A Serious Thread About Food In Argentina

[Joe]

Some reflections on Colombian vs. Argentine cuisine. The local Colombia cuisine is somewhat boring like Argentine cuisine. The Arepa of Colombia in my mind is as highly overrated as Argentine bread. The difference is that Colombia chefs take their job more seriously and the foreign restaurants are of much higher quality. Mexican food and sushi - two of my favorites - are very well prepared here in Colombia.

Getting back to my previous post about the benefit of foreign influences. Thailand has great Thai food - not surprisingly - the aromas of the local vegetables and herbs are incredible. But after a week of only eating Thai food you really want something else. And like the Argentines, the Thais do not know, or are not interested in properly preparing foreign cuisines. So if you have Mexican food or Italian food - it is invariable not authentic - and not in a good way... But travel to Vietnam and because of the French colonial influence, you get great breads, pastries and western food that is incredibly authentic for being in Asia. IMO, The Vietnamese and Colombian chefs are professionals at foreign cuisines - the Thai and Argentine chefs aren't .

I'm reminded of a quote from Jiro Dreams of Sushi:

In order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food. The quality of ingredients is important, but you need to develop a palate capable of discerning good and bad. Without good taste, you can’t make good food. If your sense of taste is lower than that of the customers, how will you impress them?

How many Argentine chefs have had the opportunity to eat delicious food?

http://youtu.be/G2edsT-HCjE

 

[scotttswan]

Saladix / arcor are finally trying to do something about the dismal snacks in the country.

All we need now is some competition and for another company to make pickled onion rings and different flavoured hula hoops!

They're all pretty bland, i'd hate to see their attempt at salt and vinegar crisps!

edit: in before "last thing argentina needs is manufactured crap" snobbery

edit2: they should just make these here!

 

[Girino]

I'm reminded of a quote from Jiro Dreams of Sushi:

In order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food. The quality of ingredients is important, but you need to develop a palate capable of discerning good and bad. Without good taste, you can’t make good food. If your sense of taste is lower than that of the customers, how will you impress them?

I think the problem with Argentinians is that they have such a low sense of taste that they can't be impressed, unless it is something heavily loaded with DDL or queso. This is what made/makes the difference than with - say - the US.
In the US, a genuine Italian restaurant can and will thrive, whereas in Argentina the clientele would ask for more salt/cheese/garlic on top and turn the place into another crappy Italo-Argentine restaurant.

Btw, loved Jiro's movie!

 

[polostar88]

The main reason for the limited food choices is that Argentina has relatively low immigration especially from outside Latin America compared to the USA, Canada and Europe. In these places you have large Chinese, Arab, Persian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, etc. communities that allow authentic ethnic cuisines to flourish.

Mexican food is abysmal in Argentina because it has been modified for Argentine tastes. There is no large Mexican community to support authentic and tasty Mexican food as well as sources for the produce.

If you are old enough to have eaten Japanese food in the US in the 70's then you would have had a similar experience. A bastardized version of Japanese food adapted to US tastes more than 50 years after the major immigration of Japanese. It was only with the Japanese economic resurgence in the 70's and 80's was Japanese food in the US revitalized with authentic tastes and interesting fusions like the California Roll.

The answer to your question is simple. Argentina has been relatively isolated from foreign influences on their cuisine with no large ethnic communities to give birth to something different.

I like Asian food but think it's inferior to high class European food (French, Italian, Spanish) because it relies too much on overwhelming the palate with spices instead of coaxing real flavor out of the food. Even if you don't agree with what I just said, it's debatable if French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, etc. cuisine should be #1 or #2. The point is that European cuisine is already highly developed and you don't need immigrants from Asia to have good food. And so I don't agree with your argument because with its Spanish and Italian heritage Argentina had all it needed to have a great cuisine of its own. But its cuisine is terrible...

I went to a French restaurant here recently, run by French people. Lunch was good, very flavorful, so I went back for dinner, which was Argentine-directed, hence bad. The cook can obviously cook, but I think he's started to make BAD FOOD BECAUSE OTHERWISE ARGENTINIANS WILL SPIT IT OUT!

 

[nlaruccia]

The main reason for the limited food choices is that Argentina has relatively low immigration especially from outside Latin America compared to the USA, Canada and Europe. In these places you have large Chinese, Arab, Persian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, etc. communities that allow authentic ethnic cuisines to flourish.

Mexican food is abysmal in Argentina because it has been modified for Argentine tastes. There is no large Mexican community to support authentic and tasty Mexican food as well as sources for the produce.

If you are old enough to have eaten Japanese food in the US in the 70's then you would have had a similar experience. A bastardized version of Japanese food adapted to US tastes more than 50 years after the major immigration of Japanese. It was only with the Japanese economic resurgence in the 70's and 80's was Japanese food in the US revitalized with authentic tastes and interesting fusions like the California Roll.

The answer to your question is simple. Argentina has been relatively isolated from foreign influences on their cuisine with no large ethnic communities to give birth to something different.

Originally I wasn't referring to the lack of variety of food in Argentina, so much as the increasingly bad quality of Argentine food that is available. Many of my favorite restaurants have gone down in quality and it's quite sad. The last really good meal I had was in a German restaurant in Australia and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. My Argentine friend is there now, raving about how damn good the sushi is in the supermarket, compared to the expensive sushi restaurants in Palermo.

 

[Girino]

Originally I wasn't referring to the lack of variety of food in Argentina, so much as the increasingly bad quality of Argentine food that is available.

