Forgon Asado

The Reservation

Having read tons of reviews on Fogón, I was initially disappointed that the usual sties like tripadvisor and viator were sold out on the dates that I will be visiting Buenos Aires. Not giving up, I tried my luck and made a direct reservations via their website. A few emails later and sorting out credit card issues (they can't process some foreign credit cards), was re-directed to one of their US partner sites to pay via a different payment gateway etc. I was readily armed with Google Translate, Spanish was not getting in my way of finding a seat. Turned out that it was so unnecessary as English was well understood there ... lol

The Place - Fogón Asado - Uriarte

Uriarte 1423, C1414 CABA, Argentina Open in Google Maps
Looking at that Asado knife, we knew we were at the right place. We were promptly greeted at the door into a modern open-kitchen space. All seats were counter-only (max about 20 seaters) surrounding an impressive purpose built oven griller.
The welcome drink (The Bright Side, Argentine Craft Gin and Torrontes Wine) was served and we got straight into making our own Chimichuri, 6 herbs plus vinegar.

Experience the Show and Props

Dining here was definitely more than just about the food. The folks here are all Energizer Bunny, oozing high energy vibes and putting up a 3 hour show which was as good as their food. To start, the chefs took turns to show us all the various raw cuts that will be served tonight, the wood used for smoking (white wood (L) for quicker start, harder red wood (R) for longer burn time), description of the various functions of the oven griller, cooking methods, ingredients in each menu item, etc.
You get to choose your handcrafted weapon of choice !
Fancy sparkling water dispenser that keep blowing up in everyone's face. lol

The "Official" Menu

Let's dive into food!

1st Course: Seasonal tomato topped with smoked Ricotta and Pesto. Paired wtih a chardonnay for a light honey taste. This tomato was from some american farm, it was juicy and of the milder taste profile, i.e. not very sweet nor tangy. Served warmed with Ricotta and pesto.

2nd course: Ironed Provoleta Cheese with grilled fruits in a Torrontes reduction. Cheese had to be cooked in special way to avoid melting and paired with a merlot.

3rd Course: "El Matrimonio".A marriage of pork and blood sausages where both are often served together. Morcilla (Top row), Quince and Apple Chutney Chorizo (Bottom row) ... served on flame roasted bell pepper griddle baked bread. Pair with the Merlot.

4th Course: Quadriller Pork Flank (Matambrito), Yellow Chilli sauce, Lime and Cilantro salad. Also known as the hunger killer. When slaughtering pig for asador, this is the 1st cut and immediately grilled. it cooks easily and ate to kill hunger and then continue with the cuttung of other parts. Nice chewy texture paired with the 1st Malbec.

5th course: Pine Cone smoked Eyebrow, Creamy Cauliflower puree and Corn. Paired with the upgraded premium wines, Nicolas Catena Zapata 2017 and Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino. If you are an onglet fan, you will definitely enjoy this cut. The flavour intensity and textured bite is just so good for me.

The preperation for this dish started shortly after the 2nd course. Watch the process of smoking the eyebrow cut with pine cones and much patience after that to let it smoke for the next hour.

Main Course: Ribeye heart, masked boniatos and grilled vegetables using different cooking techniques with "Vinagreta". Load up magic olive oil to the chimichuri mix and bite in. Bones from the ribeye was served after, this is where you get the nice burnt bits of fats. We took their recommendation to have this done in medium. (If you did not know, Argentina likes their beef well done.)

Surprise Surprise

Sure, they had more tricks up their sleeves. Firstly with a off-menu sweet bread with sausage and paste and then the big surprise of a rack of bone-in short ribs grilled slowly for 4 hours, then cut into individual ribs, wrapped in paper with seasoning of miso, mirin, honey, foiled wrapped and into the oven for another 4 hours.

Watch the undressing of the short-ribs bone! See how the bone simply slided off the meat! Sliced and sprinkled with salt. Taste of the rib was the natural taste of the rib with slight sweetness and tiny hint of saltiness. The fats was slightly firm, not soft gooey. By far, this has to be one of my favourite dish in terms of natural tasting flavours and tenderness.

The Wines for the Night

We opted for the wine pairing (USD35) and premium wine upgrade (USD10). Yes, in my opinion was worth it. The upgrade added 2 prenium wines to the pairing, Nicolas Catena Zapata 2017 and Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino. Really tough choices, balanced elegance of the Nicolas or the complex full-bodied comfort of the Malbec Argentino? Well, maybe I would say just by a very little more, I found the Nicolas more interesting while Sock liked the Malbec Argentio better.

Sweet Endings

Personally I am not a dessert person but in this case, I finished it all up. There is no better way to caramelise sugar ... lol
Load up cream, rasberry and blueberry composte and it was wow !. Pair it with the chocolatey hand brews or the honey suckle sweet wine .... works both ways !

Cheers to a great finish!

It's a long way for us to get here, not too easy for us to book, a long anticipated wait for the trip but I must say Forgon did lived up to every expectations and all their 5 stars review. Cheers.