Popular Argentine brands
Argentine way of life is filled with national cultural brands, known far beyond South America. Red wine Malbek from Mendoza, tea mate, beef steaks, ponchos ... yes, all this is (and is popular) in Argentina. However, often true, non-popular color lies outside the country's tourist display. I will tell you about such a twice authentic Argentina.
Food
Argentines really eat a lot of meat and know how to cook it like nobody in the world .With blood and well-fried, on a lattice and stew, beef, pork, chicken, game (in the north - also a rabbit) .This is the first impression .The second impression is garnishes .They are in public catering establishments, which are difficult to name restaurants, but where simple Argentines dine, usually only two: fried potatoes and green salad .In comparison with the broadest assortment of meat, the vegetarian choice is extremely meager .The dominance of meat is a topic of traditional jokes (Argentines treat themselves with irony) .
Alcohol
Wine in Argentina accompanies any serious meal .Everybody knows about it, and in the provinces for a great friendly table there is almost certainly a owner of his own vineyard, who will treat everyone with his own production .The most common Argentine wine is red from grapes of the Malbek variety, but they also produce cabernet, merlot, sir, and also sweet white from the sort of "torrontes" .However, young people, like the rest of the world, are more inclined to beer: each region has its own favorite brand .In the capital, this is Quilmes, by the name of the suburb of Buenos Aires .A party or a fiesta, can not do without the "fern" - a specific bitter herbal tincture, which not only tourists but also the Argentines themselves prefer to drink in a cocktail with cola .Argentineans traveling to neighboring Brazil (and today the practice of moving to the winter, say, in Rio, where it is much warmer) is being carried with them to boxes .
Hot drinks
It's hard to imagine an Argentine without a mother .This word (with emphasis on the first syllable) refers to both the drink itself and the container from which it is drunk .The term "calabash", adopted in Russia, is just one of the varieties of mate, namely: made from dried pumpkin and the cheapest .In the hands of the Argentines themselves, you will often see mate from a tree .A group of football fans, with whom I happened to fly in one plane across the ocean, reluctantly and briefly parted with their mate and indispensable hot water thermos, just passing through the frame at the airport .Even ordinary electric kettles are produced here with the function of heating water up to 70 °, the optimum temperature for brewing mate .However, even in the conditions of such almost narcotic national "matezavisimosti" there are people drinking coffee in the morning .
Restaurants
Find a traditional "steam room" - an institution where you have fried meat in front of your grill, no problem in any corner of Argentina. But paradoxically, not less here than international fast-food. "McDonald's" and "Burger King" are also on every corner and are always full of visitors. At the same time the prices there are somewhat higher than in the steam rooms, and the food ... well, you yourself know. When asked why he went to McDonald's, one familiar Argentinian answered: "Because it's cleaner."
Clothing
Unlike other characters of Argentina, the poncho is not so common. If women still buy their modernized varieties, as well as sew and knit them themselves, then poncho men are practically no longer worn. Instead, a scarf was almost an obligatory clothing accessory. Even the Argentine homeless, begging, fashionably tie it around the neck.