My husband say that the dairy selection here was not that bad when he was a child (some 30 years ago), but due to economic difficulties (and I suppose other factors) the large scale dairies have started to be mixed with dried milk and water, or made only with dried milk and water. 'Raw' products such as yogurt and whole milk are thus tasteless unless they add flavors, vitamins, etc. Which is why it is so damn hard to find a real yogurt or a good milk here.

 

[pauper]

The answer to your question is simple. Argentina has been relatively isolated from foreign influences on their cuisine with no large ethnic communities to give birth to something different.

With Palermo recently opening up to the rest of Latin America ending years of isolation do expats feel optimistic about the culinary scene there?

 

[DontMindMe]

Some reflections on Colombian vs. Argentine cuisine. The local Colombia cuisine is somewhat boring like Argentine cuisine. The Arepa of Colombia in my mind is as highly overrated as Argentine bread. The difference is that Colombia chefs take their job more seriously and the foreign restaurants are of much higher quality. Mexican food and sushi - two of my favorites - are very well prepared here in Colombia.

I get bored with the traditional Colombian cuisine, too, but I do think it's of higher quality and a bit more interesting than Argentine food. Colombian breakfast is good--the eggs and coffee are great. Beautiful yolks. Unfortunately, Colombians have an extremely starch/carb-heavy diet, which for me is the biggest con. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, which even though it's supposed to be healthier was hard to get used to, but I prefer it now. However, a traditional Colombian lunch is always pretty much the same damn thing, whether you eat out or go to someone's house. This is what you will get for around COP $6000-8000 (currently ~U.S. $2.50-3.50):

1. Hot soup. Even on the hot and humid coast, lunch always starts with a hot, heavy soup. The broth is either beef, chicken or fish, with a few chunks of that day's selection left in with bones for flavor, tons of starch (potatoes, yucca, plantain, often all three), lime juice, cilantro, and occasionally if I get lucky I see a piece of onion, carrot or bell pepper floating around. I eat everything but the starch, because I always know what's coming will have plenty. Great flavor, but yeah, gets old.

2. Main plate. The main feature will always be a hunk of meat or fish. Pollo a la plancha, pollo apanado (like milanesa de pollo, but much better), carne in various forms, various fishes (often fried), albóndigas and the occasional pork option. The waiter will always spit three or four options at you to choose from. Unless you go somewhere super cheap, the proteins are good. Colombians don't use a lot of spices, but they get marinades, they get basic seasoning, they are not opposed to fresh herbs. The side dishes vary, but there is always white rice (the fact that I don't eat white rice is VERY WEIRD here), plantain or yucca or patacón (that's fried, flat circles of green plantain) or arepa, and sometimes potato salad, too. There is often a green salad, but it's usually a sad, garnish-sized portion of iceberg lettuce, tomato and good homemade dressing. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you get beans or lentils, which are always yummy, probably because they're made with animal fat. Once my sides were boiled yucca, white rice and potato salad. The potato salad here is actually really good, but still, that was a disappointing day.

3. Fresh fruit juice. Lunch specials come with a small cup of whatever fresh fruit juice they're serving that day. It's great, but they do tend to add sugar to it, which IMO is completely unnecessary. Fruit here is AMAZING.

If you go out to eat at night and want something cheap, your options are fast food, fast food and more fast food. Arepas, yet another refined carbohydrate, are commonly eaten slathered in butter and stuffed with meat(s) at night. Fritos, a group of fried foods including empanadas and other small things, are also commonly eaten at night. Did I mention Colombians eat a freaking ton of meat? I must say that all of this typical food is extremely fresh--it may get repetitive, but the quality is almost always good, and you can even request homemade ají picante and dump that all over everything to make it spicy enough to make your nose run, which is what I do. I get stared at for this, because Colombia is another country where they fear spicy food.

However, if you're willing to spend even just U.S.$7-15, your options expand quite a bit, you can find much healthier food and vegetarian, vegan, even macrobiotic options. In Bogotá, we cooked at home for all but two meals a week, and those two meals were usually either Papa John's pizza (being honest haha), Crepes & Waffles, Wok or our favorite Mexican place, which had great food and live mariachi music every Friday night. For special occasions, we loved La Tapería for fusion tapas and Tábula, the restaurant where we ate on our wedding night. Even when we are back in the U.S., I will miss these restaurants. Cooking at home in Colombia is super easy. I can't rave enough about the produce, and the grocery stores have a better selection than the ones I went to when I lived in Madrid.

Damn, this post is long. I'm turning into ElQueso! (Just kidding, if you're reading this-- I enjoy your long posts about Paraguay!)

 

[Ceviche]

And there ain't nothing wrong with cutting vegetables. My current field of expertise is quite technical and mental-skill-oriented (in fact, of the three separate careers I've had, only my first wasn't). Yet I find that when I'm frustrated, there's nothing better than the Zen of cutting vegetables to make a good gumbo. And that takes a LOT of cutting...

Couldn't agree more. My field of work is pretty technical as well but i just loveeeee cooking and cutting vegetables. Its my favorite stress buster.

 

[Matt84]

I agree about the zen qualities of repetitively cutting vegetables (but I admit I enjoy most the italian Renaissance Naturalistic joy of appreciating their shapes, structure, and hue for inspiration)

DontMindMe, is it really that inexpensive to get that much cooked meat from more than one animal, fruit juice, and some sort of vegetables in Colombia?