Buenos Aires, Argentina: Cooking Class and Tango Show

On the evening of May 10th we had a cooking class where we learned how to make traditional Argentinian empanadas. Empanadas are a baked pastry that is stuffed with meat, cheese or vegetables (or a combination of them).

Empanadas are shaped differently depending on the stuffing:

We were taught how much stuffing to put inside, and how to seal the empanada shut, and twist the outer edges into a nice pattern. Here’s me with my empanada (before it was cooked):

After making empanadas (and eating them) we had a delicious steak dinner (cooked by the chefs at the restaurant). I had heard so much about Argentinian steak, and I had friends tell me that the steak in Argentina is the best steak I will ever eat. So I had pretty high standards going into the dinner. My steak was pretty good, but honestly I’m not sure if I found it better than the steak we make back at home on the BBQ!

After dinner we got to try some authentic Argentinean tea called Mate. In Argentina there is a whole culture around Mate, and it is not like the teas we drink at home. You drink it from a special cup, out of a small metal straw. The tea leaves are poured directly into the cup (before pouring water). You then cover the top of the cup with your hand and shake the cup. By doing this you separate the powder (and fine dust) from the leaves, and you can then blow the excess powder off your hands and from around the top of the cup. The straw is then placed into the leaves, and the cup is filled with hot water (but the tea is not stirred). The tea is drank through the straw (the straw has a little strainer at the end to block the leaves). Traditionally the mate cup is shared between a group of people, all passing it around and drinking from the same straw. I was surprised how common it was around here! I saw people on the street and in stores with their mate cups and straws, and even our bus driver had a mate cup in his cup holder so he could drink mate tea while driving!

While in Buenos Aires we also went to a Tango show! The Tango originated along the border between Argentina and Uruguay in the mid 1800s, in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay). The show we watched was at a dinner theatre, where we first ate dinner (I had steak again), and then we were given a 1 hour tango lesson, and finally we watched a tango show. The tango lesson was an interesting experience, I didn’t realize how much coordination it takes to tango! After my lesson I was given a certificate for completion.

The Tango Show performance was great! I had never watched a tango show before, and I really enjoyed the performance. I think I also appreciated it much more after having the tango lesson, so I could fully understand the complexity of the moves!  The dance moves they taught us in the lesson were no where near how complex the ones they performed were!

This was our last night in Buenos Aires, and I was sad to leave! I had such a great time in Buenos Aires! I loved the culture, the architecture and the feel of the city, and I hope to visit it again.