however, it was the introduction of cattle in the 1550s that shifted the focus of argentine cuisine forever - as was the case for many colonized indigenous groups at the time, the sicknesses brought over by the colonizers decimated their numbers to the extent that they were difficult to employ as laborers. this was partly how massive cattle ranches called haciendas, came to be.

this was the territory of the gauchos, or cowboys, whose name actually describes the child of a local indigenous women with an early spanish settlers - the hacienda-ranches are where the serious emphasis on red meat began - which includes asado, or a barbecue style of serving a selection of different quality cuts.

as brazil's neighbor, argentina shares a long-running and playful rivalry with the country. luckily for the two countries, there are plenty of overlapping interests in terms of cuisine, with meat being the crucial element.

discussing argentine cuisine without any reference to meat would be incomplete at best - la parrillada, is the grilling of meat, which also included fish and seafood, over a wood-fired grill, and is a central culinary tradition in argentina.