Food in Buenos Aires is plentiful and one can eat at any time of the day.  It is not unusual to see groups of Argentinians enjoying meals at street side cafes well past midnight.  The first thing to know about Argentinians is that they love their beef and you will see this meat everywhere!  The second thing to know is that you will see a ton of European influence in Argentinian food.  For a pasta lover (like me), you will be in heaven.

Here is a breakdown of the special dishes/foods that Argentina is known for…

On the cheap:

Super Panchos-Foot-long hot dogs can be ordered at street stands for super cheap.  You can have your choice of toppings and sauces…if you can decipher the menu.  ”Salsa golf” is a sauce that looks like Thousand Island salad dressing, but tastes like mayonnaise with a kick.

Milanesa-Breaded, thinly sliced beef that resembles Texas chicken-fried steak.  Like super panchos, we could order milanesa sandwiches at street stands for cheap.  Usually the meat was twice the size of the bread.

Lomito-Like milanesa, but not breaded.

Chorizo-When in Buenos Aires, we saw big grills set up to bbq these pork sausages.  We ate ours in a sandwich and bypassed the spicy veggie fillings that we could have put on them (for the most part).

Empanadas-Our favorite hand-held snack full of anything from meat to cheese to potatoes and even fruit!  Each South American country has their own way of making empanadas, but we found Argentina’s to be the prettiest.

Giant bread thing-Not sure what this was called, but it was yummy with melted cheese, oregano, and tomatoes stuffed inside.  We got our stuffed roll from a man selling them out of a basket at the busy market in San Telmo neighborhood.

Best Around:

Beef-It is world-famous here and it deserves it’s standing.

Parrilla-A small grill on which parts of the animal (i.e. intestines, kidneys, etc.) along with the meat are served.  We were able to have parrilla, but not with the grill as you can see in the picture.  :(

Provoleta-Fried provolone cheese that can be an appetizer before parrilla.  De-lish for cheese lovers!

Italian Food-I haven’t been to Italy, yet, but I found the pizza and pasta in Argentina to be quite tasty.  If you’re a gnocchi fan, you’ll find this at many restaurants.

Sweets:

Dulce de Leche-This creamy, carameley tasting stuff is everywhere!  Why not?  It originates here and they’re proud of it.  Instead of vanilla and chocolate ice cream flavors, you can find vanilla and dulce de leche instead.

Submarinos-Imagine the best cup of hot chocolate you’ve ever had and multiply this by 100.  You are served a frothy, hot cup of milk with a stick of chocolate, packets of sugar, and a long spoon to stir it all together.  The fun is in watching the chocolate stick melt in the milk.  I couldn’t get enough of these!

Alfajores-This circular dessert is like an Oreo, but its dulce de leche filling is sandwiched between two circular cakes instead of cookies.  It also has an outer chocolate shell.  You’ll see it in the picture next to the submarino.

Flan con crema-This custard-flavored dessert can be found in many South American countries, but it is fantastic with cream.  The cream resembles whipped cream, but not the processed kind.  It makes for a fantastic end to any meal.

This list is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the foods of Argentina.  If you are a foodie, put Buenos Aires at the top of your list as you will be in culinary paradise!

Buenos Aires is the perfect city for a booklet of walking tours.  It is a massive city and the neighborhoods are quite diverse.  The subway makes it easy to get from place to place, but most of the interesting parts of the city seem to be down any old street that you may come across on foot.  Our first tour was of Recoleta, the very wealthy neighborhood that is known for its amazing cemetery and great art museums.  We loved the cemetery, where we had great fun seeing the enormous gravestones, especially those of famous Argentinians such as Evita.  We also marveled at the enormous trees that shade entire parks.

Our next tour was one of the three available for the Palermo neighborhood, also the area where we were staying.  Palermo used to be a very quiet neighborhood filled with housing and just about nothing else.  In the last 10 years it has undergone a resurgence in popularity and is now filled with boutique shops, expensive restaurants and generally lots of activity.  One of our favorite places in all of Buenos Aires was here, which we discovered on accident on our way to one of the Palermo walking tours.  In a discreet location in the back of a building, facing the train tracks is the greatest little fruit and veggie shop we had ever seen.  The place was simple, but the produce was very reasonably priced and tastes delicious.  The oranges there are simply the best we have ever eaten.  If we ever make it back to Buenos Aires, this will likely be our first stop.

Other walking tours took us through much of the rest of the city.  One led us down Corrientes Avenue (photos 1, 2 and 3 below), past the famous obelisk and loads of theaters and shops.  Another took us down Avenida de Mayo (4), one of the most important streets in the city, and where the congressional building is found.  Another took us through the historical area (5 and 6), including the presidential palace, Casa Rosada.  This is where Evita gave her famous speech many years ago.  Another took us through San Telmo (7 and 8), near Casa Rosada and home to the fascinating Sunday antique market.  Yet another took us to the new, hip, expensive Puerto Madero (9 and 10) where the old Buenos Aires port was and the Women’s bridge is now becoming an icon of the city.  One of the least interesting was the Abasto (11), which took us through the famous tango neighborhood.  With insignificant knowledge of the dance step, walking past the houses of famous and once-famous stars of the genre were not particularly exciting for us.  Our favorite walking tour may have been through La Boca (12 and 13), the famous Italian/tango neighborhood with brightly colored houses the signature of the area.  It is overly touristy for sure, but there is a magic in the neighborhood that is hard to find elsewhere.

