South American cuisine pizza, being closer to calzones. Pasta and polenta are common in Argentina and on the Pampas generally. Empanadas and choripán are very popular fast food in Argentina and Uruguay. Churros, ensaïmada, alfajor, Spanish tortillas with potato, meatballs, sopa de mondongo, and puchero are Spanish derived Pampas cuisine. Mate is also found on the Pampas. Early South American restaurants in the United States included Caso do Brazil in Reseda, California, which opened in 1955, and the Machu Picchu nightclub in Miami, Florida, which opened in 1963, serving Peruvian dishes such as ceviche and anticuchos. South American foods are increasingly imported into
Geography of Uruguay the promotion of wheat production. One exception, rice, most of which was produced in the east, had become a major nontraditional export in recent years. Stretching west along the Río de la Plata from Montevideo, are the agricultural and dairying departments of San José and Colonia. To the north along the Río Uruguay lie the departments of Soriano, Río Negro, Paysandú and Salto. Their western halves form part of the litoral, a region that is somewhat more developed than the interior. Here soils are alluvial and more fertile, favoring crop production and farms of more modest size than in the