Ñoqui, mate, parrilla and dulce de leche

The food is very good in Argentina, although many would probably get bored after a while of so much meat... (probably more difficult for vegetarians though). Even the chilean say that food in Argentina is very good and that is something! Of course italian style food is very common (as is spanish type food), lots of pasta of which ñoqui are very special (gnochhi in italian). As a tradition argentinians usually eat ñoqui every 29th of the month... don't know why. Argentinian meat is excellent (and I'm not much of a meat lover). But beef (ternera), cordero (lamb), pork, sausages, chorizos, and even some sort of deer meat (ciervo, which I ate in Bariloche) are excellent. That is the usual parrilla (read parridja, 'cause in Argentina 'll' is read 'dj' or 'tch'), which is charcoal grilled, delicious. I wish we had more argentinian meet in Europe...
Fish is not so common here, except salmon, which is industrially produced in lakes and damms. In the lakes region and in Patagonia especially, salmon and sometimes trout (trucha) is very common. In Chile however, fish and seafood is very common and it seems that they eat it a lot more, although parrilla is also strong. In Chile I had congrio (white sea fish) with seafood, in an exquisite bisque de homard sauce... delicious... and also chupe de centollo, some sort of crab soufflé, in Puerto Natales, which was also delicious.

'Mate' is THE drink in these parts of south America, from South Brasil (Rio Grande do Sul) to the whole Argentina and Chile. It is some sort of tea from local herbs and they're always drinking it, even when travelling. It is drank from a recipient which is shared by everybody, all drinking from the same 'straw' which is usually metalic. It seems that is was already drank by the indigenous people who were here before the european arrived.

As for deserts the dulce de leche is the must here, eaten in different forms and combinations, very sweet, in icecreams (don't miss Freddo icecreams, amomg the best here), with chocolate, etc. And of course the alfajores (biscuits), in particular those from Havanna.

Coffee is okay here, although not as good as in Portugal or Italy, but expresso from Havanna is of the best. And what is funny is that in most places one gets a little glass of sparkling water with it.

In any case in Buenos Aires there are many many good restaurants and a wide choice of varied food. And if you like it there are quite some good fashionable or simply modern restaurants, combining good food with nice atmosphere.