Andean Argentinian

Andean Argentine cuisine is the food of the Northwest — Salta, Jujuy, Tucumán, Catamarca, and the Cuyo wine region (Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja). The cuisine reflects pre-Columbian Quechua and Aymara heritage that the rest of Argentina lacks: corn-and-beans cooking, llama and goat meat (in the highest Andean villages), quinoa, and the elaborate tamale-and-humita tradition wrapped in corn husks and steamed. The Quechua-Spanish food fusion is at its purest here — locro (the corn-and-bean independence-day stew) and tamales salteños (corn-husk-wrapped beef-filled tamales) are the regional and now national signatures.

Salta and Jujuy are also Argentina's empanada capital — the Salta empanada (smaller than Buenos Aires, baked in clay ovens, filled with hand-cut beef + potato + raisin + olive) is considered the standard against which all Argentine empanadas are judged. Cuyo province (Mendoza) contributes the world's Malbec, plus the wine-country side of Andean food culture (asado pairings, regional cheeses, locally-cured meats). The cuisine is poorer in beef than Pampas but richer in corn, root vegetables, and the cold-climate Andean produce.