Meat in Argentina

Argentina has the highest per capita consumption of meat in the world. They love to eat meat here, and it's very, very good. The traditional form of meat consumed here is called asado, which is basically an Argentine version of barbecue. Today, the dean of the UCEL business school took me to lunch and I opted for asado.

Unlike in the U.S. where we typically eat one BIG piece of meat, often steak, asado is an assortment of meats, eaten in smaller portions. Today, I had:

Morcilla (pronounced "more-see-zha") (basically a blood sausage)
Chorizo - a sausage, like the chorizo you might be used to
Costilla - (pronounced "co-stee-zha") (beef short ribs)

There are a lot of other meats that can come with an asado. This site summarizes them quite well.

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Argentina/Beef-Cuts-of-Meat/473

Most asado meats are very simply grilled, with salt. I can guarantee that you will not find steak sauce on your table, and if you asked for it I don't think they would know what you were talking about. Ketchup is available in Argentina, but ONLY for french fries. I suspect that if you tried to use ketchup on asado here, you would get a LOT of strange looks. Really, you don't want to put it on the meat since it is so tasty on its own.

So for those of you coming down to visit, if you like meat you HAVE to try asado.

JP