Argentina
Argentina’s national cuisine has a definite international flare with influences from Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Eastern Europe. Argentina is most widely known for its beef, which is raised on the grasslands of the Pampas by gauchos (Argentinean Cowboys). This beef is augmented with large amounts of lamb from these same grasslands as well as seafood from the Atlantic Ocean. Classic Argentinean cuisine includes their famous chimichurr sauce (a cross between Mexican salsa and Italian vinaigrette) and the empanada (a pastry pocket filled with beef, green olives, onions and hard-cooked eggs).

Bolivia
Bolivia is a high and mountainous country with a distinctive and delicious cuisine. As a landlocked country, Bolivia’s cuisine involves a limited amount of seafood, however, they are able to take advantage of fresh trout and other fish from Lake Titicaca and surrounding streams and rivers. Corn and potatoes are prominent in many dishes. Bolivians have a love for spicy food, so many of their dishes are served picante with a liberal use of local chilies. Classic Bolivian dishes include empanada salteña (a pastry pocket filled with diced meats, chives, raisins, potatoes, hot sauce and pepper) and lomo montado (fried tenderloin steak topped with two fried eggs, rice and fried banana).

Brazil
Brazil’s cuisine is a fascinating blend of influences from native South Americans, Portugal, Africa and Europe. Brazil has a wide-ranging assortment of tropical fruits, vegetables and seafood that they blend with an array of chilies, palm oil, coconut milk and other spices. Green, leafy vegetables are often passed over in favor of a rich assortment of tubors, squash and beans. The heart of Brazil’s vegetable consumption is Manioc (cassava), a fibrous root that requires a great deal of processing before it can be eaten. Brazil’s national dish is feijoada, an elaborate stew with black beans and many smoked and sun-dried meats served with several traditional side dishes.

Chile
Chili owes its great diversity of food to its native South Americans, European immigrants and, recently, immigration from Mexico and Asia. Chili’s long coast makes it a natural for seafood such as abalone, eel, scallops, turbot, large barnacles, king crab, sea urchin and algae. Also popular are huge lobsters from the Juan Fernández Islands. In rural Chili large quantities of meat take a backseat to vegetable dishes such as humitas (seasoned corn paste, wrapped in corn husks and boiled). Compared to other South American countries Chilean cuisine can be lightly spiced and occasionally bland. Other traditional dishes include cazuela de ave (soup with rice, vegetables, chicken and herbs) and sopaipillas (biscuits made from lard and squash).

Colombia
Columbia has a wide variety of delicious local dishes. Columbia’s primary European influence is Spanish. With a coastline in both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, the importance of seafood comes as no surprise. A typical Columbian dish is ajiaco (a stew of chicken and potatoes, served with cream, corn on the cob and capers), which is often served with arepas (corn flatbread made without salt).

Ecuador
The core of the Ecuadorian diet is rice, potatoes, and meat (beef and chicken everywhere, pork in the Sierra). This is often seasoned with a spicy aji sauce. Aji is a national delicacy and staple of Ecuadorian cuisine and can be found on every table. Great emphasis is put on seafood dishes such as ceviche, however, Ecuador’s specialty is its plethora of fresh soups including Locro soup (a strange but yummy combination of cheese, avocado and potato). Other popular dishes include lomo salteado (thin sliced steak covered with onions and tomatoes) and choclo (grilled Andean corn) sold by street vendors. If you are brave you can also try the renowned tronquito (bull penis soup).

French Guiana
French Guiana is in the northeast corner of South America and is bordered by Brazil and by Surinam. French Guiana’s terrain changes from coastal marshes, to inland savannah, to equatorial jungle, to high mountain peaks. Despite being a French territory since 1817, its influences are remarkably varied. You can see aspects of Vietnamese, Chinese, Creole and Indonesian influence on their culture and cuisine. A local favorite is bouillon d'aoura (smoked fish, crab, prawns, vegetables and chicken, served with aoura, the fruit of savana trees).

Guyana
Guyana (pronounced as it is spelled, guyana, not gheeana) is located in the northern part of the Amazon Basin of South America. It is the only English-speaking country in South America. Like much of the Caribbean, many traditional dishes in Guyana are very spicy, with curries and the omnipresent habanero, or Scotch bonnet (the world's hottest pepper), which is native to the region. You can taste the influence of India in Guyana’s curried mutton and also Africa in the dishes foo-foo (plantain cakes) and metemgee (eddoes, yams, cassava and plantains cooked in coconut milk and grated coconut).

Paraguay
Corn and manioc (cassava) are the cornerstones of the cuisine in Paraguay. Around these two staples they add many grains as well as a variety of meats. These combinations can be seen in such dishes as mbaipy so-ó (a hot maize pudding with meat chunks) and boríborí (soup of diced meat, vegetables and small maize dumplings mixed with cheese).

Peru
Peru is home of the potato. This tuber, in addition to rice, chicken, pork, lamb, and fish comprise the basic ingredient from which most Peruvian dishes originate. Peruvians are able to construct an impressive array of diverse foods from this small core of basic ingredients through the clever use of a variety of different plants available across the country. This great flexibility within even a seemingly simple dish is best exemplified by Peru’s legendary Ceviche (raw seafood marinated in lemon juice, peppers and onions), which can morph into hundreds of different variations. Another typical Peruvian dish would be Lomo saltado  (fried chopped steak with onions, tomatoes, potatoes and rice).

