The family was in Argentina that last week. Argentina is a beautiful place with many unique points when it comes to food. For one, meat is just about every course. The country takes pride in its asados, large barbecues. At an asado, no part of the animal is spared: kidneys, intestines, and even blood. It’s definitely not the place to be a vegetarian. They don’t give you water at restaurants. Ordering tap water is frowned upon as barbaric. (Their tap water does taste pretty bad.) Everyone drinks mineral water instead. They eat flan (caramel custard) as their number one dessert, and drink yerba mate compulsively.

Flan

The craziest thing about their eating habits isn’t the food itself, its the timing. They eat four meals. The day starts with a light breakfast of coffee and a pastry. Then at two pm they eat a large lunch. At six they eat a short meal. At ten they eat a large dinner. The two pm lunch is the killer…it can last two to four hours!

I was on vacation so it didn’t matter, but I couldn’t believe people could spend that long eating when they had work to do. It took me awhile but I finally figured out why te patrons didn’t mind that the waiter were taking their time. They have an entire culture of moving slow. No one rushes because no one has anywhere to be.

At one restaurant, the waiter greeted us immediately but only to talk. He didn’t bring us the menu till 45 minutes later- he had to smoke first. It was a six course meal. As in the six things we ordered came out one at a time. My husband asked the waiter why every moved so slow and the waiter responded “because we are already where we have to be.”

It’s such a crazy contrast from our “time is money culture.” We Americans keep rushing to get everywhere. We never do get to where we are satisfied do we? These Argentinians definitely don’t get ask much accomplished, but if they are happier, does it matter? Maybe we should all try taking it slow.