Argentina

November 6-29, 2009

November 18: Campanario, Curanto and Colonia Suiza: Preparation of the Curanto

The curanto is actually a style of cooking prepared with hot stones that came from the indigenous population of Chile and was originally prepared with fish. "Curanto" comes from the araucano language and means "hot rocks". When the Goyes family originally immigrated from Valais in Switzerland, they first spent several years in Chile where they were introduced to the curanto. When they came to Argentina they took the curanto style of cooking and adapted it to the local Argentinian meats.

The Goyes continue to preserve and demonstrate this tradition of the curanto. Typically most tourists will see the curanto that is prepared each Wednesday at the local market of Colonia Suiza but as we were coming in to the town, we ended up on a road that took us to a local restaurant run by Victor Goye that also prepares curanto. We stopped and enquired about the curanto but no one seemed to speak a single word of English. However the owners were very nice and even produced a small clay replica of a curanto and through the prop and a short game of charades along with a bit of broken Spanish on our part we were able to get the gist of how the curanto would be prepared, what foods would be cooked and when it would be served. We bought our tickets and proceeded outside to watch the preparation of the curanto and the ceremonial lighting of the fire.

The food was all laid out on a long table: lots of meat including sausages, blood pudding, pork and chicken, potatos, onions, carrots, and a pumpkin filled with a corn mixture. Victor Goye and another man had already prepared the stack of wood with the stones on top. The ceremonial lighting was a little less than ceremonial as they poured lots of lighter fluid on it and set it aflame. As we waited for the rocks to get hot, the kids played around making their own little pretend fires under some beer crates.

Finally when the rocks were hot enough the rest of the wood pieces and ash were brushed away and the area around the sand pit was hosed down. Then branches of leaves were placed on the hot rocks and on top of them they placed all the food. Then another layer of leaves and a several blankets of wet burlap covered the food to keep the heat inside. Finally the whole thing was covered with soil to create a giant pressure cooker. It would take about an hour for the smoke to start coming through indicating that the food was done.

Driving along a back road into Colonia Suiza we find the restaurant of Victor Goye.