A Serious Thread About Food In Argentina

[Girino]

A simple glance at the menus in the US give a clue of this obsession. Menus don't just list "Roast Chicken with Potatoes" No, it's "Fire Seared Organic Free Range Hen with Morel-Laced Fingerling Purée..." add to this the [severely overmarketed] obsessions over biodynamic kale and ginseng and whatnot... even on fast food menus and canned foods!

https://www.youtube....h?v=V8SjkDq2ZwI


(sorry I still can't embed the videos here!)

 

[sergio]

Amazing how the tone of this forum has changed. A few years ago any criticism of Argentina was aggressively shot down. It's refreshing to see an intelligent and fair minded discussion of this topic. I agree that there is a great variety of food available in the US. AVAILABLE. That is the key word. Just walk into any Whole Foods for example. You can easily find what you want. Not so in Argentina. If you want a varied, nutritious and interesting diet you are going against the grain. It takes a lot of time and effort to find the ingredients, if you can at all. For those who earn in pesos it is expensive as well. What has always amazed me is the widespread notion in Argentina that the food is "rico". When i returned from a long stay abroad a neighbor commented that now I could appreciate the delicious food in Argentina. I didn't want to argue so I just smiled. I guess if you don't travel internationally you don't know that there is something better or if you do and you can't afford good restaurants you leave with the idea that the US, for example, has nothing but McDonalds. On the whole there is a pretty provincial mentality in Argentina that is reflected in the food culture.

 

[camberiu]

https://www.youtube....h?v=V8SjkDq2ZwI


(sorry I still can't embed the videos here!)

Thank you for reminding me why Queens is so much better than Brooklyn.

 

[syngirl]

Sorry, but I was really talking about healthy food (or food combination) not about taste. We have unhealthy food in Italy, as well, and they are the yummiest thing on earth, if you ask me. But they are perceived as such - unhealthy. They are allowed once in a while, but people know that they shouldn't eat them every day.
The famous melanzane alla parmigiana are layers of fried eggplants with mozzarella and tomato, then baked in the oven. But if you search for the recipe on the Internet, you will find many variants that try to make the dish lighter/healthier (for example, by grilling eggplant instead of frying it).

It may be that in Italy we are more healthy-conscious than in Argentina by history, but I notice that here the simple things are more expensive than processed food, and it is something that I can't really understand, except that it is a consequence of globalization.

I beg to differ that Italy understands which foods are healthy and unhealthy -- maybe they know which foods are unhealthy, but it's certainly not changing the eating habits: apparently you have the worst childhood obesity problem in all of the OCDE (34 nations Org Econ Co-op and Development)

http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/obesityandtheeconomicsofpreventionfitnotfat-italykeyfacts.htm

In Italy, 1 in 3 children is overweight, one of the highests rate in the OECD.

Now Argentina is no gem in the childhood obesity game either -- they have the highest in the region, however they are still at only 10% of children being obese -- whereas Italy is apparently at 30%. (http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/10/argentina-fighting-the-worst-child-obesity-rate-in-the-region/)

So while adult overweight/obesity rates in Italy may be less than an awful lot of other countries, I think the diet has changed a lot more than you realise. You are not a child, nor do you have one yet so probably your perception will change if/when you start spending more time with children in Italy and see that they are not doing any better than children here.

And of course we can rely on the Daily Mail for a more tabloid style headline on the subject: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2642803/American-kids-ARENT-fattest-world-distinction-belongs-Greece-Italy.html

 

[Ries]

Yes, if you are on an Argentine income and spending dollars in the US that you bought at blue rate, even Queens will seem expensive to you. But in terms of groceries, other than fruits and vegetables, everything in Queens is cheaper than what I find in Palermo. Eating out in Queens on average is also cheaper than eating out in Palermo.

Really?
I buy a liter of beer for a bit over a dollar, US, in Palermo.
In the USA, a 12 oz beer is often two bucks, and in a bar, more like five.
Wine, similar- much much more expensive.
I can get a choripan in the Bosque, which is technically Palermo, for maybe twelve pesos- find me a sausage sandwich (not a pancho) in NYC for that.
On down the list- most things I buy and eat are cheaper in Palermo.
Whisky, sure- thats expensive. Anything imported.
But a slice of pizza, or a beer, or a quick sandwich- usually 1/3 or so the price in BsAs that I pay up here in Washington State.
I used to take my teenager to Subway in the US- a sandwich and drink was 150 pesos, on the current blue rate.

