Argentina - Our Thirteenth Meal

For our thirteenth meal, Mark took us down to South America, for an Argentinean feast!

For this meal, we had delicious steak with chimichurri sauce, a salad of hearts of palm, avocado, and tomato, and beef and egg empanadas. Everything was delicious!! This was also our first date night dinner on the beautiful oak table Mark built us. :)

I'm a big steak fan, and we eat it very seldom, so it was happy news for me, to learn that grilled meats from the asado (barbecue) are the iconic Argentinean dish.

The empanadas were awesome. Mark even made the dough himself-- they turned out so beautifully! The egg inside was interesting, but good.

Chimichurri is soo good. 🤤 And he made a balsamic version, too.

I really enjoyed the enselada de palmitos de primavera (heart of palm salad)! I don't think I'd ever had heart of palm before... I didn't even know what it was (apparently, the inner core and growing bud of various palm trees). I liked it! It had a nice mild flavor, like a less crunchy water chestnut. And of course, I love EVERYTHING with lime. 

We also tried yerba mate in a traditional calabash gourd with a bombilla (metal strainer straw). I was surprised to find I did NOT like this, I found it quite bitter. In college I drank yerba mate... but chilled and sweetened, in a can. The authentic version was less palatable to me... I'm a pleb, what can I say. :) I'm sure it would grow on me.

Apparently, by far, the most popular cocktail in Argentina is fernet con coca, also known as fernando, fernandito, or various other nicknames. Conceived of by college students in the 80s, it went on to enjoy explosive popularity. I did not expect to like this - plain fernet is too earthy/herbally for me - but I actually really did! It was very refreshing. The national love affair with this drink makes sense to me, after tasting the yerba mate -- there is a similar flavor profile.

For dessert, we had vanilla bean ice cream with dulce de leche. Mark made this by taking an unopened can of condensed milk, and boiling it for 2.5 hours (although apparently you can go even longer for a darker color and more intensive flavor). This was quite nice! Although I forgot to take a picture (doh!).

After dinner, we watched a terrific dark comedy anthology film, Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales; 2014), about violence and revenge. I'm not sure I learned much about the culture of Argentina from this film, except that bribes and government corruption may be common social concerns. And I suppose that they appear to enjoy a high standard of living and dress fashionably. (I like playing sociologist with these films, but of course, recognize the limitations in making any aasumptions.) 

I was delighted to see one of the characters drinking yerba mate in the traditional fashion, as we had just done. 

A very pleasant evening.

When? November 7, 2020

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) steak with chimichurri, empanadas mendocinas, hearts of palm, fernet and coke, ice cream with dulce de leche (can method)

Argentina Stats

• Population: 44,361,150 (31st in the world)
• GDP: 911.5 (27th in the world)
• Life Expectancy: 76.5 (60th in the world, just after China, at 76.7)
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 810 / 210
• Official Language: Spanish (de facto)
• Highest central bank interest rate (26.25%)
• Largest exporter of pears, vegetable oil, and "football" (soccer) players
• Highest consumption of beef per capita (65.2 kilograms aka 143.7 pounds [!!] per year) -- well, we did our part! 
• Southernmost city in the world (Ushuai)