An Insight Into Argentinian Cuisine

Argentine cuisine is typically European. Due to its heavy influences of Italian, Spanish, French and other European cuisines which makes the typical Argentine diet a variation on what is often called the Mediterranean diet. Because of this, Argentina is known for its asado or grilled beef. Meat (including entrails) is placed on the grill and cooked from below with natural wood and coal - barbecue. There are restaurants that serve asado only; a good local restaurant always has a place set up to prepare asado.

Argentines consume large amounts of beef. While the recent economic crisis made meat expensive for many, its price is still relatively low given its quality. Meat exports are usually regulated; the European Community has set up a quota of frozen meat imports that cannot be exceeded.

Traditional foods of the provinces such as locro hark back to the pre-Columbian period, with a reliance on maize, beans and squashes (in many places, locro is traditionally consumed only on national patriotic holidays). Another traditional food is the empanada, a circular piece of pastry folded in two around a filling (including chopped meat, olives, hard-boiled egg, potato cubes, raisins, ham and cheese, and many other variants), which can be baked or fried.

Italian staples like pizza and pasta are common. Many Argentines choose a simple pizza with tomato, cheese and ham, but many combinations are available. Pasta (in the local Spanish: pastas) is extremely common, either simple unadorned pasta with butter or oil, or accompanied by tomato or bechamel-based sauce.

Sweets, especially dulce de leche, are popular. Dulce de leche (a dark brown fluid paste, made from milk and sugar stirred at very high temperatures) is an essential ingredient of cakes, and shares the place of jelly and jam in breakfasts. It is used to top desserts and to fill alfajores and facturas (an alfajor consists of two round biscuits, often flavored, optionally coated with chocolate, joined by a layer of jelly; factura is the generic name for sweet baked pastry of different kinds, including but not limited to croissants and donuts).

Argentina is famous for its wine, most notably the red wine from the province of Mendoza, where weather conditions (dry, warm summers) are optimal. (Mendoza is in this respect similar to California in the United States.)