What to eat in Argentina (not just steak)

Hey there, fellow hungry travelers, Mark here with Wolters World. And today we're in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And today we're going to talk about the things you should eat and enjoy when you do come here to Argentina. And the thing is, is when you travel around the world, you go to different places, there's tons and tons of things to eat. I mean, look online, you'll see the 50 things you have to eat in Buenos Aires, the thousand things you have to eat before you die. There is all this stuff out there. But as a traveler, we don't always have the time and the money to eat every single thing out there. So what I want to do here is give you kind of like my focus five or six things that you should definitely have when you're here to enjoy Argentine food and culture kind of together. And the first thing I got to say is when you come here and then what Argentina is most famous for is the steak. Yes, you are going to eat meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, vegetarians, maybe not the best country for you. There are options. But listen, this is a meat eating country. So you're going to have asado, you're going to go and have a barbecue. And you'll go and you'll see the parillas, the the steak houses and the grill houses, and a big huge thing of all the meats cooking on there. And whether it is a bife de chorizo, like a sirloin steak, oh my god, it's so good, or lomo, like a tenderloin, or maybe you want a lomito, which is like a steak sandwich, or maybe a chorizo, just a sausage on there, this great morcilla. There's so many great grilled meats here, you're gonna die because it's so good. I mean, it is so filling and so much tastiness when you are here. But I will say is when you go to eat, when you go and order at these restaurants, and you have your meat, when it says, ah, bife de chorizo, oh, it's gonna give me a steak. The thing is, you got to order your sides on the side, and the portion sizes of the sides are huge. So you can share them, but definitely get out there and eat as much steak and as much beef as you can. Of course, you can go with the pork too, or the chicken or whatever. But for me, the steak here is phenomenal. And I will say though, if you are going to be ordering the steaks, they like them kind of well done here. If you don't tell them, make sure you tell them jugoso, which is like kind of medium rare. That's the way I like it because I like a little pink in there. Here, there's not a lot of pink. So make sure you mention that if you don't like it, well done. Okay. Now the second thing you should have is, I talked about chorizo at the asado, at the grill place. But there's one thing called choripan, and it's just a chorizo, a spicy sausage in bread with chimichurri on top, which is a bunch of like kind of spicy, like veggies kind of chopped up. It looks, you look at it like, oh, it's like kind of like a salsa kind of thing. Yeah, it's so much more than that. And you put it on top, and you have that choripan. And the reason why I love choripan is when you go out and explore outside of Buenos Aires, and you go to the fairs and the festivals and all kinds of stuff. That's one of those really common things you have, and it's so good. So make sure you have a choripan if you get a chance. If you don't have a chance to get a choripan, if you're here in Buenos Aires, don't worry, you can find a super pancho, which is just a big hot dog. You can get that which is very different than choripan, but definitely try to get some of that sausage when you are here. Now the third thing you need to have, we're going into the sweet category, and dulce de leche. And dulce de leche is what it is, it's condensed milk and sugar cooked together and boiled down. If you see it, it looks like caramel, right? But, but don't tell them it's caramel. It's, it is different. I'm gonna take my word for it. When you have them, it is very different. And you'll have that caramel on a lot of different dishes, whether you're having a, you know, a pancake with dulce de leche, or you're putting dulce de leche on your bread in the morning, or you're having your, your media luna, your croissant kind of thing with some dulce de leche in it. It's fantastic. But that dulce de leche shows up in a lot of the desserts. So you do want to have when you're here. And one of the things is when you're walking around, and you go to the kiosk, you want to grab a snack, you're looking for something just to carry around and snack on. Well, the alfajores, I know I'm saying it wrong, but alfajores, it's basically cookie, dulce de leche, cookie, then covered in chocolate, or sometimes it's cookie, dulce de leche, cookie, dulce de leche, choc- cookie, covered in chocolate. I mean, there's a lot of different versions. But that's one of those things you really should have when you are here. So kind of tying that thing with the dulce de leche, because you will want to have that. Another sweet you want to have when you are here is the jalado, the gelato, you know, the ice cream. I know, everyone loves ice cream, and ice cream is great everywhere in the world. But for some reason, here in Argentina, they are off the chart amazing with their ice cream. I actually went to school here back in the day. And that was one of the things, I mean, I lost weight when I was here, because I ate