A Lifetime Tour

January 13, 2013 - Mendoza, Argentina

 

Today started in a cooking class.  We were going to make three incredible Argentinian foods.  They were empanadas, challah, and Argentinian donuts.   

We first went to the kitchen were all the delicious heaven is made.  It was fun watching everyone who works there, cook and make delicious foods.  Well, if I thought that was fun, I was mistaken.  It was so much better making the foods.

First we made challah.  You might think its crazy but there is a great number percentage of Jewish people here in Argentina.  So yes, I do mean Shabbat challah.

We first started my taking a bucket of flour and making a whole in the middle. I blew into the bucket and It made my face all full of flour. I also got my hands all dirty, but it was still super fun getting dirty.  Next we poured olive oil. We counted to fifteen and then did not pour more. The olive oil felt soft and slimy and tasted like herbs. 

After that we added four pinches of sugar. I have more of like a sweet tooth so I sneakily sneaked in six pinches of sugar.  Then I took some water and poured it in the bucket.  I think I poured too much. I guess I will find that out when I eat it.

Now is when it gets super messy.  We stuck our hands and mixed the flour, sugar, olive oil and water and then mixing them together.  It felt like I was massaging a baby.  At least at the end it did.  At first, I had to make it smooth.  It felt as mushy as an old lady with many wrinkles.

When I was done making it soft and mixing it, I broke it in to three pieces and this is when I braided them. It felt exactly like braiding my sister, so it was not too hard.

Now is when we painted them.  Not with actual paint but with egg yolk.  I smelled like an egg after spreading the yolk.

Finally it was time to put it in the oven. It would take about twenty minutes.  

In the meanwhile, we were gonna make the donuts.  They are very similar to Chinese donuts except they have sugar instead of condensed milk.  We made them by first taking dough and making a whole in the middle for it to look like a donut. That's not the real reason they make a hole. They do it so it will cook better.  It's the same with bagels.  Next we put them in the fryer.  It was that easy. I was excited to taste them when they were ready.  When they were ready, we added sugar.  Man, were they good.  They tasted just like donuts.  I ended up eating like three or four.

We are taking the rest home to devour them even more.  I heard that the donuts are even better dipped in mate, the traditional drink in Argentina.

Now it was time for the empanadas.  Empanadas are like cookies but it has breading and is filled with onions, cheese, meat or even chicken.  We first started by walking into a room.  It had a really cool machine that makes dough flat.  A nice lady named Cha-Cha. We made the dough even thinner so it would not have as much gluten.  It started with a little ball of dough and then turned to a huge carpet of dough.  Believe it or not, but people used to do that by hand.

When we brought the dough to the table, we took a cookie cuter to cut out perfect circles.  It was fun cutting them out and I think I did it pretty fast.  Next, we took the circles of dough and filled them with meat. I filled mine up with cheese.  After that we folded the end of the dough so it would not fall.  I was not too good at it.  It looks easier than it really is.

Now you might be wondering, how do we cook the empanadas?  Well, they don't cook them in an oven.  You cook them outside in the fire.  Cha-Cha helped us cooked them. I was wondering why I had to wait so long to cook them, but trust me it was gonna be worth it.  Finally we ate the empanadas. I was right it was so worth the wait. They were incredible. We also took a bunch home.

Here comes one of the best parts.  Now that everything is ready, we could go to the next stop.  No, wait we forgot the challah.  They were now ready and they looked so good.  I would tell you how they were, but we are saving them for Shabbat.  We ended up leaving with donuts, empanadas, and challah.

Now it was time to go to the wine factory.  I am so excited.  On the way to the factory, we saw the main grape.  It's called Malbec.  Malbec means "bad beak" in French because in Europe it tasted really bad.  Here in Mendoza because the terroir, it is one of the most famous. 

As you know Mendoza is a desert.  So how do they grow plants and grapes in a desert?  Well, they use irrigation.  That's when water goes into a tube and  that's how they water the plants and soil.

Another question you might have is how do they protect the plants and grapes from hail?  They cover the plants with black tent.  And also, airplanes add chemicals to clouds so instead of the hail being the size of a rock, it's the size of a pebble.

Finally, we arrived at the factory.  We saw how they take the grapes when they are fully purple.  Green ones are not ripe yet.  Meanwhile, there are many types of grapes.  There are green, purple and white.

They put the grapes in a machine that first separated the good grapes from the bad.  There are two women there who stand to take out the ones the machine did not.  They have to do it really fast.

Next it goes up and escalator and into a tube.  Before the tube there are robotic feet that mix the color with the juice. Yes, you might be thinking this is not wine it grape juice, but then they add yeast so the sugar converts to alcohol and that's when it becomes wine.  It sits in a room for a few days even maybe years because the older the better.

Not all wines can be saved for so long.  Some can only be saved for two to three years.  The ones that can be saved are called aging wine.

Finally we went to the olive oil factory.  The reason there is olives were there is grapes is because they both use the same soil to grow.  How they make olive oil is by picking the ripe olives.  You have to make sure the olives are ripe or else they taste really bad.  Then you put them in the simlar machine as the grapes. 

When the process is done, the oil goes into large tanks but can not be saved for too long because then it becomes really bad.

 

How do you know which olive oil is good and which is bad?  Well, let me tell you. You freeze both olive oils the one that does not freeze is bad and the one that does freeze is good.  Remember that next time you buy olive oil.

Now it was time to try new foods.  We tried the olive oils.  They were bitter and gross.  I didn't like them at all.  I pretended to like them but really they were gross.

Have you wondered what they use olive oil for?  Well, it's great on cold foods, even ice-cream. I tried olive oil ice-cream and I really liked it.

Today was the tour of a lifetime and I really want to thank out tour guide Tory.  He sure knows how to make a tour fun.  I think I could finally say I know the most important things about Mendoza!!!!!!!