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.

8.9.10.11.12.13.

Our final walking tour took us through the neighborhood of Retiro, near the bus terminal and home to some fascinating old palaces and parks.  As we finished the tour, our legs were tired and our stomachs were rumbling.  With our 12^th tour is 12 days completed, we felt that we had a chance to really know Buenos Aires as we saw most of the city on foot and adored its variety in neighborhoods and culture.  It is not a place that we will soon forget.  We will come back some day and next time, we will know where to walk.

In our earliest conversations with them, they talked about their beautiful country and showed us pictures of their favorite places.  They also talked about the differences between Venezuela and Argentina; one being something called an “arepa”.  Ben and I knew nothing of these “arepas” and had a hard time visualizing them, but apparently they were a huge part of the Venezuelan’s diet.  Enthused on imparting her arepa knowledge on us, Cris offered to teach us how to make them the following morning.

The next morning, our bright-eyed and bushy-tailed selves stood in the kitchen waiting with anticipation.  Cris pulled out a package of P.A.N. flour explaining that this was the most important ingredient of arepas.  The P.A.N. flour reminded us of corn flour.  In a large bowl, Cris dumped a few cups of the flour, some water, and a pinch of salt.  Then came the hard part…putting our hands in the batter to mix it.  Before we got to this point, Cris had warned us that making arepas was a dirty business and not something for everyone.  She entertained us with a story of her mother’s infamous “5 minute arepas” in which her mother mixed the dough with a spoon because she didn’t want it to get on her hands.  Because of this, the arepas needed to be eaten in 5 minutes or they would be as hard as a rock.

After the dough was mixed to the right consistency, Cris instructed us to take out a handful and start rolling it into a ball.  Once we had made a ball out of the dough, we were to continue shaping it until it resembled a flat disc-“Like a UFO,” she said.  Creating a flat disc was difficult and not something that other guests had managed, but Ben figured it out immediately.  When we had created the perfect discs, we put them on a “griddle” on her stovetop.  The arepas were to be cooked until they had the griddle lines on their surface and Cris showed us her strategy of knowing when they were done by the sound they made when she pat them.

As the arepas cooked, Cris and Leo prepared scrambled eggs with green peppers and onions.  The smell of cooking eggs and veggies filled the kitchen and got our mouths watering.  Luckily, the arepas finished in no time and we were quickly seated at their dining table.  Cris showed us how to make a cut in the arepa so that it could be stuffed with ham, cheese and the scrambled egg mix.  Finally, it was time to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  We devoured our first arepa and enthusiastically ate a second. These warm, little sandwiches were delicious and we could see why Venezuelans couldn’t live without them!

We were so pleased to have learned how to make a new dish from another country directly from its proud citizens.  We will always have great memories from our time with Cris and Leo and we hope to have an opportunity to visit their lovely country and experience arepas first hand sometime in the near future.

The falls sit in Iguazu Falls National Park on the Argentine side, which protects them and the surrounding jungle.  The falls themselves defy description.  Legend has it that Eleanor Roosevelt, upon seeing Iguazu Falls for the first time, simply said “Poor Niagara”.  We have not been to Niagara, but suspect we would have to agree.  Our first view of the day was of the Devil’s Throat from right above the falls via the man-made walkway.  It was stunning to see such an enormous rush of water from only 20 feet away.  The bottom half of the falls was not even visible due to the incredible mist kicked up from the turbulence.  We marveled at how such a platform and walkway could be built and envied the Brazilian side of the river, who could see this in all its glory.  The rest of the day, we hiked around the national park and had more spectacular, panoramic views of the rest of the four kilometer (!!) length of waterfalls.  It is impossible to describe them and our photos only do them a little more justice.  During our time in South America, this was my single favorite place of any we saw.

With only a day to visit we did not have time to hike through the jungle portions of the park like we would have liked.  Supposedly littered with animal life, especially birds, we were disappointed we were going to miss out.  However, our trip was not without encounters with some of the local fauna.  Butterflies were everywhere, in amazing colors and quantities.  Yellow butterflies would swarm around a single spot in the hundreds and beautiful purple ones would land on us regularly.  It became a fun game to play to see if we could time a photo to capture the purple inside of the wings as they opened instead of the bland, brown outside of the wings.  I can safely say I have never been so fascinated by butterflies in my life.

