Buenos Aires Food Week

[jeff1234]

All over the world cities have food weeks to show off their restaurants. When The Buenos Aires Herald sent a reporter, Sorrel Moseley-Williams, to check out Buenos Aires Food Week his(her) experiences were what might be more expected of Afghanistan Food Week or Rwanda Food Week than a cosmopolitan city like BsAs.

Her comments ranged from a “muddy mess” to "the hot ceviche (a stew rather than anything else) could have been boiled in ketchup" to "the rice was an epic disaster of cheap rice badly cooked" (Rice badly cooked!!??). Can you screw rice up by accident?

I would have expected the BsAsHerald to be promoting the foods and restaurants of BsAs. Instead they printed this horrible report and put it on the internet where potential tourists all over the world can read it. Are they trying to kill off tourist related businesses?

http://www.buenosair...urth-time-lucky

 

[glasgowjohn]

I think its great that they did print it

A food critic has to be honest and Sorrel is that

Would you prefer that she tells lies about the places that she has eaten in ?

 

[ajoknoblauch]

All over the world cities have food weeks to show off their restaurants. When The Buenos Aires Herald sent a reporter, Sorrel Moseley-Williams, to check out Buenos Aires Food Week his(her) experiences were what might be more expected of Afghanistan Food Week or Rwanda Food Week than a cosmopolitan city like BsAs.

Her comments ranged from a “muddy mess” to "the hot ceviche (a stew rather than anything else) could have been boiled in ketchup" to "the rice was an epic disaster of cheap rice badly cooked" (Rice badly cooked!!??). Can you screw rice up by accident?

I would have expected the BsAsHerald to be promoting the foods and restaurants of BsAs. Instead they printed this horrible report and put it on the internet where potential tourists all over the world can read it. Are they trying to kill off tourist related businesses?

http://www.buenosair...urth-time-lucky

I don't know her personally and, though I've found some of her writing a bit cloying, it's not the paper's business to promote tourism. She may exaggerate or even be wrong, but it sounds as if she at least attended with a critical eye (or mouth).

 

[nlaruccia]

All over the world cities have food weeks to show off their restaurants. When The Buenos Aires Herald sent a reporter, Sorrel Moseley-Williams, to check out Buenos Aires Food Week his(her) experiences were what might be more expected of Afghanistan Food Week or Rwanda Food Week than a cosmopolitan city like BsAs.

Her comments ranged from a “muddy mess” to "the hot ceviche (a stew rather than anything else) could have been boiled in ketchup" to "the rice was an epic disaster of cheap rice badly cooked" (Rice badly cooked!!??). Can you screw rice up by accident?

I would have expected the BsAsHerald to be promoting the foods and restaurants of BsAs. Instead they printed this horrible report and put it on the internet where potential tourists all over the world can read it. Are they trying to kill off tourist related businesses?

http://www.buenosair...urth-time-lucky

Can you copy in the forum the article? You have to be have a paid subscription with Buenos Aires Herald in order to open and read the link.

 

[citygirl]

You can read it on her website as well:
http://www.sorrelmw.com/fourth-time-lucky/

If those were here experiences, why wouldn't she state them? It's an article in a newspaper, not a pr piece. Good is recognized and so is the not-so-good, as it should be.

Oh and she is a friend of mine in the spirit of full disclosure

 

[jeff1234]

Of course the Herald and the reporter were correct to report what they found. And the bad reviews will highlight those restaurants that were caught treating a promotional event as an opportunity to make a profit.

But everybody in the city, from newspapers, to taxis and hotels and the municipal government have an interest in keeping the tourism industry healthy.

I just found it a sign of the the dysfunction of BsAs that the city put on a major food event but no seems to have assured that the tourists will get good quality food.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

The reality is that some restaurants here think they are smarter than their customers. i now stay clear of special offers outside of the la nacion card discounts, because too many times the discount meal on offer is well below the restauran's normal standard. Customers aren't always afforded the respect they should be when it comes to discounts and attempts to win repeat business. Sometimes it feels like they are trying to make margin on the discount rather than being fwd thinking enough to take a small loss or break even in the hope that you might attract new repeat customers. Sadly when I saw food week I made a conscious decision to avoid the overcrowding and the opportunity for restaranteurs to lower their standards and treat this like a one off profit making venture rather than PR for more long term profit making (i.e repeat business based on food quality).

The much vaunted food revolution in Buenos Aires (outside of the staples, which I like a lot) is still in it's infancy. I do think that in the coming years if the country can stay in some way upright, people tastes will be challenged and changed. I would love to see more chefs challenging people to broaded their palette beyond dulce, agridulce and meat! There is still a bit of an aversion to spices, bitter of sharp tasting dishes and combinations therein. Of course import restrictions and inflation hamper everything in this country and the food industry also suffers.

In that respect we need more bloggers, journalists and food critics to be vocal about average food and sing praises where they find great food.

Ps. Thanks for the link, the idea of paying for the Herald still confounds and amuses me in equal measure.

 

[Davidglen77]

I think it´s great that Sorrell wrote an honest review of the restaurants she visited. Remember how important freedom of the press is. I agree with the statement that the food revolution is in it's infancy here. Things have improved A LOT in the 7 years that I have been here. Last month I couldn't believe my eyes when "El Palacio de la Papa Frita" on Lavalle right off of Corrientes closed and an Indian Restaurant opened in it's place!

 

[DontMindMe]

I don't think people really go to Buenos Aires for foodie tourism at this point the way they do to New York, Paris, etc. Does anyone really buy that expensive plane ticket just for the beef and empanadas? Wine in Mendoza, sure, but food? Anyway, as others have said, the Herald is a newspaper, not a PR newsletter. It's not their job, nor should it be, to keep the tourism industry healthy.

This actually reminds me of when I was an editor on the college newspaper and the school was going through some alarming money troubles. Obviously it was newsworthy, so we covered it. Cue the administration being furious for the "bad publicity." Um, no, it's news. Your weekly PR newsletter is there for publicity. So many people in the world don't get the difference. Public universities in the U.S. enjoy freedom of the press; private ones do not. We were private. Years later, the school has two PR rags-- the weekly PR newsletter written by an on-staff publicist and the other PR newsletter disguised as a newspaper that only publishes "positive" stories. (Having worked in PR, I hesitate to even call that "newspaper" PR, but anyway...)

Should Argentine newspapers stop writing about inflation, crime, corruption and bad food because it might hurt the tourism industry? Come on. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

I think the beef and the whole parilla side of food is certainly a tourist pull. It's not the US or European fine dining experience but in my experience people who come to visit want to taken to a parilla.

Slowly korean, chinese, middle eastern, armenian and indian food is becoming more available, those international cuisines are more of a boon to the hjardy expats and more adventurous locals than part of the tourist draw, thats why I say it's a fledgling development. The potential exists for international quality resturants. Also, regionally BA restuarants featured in the 50 South American restaruant list.