Disappointed with Food in Argentina

[carride]

there are three verdulerias there with good produce . cerezas 8000 pesos half a kilo bananas 3500 pesos a kilo . papaya 5000 pesos a kilo . Dried fruit 3000 pesos 100 grams and everything else shockingly dear . Hardly a customer in sight but this never seems to deter the businessman here

If you saw bunches of cherry anywhere it was at least one month ago, and that was the very very end of the season from the coldest province of Santa Cruz. They are only a spring season crop. Some begin to arrive from Mendoza in October, and not ripe enough ones from northern Patagonia provinces in November before they harvest their peak December season.
Maybe you meant say strawberries?

 

[wineguy999]

One really nice chain store I visited lately in the US was Total Wines, it is like a wine theme park, they have a never ending selection of wines from all over the world.

But all silver linings have a dark cloud. Total Wine is decent enough, but they choose not to do business with several importers that many in-the-know consumers look to for quality and consistency. Total Wine prefers to self-import and run margins that would make their selected products unappealing next to better quality wines from respected importers. Houston-based Spec's does much the same, as do many large chains.

When it comes to mass retailers, I imagine there's always at least one aspect we can bitch about.

 

[FrankPintor]

If you saw bunches of cherry anywhere it was at least one month ago, and that was the very very end of the season from the coldest province of Santa Cruz. They are only a spring season crop. Some begin to arrive from Mendoza in October, and not ripe enough ones from northern Patagonia provinces in November before they harvest their peak December season.
Maybe you meant say strawberries?

View attachment 10269

Nice graphic. Fruit (and some veg) are very seasonal here, I'm sure that doesn't help people who want to find everything on one shopping expedition to the supermarket. It's not like Europe where even the cheapest supermarket chains (Aldi, Lidl...) can offer strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, any kind of berry, say over Christmas from the Canary Islands or Morocco.

I totally pigged out on the strawberries here while they were in season maybe until 6 weeks ago. There will be other fruit, I'm seeing lots of plums now, for example.

 

[perry]

If you saw bunches of cherry anywhere it was at least one month ago, and that was the very very end of the season from the coldest province of Santa Cruz. They are only a spring season crop. Some begin to arrive from Mendoza in October, and not ripe enough ones from northern Patagonia provinces in November before they harvest their peak December season.
Maybe you meant say strawberries?

View attachment 10269

definetely was cereza at 8000 pesos half a kilo san Telmo Market

 

[chris]

You maybe have many hours to purchase products from various venders the average argentinian does not .have the time . Food selection is very poor in Buenos Aires which now had one of the lowest seafood consumption of the planet and this is with one of the Best fishing zones of the waters of patagonia . Seafood should never be a luxury but a normal food for the worker

It's true that working people simply do not have hours and hours to spend shopping all over the place. That may be the system but times have changed. Women work now. There are fewer maids. People work long hours.

 

[LuckyLuke]

I think it’s possibly a generational difference too.

I have lots of Argentine friends who are like me. Millennial, mid30s.

They live alone, parents in other parts of town or the country. They work full time, in the office at 9am, finish at 6pm, then in the evenings go to the facultad, pilates, drama class - you name it. They busy. Monday to Friday.

Days finish by 9pm/10pm and at that point, after being out and about doing things all day, you don’t have the time energy to go to the butchers or cook etc. Plus, they all closed.

So you just end up a poor diet eating pizza, empanadas, panchos every day as there is nothing else. In other countries, that’s not the case, you can get better quality, healthier food in a quick end-of-day run to a Dia Carrefour Express-style place.

It’s all lifestyle and we’re all different I guess. If I had to choose between going to the butchers cooking a meal or taking a French class and go to the gym, I'd choose the latter any day of the week. It's personal preferences.

In Neuquen, the city caters to the petrol sector. They are cash rich, time poor, employees that are constantly on the run out to the boonies to work. There are entire catering sectors here devoted to producing "viandas" (sealed meal trays) that are actually quite affordable, portable and healthy. My cunada, who is a full time school administrator, often uses them to avoid food spoilage and unhealthy eating habits. I'm surprised this doesn't exist in BA as well.

 

[LuckyLuke]

Fotos speak a thousand words and this looks like the meal you leave outside for the most needy . the chicken is overcooked and extremely scrawny and for this price in Asia You would get three chickens with fragrant Jasmine rice served with a increíble ginger sauce . The food Quality in Argentina has gone to the dogs and it is certainly much worse than before . everything seems to be cheaply Made with scarcity the only common factor

If you like pictures, have a look at this little doozy...from a restaurant next to our local pediatrician. That's right....$29,900 for a 120g of lomo off the kids menu.

 

[Ronnie Hotdogs]

2400 pesos el kilo bananas in Jumbo?

 

[nikad]

If you like pictures, have a look at this little doozy...from a restaurant next to our local pediatrician. That's right....$29,900 for a 120g of lomo off the kids menu.

Wtf

 

[Paige55]

In Neuquen, the city caters to the petrol sector. They are cash rich, time poor, employees that are constantly on the run out to the boonies to work. There are entire catering sectors here devoted to producing "viandas" (sealed meal trays) that are actually quite affordable, portable and healthy. My cunada, who is a full time school administrator, often uses them to avoid food spoilage and unhealthy eating habits. I'm surprised this doesn't exist in BA as well.

I linked to a place yesterday that does vacuum sealed meal prep and more places that cater to this work-drenched and time-deficient demographic, are opening each day. The place is called Vino Tinto. There are also several meal delivery services that offer healthier frozen/prepared options that get delivered straight to your door. I've seen several delivered here to my building, so they must not be that terrible.

This stuff exists, but people seem to really want to hate on the food here so they skip over the mentions and will live their last days upset about the paltry state of food in Argentina when great food abounds all around them. I try to do my part to drop as much knowledge as I can, so nobody has to eat another cold morcilla or slice of stale bread with rotten camembert. You can lead a horse to water, and all that.

Now, I'm sure these services cost more, but someone brought up Whole Foods as an example—I'm assuming we know that convenience food that's both nutritious and good...often comes with a slightly higher price tag (though with grocery store prices here, not by much).

I don't know. I'm poor and eat different iterations of the same things nearly every day and find all of it in a 30 minute round trip jaunt to three or four neighborhood places. I might stray farther if I want a specialty pastry on a weekend, but even when I'm busy I find time and it's never 'hours' of shopping. In fact, the busier and larger supermarkets take far more time for me to maneuver than the several shops local to my barrio. One stop shopping isn't always the easier or faster option, oddly.