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| One part of the Feria Masticar is lectures and classes. |
Last weekend – Friday afternoon, actually—I trekked across
Palermo to the annual
Feria Masticar, a showcase of food
and drink that takes place in the fairground-style enclosure in the barrio of
Colegiales. I had lunched in
Colegiales
just the day before, on
Cantabrian cuisine
in the
Centro Montañes, but the
Masticar is a more innovative and diverse event.
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| The Centro Montañés is the city's Cantabrian cultural center. |
I’d never considered its etymology, but word
masticar literally means “to chew.” In
lunfardo slang, though, it can also mean to think or talk
something over, rather like the English phrase “chewing the fat,” to use a
gastronomic metaphor. The Feria’s a four-day event, and the lines to enter and
eat can both get long on Saturday and Sunday, but it wasn’t bad when I arrived
about half an hour after the 2 p.m. opening (one complaint: approaching from
the south side, I had to walk around most of the sprawling enclosure to reach the
single entrance, and do the same on departure to get back home).
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| Purchasing scrip for the food |
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| 300 pesos' worth of scrip |
Some friends I’d spoken with showed little interest in the event,
partly because of the 130-peso admission charge (about $7.50) just for the
privilege of snacking on small plates. After paying, it became necessary to buy
at least one booklet of scrip for 300 pesos (about US$17; the vendors supposedly
do not accept cash, though I recall paying a small bill in pesos a few years
back). This is something of a nuisance since, if you have any scrip left over,
you need to stand in line for a cash refund on leaving). There are also stands
of fresh and packaged produce, such as cheeses and jams.
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| Get your hard cider here! |
I bought the minimum, but the first item that caught my eye
was a free sample of hard draft cider at
Sidra 1888. Though
Argentine cider doesn’t enjoy the notoriety that wine does, it’s a great option
on a hot summer’s day, and I’d definitely take a bottle home if I had someone
to share it with these days (I can’t drink an entire bottle of fizzy alcohol on
my own; for what it’s worth, I usually go for the cider at
San Telmo’s
Bar El Federal). The
apples come from
Patagonia’s
upper
Río Negro valley.
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| An oyster and prawn portion from Crizia. |
Given that some of the city’s top restaurants have booths or
trucks here, the Masticar provides the chance to sample them without spending a
fortune. I’ve dined at
Palermo
Soho’s
Crizia before, but I couldn’t
resist their small combo of raw oysters and a Puerto Madryn prawn. It wasn’t
exactly filling, but it was satisfying.
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| With a lot of pulp, the blueberry juice was filling. |
Conscious of overspending—I didn’t want to buy another
packet of scrip—I strolled the grounds in search of bargains and, though it
wasn’t an especially hot day, I worked up a thirst that I satisfied with an
organic
blueberry juice from Purificare. Half a liter of this was pretty filling
and, after a short breather, I strolled past the previously unknown (to me)
Peugeot Lounge, where I spotted an
irresistible pistachio flan with a dollop of dark chocolate. It wasn’t large
either, but it was deliciously filling and also consumed the last of my scrip.
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| Peugeot Lounge, the source of pistachio flan |
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| The flan itself... |
On the way out, I realized I had overlooked the food truck
from
iLatina, a
Colombian restaurant I’ve been meaning to try for years, but maybe after my
wife arrives at month’s end we’ll look into it. Even then, I left satisfied
with the Feria, and won’t hesitate to return in future years (this was my third
Masticar, including 2012 and 2016).
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| iLatina's food truck at the Masticar |
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