Hotdog Condiments

Hotdogs get a lot more attention in Argentina than they do in the states.  The most basic hotdog comes with at least 5 or 6 condiments.  We haven't gotten the chance to try one down here yet, but we'll give you our feedback when we do!

This was about half of the display, all exclusively for hot dogs!

Carne

Argentinian meat is said to be some of the best in the world. The high-quality beef that's omnipresent in Argentine restaurants and supermarkets is famously hormone and cruelty free, and is extremely lean due to the amount of exercise that the cows receive in their open pastures. Given the fact that Rives and I watched Food Inc. the night before we left for South America, and have more or less sworn off American beef, we've been extrmely happy to indulge in Argentine carne. Some of our favorite meat-speriences:

Jumbo parilla in Montevideo's Marcado del Puerto, a charming, enormous marketplace filled with open parilla restaurants. (Technically in Uruguay, not Argentina, but close enough!)

This waiter was trying to explain the different cuts of meat to me, but I got a bit distracted.

Huge delicious steaks (ojo de bife and bife de chorizo) at Rosalia, a traditional parilla restaurant in Palermo, Buenos Aires. We requested that the steaks be "jugoso," or "juicy."

Brochette de lomo at La Cabrera, one of the most excellent (albeit, tourist-filled) steak houses in Buenos Aires. If you go here, get this. Service includes a bounty of outstanding free side dishes.

Choripan was our street food of choice in BsAs. Juicy chorizo, fresh crispy bread, and chimichurri. que rico.

Homemade Empanadas

We recently discovered empanada wrappers sold for next to nothing at a grocery store in Buenos Aires...we were overjoyed and have made homemade empanadas several times since.  I'm sure that making the wrappers yourself can't be too difficult.  We'll definitely have to learn when we get back to the states.

You can put anything under the sun into these little wrappers.  This time, we chose to stuff them with steak, caramelized onions, celery, and roquefort.  We also made a sweet one with plum and roquefort that turned out great!

You can wrap them up in a number of different ways.

Then toss them in the oven for about 20 minutes...we would tell you a specific temperature, but John's oven is too broken to set and the empanadas seem to turn out tasty regardless.

Find stick to hold oven closed if necessary...

Enjoy!