Every Friday at my internship we engage in the most argentine of all argentine activities: we make an asado. It is arguably my favorite part of the week here. At first glance an asado, for the uniniated, appears to be your standard barbeque like we have at home. But it is oh so much more than that. Walk around the park in Puerto Madero any given Sunday and there are tons of families grilling, laughing, and just hanging out. Meat is a huge part of the Argentine ethos and asado is a reflection of this. It is a process. First there is the choosing of the meat. I went last week with my boss to the carneceria and let me tell you, it was a process. He asked questions like, "when did this meat come in?" and "from which farm?" I have never done that, or seen anyone else do that, in any American supermarket. Next there is the actual cooking of the meat. Usually it is a staffer named Emilio who does the cooking, and he starts the grill at about 12 to eat at 3. You see, an asado cannot be rushed. The grill has to get to the exact temperature and the meat has to cook slowly, to make it soft enough to eat in a sandwich. Then, finally there is the eating, my favorite part! Asados are a huge part of the argentine community fabric and my group at Bairexport is no exception. We take a long break from work and just hang out and joke around. I have learned a ton of Argentine slang from these hours, let me tell you. I don't do asados with my host family since the girls go with their dad on the weekends, so I am really grateful to have a Bairexport family with which to learn about the asado process.
I won't post again until after Roberta leaves, so try not to miss me too much. I'm sure that post will be a novel as I detail all of our adventures around this amazing city :)
Besos
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