I never knew I am a fan of Argentinian food (actually, I never visited an Argentinian restaurant intentionally in the past) but now I am sure of it. What brought me to it, you ask? My evening at the new Café Chiquilin in Stuttgart-West.
Actually, I have spent a whole Latin-American evening on that day. After work, I went to see the movie “!No!” with my friend Katja. It’s about the referendum in Chile, dictator Pinochet was forced to allow due to international pressure in 1988. The movie tells the tale of the marketing guy who was responsible for the campaign against Pinochet. A very interesting pice of art, I can highly recommend it!
We left the cinema with empty stomachs and as I had read something about a new Argentinian restaurant in the Stuttgarter Zeitung a few days before, we decided to go there. The Chiquilin is a cute place with black and white tiles and an old gramophone in the corner.
The menu offers genuine Argentinian food – at least that what my friend told me as she had lived in Latin America for a while.. 🙂
We both took Empanadas (little dough rolls) filled with spinach and cheese and I had a soup with sweet potatoes (Cazuela de batata) as well. Yummy!
Katja made sure we had “Alfajor de Maizena” (two cookies with Dulce de Leche in the middle) for dessert because she loved them when she lived overseas.
Next to the nice food, Chiquilin offer special events from time to time: Argentinian movie nights and live music.
Another fun fact about this place: “Chiquilin” means something like cheeky monkey… And here’s the explanation the owner gave me for this name:
“In the Tango “Cafetín the Buenos Aires” (Little Café of Buenos Aires) a man looks back and remembers the small neighbourhood café in Buenos Aires, a microcosm of the world which as a curios little boy (CHIQUILÍN) he first saw with his nose pressed against the cold window pane… ” : you taught me to smoke, to drink, to gamble… it is there that I first learned to dream, to believe in true love…”.
Take a look at the incredible lyrics of this song:
“As a little kid I looked at you from outside
as at those things you never make your own…
My nose up flat on your window
in its icy blue demeanor,
that only became my own
later on, when I’d lived a little…
Like a school that teaches all things,
you gave to the astonished boy that I was
a nice good smoke,
faith in my dreams,
and a hopefulness for love…”
Another beautiful tango is “Chiquilín de bachin”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPfm2c7iq-8&playnext=1&list=PL_ekn6EU-OJ8W-QY2neZS4bsoQok2kiL8&feature=results_main
We just loved the word Chiquilín which is especially used in Uruguay and Argentina and means sweet but cheeky little kid.”
More information about:
Café Chiquilin (only in German)