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.