[KITCHEN TALK] Revelations about beef, tea and the tango
Published: 14 Sep. 2009, 18:07
Argentinean Ambassador to Seoul Alfredo A. Alcorta and his wife, Magdalena Tedin Uriburu. Photos by Oh Sang-min
It seems nothing quite fully prepares me, be it Wikipedia or the pictures of faraway countries my friends upload on Facebook. To really learn about a nation, you gotta talk to a local. Period. So it’s no surprise that I learned something new about Argentina when I met its ambassador to Seoul, Alfredo A. Alcorta, for lunch recently.
“We are beef eaters,” he said. “We are eating more and more fish and seafood, but we are beef eaters.”
O.K., so that’s not exactly an earth-shattering tidbit of information. It was the next part of the conversation that I found intriguing.
“Argentina is a meat-eating country, but we cannot export meat to Korea,” the ambassador said. “We are not allowed. We don’t have foot-and-mouth disease because we vaccinate every cow two times a year. But Korea allows the importation of beef only from countries that don’t have foot-and-mouth disease, without using a vaccination.”
Naturally, I asked the ambassador what he thought about the massive protests here last year against the government’s decision to again allow the importation of U.S. beef.
“We believe that if our minister of agriculture or the health minister allows us to import a product from another country, it’s safe for consumption.” In other words, there would be no further public discussion on the issue if top health officials said something was safe to eat.
Today, U.S. beef is selling well here, and my sister who participated in the protests and is now in America eats it without a second thought. The national character of Koreans - who get very emotional very easily, which is a vice and a virtue at the same time - did us no favors last year.
But back to the present.
Koreans in general think that local beef is the best. It’s not like they’ve had many choices, though, apart from beef brought in from New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. While listening to the ambassador expound on the superior nature of Argentinian beef, I found it hard to resist the idea of allowing it to be imported here.
“The difference between cows in Korea and Argentina is that the majority of the cows here are all herded in one small place. In Argentina, they are all walking around freely. I think to get the best meat you have one cow per acre,” Alcorta said. “Because of that, the muscles of the cows are totally different. In Argentina, they have to walk to eat and drink water. That results in a big difference in taste. The best beef in the world is in Argentina.”
He suggested that cow tail, which is expensive here, could be imported cheaply since it’s free in his country.
He told me this story while we munched on a lunch of ravioli (Italian food has a heavy influence on Argentinean cuisine), empanadas - which are small, semicircles of fried bread stuffed with various ingredients - and cranberry ice cream along with a glass of Torrontes 2005 white wine, all of which I found very agreeable.
When it comes to Argentina, many people immediately think of tango, the popular dance that has spread to many countries across the world. On the rare opportunities I’ve had to watch people perform the tango, I found myself fascinated by the chemistry and the nonverbal dialogue between the female and male dancer. One particular pose where the female dancer leans her body against the male and wraps one leg around him always leaves me in awe. It’s just sheer beauty.
Mate tea
“If you know how to tango, you can invite a lady that is there to dance. It’s very popular. And you can see very young people dancing with old ladies and the opposite - very old men dancing with very young women.”
I am thinking at this point that Argentineans must be very logical, cool-headed people. In Korea, that kind of atmosphere wouldn’t fly. Lawsuits would pile up and the country’s divorce rate would skyrocket, given how sensual tango is and how close the male and female dancers get.
The subject of dancing aside, Ambassador Alcorta is frank when asked about his future plans.
“I have to confess, I have failed in some areas. I think because of the global crisis and different things happening in the world, I couldn’t achieve my goal to lure more investment from Korea to Argentina,” the ambassador said. “I think maybe next year we have to restart the conversation about that, because I think in general in Korea people don’t have a complete idea of the vast potential of Latin America.”
My visit was capped with a round of mate. Mind-blowing stuff, I tell you. Think of it as a mix of coffee and tea, with a little something else that I really can’t articulate. It has a very strong flavor and is a tad on the bitter side. You can add sugar to it as well (although “real” men are not supposed to, I’m told by the ambassador’s wife, Magdalena Tedin Uriburu).
While there is a chance that perennial contender Argentina may drop out of the World Cup finals next year despite all the talent it has, my visit has convinced me that there is much more about this country to explore. As the ambassador pointed out, we Koreans have no clue what we are missing.
Empanadas
By Brian Lee [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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