La Chacra de Andres, Haedo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

When my in-laws found out we were coming to Argentina they promised me a trip to a parilla, a kind of barbecue restaurant that's really popular there. We pulled in at the front of the neon-lit restaurant on a dark, balmy April evening and I knew I was in for a treat when I saw this through the window... 

There, around a pile of hot, white coals were two or three whole pieces of beef rib, rested up on metal stands and cooking slowly in the heat. Impressed and made hungrier by this culinary kerbside theatre, we strolled in and took our seats. La Chacra de Andres is a large restaurant, situated in the town of Haedo, about an hour's drive or so from the centre of Buenos Aires. 

We arrived around 9pm and many of the tables were empty. Maybe we were a touch too early, the usual time for the evening meal being between 9pm-10pm. There was a couple nibbling the last of their meal and a family of three seated near us. The atmosphere was casual. You smell sweet, burning coals from the meat cooking at the front of the restaurant while a television screen buzzes and flickers on the wall at the back. We sat down, twelve of us, and were brought drinks (juice, water and wine) and sliced bread with little bowls of cream cheese and chives. 

The bread, cream cheese and chive appetiser

After we'd polished off our appetiser, the meat was quickly brought, and placed on the table on little table-top grills that keep the meat warm with coals while you eat. 'You've got to be quick,' my husband said to me, while forks appeared from all directions jabbing at different pieces of lightly charred meats. Casting my British politeness to one side, I dived in with my fork, too. 

Selection of parilla meats: molleja, kidneys, chinculin - the entraña can be seen on the top right of the photo.

There were bony chunks of ribs (costillas), kidneys (riñones), glands (molleja) and grilled intestines (chinchulin). The ribs were luscious; sweet and charred, while the meat within was tender and blushing pink. Many of my family members had gone dewy-eyed at the thought of molleja, but I found it too soft, with a creamy texture and a sweet flavour. Maybe it was just because I wasn't used to it. The chinchulin was slightly bitter inside and a lot like eating an empty sausage - chewy and crisp in places. 

Entraña is a cut of meat from the belly of the cow, and that was curled around the serving dish too. I cut myself a piece and found it full of flavour - a cut that we could do with eating more in the UK, where I think we stick to the regular cuts of meat far too much. We ate all this sharing a couple of plates of salad and some skinny chips. 

There are ribs under all that somewhere, I promise

The twelve of us ate until we were really full for 900 pesos, the equivalent of about £120. And we took home a lot of the meat for the fridge for picking over the next day. As with anything, you get parillas that aren't so good, and others that the locals regularly go to. We were told this was a good one. And you get to park your car on the forecourt too, if you give the man a little tip before leaving. 

You'll see parillas on many streets around Buenos Aires - some people even set up grills on the side of the road and sell chorizos or panchos (hot dogs) to passers-by, advertising their wares by a makeshift cardboard sign and the wafting smell of charcoal. Argentinians know how to cook meat, and they know how to make the most of an animal too, using up every part of it. My advice? If you find yourself in Argentina, you have to try parilla. Just don't be squeamish, no one else will be. 

La Chacra Andres, the front of the restaurant

The Big Healthy Comfort Food Swap

It's an unfair twist that foods we crave for comfort when we're feeling low happen to be also quite bad for us. I can't tell you the number of times I've bitten into a glazed doughnut or spooned Nutella straight from the jar and wished things were different. 

And you don't have to be a genius to figure out that, while the occasional piece of chocolate fudge cake is ok, you can't expect to be healthy and eat these kinds of foods all the time. 

But what are our options, then? Well, I decided to come up with some comfort food swaps - healthier things you can switch to, that will give you the same kind of satisfaction - texture, flavour - as the 'naughty' foods. Have a look at these...

Substitute salted, roasted almonds for crisps
Crisps (or potato chips, if you're reading in the US) are my biggest weakness. I couldn't actually buy multipacks of crisps because I'd just eat three or four packets in a row. But they're full of salt, vegetable oil and are referred to by many nutritionists as 'empty calories' because they don't really do anything good for your body. But since I've  kept a bag of roasted, salted almonds in the cupboard, I don't ever fancy crisps (hurray!). Almonds provide Vitamin E and a handful of the crunchy, salty things staves away a crisp craving. They're calorific, yes, but given the choice between crisps and almonds at least the almonds are benefitting your body.

sub quinoa for white rice

I've only recently started to appreciate quinoa. It's a seed that you boil until soft and basically serve as you would couscous or rice. And it's great for keeping in the fridge, ready to stir into garlic mushrooms or toss into salads. Quinoa contains protein (great if you're vegetarian or vegan), is thought to aid the digestion and contains essential amino acids for our health. Apparently Aztec warriors used to eat it before battle to increase their chances of winning. Looks like those Aztecs might have been onto a thing or two.

sub ricotta for mascarpone
Ricotta is such a versatile cheese. You can fill ravioli with it, make ice cream and gnocchi with it and turn it into muffins and cheesecakes. Mascarpone is versatile too, and is used in cheesecakes, puds and trifles. But the thing with ricotta is that is contains 10% fat. Mascarpone contains about 40% fat. Substitute ricotta for mascarpone in pasta sauces, cheesecakes or try it in trifles for a creamy texture but less fat. 

