One of the most surprising elements of this trip to me was the wealth of food culture that could be found in the city. During my trip I ate foods from Armenia, India, Uruguay, the U.S., Morocco, France, Italy, Spain, and certainly more that I cant recall anymore.
This is most easily explained by Argentina’s long history as an immigrant nation. Nation’s with very high levels of immigrants have some marked differences between themselves and nations without such strong immigration. This is most easily witnessed in the food culture. There are distinct locations selling one countries food, but there are also restaurants specializing in fusing the cuisines of various countries. I Latina serves a seven course menu with each course hailing from a different Latin American country. The local Moroccan restaurant specializes in moroccan style meats served in a shawarma style wrap. French style pastries, Italian espresso, and Argentinian milanesas all go hand in hand at any old style Argentine eatery.
To me, all of these advancements in food represent the merits of an immigrant nation over one with more ethno-nationalist tones. This is extremely important in an era where so many political movements across the world demonize the immigrants and hail their effects on a nation as solely negative. An immigrant nation is able to draw on the best elements of all the cultures that make up their population to make something much much better than the sum of its parts. This is something Buenos Aires, New Orleans, Mexico City, and Los Angeles all share. All these cities have huge immigrant populations, have incredible cuisines, and are considered amazing places to visit because of their vast and interesting cultures.
Argentina Study Abroad 