Argentine Cuisine

"Grilled Blood Sausage and Cheese"

Most people who are not very familiar with Buenos Aires are surprised to find out that the main cuisine here is in fact…Italian.  I know I was surprised by this the first time I ventured down here.  Argentina is a unique place and is home in an incredibly large Italian/Argentine population.  I need to do a little more research as to why exactly, but Italian immigrants have been coming to Argentina to make new lives since the 1800’s, and this humongous influx has resulted in Italian food ruing Buenos Aires.  I have been told that more traditional dishes are found amongst the countryside, but the most popular food in the city is as follows:

Pizza: had you asked me last year what area in the world produces the best pizza, I would have answered New York City without hesitation.  Then I tasted pizza from a little carry out place down the street called Nicolleto…and I literally died and went to heaven.  I like pizza.  I like to eat pizza.  I’ve tried pizza from an amalgam of places, and never in my life has anything tasted as good as this teeny tiny Argentine pizza joint.  I don’t know what it is…well, I have a theory that the secret is in their spices, but this place does pizza unlike any other.  In fact, Argentina has a knack for producing some mouth watering pizza, and they don’t usually top it with the usual stuff we see back in the states like pepperoni or sausage.  They tend to put ham, sliced tomatoes, green olives, and chopped up hard boiled eggs in their pies, which is surprisingly, egg tastes really good on pizza.  So if you ever make it down here, try the pizza, you will not be disappointed.

Steak: Argentina is well known for their steak, and yes, these people know how to grill their meat.  Argentine asado (BBQ) is an amazing experience.  Lots of places offer an all-you-can-eat special that for a very reasonable price allows you to completely pig out on some serious carne.  Steak isn’t the only meat served at asados, you will more than likely be offered “chorizo” a type of sausage that is not to be confused with Mexican chorizo as it is not at all spicy, “morcilla,” which my husband refuses to eat but I actually like and is in fact a tasty blood sausage, as well as they cook up organ meats like kidney and liver which I personally do not care for.  All of these are grilled to perfection and offered to you until it becomes impossible to take another bite.

Empanadas: also knows as… the all time best poor people’s food.  Living on a strict budget means that my husband and I eat a lot of empanadas because these meat filled pastries are usually under $2.00 (USD) a pop. The most popular empanada by far is the meat filled ones, which are usually packed with ground beef but are sometimes stuffed with pieces of chopped up steak.  The meat ones usually have chopped up hard boiled eggs and sometimes olives mixed in.  The second most popular is ham and cheese.  My Spanish tutor once told me that Argentines live for ham, and it’s true, these people consume ham like it’s going out of style, maybe even more than steak, and I believe it’s because with the price of food having gone up due to inflation, ham is much easier on the wallet than steak.  So ham and cheese empanadas are all the rage.  The same places that produces the phenomenal pizza I mentioned earlier, also produces bomb empanadas.  They’re empanadas are flaky and they have a huge assortment to choose from, my favorite is the chicken and mushroom, but every single empanada I have tried on their menu has been delicious. 

Pasta: Buenos Aires is a pasta Mecca, and is home to a wide assortment of goods: spaghetti, gnocchi, ravioli…cooked to perfection and doused in the sauce of your choice: cream sauce, red sauce, Bolognese… Lots of restaurants offer homemade pasta or you can buy handmade pasta in shops that can be found all around town.  I was informed by my students that families here eat pasta on Sundays, and since then Thomas and I have been eating pasta at the end of the week, as it is also easy on the wallet.

Milenesa: steak or chicken pounded thin, doused in bread crumbs, fried, and then served alongside mashed potatoes, French fries, or in between a crusty bread roll with lettuce and tomato.  It’s basically a badass chicken fried steak.  Enough said.

All in all, the food here is good.  I did not cover all of the cuisine options that Buenos Aires has to offer, but these are the basics, a tutorial of sorts, so if you want to know more, you’ll just have to come on down and try it out for yourself.

"Salud!"

"Carne y Salsas"