Argentine Cheeses: Are We Getting Someplace?

Could the supreme deliciousness of grass-fed Argentine beef have stunted the urge for other flavorful foods here?  Now that it's gone ...could foodie-culture flourish?

My darling wife and I were strolling las callecitas de Buenos Aires today on a few errands ...and we found ourselves in the San Nicolás neighborhood, right across the street from Recoleta.

There's a municipal market there that is a diamond in the rough.  Literally, you could step right by it and dismiss it as nothing special.  Two or three steps in the door, however, and your radar tells you that you are onto something special.

 It's old and it's wonderful and is protected by the city and the prices can be astonishingly low.  It's right on the Callao subway stop on the D line and eminently walkable from about anywhere in the city's central area.

A lot of the market stalls are empty if you don't get there early ...but even the closed ones are beautiful in a "living museum" way, close spaces with ancient glazed tiles, big refrigerator doors from a by-gone era, old scales and machinery, great thick cutting boards worn inches into their original surfaces by operators in their favorite places.  Old signs advertise things that you just can't get anymore.

Mamon is veal ...which is illegal in Argentina ...but not for any anti-cruelty reasons.

It's open until a little past 7pm and, right up until closing, it is a shopper's delight for fruits, veggies, meats, grains, spices, ...and CHEESES.  I just happened to be looking for a nice melty cheese and my sweetie reminded me of this market.

Wow.  I was dumb-struck, gob-smacked and oh so pleased by a cheese I found in the cheesemonger's case (I even forgot to write-down the name of the stall or take a picture!  No worries, it's on the right, immediately inside the main lobby, forward and to your right.)

Queso Rebleusson from Fermier

It was pretty.  It looked like it would melt nicely.  I told my wife that I wanted some and, while I had my back turned, she had finagled a big sample slice for the two of us. Wow, it was good.

The cheese lady told us that it was a type of camembert; it wasn't but I could tell from the smell that the inspiration was there!  It was firm but with a little gooeyness.  So far, so good ...but the taste!  There was real flavor in this Argentine cheese!

I don't trust my taste buds after over a decade in The Argentine.

People are always amazed that I emigrated here from the US; people are always amazed that I've stayed here so long ...I'LL TELL YOU WHAT AMAZES ME: of all the countries on earth, how did I pick the one with the most bland version of western hemisphere food?

At least we USED to have the best beef on earth ...now even that's gone.

When I bit into that cheese I wasn't really sure if I was a good judge of cheese anymore.  So I ran it by my friends in the Argentine facebook group, "Buena Morfa Social Club."  Sure enough, the feedback fed-back immediately.

While "the foodie" may be ready for burial in the US (à la the hippie,) awareness of food is just now blossoming in Argentina.  The Buena Morfa Social Club is a group that started here about a year ago ...it now has well over 12,000 members with no end in sight.  Within an hour, the group sent me enough links and references to the cheese in question to satisfy me that my tastebuds had not atrophied, lo these many years.

Even the cheese lady told me the story of how this particular cheese factory had sent its sons to study in France in order to bring back interesting cheeses.  This is not the Argentina that I grew to love back in 2000.

For example, here's another Argentine website devoted to food, Planeta Joy ...the link was sent to me by the group and, sure enough, it mentioned the cheese I found today.  Not only did the post mention my cheese, it raved about it and how strong it tasted:

Extreme Cheeses: The Strongest of the Shopping Cart
There is a minority of dark palettes that worships mature, aromatic, tasty and powerful cheeses. For them, this post: a tasting of the best examples produced locally.
 Rebleusson: for the audacious
Originally called Reblochon, but the manufacturer, respecting French appellation laws, changed the name to Rebleusson. The crust has a pale orange color, is oily, a semi-soft cheese and when ripe is extremely aromatic, to the point of being stinky in some cases. But this stench is not consistent with its flavor, since taste is less aggressive and has notes of butter and nuts. This shines in the cheese and goes very well with fruity white wines. Perfect gift for a foodie friend or to avenge someone who owes you money by hiding it in a trunk. It is the only example of this cheese in Argentina and Fermier makes it with whole milk from their own Jersey crosses in the town of Suipacha in Buenos Aires province.

Foodie-ism took a long time to take root here ...but it is now here in force.  Now, just like in the US and Europe, ordinary people who have no idea what they are talking about will challenge each other to cyber-duels over foods they have never tasted!

"It's a good thing," as Maya Frost Martha Stewart would say.  We are on our way here in Argentina to more authentic and mindful versions of foods with more of the original flavors of the myriad of immigrants to this bread-basket of the world.

It used to be just beef here. While I lament the passage of that great grass-fed patrimony into history, if its disappearance has resulted in a sudden national craving for other foods with deep distinctive flavors, I'm all for it!

Provecho a todos!