Buenos Aires

Given the zesty flavor of Argentine beef, it's not surprising that a dizzying array of palate-teasing steaks litter the menus in traditional Buenos Aires eateries. Throughout the city, the aromas of steak and choripan (spicy sausage sandwich) emanate from the ubiquitous parrilla grillhouses, where both the sophisticated and the uncouth tuck into sizzling heaps of offal and sweetbreads or savor melt-in-your-mouth cuts of rib and rump.

However, a slew of new eateries, many clustered in Palermo Viejo, B.A.'s own Soho, are fast transforming the city's culinary offerings. New-wave chefs—whose cuisine is generally described as de autor—place great value on creativity, seeking inspiration from traditions as diverse as Lebanese and Thai, Indian and Provençal. Enterprising chefs are even turning to the country's exotic fauna, bestowing long-awaited culinary recognition on low-fat, low-cholesterol meats such as ñandú, a South American ostrich, and the yacaré caiman, a seven-foot alligator.

The trailblazing has its limits: Locals have little stomach for strong spices or fish. Nevertheless, dozens of top-notch restaurants turn out sophisticated dishes, combining hunted game, free-range meats, tropical fruits, delicate cheeses, and organic vegetables, all enhanced with roots, herbs, and spices. Look out, too, for Andean cooking, particularly from the northwestern province of Salta, in which quinoa, llama, and corn feature alongside locro (stew), tamales, and diminutive, piquant empañadas.

Since Buenos Aires adopted a no-smoking law in 2006, the days when the aroma of your artfully contrived dish mingled freely with your neighbor's high-tar cigarette are long gone. Porteños remain unconvinced that it's time to quit—just count the number of diners rushing outside for a puff between courses—but the city's determination to apply the law has confounded critics who said it could never be enforced.