A Serious Thread About Food In Argentina

Girino

Registered
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
2,633
Likes
2,137
DISCLAIMER: This doesn't intend to be the usual rant & complain thread about food. I would like to hear from people who actually tried to understand why the Argentinian food is like it is, being it a "young" country, and land who was colonized just recently.

The below observations come from my limited circle of Argentinians and what I noticed the Argentinian mothers buy in supermarkets and don't pretend to be the only and one truth about this subject.
-------

Infantile. This is the word i would use to describe food in Argentina. The most popular dishes are unhealthy or unbalanced, the kind of mix in Italy we use to encourage spoiled and grumpy kids to eat.
For example, an Italian mother would encourage his children to eat fish by buying them fish burger or similar, which is fried fish with a crust (sort of fish & chips).
Or to eat meat buying cordon bleau. Both can be baked instead of fried, in a effort to keep them lighter, but they are used to lure children into eating something with fish or meat.

Pizza, in Italy is considered a treat and eaten no more than once per week, as it is a fat food. Often it is ordered when there is no time for cooking, for example if the family returned home late or if the mother wants to take a break from the kitchen for a day.
The same is valid for ice cream, another treat. Not many people have dessert after every meal, they are usually bought industrial and used as snacks (such as flan, chocolate creams, etc.)

As you can see, I am talking about everyday meals, in families where the mother is working, as well. The most elaborate dishes are usually reserved for the weekend or special occasions, since they require more time. Argentina has more elaborate dishes, as well (matabre, locro, etc.), but they are not part of everyday life, although here in Argentina ready-to-eat food is cheaper and more widely available than in Italy.

I also noticed that here they tend to make their basic dishes "childish" by frying and by adding melted cheese everywhere, even on top of a fried milanesa, or by putting french fries on the side, on the pancho, etc.

Finally, I see that many people just have one meal per day, being it very heavy (Argentinian pizza, empanadas and milanesa are HEAVY food). Then they drink mate or tea and eat medialunas to fill up their stomach. But medialunas are made with grease or butter, so they are fat as well. Or they have a coffee with a slice of cake, which 90% of the times contain dulce de leche, which is basically pure sugar!
Overall, it looks like a very unbalanced diet to me.

But WHY IS SO?
Was there an effort behind this, to accomodate the basic dishes to many tastes (indios, europeans, asians) and to reduce the number of ingredients?
Or to ensure a larger demand of certain ingredients that were cheap or by-products? I am thinking about the cheeses they have here (gruyere, parmesan, fondue), which are often melted cheese, where it is easier to mix up lower quality milk and ingredients.
Was there a massification scheme that aimed to make the most popular food, the food which is easily and cheaply reproducible at an industrial level?

If you have scratched the surface of the topic "food in Argentina", please share your thoughts!
 
200 years is plenty time to get your food act together and I think you mean de-colonised just recently, surely?
Or, better put, gained their independence?
I've got no idea why the food here is so effing bland, which is why I'm so looking forward to a curry in Bradford, Yorkshire next month.
The sort of curry that brings tears to your eyes is what I mean.
 
With the indigenous and immigrant cultural heritage, being a food basket nation and having once been relatively wealthy it is a mystery to me why the food in Argentina is so bland.

I just use my go-to culprit whenever I complain about anything in Argentina- Peronism.

The Peronists killed food culture in Argentina.
 
Serafina, I find your thoughts interesting. I don't have any answers to your questions about the Argentine diet or why people eat as they do. I think, like many things here and everywhere, it is cultural. You raised a thought about the industrialization of cheap food. Perhaps the quanity of cows long ago led to part of the meat and cheese culture. I have been here for 20 years and have found the Argentine diet, for the most part, unhealthy and loaded with fat and sugar.
 
200 years is plenty time to get your food act together and I think you mean de-colonised just recently, surely?
Or, better put, gained their independence?

I think that changing the political status of a country (from colony to democracy) doesn't actually change the socio-cultural face of that country, nor what sits in the people's plates. And 200 years is a very short time, in my opinion.

Recently I saw a serie of 4 episodes about Blacks in Latin American, and it was interesting to see how the blacks have influenced and influence today many Latin countries, although it is becoming harder to spot those with an African heritage as they have mixed for centuries.
For example, did you know that there are many Afro-peruvian? I didn't even knew there was such a thing.
Or that basically any government tried to "whiten" the country by fighting African behaviors, music and culture or by inviting Europeans in the 1800's to move to South America in a effort to "diluite" the population? Or that in Brazil were brought 4 times as slaves as in the US? And in Cuba twice than in the US?

I am surprised to see so little local food which is really local, I mean made with veggies found only in South America. The colonization killed many indios and then there was a profuse effort to exterminate them. And those who survived live today as outcast, away from the buzz of Buenos Aires. So their food never became mainstream after colonization. And the African were segregated and repressed, as well, so I think there was an effort to "europeize" the food, as well.
 
There was a lot of quashing of African and Indigenous cultures. For example in Paraguay, which also enjoys pretty bland food similar to Argentina, the first dictator after their independence decreed that no same races could marry, Guaranis had to marry Spaniards to mix the races. I'm not sure if this was to harmonize the population or to eradicate the pure indigenous.
 
Apparently the food in Brazil is even worse, at least according to some Argentines who have recently returned from holiday there and they're talking from the horse's mouth.
I'll be a happy man if I don't see another poxy milanesa, ever.
 
For example in Paraguay, which also enjoys pretty bland food similar to Argentina,

That was definitely not my experience. In Assuncion I ate an AMAZING fish curry that was very popular with the locals. They also eat a lot of Guarani based food that is quite flavorful, including one of the best tapiocas I have ever had. The meat was well seasoned and full of favor. It was very different from what I see in Argentina.
 
Apparently the food in Brazil is even worse, at least according to some Argentines who have recently returned from holiday there and they're talking from the horse's mouth.
I'll be a happy man if I don't see another poxy milanesa, ever.

I can definitely see why they would hate Brazilian food. The black beans alone must be dreadful to them.
 
Back
Top