So What Did I Eat?

You knew I'd get there... I am a food blogger, after all! The food is, to me, one of the most exciting elements of travel. Getting to try new things, discovering new flavors and ingredients - it's one of the main reasons for visiting far-flung corners of the world.

I was stoked to go to Argentina - a country whose food contributes greatly to its overall reputation. I was salivating for the asado (barbecue) before I ever even boarded the plane. I couldn't wait to see the markets, tuck into some empanadas, drink some Malbec and sit down to big plates of homemade pasta. And while I did all of that and more, I must admit - and I know this will sound absolutely blasphemous - I was completely underwhelmed by the food in Argentina. I kept waiting to have my socks knocked off in unexpected ways, and that simply did not happen.


Now that is not to say that I didn't enjoy some spectacular meals and food experiences - I absolutely did (read about my favorite meals here). The two pictures above are from a Brazilian restaurant, a rice and shrimp dish and some croquettes; it's a meal that narrowly missed my top five. But overall, the daily, normal palate of Argentina is quite bland, and the typical restaurant offerings are all variations on only a couple of themes.

I think I can distill the mainstays of the Argentine diet into less than a dozen basic items or categories, most of which are hugely influenced by the country's European immigrant roots (there's not a lot of Latin influence in the food at all):

Factura (pastries), more specifically, medialunas (croissants). The medialunas are ubiquitous, cheap and good, come in two varieties (the normal, flaky buttery sort, and then a sweetened version), and are pretty much a breakfast/cafe staple everywhere you go. But these people can bake. The cakes, cookies, pastries are ridiculous. Wish I had a sweet tooth!



Pasta. Loved that you could find homemade, fresh pastas everywhere - I don't think a restaurant would even dream of serving dried pasta - and the offerings were numerous: gnocchi, spaghetti, fusili, ravioli... you name it. I'll cover pasta a little bit more in its own post.

Pizza. Namely of the deep-dish variety, pizza in Argentina is slightly different than how we enjoy it here at home, but no less tasty (after all, it's basically bread and cheese - what's not to like?). The toppings are generally spare - you order a pizza with olives and there will be one whole olive per slice. But the cheese is always generous, and the toppings oh-so-good, even if they are different than the options to which we're accustomed. Who knew hearts of palm are fantastic as a pizza topping? Also, totally unique to the Argentina pizza eating experience: the traditional way to polish off a couple of slices is by topping each with a separate slice of faina (a sort of chick pea patty cut into a wedge to match) and washed down with a glass of moscato. Of course I tried it, and for the life of me, have no idea what the faina adds to the pizza other than calories. The one thing you won't find: red pepper flakes. If you like to add a dash of spice to your pizza, you're out of luck in Argentina.




Asado (barbecue). Of course this warrants its own post. Read it here.

Milanesa. It's a thin cut of beef, veal or chicken that is breaded and fried, and almost always served with a side dish of potatoes, usually papas fritas (french fries). The whole meat-and-potatoes thing is very normal (potatoes accompany everything - especially asado) - you have to go out of your way to find rice or any other form of carbohydrate. In terms of the milanesa, I avoided having it for a long time - fried food is never my first choice - but when I did have it, my meal was divine and I ate the whole, humungous serving.


Picadas. Platters of fiambres (cold cuts), salamis, matambre (meat rolled with egg and sometimes vegetables and sliced like a cold cut), cheeses, olives, nuts... basically, antipasti as we know it. When done well, there's nothing better.



Sandwiches. I think I ate more sandwiches in three weeks than I've eaten in the past five years. Jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and salami y queso (salami and cheese) seemed to be the most widely available. You can get them toasted or cold, on a variety of different breads or rolls, but they're very plain otherwise. Another popular sandwich is a lomito (steak sandwich) - just the steak and the bread.



Chorizo: Chorizo is the generic word for pork sausage in Argentina - it doesn't imply the spicy Portuguese or Mexican chorizo we have here. A choripan is a popular chorizo sandwich - but again, it's just the sausage and the bread. You can find some condiments like mayo and ketchup, but perhaps the most interesting is one called "salsa golf" - a ketchup/mayo combination. They eat it on fries, use it as salad dressing, and spread it on sandwiches.


Empanadas. These savory stuffed pies are delicious, served everywhere, and probably the closest thing I ever did find that resembled street food. I was actually astounded to discover that there is absolutely zero street food culture in Argentina, save for an occasional choripan or hot dog stand - perhaps an asada tent in one of the larger parks. The café culture trumps all. But during the big street markets, you would see people peddling empanadas out of pizza boxes. They can be baked or fired, and stuffed with a variety of fillings: carne, pollo, queso, jamón, etc. I never tried one that I didn't like.




