Day 422: Buenos Aires, Argentina
I have been writing about food in Argentina for the last 6 weeks and yet if someone asked me to describe it?
Meh
The problem is the first night I arrived in Buenos Aires I went to Cafe San Juan and didn’t know that it was a famous restaurant or was considered to be one of the best in the city. Maybe it’s because I have spent all my time in Buenos Aires.
The first night I had an amazing meal and was so excited to be in the city. Afterall with its Italian heritage it must be a haven for foodies, right?
Wrong.
I don’t know what happened when the Italians came over but they forgot to bring the Nonas because the best food here is international.
I have already told you about alfajores, locro, empanadas and steak, here are some other things Argentines love to eat.
Morcilla
Better known as black pudding to the British and Irish, I had never heard of it before South America. Morcilla is a blood sausage which means it is made from pig’s blood and ground up pieces of pork or offal mixed in with spices.
Those who can get beyond the idea of eating a sausage of blood sometimes have a problem with the texture because it can be a bit moist. At Siga la Vaca Jorge reminded me that in Colombia it also has rice in it which helps dry it out. He suggested eating it on a piece of bread which does really help the texture issue.
But texture and blood aside, it really is delicious.
Medialunas
Croissants are very typical at breakfast with coffee. People say the ones made with lard are better than with butter but I haven’t found a single one I would rave about. Worse yet, I have asked around and no one else really praises them. They may be a tradition but not one worth keeping.
Choripan
Simply said, chorizo on bread with a bit of chimichurri sauce. It’s pretty simple but delicious.
Fugazetta
While Argentine pizza, derives from Neapolitan cuisine, the Argentine fugaza/fugazza comes from the focaccia (Genoan).
You can get fugazza in Argentina but what interested me more was the fugazetta which is essentially the fugazza stuffed with cheese, it is the ultimate stuffed crust pizza, it’s not only in the crust but underneath the pizza toppings. Don’t try to eat more than one slice.
Pizza a la Piedra
Typical Argentinean pizza has an inch-thick crust and more cheese than anyone could possibly need. But unless you have a crazy hangover it’s awful pizza. However, thin crust, or pizza a la piedra, is becoming more popular.
Milanesa
If steak is starting to bore you, there’s always the option for variety with breaded and deep fried steak. Milanesa is also available in other meat forms along with toppings such as tomato sauce, cheese and egg.
Personally I prefer it in a sandwich.
Dulce de leche
A sweet paste, dulce de leche is a national obsession. Used to fill cakes and pancakes, spread over toasted bread for breakfast or as an ice cream flavour it is one of the few things people eat that is considered a gaucho cuisine.
Lomito
Sirloin steak sandwich, I had my first in Salta. I prefer to remove the egg but otherwise it’s one of the cheapest most delicious things in Argentina.
Overall the food here is…well…okay…but it will never compete with Peru or Mexico.
I'm Ayngelina and in my mid-thirties. I left an amazing job, boyfriend, apartment and friends to find inspiration in Latin America. I'm creating a new life choosing what I want instead of what other people think I should do.
Morcilla? That’s spanish, and one of my favorite tapas. If not on bread, its great to have it in a pan with “pimientos del padron”.
I had to laugh when I read about the choripan! My boss always jokes about it, saying its how some politicians get their votes in the country – by giving out free choripan for every vote.
Dulce de leche is adictive. When the summer is over, I want to learn how to do it myself!
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I think it’s pretty easy to make, I remember years ago seeing a video where you could just boil a can of condensed milk.
Agreed. The rest of the food was just filler till we got to another steak place.
At least the red wine was tasty.
In my hometown too, Sardinia, we have the blood thing, just we don’t eat it very often, only on special occasion, and personally I don’t like it, I find it too sweet..
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I’d agree it’s not an every day kind of food, well at least it shouldn’t be.
You missed Provoletta (backed wheels of provolone). If you get Provoletta Completa, it comes topped with grilled onion and herbs. Absolutely delicious!
Fugazetta is one of our favorite foods in the world.
