Food: Trial and Error

So lately we've been missing food from home a lot. Argentina is famous for its delicious steak, different Italian cuisines, and of course its red wine, and don't get me wrong, it is amazing, but it lacks a certain variety that we are used to in the US. Or maybe we just lack a good enough familiarity to find where the variety exists. Even though we are trying to completely immerse ourselves here, looking for ways to imitate "American" style food has become a guilty pleasure.

Me and my shiny foil-clad burrito

One of the things I miss the most is mexican food, or Tex-Mex I guess, since what we eat is probably nothing like authentic Mexican. Since, I've been dating someone who eats Chipotle 3-4 times per week, I got used to enjoying the delicious burritos, tacos and perfect guacamole perhaps more than the average person. So for my first shot at American food replication, we decided to try the California Burrito Company. A name in English and clearly modeled directly off of Chipotle. Upon visiting the restaurant, that became even more clear, the walls were decorated in tin and only sold the same three options (burrito, taco, burrito bowl, chips). Unfortunately, the food was nowhere comparable. My burrito was too cheesy, not spicy enough, and lacked guac. It was decent, but disappointing. Perhaps I set my expectations too high.

Nope. No good.

Brace yourself

For our next attempt, we tried McDonald's. Though none of us here are really big McDonald's fans, an Oreo McFlurry began to sound appetizing and we were hungry. So Anna, Kylie and I ventured to the nearest location and ordered chicken sandwiches, fries and McFlurries. To our disappointment, the chicken sandwiches weren't really patties but more like giant versions of the McNuggets on buns and the McFlurries weren't blended or very chunky :(  At least the fries were okay.

Kylie and I finally decided that if we wanted something done right, we were just going to have to do it ourselves (feel free to say that part in a Gru accent, Annie). And our "American" food (aka tacos) ended up being a complete success. I know tacos sound simple and easy (especially considering we're in South America) but who knew tacos would be such a struggle? We went on the grocery trip which would have lasted probably 15 min in good ol' Columbia Walmart, but no. We were in the grocery store for more than 2 hours. Tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, cheese- easy, Argentina can do all of those just fine. But literally every other ingredient posed a problem. So to illustrate how what should have been a couple quick errands turned into a multi-day chore, I'll take you through each item:

Taco seasoning

Taco Seasoning- This was actually the inspiration for our meal, a random find far from our grocery store in Recoleta, along with the tortillas (also rare). The trip that could have been a quick stop on the way home from class, became much longer by taking the wrong bus (oops) 


Ground Beef- This part, the first item on our list at our local grocery store, seemed easy enough at first. Grab the first thing in the meat section that looks like ground beef. But wait, is this lean? Oh there's another kind, is that leaner? It's cheaper, is it cheaper because its bad quality? Eventually we had to just say whatever and grab that kind that looks closest to home.

Lemoncello

Drinks- Our original idea was to complete our taco night (and spring break kick-off) with margaritas. Just grab some tequila and margarita and be all set.  Argentina must have something against Mexico, because not only do they not do mexican salsa, but they don't have margarita mix either. Our next substitute idea was Corona with limes. So we picked up some Corona and headed to the produce section when Argentina denied us again: no limes. We headed back to the liquor section and chose a cheap bottle of lemoncello, hoping it would taste something like lemonade (another thing we had missed). It ended up being pretty good, but I wouldn't call it similar to margaritas... or corona w/ lime... or lemonade, but good in itself.

Sour cream substitute

Sour cream- We weren't initially sure if they would have sour cream for sure, but thought it was definitely worth investigating. The dairy aisle was confusing and we didn't really know what anything was. We came up with a couple of contenders but couldn't judge by weight, spanish name, or package which might be sour cream. So we sought the help of an employee and started asking questions about the items. Unable to tell him the spanish term for sour cream, or even the word sour, we had to get creative. We picked a product and asked, [conversation translated into English for clarity] "What would you eat this with?" He responded, "todo", everything. Not very specific, grocery store man. Suspicious that it might be cream cheese we asked, "Would you eat it for breakfast?" "Oh si you could it it for breakfast I guess," He replied. "Would you eat it with fruit?" "No definitely not with fruit." Perfect we thought! So we knew that it wasn't cream cheese and decided to chance it and taste it at home. It ended up being very close, but a little cheesier than sour cream. Not the same, but we were definitely a fan of the product with the tortilla chips. And speaking of the chips...

Made with pride in the USA

Tortilla Chips- We found a cheap box of tortilla chips (a rarity here just like tortillas) at the same place as the taco mix and got those. Easy enough but as soon as we had tried them, we found they were terrible. Something must have been rotten in them. Unfortunately, we didn't figure this out 'til after our grocery trip to Coto, where we knew to have nice, normal, made in the USA tortilla chips. We decided it was worth it to head back in order to fully enjoy our meal. So another 30 min trip to the grocery store and we had the good chips in hand. 


With some quick preparation our meal was finally ready. I don't know if they were just satisfying because we worked so hard to make them perfect or if they were actually the best tacos ever made (I'm boldly assuming the latter). 

Yum!