South American
Outside of South America, many people rcognize the continent through a number of images: Revelers at Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro, tango dancers in Buenos Aires or mountain folk playing hand-made instruments high in the Andes. All of these images have a basis in reality, but they tell only part of the story of life in South America. As with cultures around the world, food is a window into South American society.

By Fred Tscheulin

      Sit down to eat at a South American table and you’ll very likely read the history of the continent on your plate. Cocina criolla is the term used to describe the style of cooking that blends the culinary traditions of the various peoples who live in South America. These include: Native South Americans, Spanish, Portuguese, and West Africans as well as Italians, Germans, British, Chinese and Japanese. They all shaped the cooking and eating habits of the continent, which do vary from place to place. Each country or region has its own take on grilled meats, cooked vegetable salads, finger foods and sweets. You’ll find rich soups and stews of potato, tomato, beans and rice, with or without meat or seafood. You’ll find, too, grilled meats and barbecue, from the parillada of Argentina to the churrascos of Brazil to the pachamanca of Peru.
      Until just a few years ago, few diners had much of an idea about the foods and flavors of authentic South American cuisines. Today, that is changing. South American cuisines have worked there way north. As with other popular cuisines, this emerging trend is driven by travel, immigration and our appetite to taste new, flavorful ethnic foods.  
      South American restaurants are no longer immigrant enclaves. Pan-South American eateries, many of which are “fine dining” establishments, are gaining in popularity across the United States. And thankfully, South American cuisine can be experienced first-hand at three award-winning restaurants in the Roanoke and Smith Mountain Lake areas.
      South American dishes and beverages are catching on. Caipiranhas, is a Brazilian cocktail made of cachacha (sugar cane liquor) or rum and lime. Ceviche, the citrus-cured fish of Peru and Ecuador is served in trendy restaurants. Chilean wines are very popular and can be purchased locally.
      Sample Brazil’s national dish, feijoada, a hearty stew of black beans and every conceivable cut of pork, and you’ll taste the legacy of three cultures. The dish was created by African slaves from scraps gleaned from the tables of their Portuguese masters. These same Portuguese bought pork, as well as kale, a traditional feijoada side dish, to Brazil. The third culture at the table is represented by several local Indian side dishes such as toasted manioc flour and mixtures of tomatoes and hot peppers.
     Take a bite of llapingachos, the fried potato cheese patties that are a favorite in Peru and Ecuador, and you’ll savor the fare of the continent’s last great native civilization, the Incas, who cultivated hundreds of varieties of potatoes. Sip a Chilean wine, enjoy a juicy Argentinean steak or dip your spoon into a dish of flan, the custard beloved just about everywhere in South America, and you will be recalling the culinary legacy of Spain’s conquest of the New World.
      But if the food of South America is a reflection of its history, no single meal will tell the whole story. The continent is vast and contains a multiplicity of climates and topographies, from the rainforests of Brazil to the windswept deserts of southern Chile, from the sandy beaches of Venezuela to the frigid peaks of the Andes, stretching for 4,000 miles across western South America. The culinary result is not one, but several cuisines. And while there is some overlap, even those foods that South Americans have in common are prepared differently from place to place.
      The empanada, a savory turnover, is just one dish that illustrates this point. Throughout the continent they contain fillings of various styles, depending on local tastes and resources. In Argentina, where beef is the soul of the cuisine, the half-moon shaped turnovers are stuffed with a mixture of beef, onion, raisins and olives. In Chile, with its long Pacific coastline and active fishing industry it’s possible to find empanadas filled with local razor clams or a variety of abalone. Brazil’s empadinha fillings include  sardines, cheese and shrimp with hearts of palm. In coastal Venezuela, a tasty empanada might be filled with fish cooked in a Caribbean-style tomato sofrito, while in Bolivia, the national treat is a spicy saltena, filled with meat or chicken, vegetables and hot pepper seasoning.
      At last the time has come for the cuisine of South America. But this is not the first time. There are native South American products that have contributed to the development of some of the world’s best loved cuisines. Imagine spaghetti without tomato sauce. A burger without French fries. Or a dish of Szechwan chicken without peppers. Tomatoes, potatoes and chile peppers all originated in South America and have been deliciously absorbed into cuisines of the rest of the world.
      Cocina criolla, a mix of Old and New Worlds. History on a plate – who would imagine it would taste so good?