El Almuerzo

Quite a bit of the food in Buenos Aires is actually fairly similar to what we eat back home…beef (though I will elaborate on this in a future post), french fries (papas fritas), pizza and pasta. 

For lunch (el almuerzo), common fare might include a tarta or a few empanadas. While most of you have probably had empanadas before, they’re not exactly something we eat regularly in the EEUU (Estados Unidos=United States). Empanadas are basically filled pockets of dough, and they are the perfect lunch, dinner or snack to get you through to the next meal. From what I’ve seen, here in Buenos Aires they are most commonly al horno (baked) rather than frito (fried). The options seem practically endless, but the most common fillings are: carne (meat), carne picante (spicy meat), humita (corn), queso y cebolla (cheese and onion), verdura (vegetable), jamón y queso (ham and cheese) y pollo (chicken). Of course,  there are also dulce (sweet) empanadas, but that´s for another day. Besides the versatility and sheer deliciousness of these savory little pockets, I also love the unique shape used to denote what is inside. 

Key to Empanada Shapes, courtesy Mi Matute in Recoleta

How brilliant! I am still trying to figure out if shapes are consistent across bakers or not…more sampling to do, I guess.

Tarta de Calabaza y Mozzarella

A little after 14:00 (that's 2 pm to you), I ventured out onto the streets in search of sustenance. Remember, everything happens later here. A noon lunch meeting would be unheard of. Today I decided to have a tarta (tart, pie) for lunch. I've mostly seen savory tartas here, but apparently they do come sweet as well. There are many flavors of these as well: jamón y queso (seems jamón y queso is an option no matter what you are ordering), zapallito (a round zucchini that seems overly abundant here), pastel de pollo (chicken) and calabaza y mozzarella (pumpkin and mozzarella). Sometimes they have only a bottom crust and other times there is top crust as well. A slice of tarta is the perfect lunch, especially when accompanied by a chopped tomato from the local verdulería (fruit and vegetable shop).

Buen provecho!