Amazing food in a country of questionable food culture*

*First of all I'd like to say that since Argentina is my own country I feel a bit entitled to a ruthlessnes that I wouldn't have with any other place.

Quirky and very "porteño" restaurant, La Clac.

 But seriously, people, I stand by my theory: Argentina has no proper food culture. I mean it does (as every other place), but it's kind of lame. And the few people who want to cook something different have to go seriously out of their way to get some less common ingredients, and pay so much more for them.

A few of the things I got reminded of when we got there were: No breakfast other than mate -not to be confused with aussie mate- or some coffee and pastries. No spice. Not much offer in supermarkets. Watery,  weak beer. Way too many soft drinks everywhere. Most things you buy have either too much salt or too much sugar. Most meals consist of 5 main ingredients: flour, potatoes, tomato, mild cheese... and the omnipresent meat. So. Much. Meat.

 This being the diet of an alarming percentage of the population, it's surprising how being a big cosmopolitan city can affect the restaurant culture. In Buenos Aires we had many good meals out, and at least 2 remarkable ones.

 Sattva, a wonderful veggie restaurant that understands that "vegetarian" doesn't mean bland, light salads and gluten free bread only; and Manuela Malasaña, a basque food and tapas place.

The first time, Chey took me to dinner on a rainy night downtown walking down Avenida Corrientes, looking at the red lights of the theaters reflecting on the wet asphalt, until we got to the restaurant. A dimly lit place with old wooden furniture and tibetan flags everywhere, where we enjoyed mint-ginger lemonade, home made bread with a carrot dip, and insanely good veggie pasta. So good I didn't even add salt (and remember that my family motto is "there's never enough salt").
We have no pictures because taking your camera for a walk at night is not the smartest thing you could do in Buenos Aires, so you'll have to imagine it. It was yum.

The following time, I took him for dinner in Palermo, the hip and artsy area of the city. We ordered a variety of tapas and "pintxos" which got us extremely full... Ah, and had a liter of sangria, which was just perfect.
 I have an amazingly horrible picture of us there, where I look like a psycho killer and Chey looks as if he was forced to be there by a psycho killer (he later told me he was worried of having some herbs on his teeth). I'm not posting it now because he's not here and I wouldn't want to do it without him knowing it, but I'll ad it later if he's OK with it.

Manuela Malasaña inside.

I also have to write a bit about some things that ARE awesome in argentinian food: Dulce de leche (omnomnom), alfajores (imagine two big cookies, stuck together with dulce de leche between them and covered in chocolate), empanadas and Wine. Wine goes capitalized because it might be the best in the world, and it's also cheap!

My dream wine bottle

Cheap and awesome wine on the Crazy Hooligan night.

But other than those exceptions, most of the time Argentina offers an interesting challenge to anyone trying to get a no-meat-fish-ham-or-chicken meal. Or at least I thought that until we got to Chile, but that's a different story and must be told on a different post.

Yin and Yang of Argentinian food culture: empanadas and mild beer

                                                 

Edit: Chey gave me permission to put up the horrible picture!