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I did eat it and it was good but perhaps at that point I was jaded, I have eaten a lot of delicious cheese dishes and it was good but not memorable.
If travelling to Argentina isn’t a mouthwatering prospect enough some of this food certainly is!
this post made me hungry… the Fugazetta overloaded with cheese looks dinfully yummy!
It’s a brick in your stomach but good to try once.
LOVE Morcilla. Too bad you can’t get it everywhere in the States.
Yup – totally agree. We said it in our post about the things that surprised us about Argentina and I’ll stand by that, even though a couple of people weren’t impressed with it. Argentine food, aside from meats, is nothing to rave about. We had amazing Italian food in Cuzco and not a single nice Italian meal in the whole of Argie.
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Peruvians just have a better sense of food being light and flavourful whereas Argentines think a load of cheese or sauce is the way to go.
I’m afraid I’m one of those people who wouldn’t be tempted by the morcilla. But some of the other dishes look good. I’ve heard a lot about the confiterias of BA — their desserts always look wonderful in pics.
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I was already hungry when I saw this! Now I’m just struggling and weak from food lust. I was a real lover of the choripan, wrapped in a piece of bread and doused with chimchurri sauce.
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Chimichurri sauce rescues a lot of food there from its innate blandness.
It still looks pretty tasty
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Looks can be deceiving!
Dulce deee lecheeeeee! I bought bags of the Magdalenas and would literally eat a whole bag a day! Man I miss the food in BA
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You are the only person I have ever heard say that!
I don’t think I’d eat blood sausage from anywhere. The texture would probably get me. Although I did have a ravioli appetizer in Germany filled with a type of blood sausage. I did try it because it was very small and remember it being good.
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If you can get beyond the texture it is really quite tasty.
Seeing that I could probably live on red meat and red wine, I still think I’d do okay in Argentina. Interesting, though, to learn that the rest is so average. Thanks.
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Oh you say that but if you spend more than a week here you’ll be craving a decent salad
Besides mexican food, I could live on Croissants… delicious!
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I haven’t had a decent croissant here, it’s shameful.
I didn’t know that the black pudding is called Morcilla
Aside from the pizzas you mentioned, all the rest are common in other countries.
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Common in other countries and much tastier too.
I lived in Mendoza for a year where the food is even more limited than in BA. I can’t agree more that you have to wonder what happened to the Italian heritage when it comes to the cuisine in Argentina.
I did find a great market in Mendoza with everything you could want from local beef to imported cheeses. I can say I improved by skills in the kitchen after living in Mendoza…
I have been cooking nearly every day to try to combat the heaviness of the food.
Yeah, I lived in BsAs for 3 years and the food is pretty rotten. Everyone holidays in Argentina and goes home raving about how great the food is but that’s because all they eat is steak and empanadas for 2 weeks and they’re pretty much the only 2 things they do well (very, very well).
Italian food in Argentina is beyond rancid, the pasta is awful quality and then they slather it in a variety of god-awful sauces that invariably have half a kilo of the cheapest ham known to man chopped up in it. And maybe some canned spinach just for good measure.
I had better pizza at the Iraqi run takeaway near my university in Leeds than I ever had in Argentina.
The funny thing is that Argentines genuinely believe that their Italian food is the best and most authentic on the planet. Italian friends I had there turned red with anger when the topic came up…
And Locro…best described as a big bowl of bile.
But I do miss the steak. And there are many other non-food related awesome things about Argentina, of course.
Oh, I also agree about the medialunas, but there are a couple of places where you can get amazing ones. The first is on the corner of Avenido de Mayo and Parana, just off Plaza Congreso (I lived next to the place). Gooey and fatty goodness (the manteca ones, that is). The other is somewhere in the Microcentro. Can’t remember where, I think close to Reconquista and Florida.
I do love the empanadas but they cannot make up for all the other mediocre food, although you could never say that to a Porteno.
Mmm, the morcilla does look like black pudding in Ireland. SO good on some brown bread or with a salad.
Argentine food looks so heavy. How do you eat all that and red wine when it’s hot out? I would feel so sick and sluggish.
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It’s fall right now so the heavy foods seem fitting but in the heat it would be terrible.
