Argentine Cooking Lessons

My program organized an excursion to a culinary school, where we could participate in a cooking class creating various flavors of Argentina. The chefs of Sibaritas Academia Culinaria y Agro Negocios were our hosts.

We arrived late morning ready to start preparing a refined Argentine lunch. We began by splitting up into three groups. My group was lead by the head chef. The other two groups were lead by two promising students. My group prepared the main courses of the meal. We began with the filling for the empanadas. Later we learned how to fold the dough around the empanadas.

LEFT: Head chef adding to empanada filling
RIGHT: Empanada team.
They were beautiful!...most of them :/

My group also prepared the baked potato wedges, and flambeed salsa served over the grilled steak later. 

Group two prepared all the side salads: potato salad with homemade mayonaise and a beautiful green salad. 

Group 3 prepared the bread sides and dessert: homemade bread rolls and salsa on top, and crepes filled with dulce de leche. 

 While most of the food was baking, Group three leader and culinary student lead us through the school's garden. Home grown vegetables, edible flowers, small vineyard, olive trees and chicken coop. They also walked us through the process they use to make their Extra Virgin Olive Oil which they package and sell.

Some of us could not resist when we were invited to eat the grapes right off the vine. They were delicious. 

After the garden tour, the chefs called for two volunteers to be the planchadores (aka masters of the grill). 

The steaks they had us grill were impressive. Some were way too thick to grill. Some were left practically raw afterwards, but most of them were juicy and delicious.

This was the finished products of my group: empanadas, baked potatos, rice and steak and salsa. 

This was the finished product of all the groups (minus dessert). It was amazing. I dream about lunches such as this...especially the steak!

The school awarded each participant with a certificate of participation and completion of the course.

Upon my return the same afternoon, the culinary marvels continued. The next cooking lesson took place in Marcos' (Maddie's boyfriend) family's house. Marcos' mother was happy to host Maddie and I as she taught us her ways around making homemade candy filled chocolate eggs for Pascua (Easter), which she later elaborately decorated. Unfortunately I was not in town during the decorating party. 

Our first creations were egg sheep! And yes they are filling with candies as well. Marcos' mother was determined to recreate an entire scene she saw online with sheep on chocolate egg hills. It was adorable. We only got this far. 

The next products were the basic eggs which were later decorated for gifts and decorations for Easter. The whole process was spectacularly clever and it is definitely a tradition I am bringing home. We have evolved from coloring hard boiled eggs...chocolate eggs taste better! 

Getting to know Mendoza, Argentina

After the first two weeks in Mendoza, I've started to get to know the city where I'll be living for the next 6 months a little bit better. I didn't feel the "culture shock" that I expected when I first arrived. Argentina is more Westernized than I expected, especially considering the city is highly conservative and more traditional than Buenos Aires. Mendocinos still practice "la siesta," where almost the entire city closes for a few hours somewhere between noon and 5pm. A concrete siesta time does not exist. It is dictated by the store owner's whim, as goes for any timed engagements in this city and the country for that matter. 

The hardest thing to get used to here, was the Mendocinos' sense of time. Nobody here is in a hurry and you should never expect anything to get done in a reasonable amount of time. Mendocinos like to take their time, relax and talk. Understand that dances, who's flyers said 21:00 actually start at 23:00. At home I was the type to arrive 5-15 minutes late to every thing and stress out the whole way there; here I just remember that I am never late, because they are later and never arrive early unless I want to waist a lot of time. 

The most frustrating part after first arriving was having to rely on other people, mostly on my host family. If I was trying to meet up with other Americans in my program at a previously agreed upon time and place, my ride was always at least an hour later. This problem was compounded by the fact that I didn't have a working cell phone for Argentina yet. Now if I need to get somewhere at a specific time, I quickly learned to fly solo, because I am the most reliable person to fulfill my own needs. Everybody else is preoccupied with their own. 

Another thing to get used to, that I would not have experienced if I had not elected a program with host family stay, was the difference in meal times. Breakfast happens whenever you get up. No one really eats breakfast together unless mom is preparing food for the children. Breakfast is not a large meal either. Coffee and bread is a common Argentinian breakfast. Since I've been here my breakfast every morning has been corn flakes and yogurt, instead of milk. Everything here you buy in bags; milk, yogurt, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salsa golf (a very popular condiment, a mixture of mayonnaise and ketchup), etc. The yogurt is a liquid consistency. The first time my host mom asked me if I wanted to drink milk or yogurt, it threw me off a little bit. Lunch occurs during the siesta. My host family eats around 14:00 normally. Lunch is a family event. The first day I was here my host family and the mother's sister's family, who are also housing a student from my program next door, ate together and the grand parents came over. Lunch consists of a lot of meat. I have had more good steak for lunch than I ever ate for dinner at home! There is usually more than one type of meat, ham and cheese being a favorite and cooked on everything. Steak and chorizo (sausage) are the other most popular. Hamburgers are not very common here. Hamburgers are made almost exclusively for children's birthdays because they are quick and easy. There is always some sort of "salad" present, however they are not what North American's visualize as a salad, which has mostly lettuce, romaine, or spinach and then dressed with other vegetables and dressing. Salads among my host family are any mixture of vegetables drowning in olive oil. Almost every meal we have some sort of tomato salad; tomato and cucumber, tomato and pepper, tomato and lettuce, or just tomato, but always dowsed in oil. Dinner is not a spectacular event. Its a lot smaller and not everyone is present. There is a lot of the same food that you see at lunch time, just smaller. I have eaten homemade pizza with melted brie a couple times already. Most of the time I eat lunch left overs. There is rarely dessert at home and there are few sweet things in the house. What does exist is usually eaten very slowly. Since I've been here, there has been a small  individual size cup of dulce de leche in the frig that slowly disappears. My host mom made a lemon cake yesterday and that, on the other hand, has been disappearing faster. I won't deny it is absolutely delicious! 

If you were in search of desserts here, there are Heladerías (ice cream parlors) on every corner! I am in heaven! At first it was a guessing game, having no knowledge of what the flavors were. They do let you sample ice cream and there are a few English titled flavors, such as lemon pie, and banana split. However, banana split is made with dulce do leche and it is way better than banana split in the US! There is a wide selection of flavors and cone shapes and sizes and they are all cheap, especially considering you almost always get two scoops! I have also heard tell about an ice cream marathon here in Mendoza, where people go to all 300 or so ice cream parlors in the city and sample the ice cream and then leave for the next parlor. Something that made it onto my bucket list immediately! 

These were the first few good and bad surprises in Mendoza and there are more to come!