Argentina is renowned for its excellent MEAT, and with good reason! On the other hand, we didn’t expect so many Italian restaurants and ice-cream parlors, each better than the last. We were quite happy with all the Italian influence.
To stay within our budget, we often cooked in hostels, but still indulged ourselves with some great cuts of meat, pastries and ice cream galore.
Some specialties, vegetarians abstain:
– The asado, an assortment of several meats, generally consisting of beef and sausages cooked in a “parilla” style, is a traditional dish.
parilla
“These are cooked on a grill over hot embers. The meat is always extremely tender and delicious. I particularly like the beef chorizo beef. The side dish, often French fries, is served on the side.Legu-what? Uh sorry, no conozco..
– Empanadas: turnovers filled with meat, chicken, cheese or corn. Available everywhere, they are generally eaten as an appetizer or “en cas”.
–Humitas: a kind of corn dough, seasoned with a few vegetables and cheese, all cooked in a corn leaf. Well garnished, it’s very good.
In terms of sweet treats,
– Dulce de leche: this is THE national spread, consumed far more than Nutella and jam combined in our country. At first, it was surprisingly sweet, with a slight caramel taste. Then it became a staple of our breakfasts.
–Afajoles: you can find them absolutely everywhere, and they’re two buttery cakes bound together with dulce de leche. Fat, fat and more fat. A real KILLER. We got a recipe from an Argentinian, and the lucky ones will be able to taste them on our return trip.
– Ice creams: there are plenty of ice cream parlors, and most of them are handcrafted, with a particular liking for the perfume.
Calafate
(it’s a purple fruit from Patagonia) excellent! We also tested every possible kind of Dulce ice cream (with nuts, fruit, peanuts...). In short, we had a lot of fun!
– Mate: it’s THE all-day drink, and often a convivial moment. It’s a bit like our coffee breaks. As soon as you cross the border, every single customs officer has a cup of mate and a thermos of hot water on his desk, so you know right away that you’ve arrived in Argentina!
– Powdered sodas: dilute in water, replace water at the table. It’s very chemical, and we only tested it once. Thanks, no thanks.
– Wine: these are generally very fruity wines that are really easy to drink at very reasonable prices. We’ve never gone without!
– Beers: we didn’t try many, so we won’t have much to say about them. We’ll have to come back!
In short, as you can see, we really enjoyed ourselves in Argentina. Our culinary world tour got off to a great start.
