>The food was hearty and plentiful; for example, the "miga completa" is
>a sandwich in which a grass-fed steak is covered by ham and then a
>fried egg.

Yoy weren't asked to try sweet "rice" or bile sausages?
--
Andrew Grebneff

Ah, the grilled meats are famous. I left the tripe alone but discovered that
I like blood sausage. I don't eat much meat at home, so the steak diet was
an interesting change. Ironically, when the convention hosts wanted to honor
us, they tended to feed us fish or chicken or ham, i.e., the items that are
in shorter supply than beef there, but which are the common fare in the
U.S., while grass-fed beef is something you don't have every day. I might
add that although portions were very large, the Argentines are a trim
people; they walk it off.

The bread was Italian in style and consistently good, unlike U.S. bread. I
made a list of things that are done better in Argentina than in the U.S.,
and bread was at the top. The U.S. does pave sidewalks better.

I would like to know how productive the Argentine continental shelf is in
terms of marine life and fisheries. The rocky shoreline of northern Santa
Cruz is covered with blue mussels (mytilids) and balanid barnacles, but that
isn't a good indicator of offshore productivity. Patagonia is too dry to
deliver many nutrients via rivers -- but far to the north, the Mar del Plata
is an enormous muddy estuary fed by one of the world's greatest rivers. And
the wind from the west is strong enough to move silt and to gradually scour
flat facets on pebbles lying on the ground. Presumably the continental shelf
does receive nutrients on the wind.

In an analogous case, I read in Tim Flannery's book "The Future Eaters" that
Australian waters tend to be nutrient-poor because the soils of the adjacent
continent are, in the main, also nutrient-poor. This results in spectacular
coral reefs, which thrive in such conditions, but in fisheries of relatively
low yield. Argentina's soils are enriched by volcanic ash from the Andes
(indeed, they are largely made up of Andean wind-borne ash and water-borne
debris), so they are nutrient-rich. What effect does this have on marine
life offshore?

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------