Tacos a la Gaucho

Almost every day at Biosfera, someone cooks and we all lunch together. I’d only had one opportunity to show off my mad culinary skillz and kind of bombed: Start cooking when you’re already hungry and I guarantee you’ll always mess something up.

Determined to redeem myself, I set off to cook up some authentic Gringo Mexican food that I’d been talking up during my time. Since my go-to, chile verde was a no-go (there’s no crockpots in Argentina), I settled on tacos. Tacos are still pretty rare down here, I had to buy most of the ingredients in the imports section of the supermarket. Refried beans were about $2.50 a can and I had no success finding limes or ripe avocados.

Despite the inconveniences, Argentine burger meat worked surprisingly well for tacos and I was able to find tortillas and added salt and oil to make authentic style chips in the oven. I spiced up the tacos a little bit with garlic and served jalapeños on the side, which Chamigo Charlie devoured in an attempt to disprove my spice bias against Argentines. Avocados and mango salsa were brought in by two lovely ladies and we had more food than we knew what to do with. The only thing really missing was some great Mexican beer; in time Bohemia, in time. And now, a gaucho with guacamole:  bien hecho Manu!