There are a lot of holidays in Argentina, and many, if not most, of them will be put on the closest Monday as to make a long weekend. This coming weekend is what in the US is  called Columbus Day, but in Argentina is now officially called “Día del respeto a la diversidad cultural” or “Día de la raza.” So either “Cultural Diversity Respect Day”, or “Day of the Race”, referring to the diversity of the Latin American peoples. In any case, people like spending this day in the country side, riding a little, having lots of asado and maybe watching some polo, so we are very full this weekend. I say “very full” because on Sunday we will have people check out in the morning, but stay to spend the day and eat even more meat, while other people check in at the same time, so it is sort of a double shift.

To prepare, we have (as always) ordered obscene amounts of meat: I picked up 100 sausages today, and Saturday we will go get 14 kilos of ribs, another 14 of skirt steak, six chickens, five kilos of tripe, 8 kidneys, two kilos of gizzard (the best!!), ground beef for empanadas, and deliciously tender filet mignon. So. Much. Meat. But this should be enough for three days… The Argentines have a different stomach than foreigners I think, they are unstoppable when it comes to asado. But we also got lots of vegetables of course, and today the kilo of tomatoes was more expensive than the kilo of filet mignon… Apparently it snowed in the north of Argentina right as lots of tomatoes were set to be harvested, so the prices are crazy. We actually spend a ton of money on fruits and vegetables, as we try to serve some health as well as meat… I didn’t want to go all the way to the Central Market so I went to a place close by that sells in bulk, and got 20 kilo bags of potatoes, onions, butternut squash and carrots, and two cases of oranges for juice.

Tomorrow is prep day, for desserts, breads, empanadas, cakes, and then we kick of the super weekend on Saturday morning.

Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural – Día de la Raza