comida sin carne es comida sin sabor

oh it has been rough--finding things to eat outside of the realm of pizza, overcooked pasta, and bizarro salads with white vinegar or this strange imposter balsamic, and oil, (georgia swears that it´s olive oil, albeit cheap olive oil, i maintain that it´s crisco vegetable oil because it is the color and flavor of dried-out grass). being a vegetarian in south america is interesting. it has helped me improve my spanish though--being forced to navigate the inevitable jamon that is in everything--as georgia, a fellow vegetarian, said to me, "everything is a ham sandwich".
there are very few protein options for vegetarians. one thing that can be found on some menus is a dish called, "milanesa do soja", a fake chicken patty, usually two of them, served over lettuce. it´s not so bad, but not so good either. huevos are the way to go--i´ve been eating at least two a day--thank god i have freakishly low blood pressure and cholesterol.
a very sad sad thing about argentine cuisine is the lack of spice--by spice i mean spiciness--pepper. you won´t find chilis in any dish...ever. garlic and onions are about as racy as it gets, there isn´t even black pepper in the food or on the tables in restaurants. G, E, and i went out for delicious vietnamese food and georgia and i ordered "extra spicy" curry which was wonderfully flavorful, but the heat of the dish would could have been rivaled by a jar of prego. so when emerson and georgia and i went to a health-food store in buenos aires the next day, emerson and i bought a packet of dried chilis and a bottle of hot sauce, (how exotic)--to be carried with us and added liberally to everything we consume.
now we are in puerto iguazu--near to the border with brazil and emerson and i have a very favorite restaurant-juicebar called el maracuya, which translates to either "passion-fruit", or "guava"--we´re not sure. our waiter is awesome, he serves up delicious soy hamburgers and "maracuya" smoothies and has promised to name two new juices after emerson and i respectively. he also blasts downloaded radio-friendly versions of 50 cent. we love it there. it´s all about the juice and 50 cent.