Not all of our interaction with the animals were positive.  We noticed a few times on our way past the snack shack that an interesting little critter was looming around.  It looked like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater and we later learned it was a coati.  We figured it must be looking for food, but having seen a number of signs, warnings and pleadings not to feed the animals, we figured it must have just strayed a bit from the jungle.  It was cute and a few photos later, we moved on.

Around midday we came back to the snack shack for a bite to eat and quickly noticed the little critter was still there.  Now though, it seemed to be more directly searching out people for food.  It began to mingle specifically around the people waiting for the next train.  Within minutes, and to our dismay, one of the men in line began to share his potato chips with the little guy.  The man and his girlfriend were quite enjoying themselves, even as the coati got a bit more aggressive once the potato chips ran out.  We continued to watch as it made its way down the line.  An old man fed it some more and another couple continued the trend.  Just before the train arrived a family of four finished off the feeding.  As the train boarding folk left, our little buddy moved towards those of us eating outside the snack shack.  The final anger was a group of middle age female tourists that showed up.  They wanted a photo and decided they would lure the coati with their food.  Mission accomplished!  They got their photo and the coati was well fed.

We know this was taught to most of us in elementary school, so for those of you please bear with us.  There are signs at the zoo and many signs when it comes to wild animals.  Still, we would like to make it more clear for the rest of society.  Don’t feed the animals!  It causes problems with natural feeding behaviors and makes them dependent on humans.  They can also become aggressive and attack if they are not fed by people in the future.  Additionally, the food humans eat may cause harm to the animals by making them sick.  I am sure there are many other reasons we could not even articulate, but we felt it had to be said.  We all love to see wildlife and hopefully it will continue to remain “wild” in the future.

The Problem

In making the decision to travel through Paraguay on our way to Iguazu Falls in northeast Argentina, we knew that we would have to travel through this border post.  The problem is that Argentina and Paraguay do not share a border in Ciudad del Este.  Brazil fills the gap between these two countries and as American citizens, we require a reciprocal visa to enter Brazil which would cost us $135 each.  To avoid this, we had heard that there is a 1-hour bus from Ciudad del Este that goes directly to Argentina, through Brazil, which requires no papers to enter Brazil.

Confident in this fact, we walked to the border station in Ciudad del Este and completed our exit formalities from Paraguay.  As we had a single entry visa, there was no going back.  After doing this, we started asking people where we could find the direct bus to Argentina.  Everyone from run of the mill locals to military men kept pointing us towards the Brazilian border until we had crossed the river and we were at the immigration post.  We decided we would just go ahead and ask the Brazilian security where we could find the bus.  One problem…they told us we needed visas to enter Brazil and take the bus to Argentina.  There was no other option and after talking with a number of the teenaged border security we had no affirmative answer.  According to them, there is no bus directly to Argentina without a visa being required.  The last border agent was particularly annoying.  He lectured us for a few minutes on his necessity to have a $135 visa to come to our country to visit his mother and  in return we have to have the same visa to enter his country.  We wanted to remind him that if we planned on actually visiting his country (instead of going through it), we would have paid for one.  With no help from the Brazilians, we sludged back over the river to figure out what to do next.

The Solution

On our walk back, I could not help but entertain ideas of boycotting Brazil if we did somehow make it to Argentina through Brazil without a visa.  As we approached the Paraguayan border guards once again, we were not thrilled.  We were on our way to Iguazu Falls, one of the highlights of our time in South America and it would be lost if we could not go through this border post.  When we arrived, we dejectedly told them that the Brazilian officials would not allow us through, we could not continue onward and had to return to Paraguay.  They looked at our passport, saw we had been stamped out and refused to let us back into their country with our single entrance visa.  As we started to protest (were we supposed to spend the rest of our life stuck between Brazil and Argentina?), the Paraguayan guard told us in an annoyed manner that we just needed to cross the street and wait for the bus.

We crossed to wait with no idea what we were looking for.  We decided to ask another border guard to confirm and finally got the information we needed.  We were told to wait for a yellow bus that would take us to Argentina directly with no visa required.  As we waited, we started to worry more and more about all kinds of scenarios.  Where would we go if the bus didn’t come?  What would happen if the Brazilian border guards did what they said they would do and stop the bus?

We waited for an hour, which was probably the longest hour of our entire trip.  Perseverance, advice of Paraguayan border guards, and the help of locals eventually led us to the yellow bus.  It appeared behind a long line of trucks and was close to being a religious revelation by that time.  We boarded and crossed our fingers as the bus sailed through the Brazilian border post on its way Argentina.  A local man even realized he was on the wrong bus while we drove through Brazil, but he was not let off until we had passed through the exit gates for Brazil.  We finally made it to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina and poor Brazil will not be enjoying the presence of our travel dollars or opportunity to return the favor of reciprocal visa fees for a long, long time.

Moral

You can cross from Ciudad del Este, Paraguay to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina without dealing with annoying teenage brats that disguise themselves as Brazilian border agents.  The key is the yellow bus.