Travelling Argentina: Food Edition - Part 2

The Patagonia covers a large area of Argentina. It is a flat dessert-ish land covered in short shrubs as far the eyes can see. (Well, this is true until you get close to the Chile-Argentina boarder.) It has it's charm and little cute animals running around, nandous, maras, guanacos, and most importantly the corderos. Corderos are cute fluffy Patagonian sheep raised for wool and meat. It is the most common kind of meat consumed in Patagonia. And boy, is it delicious!

We visited the "Pampa" to visit the gauchos. They served up the best empanada that I have ever had in my life. It had a perfect buttery and flaky crust with and oddly moist filling. The filling was made of potatoes, ground beef, green peas, onions. Yum Yum Yum! It's definitely one of the dishes that I want to try to recreate. The gauchos also served us a butt load of grilled meats (pork, beef, lamb) and sausages. This was about day 4 of our 19 day tour and I was beginning to think that Argentinians are not much for salads or vegetables. Most of the time, we were served a bowl of shredded carrot with a few slices of hard boiled eggs on top. To be honest... I also found it quite odd that they use only balsamic vinegar and olive oil as salad dressing. (Yes... with carrots and eggs.) Here's a photo of a postcard that I sent myself highlighting glory of the Pampa.

My favorite dish has to be the cordero al asador. The entire carcass of the lamb is opened and put on a cross over a fire pit. There are 3 ingredients required for a cordero al asador: 6-8 kg lamb, fire piled high with a good amber made from native wood, and salmuera. The salmuera is basically salt water (about 80% salt) with garlic and rosemary. It is used to braise the lamb while it cooks over the fire. The lamb stays tender as it is slow-cooked in its own fat. From fire to table, the cordero al asador takes 6-9 hours. The result is very very juicy meat with crispy skin covering the surface. It's delicious especially when paired with chimichurri (a sauce made from oil, hot peppers, garlic, and vinegar). Here's a picture of the delicious goodness that's the cordero al asador!

Last but not to be missed is the Patagonia beer! The Patagonia amber lager was probably the only local beer that we had tried and liked!

Image source: http://creativeroots.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Patagonia-Amber-Lager-Beer2.jpg