User Rating: 5 / 5
By Ewan Moffat
Famed for its diet of meat, meat and more meat, my dabbling in vegetarianism has been put on hold since my arriving in Argentina. Hamburgers, hotdogs and of course steaks being the call of the day, near enough every day since my arrival a fortnight ago. This weekend I was invited to my first Asado for a celebration of a friend’s mother 71st birthday.
After a productive week in the classroom is great to get out and practice out in the real world - and with some tasty morsels too of course. Arriving at the house, met with the obligatory kiss on the cheek, I was shown out to the back garden where the food was cooking up. On the grill were a giant stack of Chicken and Chorizo though these were second fiddle to the entire goat slow roasting in front of an open fire. It was great to get to witness and enjoy such an essential part of Argentinian culture with my friend’s father, and self-proclaimed Gaucho, manning the grill.
In a manner reminiscent the Mediterranean culture in mainland Europe, Argentinian meal time seems to centre around family, community and good eating. The meat falling off the bone and onto our plates we were well fed and I was once again blown away by the incredible openness and hospitality that has so far been an theme of my time in Bariloche, and in the Andes in general. Though it is still relatively early in my learning Spanish it has been incredibly rewarding to feel the progress in my comprehension of the language since starting up with language classes. And I’m not sure I can imagine a more welcoming and friendly a place as Bariloche to actually put that learning into practice.
