Lomo, pizza, or empanadas.  Those are the choices offered at nearly every cafe in Argentina, invariably and without deviation.  My clear favorite is the lomo.  The core of the lomo is grilled flank steak, topped with cheese, ham, lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg, sandwiched in pan Arabe, which is similar to cibbata bread.   The one area restaurants have some freedom to make the sandwich their own, is in the decision to apply mayonnaise, salsa golf, or leave it up to the customer.  Salsa golf is an inspired combination of ketchup and mayo, and is a staple condiment here. 

Pizza would be recognizable by any American.  My one note on pizza is linguistic in nature.  The word pija, pronounced nearly identically, with a slightly more guttural, phlegm inducing hack, is a crude term for the male genitalia.  This is a hilarious homonym, which has been cracked every time we’ve eaten pizza – and it’s always funny.

Empanadas, as I have explained before, are similar to hot pockets in the states.  Small round sheets of pastry are stuffed with one of two fillings: ham and cheese or a seasoned ground beef (sometimes with diced hardboiled egg).  They are then baked to a golden brown.  Brennan and I were invited to a dinner at a vineyard manager’s house and his wife prepared enough empanadas to feed an army.  Homemade out of the oven they are hard to beat.