steak, and ice cream, and steak and ice cream, and I exercise a lot, too. And I was younger. But the thing is, the ice cream is unbelievable. And yes, you can go to chains like Freddo and have amazing ice cream. But what I recommend is find some of these little smaller mom and pop places, or artisanal, or artist kind of style ice cream places, they're awesome. And there's a lot of really great flavors you can have there. My personal favorite is banana split ice cream. It's not a banana split. What it is, is banana flavored ice cream, and it tastes like real bananas, not the fake banana stuff. And then it has a little piece of chocolate in it. And then it has a ribbon of dulce de leche through it. Oh my god, it is awesome. But whatever kind you like, you'll be happy because the ice cream is amazing. And then I think the next thing I want to talk about are things you're going to eat when you're in Argentina is the Italian food. So they got the gelato, you know, the ice cream is here from Italy, but then you have the Italian food. And you have lots and lots of Italian restaurants and pastas will show up on a lot of your menus. And how it usually works, they'll give you different kinds of noodles and different kinds of sauces. So you pick and choose to match, and you will be just fine with that. One of the ones I like are the gnocchis here. They're really good. And you'll see they get kind of pop- more popular at the end of the month. It's just one of those things you want to have. Also with the Italian food, you can get pizza when you are here. It is a bit different than if you're used to the US or Italian style pizza. It's more of a thicker, breadier kind of pizza with a lot of cheese on top. And I know if you got kids, and they're used to other kinds of pizza, you might want to take a look before you order it for them, because there might be better stuff for them, like the steak, because your kids are gonna love the meat here. It is awesome to have here. Okay. Now the sixth thing you need to enjoy when you are here, and it goes really well with that meat is the wine, especially the red wines here. They're fantastic. Whether you have a Syrah, or you have a Malbec, I mean, they're just really, really full bodied, really tasty wines. And so you might just go to a cafe and order a bottle wine and sit there and enjoy the day. And it's not just here in Buenos Aires, it's in different parts of the country. And it is really cool because the wine is fantastic when you are here. And the thing is, if you're just sitting back and having that wine, you also might want to have a snack sometime because another thing you should know about eating in Argentina is dinnertime is late. Like sometimes restaurants don't open until eight o'clock. It's not a normal, like not unheard of to have dinner at 10 or 11 o'clock at night. When I lived here, I remember I would keep coming back from the gym about midnight, and there'd be families having dinner and it's midnight and the kids are there. And you know, the kids are asleep at the table, but it's totally normal to eat late. So if you're used to that five, six or seven o'clock dinnertime, you're probably gonna want to grab some snacks, okay? So I'll give you some snacks and we'll get out of here because I'm getting kind of hungry, okay? So in terms of snacks, one thing I recommend is the empanadas. And empanadas, it's dough, it's a filled puff dough pastry, okay? So it's basically you can have carne, you can have beef inside or chicken or ham and cheese, or sometimes they'll put dulce de leche or they'll put different fillings inside, but it's kind of a traditional snack food you'll have here. Now what's cool is it wraps up nice and you can eat it, so it's not that messy when you have it. You don't see people walking around and eating in Argentina, it's kind of not a thing, but if you're gonna do it, empanada is the easiest way to do it. Another thing you'll see, like for snack stuff, you'll see a lot of omelets, a lot of quiches you can grab, or the super poncho, the little hot- the hot dog stuff you have here, those are also nice, simple thing to grab that are usually available all day long. But probably the one thing you'll see the most are the media lunas. The media luna is a croissant, but here their croissants are very- they're sugary. It's almost like there's like a glaze over them. Sometimes they'll be filled with dulce de leche or something like that. But the typical one is just a plain sugar-coated croissant that you have with your coffee in the morning. That's a typical breakfast thing, but also typical snack thing to have during the day. Anyway, I hope this helps you know some of the things you should have when you do come here to Argentina. There's a lot of great food, and it's a really good time to go. And the prices work really well too, so you can eat well, at a good price, have a good time, and just enjoy. So have a great time here in Argentina, eat well, but I know you will because the food's really good. If you want to learn more about visiting Buenos Aires, the don'ts of Buenos Aires, the shocks of Argentina, things like that, check us out on our website at waltersworld.com. We're also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and we really appreciate your like, subscriptions. We hope you have a good time eating here in Argentina, but you will. Bye from Buenos Aires.