page_title: Argentine cuisine
section_title: Central region and la Pampa
hierarchical_section_title: Argentine cuisine / Regional differences / Central region and la Pampa
caption_attribution_description: Español: Típica pizzería de la ciudad de Buenos Aires.
context_page_description: Argentine cuisine is described as a cultural blending of Mediterranean influences -during the colonial period-, and the Spanish and Italian influence that came with the immigrants of the 19th and 20th centuries, and cultural blending of the criollo, the Native American influences. Within the wide scope of agricultural products that are abundant in the country, Argentine annual consumption of beef has averaged 100 kg per capita, approaching 180 kg per capita during the 19th century; consumption averaged 67.7 kg in 2007. Beyond asado, no other dish more genuinely matches the national identity. Nevertheless, the country's vast area, and its cultural diversity, have led to a local cuisine of various dishes. The great immigratory waves consequently imprinted a large influence in the Argentine cuisine, after all Argentina was the second country in the world with the most immigrants with 6.6 million, only second to the United States with 27 million, and ahead of other immigratory receptor countries such as Canada, Brazil, Australia, etc.
  Argentine people have a reputation for their love of eating. Social gatherings are commonly centered on sharing a meal.
context_section_description: For long periods, urban areas such as Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba welcomed European immigrants, including, above all, those of Italian and Spanish descent. Nevertheless, there was also a migratory flow of German, Swiss, and Middle-Eastern immigrants arriving in Argentina. Among the countless changes this melting pot brought was the enrichment of the culinary art. Dishes such as pasta, pizza, pucheros (stews), croquetas (fritters), sauces, embutidos (sausages), and chicken and meat courses brought a wider scope of options to daily menus. Furthermore, the bread-making, dessert, pastry, and dairy industries have achieved considerable development in this region.
  The above-mentioned dishes have developed a distinctively Argentine nuance. That is why, for example, Argentine pasta includes a wide variety of dishes ranging from spaghetti, fusiles (fusilli), ñoquis (gnocchi), ravioli, cintas (pasta ribbons), and lasagne to the Argentine-made sorrentinos, agnolottis (agnolotti), canelones (cannelloni), and fetuchines (fettuccine).
  Pizza—made with very thin, and sometimes thick, high-rising doughs, with or without cheese, cooked in the oven or a la piedra (on a stone oven), and stuffed with numerous ingredients -— is a dish which can be found in nearly every corner of the  country. Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba also serve it with fainá, which is a chick pea-flour dough placed over the piece of pizza. People say that what makes the Argentine pizza unique is the blending of Italian and Spanish cultures. At the turn of the 19th century, immigrants from Naples and Genoa opened the first pizza bars, though Spanish residents subsequently owned most of the pizza businesses.
  Bread products are consumed all around the country. The deeply rooted bread, pastry, and dessert-making tradition derives from blending the above nationalities' products. Bakeries sell not only a wide scope of breads, cookies, and cakes, but also pastries. The latter resembles a sort of roll pastry whose main dough ingredient is either butter or fat and which may be simple or stuffed with dulce de leche, milk, jam, crema pastelera, or quince or apple jelly, among other fillings. The most popular type of pastry is said to be that of mediaslunas (singular: medialuna, literally half moon, that is to say, crescent), based upon French croissants. Furthermore, sandwiches de miga are another type of bread products; they are made only with thin layers of white bread (generally referred to as crustless bread) and stuffed with food items ranging from ham and cheese to other more sophisticated combinations such as raw ham, tomatoes, olives, hard boiled eggs, tuna, lettuce, red pepper, and the like.
  Desserts and sweets are usually stuffed or covered with dulce de leche. The latter can be eaten alone or on top of cakes, alfajores, panqueques (crepes), and pastries, or as a topping spread over flan de leche. Chantilly cream is widely consumed and used in preparing sweets and desserts. Additionally, cakes, sponge cakes, and puddings are very popular dishes. Italian ice-creams in this region also achieved a significant degree of development by adding local flavors that somehow preserved the local spirit involved in their preparation.
  Although asado is eaten all over the country, its origin may be traced back to the Pampas. It entails manifold types of meat, which are generally eaten as follows: achuras (offal, or the cow's inner parts), morcilla (blood sausage), and sometimes also a provoleta (a piece of provolone cheese cooked on the grill with oregano) are eaten first. Then comes the choripán (a kind of spiced sausage made with pork or lamb and placed between two slices of bread), and lastly meat such as asado de tira, vacío (flank steak), lomo (tenderloin), colita de cuadril (rump), matambre (rolled stuffed steak cut into slices and served cold), entraña (hanger steak); the list is never-ending. It is quite common to eat and enjoy a dish known as cabrito al asador (roast kid or goat) in the province of Córdoba.
caption: Typical pizzeria from Buenos Aires.
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