Argentina is the most British country in Latin America. Why?

[u/MontroseRoyal]

I would like to expand upon the title. I believe that Argentina is not only the most ‘British’ country in Latin America, but the most ‘British’ country that was never formally colonized by the British themselves. I firmly believe this and will elaborate.

Let’s start with town names. In the Buenos Aires metro area alone; English & Irish town and neighborhood names are commonplace. Such as Hurlingham, Canning, Billinghurst, Wilde, Temperley, Ranelagh, Hudson, Claypole, Coghlan, Banfield, and even Victoria (yes, purposefully named after the Queen).

One of the two biggest football clubs in the capital has an English name, River Plate. And the sport was brought by some English immigrants. Curiously, Rugby and Polo are also very popular Argentina, unlike surrounding countries. For a long time, the only Harrods outside the UK operated in Buenos Aires too. Many Argentines are of partial English descent. When the English community was stronger, they built a prominent brick monument called “Tower of the English”. After the Falklands, it was renamed to “Tower of the Malvinas” by the government out of spite.

In Patagonia, in the Chubut province particularly, there is obviously the Welsh community with town names like Trelew, Eawson, and Puerto Madryn. Patagonian Welsh is a unique variety of the language that developed more or less independently for a few years with no further influence from English. Although the community and speakers now number little, Welsh traditions are a major tourist factor for Chubut.

There is a notable diaspora community of Scottish and their descendants as well. I remember once randomly walking into a large Scottish festival near Plaza de Mayo where there were many artisan vendors selling celtic merchandise with a couple of traditional Scottish dancers on a stage.

Chile has some British/Irish influence (who can forget Bernardo O’Higgins?), but seemingly not nearly to the same extent. The English community was rather small, so it doesn’t make much sense to me how they can have such a large impact. I guess my question is why Argentina? Of all places

[u/Pera_Espinosa → u/[deleted]]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Bland? I'd say it's less spice heavy than foods of other latin countries, but bland?

The same can be said of Italian food, which is by far the greatest cultural influence in Argentina, when comparing it to Asian cuisine. I wouldn't call it bland either.

Argentine food is mostly a mix of Italian, heavy Italian, meats/parrilladas it's so well known for, and Latin influence.

Popular Argentine dishes like parrilladas, empanadas, milanesa, or pastel de papas certainly aren't spice heavy in relation to other cuisines, and Argentinians certainly have a very low spice tolerance (for both heat and seasoning), but all these dishes are undeniably delicious and the word bland certainly doesn't come to mind when I think of them or any other typical Argentine foods.

[u/StalksOfRheum → u/Pera_Espinosa]

argentine food is pretty good I have to say. it's heavy stuff though so don't eat a lot in one sitting or you'll be knocked out for hours.

[u/VladTepesRedditor → u/Pera_Espinosa]

Is funny how all your Argentinian dishes are present in almost while LatAm. Not very original food. It's bland you like it or not.

[u/AddictedToRugs → u/[deleted]]

we just have kinda bland food. We don't have much variety. We also don't season too much nor too well.

Someone who needs the volume on their TV turned way up to hear it has bad hearing; someone who can hear it comfortably when it's set very low has good hearing.

Something to think about there.

[u/Saoi_ → u/[deleted]]

I thought something similar about BA food, once you get past the delicious steak, wine, choripan, dulce de leche and alfahores the food in the city restaurants was often like ordering off a children's menu - lots of plain- ish pasta and pizza and not a huge variety of vegetables and herbs. Relatively boring compared to a lot of food in Mediterranean Europe and Asia. 

The nicest food was found out in the farms, especially closer to Bolivia where we found more beans, salads, herbs and spices. Bolivian and Peruvian food was nicer overall. 

[u/StalksOfRheum → u/[deleted]]

I get the impression after having been there that argies only hate UK over the falklands brainrot and that's it. otherwise you get pretty anglophilic when it isn't nostalgia over italy

[u/Jolly_Atmosphere_951 → u/[deleted]]

Soy de argentina igual y concuerdo totalmente, le sacas el bife a los argentinos y se quedan en bolas.

Si te fijas en las comidas "tradicionales" o "típicas" todas llevan carne: empanadas, milanesas, mondongo, locro y el infaltable asado. Es más sano tomarse un litro de aceite de motor que vivir en base a una dieta tradicional argentina.

Pero después los tenés a los pseudopatriotas diciendo "no me vengas con sushi o tacos, dame un buen asado".

También estoy de acuerdo con lo del condimento, en el 99% de las casas el único condimento es sal. Y capaz un chimichurri si hay, de nuevo, asado.

[u/CounterAshamed7732 → u/Jolly_Atmosphere_951]

Es mucho mas sana la dieta argentina que la de cualquier país latinoamericano.