Patagonia Food & Traditional Cuisine

Patagonian food is built on what the region raises and catches, which is not much but is very good.

Lamb is the regional meat and the centre of the culture. Sheep have run on the steppe for a century and a half, and the classic preparation is cordero al palo — a whole lamb splayed on an iron cross and set at an angle beside an open fire for several hours, turned occasionally, in what is a social event as much as a meal.

From the water come trout and salmon from the Andean lakes and rivers, both introduced and now thoroughly established, and on the Atlantic and Beagle Channel the king crab — centolla — which Ushuaia is known for.

The immigrant layers contribute the rest: Welsh baking in Chubut, Swiss and German chocolate, smoked meats, strudel and beer in the Lake District.

And mate runs through all of it, drunk from a shared gourd through a metal straw, constantly, everywhere.

Cordero al palo — whole lamb on the cross, cooked slowly beside a wood fire, salted and nothing else. The regional dish, and the thing to arrange if you can.

Centolla, the southern king crab from the Beagle Channel, served simply with lemon or in a gratin at Ushuaia.

Trucha — trout from the Andean lakes — grilled or smoked, and the smoked fish of the Lake District generally.

Torta galesa, the Welsh black cake: a dense dark fruit cake soaked in spirit, matured for months and served in the Gaiman tea houses as part of a full Welsh tea with bara brith and scones.

Calafate berries, the deep purple fruit of a thorny Patagonian shrub, made into jam, ice cream and liqueur. Local belief holds that anyone who eats calafate will return to Patagonia.

Also: curanto in the Lake District, cooked in a pit with hot stones; guanaco and wild boar; and Bariloche chocolate by the slab.

The asado is a social institution, and in Patagonia the lamb version is its own event — a quincho with a fire pit, several hours, and a great deal of conversation. Estancias put one on for guests, and it is the best meal available in the region.

Gaiman’s Welsh tea houses serve at fixed afternoon hours: a pot of tea and a table of cakes and bread and butter, enough for two people at least. It is a genuine survival rather than a reconstruction.

Bariloche’s chocolate shops along Mitre street are a serious local industry with a century of history, and the craft breweries around the town are the best in Argentina.

Supermarkets matter here. Restaurant prices in El Calafate and El Chalten are high and hostels have kitchens; most budget travellers cook.

Mate etiquette: the server fills and passes it, you drink all of it and hand it back without saying thank you unless you mean you have had enough.

Patagonia is Argentina’s southernmost wine region and among the southernmost in the world, and the conditions produce something distinct.

Neuquen and Rio Negro, in the north of the region along the river valleys, grow vines at around 39 to 40 degrees south in a cold, dry, ferociously windy climate with a very wide day-to-night temperature swing. The wind reduces yields and thickens skins; the cold preserves acidity. The results are Pinot Noir of real quality — unusual in Argentina, where Malbec dominates — along with elegant Malbec, Merlot and aromatic whites.

Rio Negro has old vines dating from Italian and Spanish plantings early in the twentieth century; Neuquen’s San Patricio del Chanar is a modern development from the 1990s with substantial wineries open to visitors.

Craft beer is the other drink of the region, centred on Bariloche and El Bolson, and is genuinely the best in the country.

Calafate liqueur and fruit spirits are the local specialities, and mate is drunk all day.