Here in Argentina, carbs and proteins are more than plentiful. From empa�adas to ham and cheese sandwiches to steak and potatoes, an Argentinean diet seems to be somewhat restricted. It’s not that other food groups can’t be found; on the contrary, there are many fresh fruit and vegetable stands along the streets. However, for some reason, an appropriate dinner for them consists of rice and hot dogs or potatoes and steak. While this could also suffice in the United States for dinner, in the US this is more of an occasional meal with an abnormal balance of food groups rather than a regular habit.
I’m not really sure if they know much about nutrition in general. One of my friends has a host mother whose “diet” consists of finding the recipes for the foods with the least calories and putting those foods together. Many of them don’t eat breakfast and eat dinner as late as 9 or 10 at night. Perhaps their strength comes from drinking lots of mate (filled with caffeine and supposedly a hunger suppressant).
This caffeinated drink leads to my next confusion, however: How do they manage when they barely drink any water? Argentines seem to be dehydrated, at least by my standards. They don’t walk around with bottles of water, and compared to my host mother, I drink a ton of water. I respect that they can make it through the day eating and drinking so little, but since I have control over my lunches, I’ll continue to eat my fruits and vegetables and down my water.
The biggest surprise for me in terms of taste was the corn. One night, I excitedly sat down to corn as a part of dinner. Anticipating a sweet, milky corn, I was quite surprised and confused to taste a very different flavor. Perhaps it was different growing conditions, perhaps it was the season, or perhaps it was the variety. Either way, it was not very sweet at all and almost tasted dirty to me. Normally, I can eat my corn without any butter, as it is sufficiently sweet in itself. However, this night, I had to slather on the butter, in order to make up for the lack of sweetness.
Also, their bread is not as soft as bread in the United States and tends to fall apart much more easily. Many of their breads have almost no flavor. However, their pasteries and ice cream are delicious, and make up for this.
Foods found plentifully in Argentina include:
-dulce de leche (in ice cream, sold separately, in cookies, on pasteries)
-empa�adas
-steak
-ham
-alfajores
-mate
Another interesting drink: a submarino. They bring you hot milk and a chocolate bar, and you dip the chocolate in the milk to make a drink resembling hot chocolate.
Location: buenos aires, argentina
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Is this similar to the alfajores you are eating?
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/alfajores
The chocolate drink looks interesting too!
And great to see your smile!
We had a kind of corn over in Andhra Pradesh this past month that wasn’t sweet either and were told that it’s similar to the corn we feed our cows. Definitely takes some getting used to.
I am developing a conspiracy theory about maté, and I think you’re right. That’s how they stay out so late, eat so late, and stay hydrated. If you can get over the bitter taste, maté is the perfect energy drink because it doesn’t give you the jitters and it’s a hunger suppressant.
🙂