Top Five Argentine Food Groups

I must do a top five list in honor of my HippoFriends (a tradition inspired by the movie High Fidelity). Without further ado, the top five Argentine food groups:

1) Mayonaise (mayonesa): It is a table condiment, sometimes even over and above salt and pepper. There is an entire section for it at the grocery store. Our host family`s son ate it with every meal, even in his lentil soup. They serve it on burritos instead of sour cream at ¨Mexican restaurants.¨ Enough said.

2) Sweets (dulces): Sweets are on every corner, in every store. The preferred ways of piping sugar into the bloodstream are by way of chocolate, pastries, dulce de leche (a carmel spread), ice cream, and alfajores (a glorified moonpie that Argentines can`t imagine living without).

3) Ham & Cheese (jamon y queso): It`s hard to get away from ham & cheese here. There are ham & cheese pizzas, ham & cheese croissants (media lunas), ham & cheese toast, ham & cheese flavored crackers and potato chips, and, of course, ham & cheese sandwiches. In fact, you can`t get any other kind of sandwich without looking really hard. If you like turkey & cheese sandwiches, you´re plain ol`out of luck.

4) Steak (bife, lomo, asado): The steak in Argentina is famous around the world, and now I understand why. It is truly incredible and melts in your mouth, even at the dodgy-ist looking restaurants and bars. I think that one of the Argentine secrets to cooking the perfect steak is an amazing ¨chimichurri¨sauce, which they douse the steak in before, during, and after cooking it.

5) Potatoes (papas): Potatoes are the only commonly served vegetable around. Potatoes are fried, baked, mashed... prepared all the usual ways. But green veggies are nowhere to be found on restaurant menus.