couple made parrilla and invited me. Needless to say, I brought the beer. Whatever my previous negative thoughts might have been about parrilla, I was duly converted. German (this is the Argentine version of Herman) was an excellent barbecue chef. In addition, he had come up with some very good meat. The result was truly outstanding. He salted the meat perfectly and cooked it surprisingly slowly. His wife Marina tossed a salad and there was fresh bread. As I write this, I´m getting hungry all over again. So....time to go out for kaffee and kuchen! Tonight I´m off to Bolivia.