Surinam
Surinam sits along the northern South American coast above Brazil. Surinam has a diversity of ethnic influences including Indonesian, Creole, Chinese, Indian, European and American. Surinam’s Indonesian population has contributed a number of spicy meat and vegetable side dishes, nasi goreng (fried rice) and bami goreng (fried noodles). From the Creole population has come pom (ground tayer roots and poultry), pastei (chicken pie with vegetables) and peanut soup. Add to this Indian curries and Chinese chow-mein and you get a feel for the multitude of possibilities. One of the most popular day-to-day options is warungs, Javanese food stalls serving a variety of rice and fried noodle dishes.

Uruguay
In Uruguay, food and meat are almost synonymous. Most restaurants in Uruguay are parrilladas (grill-rooms), which specialize in asado (barbecued beef), the country's most famous dish. With a little effort you can find almost every preparation of every piece of beef imaginable. When they are not eating beef, pork, sausage and grilled chicken are also local favorites. Typical dishes include Chivito (a sandwich filled with slices of meat, lettuce and egg and puchero (beef with vegetables, bacon, beans and sausages).

Venezuela
Venezuela is known for distinctive dishes with delicate flavor. Combining local roots and vegetables with spices such as Cumin and Saffron give Venezuelan snacks and dishes (referred to as comida criolla) a fascinating depth of flavor. The core of Venezuelan food is made up of pancakes, chicken, pork, beef, soups and stews. Venezuela’s most well known dish is Pabellón criollo (shredded meat and served with fried plantains, cheese and black beans on rice). Another interesting dish is Purée de apio, which is made from an exotic local root that is boiled and puréed (with a little salt and butter, it tastes like chestnuts).

This importation of European vine stock proved ironic when, in 1870, the *phylloxera louse began its devastating march across Europe and North America. Chile's vineyards, protected by natural barriers, remained untouched. Thus, when Europe began its monumental task of vineyard restoration, it turned to Chile for young, healthy plants for grafting onto phylloxera-resistant rootstocks. Today, Chile remains a rare example of a country where pure, ungrafted European vines still flourish.

*PHYLLOXERA - The tiny louse that attacks and eventually kills a vine through its root system. It first devastated Europe in the late 1800s, nearly wiping out France’s entire wine industry. The pest appeared in California in the 1980s in a mutated form, causing around 95% of California’s vineyards to have to be replanted at a cost of around $500,000,000 over 15 years.]

Recent interest from foreign investors in Chile's wine industry has boosted the country's recognition. France's Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) purchased a 50 percent equity share of Vina Los Vascos in 1988. Napa Valley's Franciscan Estates started purchasing acreage in the late 1990’s for its Chilean property, Veramonte Estate. In addition, Robert Mondavi Winery has been very active with its Chileanbrand Caliterra and Kendall Jackson has a brand in both Chile (Calina) and Argentina (Tapiz). With high quality and low prices, more and more vintners worldwide are importing Chilean wine juice for use in blending in their own portfolios.

Argentina
Argentina is perhaps one of the world's few remaining major wine-producing regions yet to be fully exploited. This is due to the fact that up until 1980, Argentina's annual per-capita consumption rate of wine was more than 22 gallons. By 1992, however, that figure dropped by almost half (and is still dropping), and wine producers began giving serious consideration to exporting their product.

Unlike Chile, Argentina failed to draw a substantial amount of outside investment in the 1980s and '90s. However, Michel Rolland from Pomerol, Italian vermouth producers Martini & Rossi and the French Champagne houses of Chandon, Mumm, Deutz and Piper-Heidsieck have all held interests in Argentina vineyards for the past several decades.

Argentinean wine regions are widely dispersed, but mostly confined to the western strip bordering the foothills of the Andes Mountains. The first recorded vineyards were planted at Santiago del Estero in 1557. The city of Mendoza was founded in 1561, and vineyards in the area known as San Juan to the north were established on a commercial scale between 1569 and 1589. In the 1820s, and again in the early 1900s, there was a massive influx of European immigrants which brought new vines and winemaking skills, thus laying the foundation for Argentina's mammoth domestic wine industry.

One of the most distinctive white grape varieties grown in Argentina is torrontes. With three different strains–Torrontes Mendocino, Torrontes Sanjuanino and Torrontes Riojano–the third, Torrontes Riojano, is by far the most prominent. Torrontes wines are generally light in body and tend to exhibit strong muscat-like aromas. With the idea of exporting (to the United States and Britain), chardonnay is now the white wine that everyone wants to produce. Argentina has its own clone of chardonnay– the so-called Mendoza clone–that was developed at the University of California at Davis. These wines tend to vary in style from winemaker to winemaker.

Argentina's signature red grape variety is malbec (also spelled malbeck), which has found its true home in upper Mendoza. These wines tend to be deep in color, exhibiting robust fruit characteristics worthy of oak aging. Cabernet sauvignon, merlot, nebbiolo, dolcetto and tempranillo are also prominent red grape varieties grown here.

In reaction to this push towards globalization, there is a growing trend within many South American countries to rediscover and celebrate their culinary roots. Greater democratization and a sense of ethnic pride is saving and glorifying many traditional dishes and ingredients that were in danger of being lost and forgotten. It will be interesting to see how these two trends of globalization and ethnic pride compete and develop together in the next 10 years. As it looks right now, the results will be diverse and delicious.

Links
Argentina- San Telmo Wines
Brazil- Global Gourmet
Ecuador- Ecuador Explorer - A comprehensive and interesting guide to Ecuador
Guyana- Guyana Outpost - All Guyana, all the time!
Paraguay- Ecotour - A good and concise resource on Paraguay
Peru - A student project from Helsinki University of Technology
Peru - Yanuq.com- A slick, well-designed and comprehensive look at Peruvian cuisine and history