The Food and Beverage Edition
Since we’re casual fans of several types of beverages, and because it’s been raining for several hours, I thought writing about food and drink would be a good way to pass the time until dinner.
We’re in El Bolsón right now, a small town in the mountains where we came to relax for a few days before heading back to Bariloche. This section of the country seems to be the place for beer, there are five or six local breweries in Bolsón, but I’ll get to that later. I suppose I’ll start with coffee.
Coffee:
The coffee in Argentina is kind of a mixed bag. There are no shortage of coffee shops that will give you espresso, but the regular brewed coffee is not quite as delicious. They roast the beans along with some sugar, which gives it a really nasty burnt taste. We did find some normal (no sugar added) coffee at the grocery store, but it was significantly more expensive. Lacking any sort of coffee technology, we just left those beans alone and will stick to the espresso.
The espresso, or “café con leche” since it’s normally mixed with milk, is pretty standard. The only odd thing is it is served with a shot glass of carbonated water on the side. We’ve been unable to detect any sort of standard behavior concerning the water, some people drink it before the coffee, some after, and some alternate sips.
Not quite coffee, but on the same menu, is hot chocolate. This is more expensive than espresso and usually just made from powder. You are really in for a treat if you find a “submarino”. They give you a glass of hot, steamed milk, and two big nuggets of chocolate on the side. You get to drop the chocolate in and give it a stir.
Beer:
Liquor isn’t too popular, but there is plenty of beer and wine. The standard beer in Argentina is Quilmes, and it’s generally sold by the liter rather than twelve-ounce bottles. There are also quite a few smaller breweries, especially here in Patagonia. Whether it’s Quilmes or the local beers, the normal flavors are blond (basic light lager), red, and black. Black is sometimes a stout and sometimes a bock. The artesanal beers as they are called here, are generally pretty good, but not outstanding. Two of the better ones we’ve found so far are Beagle, from Ushuaia, and Cerveza El Bolsón.
Wine:
Wine can be a tricky subject to discuss, the short answer is that the wine is very good, and much cheaper than in the US. It’s usually from the Mendoza area which is north of our current location but still on the west side of the country.
As usual, things get a little more complex for the wine snobs out there. The common varietals we’ve seen are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. Malbec is also popular, as is the Spanish Tempranillo grape. The other thing of note is that the wines are served younger than in other parts of the world. Maybe it’s because we haven’t been buying the most expensive bottles, but generally the reds we’ve seen are from 2009 or 2008. These young wines haven’t figured out what they want to taste like when they grow up so they can be mild or have lots of different flavors that haven’t melded into one yet. We have yet to find any that have a strong tannin or bite finish to them.
Food:
Argentina is definitely a meat and potatoes kind of place. Not too many spices. Beef dominates the menu, it’s cheap and delicious. It’s odd to see a whole case full of a variety of cuts of beef at the grocery store but only a few chicken breasts prepackaged in the corner. Steaks are a common dinner item, and steak sandwiches can always be found for lunch. Lamb is also popular.
Meal schedules are also a little different than we’re used to, dinner is served between 9 and 11 and there is a siesta just after noon. Breakfast is just bread with dulce de leche, a sweet caramel-type spread, some jam and the burnt sugar coffee mentioned earlier.
A highlight of the food scene was today at the craft market. They were selling the always popular empanadas, local beer, fries, and other street food. The big surprise was waffles, topped with either fruit and cream, or ham and cheese.
