Umami Archives - Page 5 of 7 - In Search Of Umami

Ice ice baby

After a short visit in the hippie village El Bolsón, for a rest in the forest surrounding it, we hit the road again.
Now after a 26 hr bus ride through nothing (barely even trees, not to mention humans) and many police controls (searching for illigal vegetables???!!!) we reached El Calafate. A small town to which people come to see one thing: the GLACIERS!!!:) They are all situated in the National Park closeby. Till now it's the most expensive nature wonder we have ever heard about (if they would invest all the money in ice, they could probably build a glacier). So entrance to the park: 26 euros per day, bus to the park 25 euro, boat excursion to see glaciers 135 euros (you can only see one by bus). Experience and emotion when a piece breaks off the glacier and hits the water: priceless!!
Yesterday we visited the most famous one, Perito Moreno, one of the few glaciers that is still growing and not a little bit but 2 m in the front part per day!! And it's massive! Depending on the source the dimensions change. But just for an idea we talk about kilometers wide and long and 50 m high. And actually you can really admire it from many angles as the infrastructure of the viewing points it's also a world wonder of its own (Chinese wall in Argentina). But what suprised us even more was the rich flora and fauna surrounding the glacier!! Birds, trees, grass, even a cow where you would expect nothing! And when a piece breaks off it's like New Years Eve (both emotionally and when it comes to the sound). Thankfully due to low season we were only us, Perito Moreno and... maybe a hundred of others instead of thousands in the season.
Today driven by the beauty of Perito we took a boat trip to two other glaciers: Upsala and Spagazzini. Upsala is right now in retreat due to global warming which gives you a true Titanic view: icebergs everywhere, big ones small ones, light and dark blue.
Spagazzini is the tallest one in the park (130 m). Breathtaking!:) what nature can create:)

Spegazzini glacier, El Calafate, Argentina

Bariloche

Bariloche is a town situated in the Lake District which is a very popular tourist destination during the summer for climbing, trekking, fishing and during the winter for skiing. Judging by the amount of hotels, hostels, apartments to rent and season houses it is really the argentinian top destination and it's not meant for the poor. All of the houses are gorgeous, with beautiful views and there is no garbage on the street. Now (April& May) it's practically dead, as in autumn there are not many tourists. Although in the next few months it will probably remain quite calm due to recent vulcano eruption in Chile which covered Bariloche with ashes.
But we still love it here:) The whole area is covered with forest so the rainbow of colours is absolutely spectacular (even with ash on it). The town itself is only a start point because all of the breathtaking views are just outside of it, all reachable by public transport. So we enjoyed mountain views (like from Cerro Campanario or Cerrito Llao Llao), lakes (really many), forests (Parque Llao Llao especially arrayanes trees which have really intense cinnamon colour, unfortunately they lose it when they dry out so no chance for some nice furniture).
Tempted by all of the excursions offered in the neighborhood we decided to take one to Isla Victoria and a bigger forest de Arrayanes (both in National Parque Nahuel Huapi) as there was no ferry to the island. During the trip we discovered the biggest passion of South American tourists. And I don't mean enjoying picturesque nature. Nope. Feeding seagulls is their biggest entertainment. The whole way on the boat all of them were trying to feed them with crackers, bread etc stretching themself like crazy to take the best picture. And not just one. Millions. The whole time in the boat (1.5 hr to the island and 1.5 hr back). Now we know why all the homeless dogs are so fat. And off course after all of this feast the birds needed to poo and who is a better target than a gringo tourist:)

Chimichurri

French fries have their mayonnaise or ketchup. Duck has its cranberry sauce. Chicken has its wine sauce. And steak has, according to the Argentinians, chimichurri. This sauce isn't only perfect with a steak but also with beef in general and game meat. In my opinion it is one of the most versatile and delicious meat sauce there is.
This is though my interpretation of the recipe. But then again every "madre" in Argentina has its own so there isn't really an official one.

