ASK THE EXPERTS

OUR PANEL ANSWERS YOUR CULINARY QUESTIONS, INCLUDING THE BEST CRAFT BEERS IN BUENOS AIRES TO HOW TO USE CHAMOY

Can you recommend a food tour in Montreal?

Amie Watson: Montreal is a smorgasbord of cultures and food. My top pick for a guided tour is Round Table Tours (roundtablefoodtours.com) — the Living Table option provides a taste of the city’s community gardens, urban farms and its top sustainability-focused restaurants. Their four-hour Jewish food tour is great, too, and includes stops for bagels, smoked meat, falafel and pastries.

For something a bit different, combine food and art by booking Spade & Palacio’s Beyond the Basilica tour (spadeandpalacio.com). It heads from historic Old Montreal to the borough of Plateau Mont-royal, with a stop at a food court for a South Indian snack.

Finally, don’t leave without checking out Jeantalon Market. The massive open-air space brings together farmers, artisans and a wide range of businesses — from Middle Eastern bakeries to a Mexican restaurant. For insider knowledge of the stalls and multiple tastings, book a two-hour tour with award-winning food writer Mayssam Samaha (willtravelforfood.com).

Where are the best craft beers in Buenos Aires?

Allie Lazar: Typically, drinking culture in Buenos Aires is made up of malbec wine, vermouth aperitivos and Fernet with coke. Beer, beyond industrial lagers, wasn’t really part of that equation — until 2016, when the city underwent a craft beer revolution and bars started popping up everywhere.

Desarmadero Bar (desarmadero.com.ar), in the neighbourhood of Palermo, offers more than 35 highly curated tap beers in rotation, from breweries such as Jabalina Brewing Company, which won first place for best microbrewery in Argentina’s Beer

Cup 2022. Its beers Mentiras Piadosas (New Zealand Pilsner) and Mango Biche (Gose), both received gold medals.

Over in San Telmo, in a mansion-turned-beergarden, Bierlife (facebook.com/bierlife) has one of the largest craft beer selections in town. There are 70 on tap, including Astor Birra’s Sud-aka, a barrelaged sour beer and winner of Argentina’s first-ever medal in the prestigious World Beer Cup. The menu has beer-focused dishes like malted pizza dough and ‘biramisu’, a beer-infused take on tiramisu.

But by far my favourite place to enjoy a cold one is Strange Brewing (strange.com.ar), a brewpub that makes aromatically potent yet easy-to-drink beers — try either Amor Amarillo (a New England pale ale) or Sentido Común (a pilsner made with Patagonian hops). Their beers are also available in some 300 bars, restaurants and shops across Argentina.

How do I use chamoy?

Karla Zazueta: Chamoy is a sweet, sour and slightly spicy red condiment made with dried plums or apricots and chilli, salt, sugar and vinegar. It comes either as a powder, sauce or paste, and for Mexicans, it’s the topping of choice for any snack, giving crisps, fruit, drinks or sweets a welcome spicy kick. Some consider it the Mexican version of the Japanese umeboshi (fermented plums tinted with red food colouring). The most popular recipe is mangonada — a refreshing mango slushy topped with swirls of chamoy and chilli powder.

When it comes to drinks, michelada is another favourite

— it’s a Mexican beer cocktail that’s often made with chamoy, plus ice, lime juice, salt and hot chilli powder, although numerous variations of the drink can be found throughout the country.

Then there’s a dish called coco loco (crazy coconut) — made using tender coconut chunks with lime juice, salt, chilli powder, chamoy and other interesting toppings like Mexican peanuts, pickled pork skin, cucumber and fried corn churritos. The recipe varies depending on personal preference — some people like to add fewer toppings while others go wild with them.

Even though Mexicans have a long-term fascination with this topping, it’s important not to overdo it — consume too much and it can, like other hot sauces and peppers, cause gastritis. There are many brands of chamoy out there, but the two I’d recommend are Miguelito and Chilerito, and both can be picked up online at mexicanmama.com or at Mestizo Mexican Market in London, along with other Mexican treats.