What to Eat in Argentina

When Argentinian food comes to mind people immediately think about steak, pizza and pasta. However, Argentina’s immigrant heritage certainly doesn’t leave it wanting when it comes to cuisine. Spanish, Italian and native foods mix together to form an albeit plain but tasty experience. Here are some of the foods we’ve tried and what we thought of them.

Steak

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I don’t really eat red meat. If there is an option I usually opt for chicken or fish but I couldn’t come all the way to Argentina and not try out their national speciality. The pampas of Argentina make up most of the area from Buenos Aires to the Andes and this expansive, flat grassland is perfect for raising cattle. Consequently, dairy and cattle products are cheap and plentiful and none so much as beef. My first steak experience was a platter of bife de chorizo (I think the english for it is rump steak), grilled cheese, grilled vegetables such as butternut and onions and papas fritas (chips or fries). As I quickly found out, Argentinians don’t serve food in small portions. Ever. There was enough food on the platter to feed 2 people. They also know how to cook meat, and the steak came medium rare. This turned out to be the smallest steak I was served in Argentina — roughly the size of half a plate. They progressively got larger and tastier in Buenos Aires. We can highly recommend Parilla Peña in Buenos Aires. The bife de chorizo was perfectly seasoned and salted and was enough for 2 people — we stupidly ordered 2 steaks and ended up taking one home, but it was just as good the next day thinly sliced, on fresh bread with a slice of tomato and cheese under the grill.

Speaking of which cheese comes with everything in Argentina. The ubiquitous jamon y queso (ham and cheese) is an option inside empanadas, sandwiches, croissants — I even saw jamon y queso flavoured potato chips. Since we were staying in self catering apartments while in Argentina we visited supermarkets a lot more often and discovered that a hunk of good cheese is cheaper than the milk it is made from. Cheese also makes a great accompaniment with steak. Argentinians grill proveleta cheese and it is delicious grilled over a wood fire.

The last but not least essential accompaniment to your Argentinian steak experience is Chimichurri. A mixture (and it can vary) of vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, various herbs (oreganum, thyme) and chilli which makes an aromatic mix that I don’t think any steak should go without. Each parilla (grill house) makes it’s chimichurri differently and you can pick up the spice mix from supermarkets everywhere.

Pizza & Pasta

Pizza and pasta can be found throughout South America, and Argentina is no exception. Argentinian pizza is not to be confused with it’s Italian counterpart as you might find yourself woefully disappointed. It is quite often thick based and comes smothered in mozzarella cheese. Our first brush with pizza in Buenos Aires was at the well known restaurant El Cuartito. We ordered a large Napolitana. After ordering we immediately noticed our mistake as the 2 guys sitting at the table next to us were sharing a poquito (small) pizza! Since our Spanish is terrible to be blunt, we decided to eat what we ordered, rather than confuse the waiter with smatterings of Spanish, English and a little Afrikaans for good measure. A steaming monstrosity of dough, cheese and freshly sliced tomato landed on our table. It was roughly 3/4 of an inch thick. It was hot. And did I already mention, it was cheesy? We both hefted a slice onto our plates and were promptly filled after the second slice. I need to add here, however, that it was delicious. The cheese melted in my mouth and the freshly sliced tomato balanced it out perfectly. On the plus side, the other half of the pizza was enough for a meal the next day. So it ended up being 2 meals in one.

We didn’t order pasta in a restaurant purely for the fact that the supermarkets sell very cheap, freshly made pasta. This is something of a rarity in South Africa and so we took full advantage and ended up making our own concoctions in the apartments that we rented. The stuffed pastas are especially good and come in a few varieties, including… drum roll… jamon y queso. Yep. Ham and cheese. We opted for spinach and feta or chicken and vegetables, which were great combos. The one thing lacking though from our home cooking experience was herbs. They seem to be very hard to find in Argentina and are not cheap and by any leap of the imagination. So we improvised and bought a dried chimichurri herb mixture and added that to our pasta.

Empanadas

Sometime, far away in the distant future, when I will think back on Argentinian food (I ommitted the word ‘longingly’ purposefully) I will definitely recall the humble empanada. These are delicious pockets of dough stuffed with a mixture of roast chicken and chillies, mince meat, olives and boiled egg, jamon y queso (there is that combo again!!) and the list goes on. Each empanada is big enough to finish about 2 bites and Argentinians eat them by the dozen. This is by far and away the best thing to eat here. Now Chile and Bolivia both have their take on the empanada but it isn’t the same as the Argentinian version nor as good. The Chilean version is more like a large pie and I don’t want to know what dodgy ingredients are used in the Bolivian version. Salta, in the north of Argentina, claims to have the best empanadas but we loved these little bundles of love at La Americana in Buenos Aires. 2 Empanadas and a cup of coffee in the morning and we were kicked into action for the day.

Pastries & Ice Cream

Pastries can be found just about everywhere. Freshly baked in the morning and affordable they are a temptation on just about every street corner. Ice cream or Helado is just about as common and is of a very high quality. Even in chilly Buenos Aires the heladerias were packed with people buying their favourite flavour.

Oh wait there isn’t a number five

Well there is but we didn’t really get a chance to sample things like locro: a ‘brothlike’ beef stew with potatoes and vegetables, tortes: 2 to 3 inch thick quiche/pie, and chorizo (spicey sausage which we did try but I can’t really make any real judgement). So guess we just ate steak, pizza, pasta and empanadas with the odd pastry or ice-cream thrown in for good measure. To be fair though each was of a very high standard and we weren’t ever disappointed with our meals apart from the odd cold empanada.

We did eat a very good Peruvian restaurant in Buenos Aires, so we can’t wait to get into Peru to taste what is arguably South America’s food capital.

A Note About Argentinian Wine

I know this post is about food but I thought it appropriate to mention the wine in Argentina. In short it is excellent and very good value. Especially the red wines. We sampled a number of cheap Malbecs and Cabernet Sauvignon’s and they were very good. In a decent restaurant, a good bottle will cost you about US$8 — US$10, with cheaper options available. Their white wines aren’t as dry as I usually like them to be, but they are still refreshing and decent. We also liked the fact that they had half-size bottles available — something only available on South African Airways back home for some reason — which meant that we didn’t have to stagger back to our apartment after a big bottle of wine, a steak and panacotta.