Salad. I reluctantly add salad to this list because the fact is, you can get green salads everywhere, but they seem almost to be an afterthought. It's not standard fare to accompany the mainstay meat and potatoes, but they are on the menu. There are three different salads that seem to be the norm: Caesar (but loaded with more cheese than even I would prefer); tomato salad (sometimes available with fresh cheese), and salad mixto (lettuce, shredded carrot and tomato). They don't have salad dressing options (aside from the Caesar), but good olive oil and balsamic vinegar arrive to the table in cruets without fail. Just my style! I craved a fresh salad each and every day, but didn't quite always manage to eat one. Boo!

Helado (ice cream). You can't walk three blocks in Argentina without passing an ice cream parlor. Argentinians love their ice cream, and each shop would put Baskin Robbins 31 flavors to shame. The options are astounding, and the one serving I tried was extremely good. But I'm no connoisseur - I can take it or leave it. If ice cream is one of your guilty pleasures, you'll be in good company in Argentina.

Dulce de Leche. A sweet milk caramel that is used as a spread for everything - like your toast in the morning - or as a main ingredient in desserts, or stuffed into pastries. You can also find dulce de leche candies, and it's a popular flavor for helado. It is everywhere - I was surprised at just how popular it is. I love caramel - love it - but even I had more than my fill.

Flan, with Dulce de Leche

There are a few things decidedly absent from the Argentine diet as well. Here's what you will not find:

• Breakfast. The morning meal is pastries, toast or cereal, apparently. I thought our hotel's continental breakfast offerings were just that - a minimal buffet of cold offerings to get us off to a quick start. But the cafes don't serve anything different. Some members of our group wound up going to the five-star Alvear Hotel to enjoy an American-style breakfast at $35 a head, others cooked for themselves in our kitchenettes, just to have some eggs.
• Soup. You can't find it. Supposedly there are some stews that are traditional Argentine dishes, but I never saw them on a menu (maybe being there in Summer played a part?). But according to Dan of Casa Saltshaker, Argentinians believe soup is to be eaten only if you're sick, and then only broth. No soup for you!
• Spices and aromatics. And I don't mean just those that add heat, I mean ANY flavorings other than salt. Garlic? Onion even? Nope. And let's not even mention anything "exotic" like ginger or cardamom. Never saw a single fresh herb, although a few dried flecks did accompany some dishes (namely, the delicious provoleta sprinkled with oregano). Actually - I take that back. I had a sundried tomato/mozzarella/basil sandwich at The Vines of Mendoza tasting room, and the fresh herbs were a source of the waitress's pride, and a big selling point for me.
• Good bread. The hard, tasteless white rolls that accompany every meal are beyond boring. In the instances where delicious artisan bread was served, I hoovered it up. Good bread was a rare treat (and ironically, it factors into nearly all of my favorite meals).
• Small portions. The serving sizes are massive - we've got nothing on them in that department whatsoever. It was the rare occasion when I was able to clean my plate.

Beef It Up

Whatever you hear about the barbecued beef in Argentina is all true. In a nation where the average beef consumption per person is a whopping 143 pounds per year, it's not only a dietary staple, it's a cultural staple as well. The beef and cattle industry is one of the largest in the country, and beef is one of Argentina's top exports. Beef, quite simply, is a way of life.

Parillas - the asada (barbecue) restaurants - are more frequent than coffee shops in Seattle. The smell of meat cooking over an open flame permeates the air; the heat from open barbecue grills blasts onto the sidewalks in every corner of every neighborhood. It's all generated from wood-burning grills - there are no spare the air days here - and the experience of dining at a parilla is one not to be missed.


Over the course of my days in Argentina, I attempted to try as many of the varied cuts of meat at a parilla as I could. That included the offal, and meats other than beef. Who knows if/when I'll ever make it back there, so I wanted to dive in and try it all. And I was itching to get started - so I picked a local parilla for our group to have lunch on our very first day in town (El Desnival in San Telmo). I thought I was prepared - I had read up on the various cuts of meat, the asado terminology, the dishes I might encounter - and I confidently ordered the filet listed on the handwritten sheet of the daily specials. Silly me. I should have brought a cheat sheet. What arrived certainly was not a filet cut of beef. For that, I should have ordered the bife de lomo. What I got instead of the juicy steak I had intended to order was a deep fried filet of fish. Wa-wa-wahhh..... Day one, and my first asado failure. Thankfully, it was to be my last.

