Tenedor Libre

Ushuaia Winter 2007
Originally uploaded by agypsy.

If you aren't lucky enough to have space for an Asado or live in un depto you can enjoy your bar-b-que or asado in any of restaurants in town, where they have a set price, eat all you can "tenedore libre" or literally free fork, lunch. A number of the restaurants put this on every day, particularly those out of town at the tourist stops, but the weekend is the busy time when lots of the locals can be seen enjoying their parrilla. Early morning the truck delivers the cordero (lamb) and the chef starts the fire in the window of the restaurant . When it's ready the cordero starts roasting slowly over the fire and for the next few hours all that end of town smells of the roasting meat. As a vegetarian it's not my thing, much to the disappointment of people here, who tell me it's a MUST, one of the dishes of the region.
The lunch is a buffet style with salads and vegetables to self serve and the roasted meat is served on a drip tray style stand and is refilled as often as required from the kitchen. From what I have seen the cut of meat is very different to what I am accustomed to seeing in Oz and is served with all the fat and appears to be all bone and fat, but everyone seems to love it and comes back for lots more. I know that all the offal is also cooked and served, but I would prefer not to think about that part of it.
Every Sunday most of the "tenedore libre" restaurants are filled with locals in large family groups enjoying their parrilla.