Argentina Cuisine

In most parts or Argentina, the most important meal of the day is lunch and most places close for lunch.  This excludes major cities, like Buenos Aires, because the city must continue to run.  During lunch in most places, everything closes down so people can go home for lunch and enjoy a large, home cooked meal.  A lot of the food in Argentina has European influence.  Pasta, bread, and especially meat are an important part of the cuisine.  Eating beef became a tradition in the 19th century when the Pampas region was filled with cattle and the people took advantage of this convenience.  Today, a very popular dish is milanesa, which is breaded beef that is deep friend.  Also, some beef is even served very traditionally with the hide and hair still attached.  Another popular part of Argentine cuisine is a traditional drink, called yerba mate.  Yerbe mate is similar to tea, but is prepared and drunk differently than in the United States.  Yerba mate is prepared by pouring hot water over the yerba plant leaves, which are being contained in a mate, or gourd, which is decorated with silver.  When the gourd is filled with the hot water, the leaves expand and fill the gourd.  To drink the yerba mate, you use the bombilla, which is a straw with a strainer, that is made of silver.