 

[EdRooney]

You got me thinking Camberiu, so I decided to pop next door to the Verdu and do a little comparison shopping (OK to be honest, I needed to buy some veg too).

The chart below shows the difference between my local greengrocer and Stop and Shop Astoria Heights.


Item
Stop & Shop, Astoria (in USD)
Verdulería Beto (in ARS)
Pears (8 qty)
7.12
20
Oranges (4 lbs)
4.99
28
Grapefruit (8 qty)
10.00
35
Celery (1 bunch)
1.99
12
Carrots (2 lb)
2.29
18
Onions (3 lb)
1.99
15
Broccoli (4 stalks)
1.99
18
Sales Tax (5%?)
1.52
n/a
Total
USD 31.89
ARS 146

The results are not as drastic as I had painted it, as the Argentine side came out over my AR$100 estimate and the US side came out well under USD$40. But still...

If we were to use the blue rate, it would be $454.33 vs. $146.00. Like Camberiu says, a total rip off. But even at the official rate the produce in Queens would cost ARS $271.46: still over twice as expensive as what I would have paid in Argentina.

Obviously, I don't know how Stop & Shop compares to other stores in Queens, but frankly Beto's next door is not the cheapest place in town either.

In sum, regardless of whether you're buying at the blue rate or the official rate, produce in the US is at least twice as expensive.

Edit: sorry couldn't get the table to look pretty, but you get the point.

 

[camberiu]

You got me thinking Camberiu, so I decided to pop next door to the Verdu and do a little comparison shopping (OK to be honest, I needed to buy some veg too).

The chart below shows the difference between my local greengrocer and Stop and Shop Astoria Heights.

Two comments:

1) I had stated that fruits and vegetables were cheaper in Argentina. It seems that you decided to post a table that CONFIRMED my claim. Not sure why.
2) The prices you see on Peadpod.com are different from what the actual store has, when you are there in person. That is one of the reason why I do not use peadpod.

"[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]If we were to use the blue rate, it would be $454.33 vs. $146.00. Like Camberiu says, a total rip off. But even at the official rate the produce in Queens would cost ARS $271.46: still over twice as expensive as what I would have paid in Argentina."[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]And a worker in the US gets paid way more than double what he would get paid in Buenos Aires for the same job. [/background]
[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]Now, it would be interesting to see how much cheese, meat, yogurt, shampoo, shaving blades, deodorants, fish and everything else one buys in a grocery store costs in Queens compared to Palermo. [/background]

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

When I complained of lack of green salad with the lunch, they all said, "vaca come verduras" nosotros comemos carne !
But no joking, the green veggie costs alot in SA countries so average low middle income family can not afford to mix green
veggies in their diet.

 

[camberiu]

Really?
I buy a liter of beer for a bit over a dollar, US, in Palermo.
In the USA, a 12 oz beer is often two bucks, and in a bar, more like five.
Wine, similar- much much more expensive.
I can get a choripan in the Bosque, which is technically Palermo, for maybe twelve pesos- find me a sausage sandwich (not a pancho) in NYC for that.
On down the list- most things I buy and eat are cheaper in Palermo.

I don't drink, so can't comment on on the wine or beer.
Street food: Queens is really hard to beat in terms of street food. For a little over US$2, I can buy an authentic street shawarma made by a true Pakistani that blows any Argentine choripan out of the water to the point that is not even fair.

Please seem to forget that although both Queens and Manhattan are part of NYC, they are in virtually different universes in terms of prices.

 

[EdRooney]

You're right Camberiu, I misread your post.

But then again, it's not just the veg that's more expensive in the US, it's the meat, the rice, the beans... Frankly I can't afford to eat as well there as I can in Argentina. Then again, if you eat out a bunch, then living in Argentina is the equivalent of a death sentence, while there is no better place on the planet to eat out (IMHO) than Queens.

As for the rest, I spent a significant amount of time this year in Pontiac, Michigan, which has an average household income considerably below that of Queens, and our total grocery bill (incl. the things you mention: shampoo, fish, meat...) was still far higher than what we pay here.

I'm not trying to be an Argie apologist here; rather I think the whole takeaway from this thread is that you can eat good, healthy and cheap in Argentina, but for some reason Argentines don't...