Carbonada e Zapallo is a type of beef stew made with vegetables, dried fruit, potatoes, and spices and served in the shell of a roasted pumpkin. The beef stew and the pumpkin are cooked separately but put together for presentation and serving.

“Hello Reader! I try my hardest to research recipes as best as I can before posting to ensure I am representing each culture correctly. If this recipe is from your country and I have made a mistake or you have suggestions for how to make it more authentic, I would love to hear! Please leave a comment below letting me know what should be different, and I will rework the recipe. It is always my intention to pay homage and respect to each cultural dish that I cook. Thanks for reading!”
Go Big or Go Home
My family is filled with “go big or go home” type of people. If my parents, my brother or myself do something, we either do it right, or we don’t do it at all. It’s exhausting and rewarding and stressful and amazing. It’s both a blessing and a curse, really.
Too tall!
This method definitely transfers itself to holidays… For the first fifteen years of my life, the neighborhood called my dad “Mr. Griswald” at Christmas. Our house was covered in lights from top to bottom, and Papa Foreign Fork would climb a 40 foot ladder to make sure that there were even lights at the very peak of the house. One year he decided that he was sick of putting lights up, and we never had them again. See? Go big or go home.
Too squat– and damaged!
Go Big or Go Home: Halloween Edition
WELL. During halloween growing up, this thought process was present full-force. My family and I would go to the pumpkin patch each year and spend an hour searching for the BIGGEST. PUMPKINS. POSSIBLE. We wouldn’t leave until we had found the most obnoxious, gigantic pumpkins in the patch. For the rest of the night, my brother and I would find ourselves shoulder deep in our treasures, scooping out enough pumpkin seeds to feed us for a week.
I’m still a “go big or go home” person. I mean, I’m cooking a meal from every country in the world for crying out loud!
Leave a Reply