Ok, so now its my turn to write a blog, mainly because Ive got a bit of time and cant quite type as quickly as "quick hands" Weaver!

My chosen subject today is food. Nic and I are, as you are probably aware, quite big foodies and enjoy most things put on our plates and, so far have not been dissapointed much.

Breakfasts have been included in every hostel we have stayed in. They tend to include a lot of bread with a variety of jams and Dulce de Leche (a sweet toffee-like spread that I will mention again later), cerial, coffee and juice. In Rio they love their fruit and we were given a good selection for breakfast and throughout the day at the many juice bars across the city. We miss the selection of fruit a little now as in Argentina breakfast isnt an important meal, not like it is in the UK. Two friends we have met along the way, Veronica and Martin, (both from Buenos Aires) were quite horrified of the fact that back in the UK I would have sausages, bacon and eggs for breakfast!! Nic pointed out that not all British people start the day with a fry-up!

The picture attached to this blog is of me with a catch of Piranah from the Pantanal. When we returned to the lodge the fish were prepared and cooked by our guide Jonny "no shoes" Indiana. The way they were prepared was just by de-scaling them and gutting them, thats it! Then the whole fish is cooked in a hot pan of butter. They were very tasty and increadibly easy to eat off of the bone. Meals mainly consisted of rice, beans and different types of casserole. Not the most inspiring of things to eat but tasty enough none the less. Paraty was another good place for fresh fish and was done to perfaction on more than one occasion cooked in a garlicy-cream prawn sauce and lightly battered in oil.

Now we are in Argentina and the one of the things the Argentines are famed for and do very well is steak. And I mean they do it VERY well. Tasty, suculent cuts that melt in your mouth. This is the section of the blog that I was most looking forward to writing about, but find it very difficult to put into words just how good it is! Get on a plane come to Argentina and try one. You wont regret it! Bife de chorizo is my favorite cut, its a sirloin, very thickly cut and is also a very popular cut. Vacio is another popular cut, its a flank steak that is textured and chewy but very tasty with a healthy line of fat running down the side. All meat is cooked on an open BBQ and the streets at night are filled with the smoke from the restaurant chimneys and the smell of barbequed meat. Most restaurants have a perspex screen between the restaurant and kitchen so you can watch the chefs turning huge slabs of meat, it is like watching a massive TV with the worlds best programme on!!

Offal is served as a starter to share and is again cooked perfectly. Sweetbreads (neck glands), intestine, liver, kidneys and blood sausage (black pudding) are extremely tasty and great way to start a meal.

The red wine in Argentina is also fantastic, Malbec being the most popular grape. Its an Argentinian speciality and Im sure there will be more talk of it in other blogs, we are off to Mendoza next, Argentinas famed wine region. Im looking forward to all the sampling.

Empanadas are a very popular snack here, best described as mini cornish pasties and filled with mince, chicken, cheese, vegetable or corn etc. The varieties change depending on where you go. In Buenos Aires they tended to not be as fresh, mainly microwaved, but away from the city they were very fresh and tasy. Sam and Tom have already given us a list of places to pick some up along the way!

There is a quite an Italian influence in the cooking, brought about from mass Italian immigration in 1869-95 due to Argentinas economy booming, taking Buenos Aires population from 90,000 to 670,000!! This is also around this time the Tango emerged from BA.

Ice cream is very popular here, some would say better than Italian ice cream. It really is tasty and available to have delivered to your door! If friends are round for dinner it is traditional for the guests to be in charge of ordering the ice cream! Dolche de leche is the popular flavour and Nic is already quite worried that we wont be able to find it anywhere when we get home! The dolche de leche is quite a sweet toffee/caramel spread that is eaten at breakfast, piped into churros (straight donut like things) and had straight from the jar on a spoon. The dulche de leche ice cream is excellent, with brownie or just dulce de leche!

So as you can tell we have eaten a lot since we have been away.

Two restaurants I would recomend in London, the first for good Argentinian steak is http://www.buenayre.co.uk/

And the other, mine and Nics favorite restaurant in London http://www.stjohnrestaurant.com/ do a great selection off offal and "different" cuts of meat.

I look forward to keeping you all updated on on our culinary experiences while we are away, its a hard life eating so much wonderful food.........

Lee