Have to agree with you. Steak is great but the rest of the things highlighted don’t look that great.
I’m sure they are good but on a global scale, meh.
It was a struggle to find things to mention that were decent.
Totally agree. The disappointing thing in Buenos Aires is that the food that is delicious is usually very bad for you… breaded steak, pizza, choripan. Or it’s at a nice (aka expensive) restaurant serving international cuisine. I am hoping for better and more traditional foods when I get to the other parts of Argentina.
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So true. Choripan is tasty but you can’t eat it every day.
Oh gosh, I’m always in heaven eating in BsAs! Such a shame you’re not digging the cuisine.
I just find most of the great places are international and not traditional cuisine.
I’m surprised. I thought you loved the steak. How’s the wine, at least?
There’s also a lot of dulce de leche here, which I like, but I have to admit Colombian food is nothing to rave about either. Actually, getting used to it has been the biggest challenge since I’ve been here (maybe the only real challenge…)
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The steak is great but you can only eat so much of it.
The wine is good although I’m not a huge fan of malbec and prefer wine in Chile.
You know I didn’t write about Colombian food because I struggled with the same issues – rather heavy and not a lot of flavour.
So, for a non-steak eater, sounds like a holiday in BA would revolve around wine, huh? Doesn’t sound toooooo bad. Are there health retreats for afterwards?
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I will be on my own detox when this is over
We have two varieties of morcilla, savory and sweet! The sweet one is mixed with almonds and currants, and tastes nothing like the Black Puddings I remember from Lancashire in England. I love Argentinian meats, and the cakes are heaven, and the rest is, yes, a bit like fast food stuff, really. Although I think most countries have their specialities and the rest is also-ran, with a couple of exceptions!
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I’m not much of a sweets person but the bakeries do have amazing looking pastries.
Also surprised here-”meh” is not what I would have gathered from previous posts!
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I know I felt that I was misrepresenting the cuisine because I talked about the steak so much but overall its not a foodie haven.
I am surprised that the food in Argentina isn’t better – perhaps because it is not as common here in the U.S., I always had this vision that it would be more interesting than Mexican food.
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You would think with its Italian heritage it would be amazing but it’s really the biggest letdown.
I completely agree with you. We spent two months in Buenos Aires (and four in the country) and found the food to be OK, but not particularly WOW (like Peru) and rather repetitive.
When we wrote this, it was really interesting to see the reactions from some people. Almost got in an online fight with a rather established food/travel writer/bloggers and some Argentines living abroad claimed that our “American tastebuds” were to blame.
But, I agree with you – Peru (esp. Lima) is where it’s at when it comes to food in South America.
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Agreed! There is a bunch of things the Argies do awesomely, especially ASADO mmmmm. But variety is totally lacking. Viva Peru!!!
Well, sounds like you’ve found the dismal food scene that I described a month ago. Now you see why I eat in Chinatown and the Peruvian joints. I’ll call it what it is; ghastly. One thing that I would offer is that the food scene is really representative of the Argentine mindset. That it to say, it is all about making the scene, being in the right barrio, with the right people. These people are among the most insecure I have met in all my travels. Ever wonder about all these swank, cool spaces all around Palermo, Belgrano, Recoleta, Canitas? They all serve lousy food that is big on show and delivers little quality. A pity, as the country is blessed with an abundance of great ag land that could/should produce great products. Hands down – the most popular restaurant in the country is a place called “Kansas”, with a couple locations – the most popular being next to the Hippodrome in Palermo. There is a line of cars waiting to park on most nights. Basically a knock-off of an American upscale chain. Go figure….
It’s interesting to see that Peruvian food is the up and coming thing on the food scene. But agreed that I have eaten a lot of mediocre but pricey food.
To clarify some points, kansas is not the best restaurant of argentina, as you caled it, you should notice just from tjhe building the copycat of aa american style restaurant. Well just wanted to clear that point, If you are looking for the best restaurants, in Buenos aires, you have to go to Puerto Madero. Byu the way, i said buenos aires, not argentina….