Ingredients:
- big bunch of oregano (fresh is better then dried)
- big bunch of parsley (same as above)
- a few twigs of rosemary (same as above)
- oil (olive oil or just normal vegetable oil, I don't think you will taste that much of a difference)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 4-5 lemons (juice only) most people use vinagre over here. I'm not a big fan of it so I use lemon juice
- salt
- pepper
- chili (either dried or a fresh rawit or even a jalapeño) (add how spicy you want it)
- water

Recipe:
- now when it comes to quantities you need 1/3 of water 1/3 of oil and 1/3 of acidity. I used 200 ml of water, 200 ml of oil and 200 ml of lemon juice
- chop the oregano, parsley, rosemary, garlic and the chili and add all to the liquid mixture
- season to taste and if it's too acidic add more oil or water
- leave it in the fridge overnight to get the best result

Use the sauce with a steak or actually any kind of meat 😉

WWOOFing

WWOOF is a worldwide organization that permits people like us the experience of living on a farm with locals. And thanks to it we have stayed an amazing month on a farm close to Mar del Plata in Argentina. It's been different from our expectations as the farm is just beginning but we had the time of our life. We felt at home with the family that hosted us. We enjoyed our time over there cleaning, digging, renovating, planting. We truly hope that at some point we will be able to come back there and see the place flourishing! But what we enjoyed the most were people!!! We felt like we were a part of a big family. The hosts are truly inspiring people with lots of ideas and they were always open to talk about everything which allowed us to understand Argentina a bit more. And than the friends of the family. Especially our Euge who showed us really a lot around Mar del Plata and made us laugh on every kilometer of the way. And of course people with whom we volunteered!!! Kathi our German friend who was like a Chinese tourist taking pictures of everything (just like me:))) and a Canadian couple who were full of initiative to do things and with whom we created a nice group:)
On the farm I also became a huge fan of dogs. One in particular: Dingo. We found him on the side of a road when we were going to the city and we saw him again in the same place on the way back. Later he followed us to the farm. He was kind of crazy, scared and skinny but after few weeks at the farm he seemed to resemble a normal dog a bit more but still very enthusiastic. Deep down inside I hoped I could take him home with us. But our trip has just began and it's time for us to hit the road again. This time to Bariloche:)

Made in Argentina

In Europe everything is "Made in China". Well here not, it's "Industria Argentina". Coca Cola, cigarettes, tools, machines, cheese, you name it. Due to import restrictions it's actually difficult to get any foreign products and if you find them they are really expensive. Like for example nuts of all kind which come from Brasil, their prices are truely nuts, way more expensive than in Holland (and noone would call Holland a cheap country). The same goes for chocolate of any kind which hurts us the most:( and pure chocolate we still haven't found!!! But it goes further than that: Argentinian government wants to encourage the people here to spend vacation in their country and to do so they established a 35% tax on tickets abroad and everything you spend abroad. So for example going on vacation you buy a ticket to USA for 1000 dollars and in fact you have to pay 1350 dollars and than 35% on everything that you pay by card. If you would like to take some dollars with you, you need to request dollars explaining why you want them and if you don't earn enough, you won't get them. Also if you would like to buy something online from abroad, it's tax free only under 20 dollars, above that you have to pay ridiculous taxes.
For rich people it gets complicated too. Say you're Argentinian and you want to buy yourself a Ferrari while you're on vacation in Italy. Well first you will pay a lot to actually enter the country with it and than you will have to pray that it doesn't break because if yes it will be impossible to get the parts to fix it. Tough life:)

Eggplant conserve

Argentina is a country that wants to stay independent and not use products from abroad. That's why everyone is dependent on local produce and seasons. And what's better to enjoy fruit and vegetables that are out if season than conserves.
Fruit is typically used to make a marmalade and vegetables are boiled in vinegar with spices and later on used on bread. Especially cooking in vinegar was a bit of a strange technique for us and even a more surprising result. Now eggplant conserve is our absolute favorite conserve which we would like to share:)

Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 big eggplants
- salt
- vinegar
- water
- a few garlic toes
- oregano fresh or dry
- Chili powder or fresh chili
- oil

- peel the eggplants and cut them in about 1.5 cm thick slices
- lay them flat and put salt on them to extract water and bitterness from them
- after 20 min remove all the water from the eggplant with some kitchen towel
- make a solution of about 200 ml vinegar to 20 ml water in a pan and bring to a boil
- boil the slices of eggplant in the solution until they are translucent and cooked
- put the cooked slices into a glass pot add oregano, slices of garlic, Chili powder, some salt and pepper and cover it with oil let it cool off and put it in the fridge overnight
- put the delicious slices onto a piece of bread with cheese

Enjoy!

If you want to be able to store it for a longer period you should, before adding the eggplant slices to the jar, either put the jar in boiling water for 10 min or use some alcohol (around 70%) to kill all the germs

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Tag: Umami

Ice ice baby

ICE ICE BABY

Bariloche

BARILOCHE

Chimichurri

CHIMICHURRI

WWOOFing

WWOOFING