La Comida (The Food)

Hola Amigos,

So I want to tell you all a little bit about the food here. This is one of the most typical Argentine breakfasts.

Crackers, toast, dulce de leche and jam accompanied with coffee. Dulce de leche, if you’ve never tried it, is a milk carmel spread. It’s very, very popular here. Another very popular breakfast food is croissants. There are a few words for croissant in Spanish but the most popular is media luna which literally means “Half moon.”  Drinking coffee (especially espresso) with a sweet bread or crackers is one of the many aspects of Argentine culture that has been integrated from the numerous Italian immigrants who came here in the late 1880’s. Keep in mind, that might seem like a long time ago, but really it’s just a couple generations. My host mother Graciela’s mother’s family was from Italy while her father’s side was from Spain (which is perhaps the perfect mix for an Argentine). Here’s a picture if you don’t remember Graciela and my “sister” Tina:

Lunch here is usually quite hearty. It’s of course hard to generalize, but in the US it’s probably more common to eat a large breakfast and then I smaller lunch. Whereas here, the opposite is true. Lunch usually consists of pizza, pasta or a lomito. A lomito is basically a hamburger that is often served with cheese, ham and egg. Of course these dishes are different than their American or Italian counterparts. Pizza in Argentina resembles more closely the circular American dish, although it is usually absolutely covered in mozzarella. I mean it, we’re talking a 1 to 1 ratio of bread to cheese. Toppings are more scarce, typically consisting of tomato and oregano (one of the only spice of seen in use here) and perhaps sardines or olives.

Empanadas

It’s a good thing that the lunch here is so big because dinner here is not served until 8:00 or 9:00pm! This is again something that has been brought over by people immigrating from Europe, where eating this late is common.  Dinner almost always begins with bread (always white, never with butter) and sometimes a dish of olives, empanadas, sliced sausage or my mother’s personal favorite blood pudding. I’m sure you’ve all seen or tried an empanada? They are a filled dough that is baked or fried. How about blood pudding? It is also sometimes called blood sausage or black pudding. Pretty ominous huh? Blood sausage is made by taking blood and cooking it down with a filler or thickening agent until it holds shape. The style that’s popular here is called Morcilla Cocida and looks like this:

Blood Sausage

My mama loves this stuff. I on the other hand have tried it once, and really feel like once was enough. Typical main dishes include, again, pizza, pasta (are you starting to see a pattern here?) and milanesa. Milanesa is baked, breaded meat, usually chicken, which is often served with ham, cheese and french fries. Milanesa is a dish from (can you guess it?) Milan, Italy.

Milanesa

Argentina is famous for it’s beef. There is a long history of cattle production for the purpose of exporting. The reputation for good beef has over the years increased the price of meat to the point that many people in Argentina can’t afford it or simply don’t consume it regularly. This was a misconception I had about Argentina what I arrived. I’d heard so much about the quality of the beef here I assumed that it was a whole country of people eating stake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course, this is not the case.

Now, my personal favorite meal is of course dessert. Thankfully, Argentina knows it’s way around some pretty delicious ice cream. Ice cream here is called Helado and resembles Gelato (Surprise surprise, Italy once again.) more than the Ice cream we all might know from back home. Helado is a big deal here. It’s right up there with Beef as far as being pridefully paraded by the locals. Within the first few minutes of a conversation with a local, it is almost guaranteed they will ask you if you have tried the beef or the helado yet. If not, they are more than happy to recommend numerous Heladarias where you can get your fix. You won’t have to travel far either. There are heladarias here like there are Starbucks back home. The street I live on for instance has about 10 in as many blocks. Probably the most famous Heladaria is called Condore and it’s in Buenos Aires, although it was originally founded in Italy in 1887. They clearly mean business:

The local English paper, The Argentine Independent proclaimed it to be the 5th best in the city. It was the only one we stopped at, but I have a hard time believe it could be topped.

Okay. I hate to leave you all with a picture of Ice Cream but I’m going to get down to some homework for class tomorrow. Ciao Amigos!