A continued foray into Argentine cuisine: Italian influences

Recently while doing my finances, I discovered that I've lived quite frugally in the first half of my stay here in Buenos Aires, so I've taken it upon myself to be slightly more adventurous with my spendings, especially with regards to food.

On one particularly bustling morning, I didn't have time to make myself breakfast, so I decided to buy a chocolate bar instead. This went against every healthy eating habit that I've been taught, but the wrapping was incredibly appealing - and I was very hungry.

Comes in tons of other varieties, like cookies 'n' cream, white chocolate, and more!

Of course, it would be filled with dulce de leche, or as the natives here call it DDL. I personally think that is better than any milk chocolate caramel bar I've had in the States because the DDL doesn't seem to stick in your teeth as much as caramel does.

Some of my other unhealthy eating habits have included Maruchan instant noodles!

Roast Beef and Spicy Chicken flavors!

I'm always interested in comparing how the same brand offers different selections between the US and Argentina. I've recently picked up a cheese flavored instant lunch as well, so I'm actually very excited to try it out since cheese is a rarely seen ingredient in even psuedo-Asian cuisine.

Last week, I had a relatively short day at work on one of the days, so I decided to spontaneously get off the bus on my way home before reaching my destination. Since it was a relatively nice day, I could get around with just my North Face jacket and a t-shirt, something my P.I. believes is an adaptation I acquired for having come from the Pacific Northwest. Native Argentinians don't seem to do too well with the cold and are usually doubly bundled up than I am. On my way through the streets, I discovered one of Argentina's must-go destinations, Freddo's Ice Cream.

Freddo may be one of Argentina's national culinary treasures. Many Argentinians believe that Argentinian ice cream is quite possibly the best kind of ice cream in the world, making Freddo's ice cream the best of the best. Even my friends who have traveled to Argentina before have recommended it to me, so I thought it was definitely worth stopping.

One thing I've been wary of is that the process of ordering food from restaurants and eateries are not entirely the same as they are in the US. I've also learned that to get exceptional service in Argentina (and probably anywhere else in the world), it's best to be confident and say "I've heard that your establishment serves the best (insert food) in the whole country!" After buttering up the cashier, I was kindly introduced to the menu items and how to go about ordering something.

Classic DDL on the bottom and Chocolate Almond on top.

Freddo's can be seen as one of the many products of Italian immigrant influence on Argentinian culture. The ice cream has a consistency more similar to gelato and is definitely better than your typical Baskin Robbin's brand. There were a wide variety of flavors to choose from, but I had to get the DDL flavor (where else would you get it?). The cashier recommended the chocolate almond, and its mild and earthy flavors ended up being a great compliment to DDL's sweetness.

One thing that has been concerning me was my diet in Argentina because I feel that there is not many fruits and veggies available as there are in the US. Argentinians don't seem to be as health-crazed as Americans with the organic-this and the organic-that. They regularly consume french fries or other starchy foods as sides to their breaded and fried meat cutlets, and it seems like a greater majority of the adult population in Argentina smokes than a similar demographic in the US. With these observations aside, I've been alarmed by the great intake of red-meat that I've endured in the last few weeks, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found a vegetarian option in the school cafeteria.

Eggplant milanesa with lettuce and tomato slices. 

Granted, even this vegetarian option had a breaded and fried component to it. But the ensemble of colorful vegetables in my mouth was a welcome and delightfully delicious surprise. Even though I usually abhor raw tomatoes, I couldn't stop taking bites into the sandwich. Eggplant milanesa is definitely one of my new favorites. I think my labmates were amused with how much I was enjoying this sandwich.

Even the style of cooking involved with milanesa is a very much Italian-influenced dish. Although it goes by a different name in Italy (cotoletta), this cuisine is as popular in many parts of South America as it is in the assumed origin of the dish, Milan, and its surrounding areas. The wave of Italian immigrants also brought with them a globally recognized tradition in the form of pizza.

In a previous post, I had a picture of matambre a la pizza, which is a thin cutlet of meat with pizza-like toppings on it. In a very similar rendition, Argentinians have made the genius cross between pizza and milanesa to create the ultimate Italian fusion cuisine:

milanesa suprema a la napolitana

The chicken milanesa cutlet was topped by a very thin layer of tomato sauce, a slice of cured ham, mozzarella cheese, tomato, and some herbs sprinkled on top. Again, the addition of the tomato was welcomed in an attempt to balance out everything else that went into the dish. The sauce itself is very light and used sparingly, compared to American pizzas which seem to put a comparatively greater emphasis on the sauce. It is also a slightly lighter variety, more akin to some types of Mexican salsa with actual chunks of tomato present.

After walking past a pizzeria for the past month, I finally gathered up enough courage to go and order some authentic Argentinian pizza. It was certainly an interesting experience because, as with ordering ice cream, ordering pizza in Argentina is not an entirely familiar process. I went into the pizzeria and attempted to give my order. And although there was some need for using hand signals and pointing, I managed to get the message across. Interestingly enough, they insisted on delivering the pizza when I asked for a to-go order, even though I was perfectly fine with waiting for the order. Since I didn't have  my house phone # memorized, the owner told me to call his cell phone when I came back home. Once I walked the few blocks back and confirmed my order through phone, the delivery man came 20 minutes later with my orders.

Calzona di gulfo napolitano y la suprema especial pizza

In Argentina, I've developed the mindset to always buy in bulk, at least when it comes to food. Since cooking for every meal can be tiresome, I like to think ahead for the potential leftovers I will have that will greatly save me some time and effort. As such, I ordered a large calzone and a large pizza, although they ended up being a lot larger than I anticipated. Apart from one of the items being named in Italian, the Italian influence is very obvious in this branch of Argentine cuisine. In fact, I believe the owners of the pizzeria were from direct Italian ethnic backgrounds.

My favorite out of the two was definitely the calzone. It was completely stuffed with cheese, onions, tomatoes, olives - the works. The parmesan-garlic encrusted dough and strips of roasted red bell peppers brought the entire dish together. The pizza was definitely an eclectic mix of ingredients that I have never seen on pizzas before. Similar to the milanesa suprema, the pizza had a very, very thin layer of sauce. It was proportionately replaced with cheese, a layer of ham, more cheese, and topped off with red bell peper, hard-boiled eggs, artichoke, and olives. I was not a fan of the olives because it made the dish too salty for me, but these pizza slices definitely worked well as leftovers for the next few meals as any slices of cold pizza do.

And thus comes the end to another great week. Right now, I am actually writing up a report for my project because my P.I. believes that we have reached the conclusions we set out to find. And for the remainder of the trip, I will start working on a second project with another important mechano-sensory cell located in the leech ganglion. We have promising preliminary data on this project already and hope to finish this up before I leave in about a month! Time has definitely passed by quickly here.