I think that was the point the commenter was trying to make, that unfortunately one of the most popular chains is a copycat. There are definitely great restaurants in Puerto Madero, as well as San Telmo and Palermo.
The food here really is lame. All my favourite places are foreign restaurants.
The ice cream, however, is to die for.
Well you are the ice cream critic!
In moderation all this food is awesome. Looks delicious.
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I know you said the food was “meh” and all but your photos are making me drool all over my keyboard.
Maybe you could just take a picture of a trash can instead? Then I won’t have to clean up all the slobber that has covered my computer.
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Ha thanks! I had written so much about the steak I thought I should let everyone know the rest of the food is really not that good.
Interesting, and here I thought it would be amazing because of all the steak and wine…
The wine just takes away from the sting that the food is bland and boring.
Hi Ayngelina,
Here are some places I liked in BsAs. Cumana for wood oven-fired empanadas 9the most wonderful I’ve had in the city). La Panaderia de Pablo on Defensa (San Telmo) for a fresh, modern take on pastries and they have a wonderful fugazetta. I’ve also written (and photographed) about this “place with no name” on Defensa. A pay-per-kilo cafeteria-style take out place that’s cheap – and they make wonderful spinach fritters and arroz con pollo.
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I went to La Panaderia de Pablo and had the arugula pizza as recommended by a friend and it was delicious.
Huh. Like you, I would have thought it to be marvelous! Mabe everything looks better than it tastes. That’s sad.
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If you want some spiciness go to Peru, the food is delicious.
Hmmm, and none of these foods look particularly healthy! And that blood sausage seriously gives me the food willies.
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Oh yeah none of it is healthy, I have gained 5 lbs and I call it my steak weight.
The food in Peru and Mexico has more color to it as well (mainly because of all the vegetables they use). Did you find that Peruvian food has a strong Asian influence?
I’m not a big meat eater, and though Spain is big on their jamón, there are also a lot of veggie and other options, thankfully.
You’re going to be such an amazing food connoisseur after your time abroad!!
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There is a large Chinese population so you do see a lot of chifa, but Peru seems to be experimenting with the cuisine a lot now and you can see Japanese influences as well. I think Peru is the most innovative in South America whereas Argentina continues to serve pizza with crust that is two inches thick and has too much cheese.
How about the upscale places in Argentina? One of the appeals to me is that international and continental cuisine is half the price in the U.S.
How about the French, Continental type places? I’ve been looking to splurge on some restaurants and figured i’d get more bang for the buck in Argentina?
Prices in Buenos Aires are so interesting because if you want fine dining you can really get some great food for much less than you would pay in North America.
Say it isn’t so! I was actually looking forward to eating in Argentina. Well, maybe I was really craving the beef more than anything. Interesting though, that the food in your photos seemed very appetizing. I’ll keep my expectations down, so I won’t be too disappointed once I get to Argentina.
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The beef is good and high end restaurants can be great but there is a lot of really bad food – don’t forget to check out Cafe San Juan, it is really fantastic.
That is a bit disappointing to hear, but I do have to say that Peruvian food is a really good example of some delicious edibles when cultures mix.
It’s tough to say Argentine food is great when Peruvian food is so amazing.
Wow, that’s surprising. But at least you’re honest and know what you like and don’t buy into the whole ‘Buenos Aires is the Paris of Latin America therefore it has the best of everything’ mentality.
Yeah the whole Paris of Latin America thing is ONLY because they are the only city that uses European architecture. If anything Cartagena is much prettier than BA which is decaying.
I felt the same way when I was in Argentina a few years back. Maybe the key thing is that Argentinian food isn’t that interesting for a vegetarian backpacker. Anyway it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t the culinary mecca I’d built it up to be. Actually enjoyed the food in Uruguay more because it was cheaper and we could afford to eat better.
I think it wouldn’t have been so disappointing if people didn’t rave about it. The expectations were too high.
Hey do you know the trends about food and beverages coming to Argentina? I need it for a schoolpaper. What is everybody lately been drinking and eating?
Well I have been there the past 6 weeks you should find some information in this post on the popular food.