I've lived in Japan, Argentina, and the US, and I love a good steak, so here's one more opinion:

- you can get a tenderer steak in the US or (especially) Japan than in Argentina. An Argentine steak will be leaner than Kobe beef or most Prime cuts in the US. Kobe beef can be so extremely tender it's soft -- it has the texture of ripe honeydew melon.
- That doesn't mean the Argentine steak is tough -- I once saw a waiter impress some US visitors by dividing their steak-for-two with 2 spoons, no knife.
- I think several factors add up to make the argentine steak exceptionally tasty: Although lean, there still is enough fat in an argentine steak to taste great, plus the cattle are free range, have a good diet, no fattening lots, and there's a national focus on cattle breeding/genetics going back 100+ years (their is still a huge annual agricultural fair in heart of Buenos Aires).
- A lot of care goes into grilling in Argentina, which ensures that their surprisingly lean steaks are surprisingly tender. The steaks are slowly grilled over low coals made from natural charcoal or even wood that has just been burned down to coals. The only seasoning during cooking will be coarse salt (at argentine construction sites, one worker is always designated to spend the whole morning carefully grilling lunch). Most people order their steaks "a punto" right at the point where medium rare would become medium.
- I'll try and describe tasty: the argentine steak just tastes beefier. If you can imagine the outer edge of a high quality roast that has been carefully slow cooked -- the edges are a bit salty; caramelized but not burned, the roast has been out of the oven and you're ready to carve, and you pick off a little bit for tasting -- Well, that's the concentrated beefy taste that comes through in every bite of an argentine steak. By contrast, american steak just doesn't have the flavor all by itself.



[This message has been edited by gsilliman (edited Jan 25, 2004).]