Salad=Salt

Major epiphany. Last weekend I went to Mendoza, which is a 13 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. It's Argentina's wine country and across the Andes from Santiago, Chile. While on the bus, my friend and I were talking/complaining about Argentine food with an Argentine that we met on the bus.

Our major complain-- lack of flavor and way too much salt. And why the heck would anyone put SALT on his/her salad?

This Argentine just looked at us inquisitively. An ensalada (salad) is salada (salted); they come from the same root! I didn't quite want to believe this, since we (or at least I) never put salt on salads.

Merriam Webster origin of salt: Middle English salade, from Middle French, from Old Italian (northern dialects) salata, salada, from salar to salt, fromsal salt, from Latin.

Let's just say that I have started a list of things that I am 1) going to miss about Argentina 2) looking forward to in the US. Salted salads is most definitely not on the first list.