sub sweet potatoes for white potatoes

White potatoes are great little things. They're full of carbs which give us energy and also Vitamin C, which keeps our immune system ticking over nicely. But one night, when you'd normally reach for the white spuds, try sweet potatoes instead: they contain beta carotene, Vitamin E, Vitamin A and have  lower glycaemic index than white spuds. I love them baked in their skin and topped with goat's cheese and chives or chipped into wedges and baked until sticky and crisp.

sub smoothies for milkshakes
In one of my favourite restaurants, they make a whole load of different milkshakes, thick and frothy with ice cream, which frosts up the glass. I love the peanut butter one. And I thought that there was no way I could get my ice-cold milkshake fix while being healthy. Until I tried the almond milk, almond butter and date smoothie in Gwyneth Paltrow's book It's All Good. A chilled, creamy, nutty shake with a fraction of the calories of my restaurant one. 

sub wholemeal pasta for white pasta
I remember when I was about 20, my doctor told me to up the amount of fibre in my diet and switch to wholemeal pasta. So I bought some. And it was like eating strands of sand. Wholemeal pasta has come on in bounds in recent years, and it no longer tastes like sand. Buy a reputable brand, or try the half and half pastas you can get made from half wholemeal flour and half white for a more subtle flavour. I love wholemeal spaghetti cooked and dressed in pesto or some greens, or as spaghettti al olio - tossed in lightly cooked garlic, chopped parsley and olive oil. You'll increase your fibre intake without even trying. 

And if you're really having one of those days...

sub dark chocolate for milk chocolate
If you're prone to the odd chocolate craving, and who isn't, keep a pack of dark chocolate (at the back of) the cupboard. Dark chocolate is more bitter but contains less milk and sugar than milk and white chocolate. White chocolate isn't actually chocolate at all, but a by product of the chocolate making process - cocoa butter is mixed with vanilla, milk and sugar to make your Milky Bar-style choccy. And because dark chocolate is packed with more of that intense cocoa flavour, you'll need less. So no more munching through 1kg bars of Dairy Milk, then... 

What are your tips for eating comfort food without piling on the calories? 

The Whole Fromage by Kathe Lison: A Review

When I saw the subtitle to this book, 'Adventures in the Delectable World of French Cheese', I knew I had to read it. I mean, if there's ever a subject that's going to keep me engaged for the length of a book, it's cheese. 

The book was easy to lose yourself in - a memoir really, of one person's travels around France, finding out how French cheese is made, who makes it and the history of the various cheeses. At times I thought the words flowed beautifully off the page and really set the scene. For example, in the part where she talks about the birth of Camembert, we get this: 'a priest runs through rain-streaked groves of oak trees in the Norman countryside. He spies the lit windows of a manor house. A young woman answers his knock.' I felt like I could have been there. 

The history of French cheese is full of intrigue, scandal and romance. I didn't know that Roquefort came into being because a young shepherd left his curds and bread lunch behind a rock to pursue his love interest, returning months later to find the cheese streaked with mould. I also didn't know that Camembert has its own idol - Marie Harel, who was taught the secrets of making the cheese by a priest in return for her allowing him somewhere to stay while he was on the run. But it was the description of 'cheese espionage' that I loved, the efforts made by rival cheesemakers to find out how to make Camembert: 'Picture the rosy-cheeked lass with a bit of straw stuck to an exposed thigh being asked between furtive caresses how long she rennets her curd. Picture her blinking at her lover in consternation.' 

Along with the characters (which Kathe seems to bring to life through the pages), the dark caves, cheese-nibbling bugs and cheese knights (yes, really) she does also address some more serious issues. There's some thought-provoking over whether the traditional art of cheesemaking can continue for much longer, in an age where it's convenience and budget prices that earn manufacturers brownie points. She talks about the rules and regulations cheesemakers have to go through to ensure their cheese is protected and given AOC status, and why this was even necessary in the first place. And then there are battles with governments and health authorities over whether some varieties of cheese, with their stinky centres and critter-nibbled rinds are actually safe to eat. 

The only thing I would like to have seen more of in the book are pictures (I downloaded the Kindle edition). The descriptions were good, but to have been able to flick through to a page showing me the various cheeses that aren't so well-known, like Banon for example, would have been useful. The same goes for the cheesemakers themselves or photographs of the cheesemaking process. This is a small niggle though really, as the writing portrays enough; it would have just been the icing on the cake. 

Another great thing is that at the back of the book the author gives you two sections: one, a list of the reputable cheese shops in Paris, along with descriptions of the shop, the types of cheese they stock and how friendly the owners are. And the second section gives you a list of phrases that are useful when talking about cheese in France, for example affinage (the amount of time a cheese is aged) and dégustation (a cheese or wine tasting). 

For me, this was a great book that delved into the lively world of French cheese. The history of the cheeses and their regions, the influence of royalty and other leaders on the success of certain cheeses and also the characters behind each one of them. If you want to find out more about French cheese and how it's made, then this is a great - and entertaining - place to start. 

The Whole Fromage is published by Crown Publishing, June 2013. 

ETA: The author of the book, Kathe Lison, commented on this post to say that she's set up a Facebook Page where you can actually see the photos she took on her travels to France. Check them out at www.facebook.com/TheWholeFromage