From Cooking in a Supermarket Monkey to Camel Meat: How Argentinians Prepare Barbecue in Qatar

* Doha, Qatar Special Envoy

He moves from one side of the counter to the other. Will come and go. He picks up his cell phone and tries to explain something to the butcher through a translator. The clerk looks up, but his face doesn’t change. He doesn’t seem to understand much. “I’m trying to ask you to grill boneless meat.” He sends a message to a butcher friend with photos of cuts made to find something that looks like a piece of blank. He is one of many Argentinians trying to figure out how to eat barbecue over 13,000 kilometers in a completely different culture. After all, many of them have found a way to grill meat to celebrate one of the most widespread customs in our country.

See, The A very Argentinian neighborhood in Qatar, barbecues became a common meeting place. The first image from that area, far from the heart of Doha, is of some friends from Jounin who want to entertain the new arrivals. Borrowed a shopping cart Workers moving some of the components around the unfinished buildings.

“The last two friends came over on Sunday, and we said, ‘How nicer than waiting for them with a barbecue.’ . We said, OK, we’re going to do it right there, barbeque in the cab,” he previously recounted. infobae One of the group’s barbecue managers.

“The meat is not very good to say the least. A few chicks and some chorizos, that’s what. They didn’t tell us anything. Police drove past in golf carts. Finally, the neighborhood manager arrived and waited for the grill to finish. But it was all normal, no trouble. The boy turned out to be cold,” he added.

Regardless of the fact that the method they developed was not very orthodox, the practice of barbecuing – mainly in parwa – spread to parts of Doha. Most visitors look for cuts of meat at the popular hypermarket chain of French origin. There are options of lamb, chicken or beef Australian, South African, New Zealand, Colombian, Pakistani, Indian, Tanzanian or British origin. No Argentina posters found. A A small pre-packaged chicken can cost between 5 and 7 dollars; A small chorizo ​​ring — similar to a grilled sausage — can cost more than $5.

Most of them choose this chain – also known in Latin America – for its variety of cuts. A group from Barwa, which has already built several massive barbecues, even bought a type of toaster with large handles there – commonly used in Qatar to make fire chicken at street stalls – to carry out the ritual. There were options for Sulengo-style grills, starting at US$100, that couldn’t have been transported back to Argentina.

“Turning with a handle is a kind of grid. Gabo, the barbecue man, made a hole in the ground with a stick to use it as a brazier,” the newspaper explained to this medium. RussianOne of the hundreds of Argentines in the neighborhood that unites many Mexican fans. “loose meat”He agrees, but is surprised by the cuts they try: “Lamb, chicken fritters and camel…”.

The historian wonders: “Camel?” “Yeah, it was great,” he says. However, on a tour of supermarkets and small butcher shops, there was nothing for sale. “People don’t like it that much,” said a vendor, who still lists boneless (about $9 a kilo) and bone-in ($7) camel meat on his menu. For Argentina, this may be surprising, but the truth is that Qatari butchers also regularly offer, for example, buffalo meat at the same time as lamb, chicken or beef.

“Chicken burgers, a bag of ten costs 10 Qataris (less than $3). “Meat is a bit expensive, but the next day we made around 500 patties, which was cheap,” says Th. Russian.

Argentina’s selected hypermarkets have all kinds of options in their refrigerators, especially lamb and chicken. But you’ll find some Australian steaks — limited in terms of Milanese — starting at $7, or thicker steaks starting at $9. It should be noted that due to religion, pork is not eaten in this country, but there are some options for legs of lamb for about 60 dollars or similar to a hip ball.

You can buy beef for $4 a pound to make homemade hamburgers, New Zealand lamb neck for $14 a pound or five racks of lamb for $3. There are even liver or heart options in the refrigerators.

Each cut of meat is made clear as to which country it comes from. For example, he A kilogram of vacuum-packed “good” loins imported from Colombia costs about 25 dollarsAlthough most pallets come with two kilos, the price rises to around USD 58.

Although meat consumption is the focus of debate in many parts of the world, animal life and vegan diets are becoming more and more popular.At the same time, there’s no denying that barbecue is such a deep-rooted part of the national culture that even the Argentine team’s organization was asked to bring some grills to the bunker housed at Qatar University.

In a country characterized by serving dishes such as rice, chicken or fish, Argentina’s World Cup players now perform a ritual of sorts before each game. “Come to the next one”, they call us.

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