Most people also know that Argentina is the beef capital of the world. Any vegetarian's perfect match! Here, all gastronomy revolves around meat. Lunch consists of empanadas (its possible to find veg friendly types), panchos (hot dogs), milanesa (thin breaded meat?), hamburgers, choripan (chorizo sausage on bread), not to mention actual asado (Argentine BBQ), locro (a traditional meat stew), steak, etc... Absolutely no traditional/famous Argentine dish is vegetarian (or pescatarian) friendly... with the exception of alfajores (dulce de leche cookie sandwich) -- carne is probably the only thing that people would draw the line at for pairing with dulce.
The thing is, I don't have any problem whatsoever turning down meat, but what I do have a problem with is missing out on the rich culture of a unique place. The food is such a huge part of life here (along with tango, mate, and vino) and I'm not really getting the chance to experience the full porteño lifestyle. I know I could simply decide to just try a bite of something one day, and for this, a lot of people would probably think this is an empty issue, but the internal conflict of it all has me stumped. Vegetarianism has been a part of my life for so long, its difficult to just choose to eat a freaking cow. I guess I'll be finding out in the sometime near future if I'm willing to take a leap and try one of Argentina's legacies, until then I'll stick to vegetable empanadas and alfajores...
Chau!
P.S. got my nose pierced!
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