In the weeks that followed, I did get my bife de lomo (fabulous), and tried a whole roster of other cuts and parts as well:

• Asado de tira (rack of ribs)
• Bife de costilla (T-bone)
• Entraña (skirt steak)
• Mollejas (sweetbreads, or the thymus glad of the cow)
• Morcilla (blood sausage)
• Chorizo (pork sausage)
• Ojo de bife (eye of round steak)
• Tripa (tripe - intestines)
• Chivito (kid goat)
• Pollo (chicken)

Certain cuts I liked more than others (the lomo and the entraña were my favorites), but I'm proud of myself for giving all the other parts a try. I didn't mind the tripa, and actually loved the mollejas. The kid goat was delicious as well, even though it was more overcooked than I would have preferred (cooking meat until its well done is the Argentine way). The meat would arrive without adornment - it probably hadn't even seen a sprinkling of salt. So, I would dutifully salt my meat, and in most cases, that was all the seasoning that was necessary to let the juicy, smoky, beefy flavor shine through.




But what about the chimichurri sauce for the steaks? The piquant sauce made of herbs, oil and vinegar that supposedly is as ubiquitous in Argentina as ketchup is here? In most cases, you actually had to ask for it, but when you did and you could get it, it was divine. When I could get my hands on it, I poured it on everything. It was SO good, and yes, it made a great condiment for the steaks. And the chicken. And the potatoes. Anything, really. There's a misperception that chimichurri needs to be a verdant, bright green sauce, when that couldn't be further from the truth. Some of the very best chimichurris I had were a deep red in color because they had been let to stand and age. My mouth waters just thinking of it now. Stay tuned to Fare to Remember for my attempts to make it at home.

Café Culture

There is absolutely nothing quick about grabbing a snack or a light meal in Argentina. Sure, fast food exists, but for the most part, the process of grabbing a light bite or a coffee is a much more civilized affair and involves actually sitting down and watching time go by in a window seat or at a patio table of a café. It doesn't hurt that Argentina operates with a siesta period firmly built into its days, when businesses and shops close for several hours in the afternoon. It is then that the cafés to a booming business.

The food at the cafés tends to be just as you would expect - sandwiches, maybe a pizza or two, but not much hot food. The pastries and desserts are the main stars, as are the beverages. Coffee, tea, submarinos (hot chocolate), or even cocktails (most cafes have full bars).

The waiters in the cafés notoriously take and deliver your order, and then leave you to your own devices until you indicate you'd like the bill. It would be unheard of to rush you from a table, even if there was a waiting line of people ready to take your place. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can purchase a people-watching spot for an entire afternoon if you'd like. It's a formal acknowledgment to the art of slowing down.

Some of the notable cafés I visited....

Bar Britanico, an enduring 24-hour café in my neighborhood of San Telmo. It was the only 24-hour business establishment I encountered - a welcome sight on a Sunday morning when the rest of the neighborhood was sound asleep.



Café la Biela, a café that has existed in various incarnations since the mid-1800s, located across the park from Cementario de Recoleta. Beloved by porteños and tourists alike for its large outdoor terrace under the sprawling arms of a giant gum tree.


And of course, Café Tortoni, probably the oldest and grandest cafés in the city. Today, it is mostly frequented by tourists, but that doesn't allay its old-school charm or diminish its significance. It made its mark by being a popular meeting place of the city's elite, including artists, musicians and writers. A section of the café, called the Rincon de las Poetas (poet's corner), harks back to those days. The smart, tuxedo-clad waiters are synonymous with a more genteel, bygone era, and just sitting there with a coffee and dessert makes you feel oh-so-refined. It was, and still is, an important tango venue, with not only multiple shows every night, but lessons and a research library for tango scholars as well.

The line out the door....

To Market, To Market

Of course I had to take pictures of the produce in the markets. Of course - it's me! I'm always compelled by the colors and the variety and the differences and the similarities with my world of fruit and veggies. As with so much of the world, in Argentina the markets exist in odd places. Supermercados do exist where you could get everything under one roof, but mostly, markets follow the European model where you get your produce at one shop, your cheese at another, your meat at yet another, and so on. So you'd find the produce stand tucked next to the tire shop, the butcher shop adjacent to the book store, and the wine store hidden behind the bank. In my neighborhood of San Telmo, one of the nicest produce markets was located inside the antiques bazaar. Go figure.