Food Market: Recoleta area

[Magis]

Will be living in Recoleta area in about a week and was wondering if anyone could guide me to a great indoor/outdoor food market to do most/all FOOD shopping. Anything similar to the Mercato Centrale in Florence or the Andrea Dora market in Rome?

Muchas Gracias!

 

[jb5]

No, not in Recoleta. There is a group of stores that are indoor/outdoor at the site of an old market, on Pena I believe, but we found the food there to be very overpriced and inferior in fresshness to the markets in other parts of the city. It has a couple of vegetable stores, fish markets and butchers. There's an OK German bakery and a higher end store for meat/cheese.

I think it's worth taking a cab to the big market in Caballito. That is my favorite because of it's phenomenal prepared salad ingredients. Everything from tons of different kinds of washed and cut greens to marinated garbanzo salads. Good fruit too and several meat and poultry and prepared food vendors. Great fresh eggs and some hard to find basics like great French Dijon. Everything much fresher and better quality than at the Recoleta market. I also like the San Telmo market though it's not as big. These are both indoor however.

We decided after a couple of weeks that residents in Recoleta don't care much about food. There is also a lack of good restaurants there. Their maids shop
and cook. Reminds me of the upper east side of Manhattan.

 

[Ries]

Many years ago, Buenos Aires lost interest in big central food markets like the ones in Florence, or Seattle, or most cities in Europe.

Most have been gone for 20 years or more.

The main wholesale food market was moved far out into the suburbs, and is not friendly to individual buyers who want less than a case of anything.

The one mentioned above, Mercado Progresso,
http://www.mercadodelprogreso.com.ar/
on Rivadavia, mere steps from the Primera Junta Subte station, is one that remains. It is great, and the whole neighborhood around it has many more food stores and other interesting down to earth shopping.

The other one that is close in to the center of town is in San Telmo-
http://www.welcomesantelmo.com/san-telmo-guide/rmb3jqv6p9/
this one has antiques, second hand oddities, and food as well.

But each is a bit of a trip from Recoleta.
Parts of Recoleta are so upscale that the maids are sent farther afield to buy food- when you can rent to Prada and Louis Vuitton, the greengrocer probably wont pay the amount of rent you want. if you get a bit towards Barrio Norte, there are more corner stores, meat markets, and vegetable stands.

You will find you will have to try various stores, and come up with a mix of stores that fits your particular taste. But you should still be able to find most things you need within a few blocks.

Dan has a good list of food stores-
http://www.saltshaker.net/buenos-aires-food-drink

Where, more precisely, is the apartment you are renting?
we can give some recomendations if we know more. Up near the big library on Las Heras are more neighborhoody places.

 

[pauper]

Or try the ferias itinerantes - I don't know if they are in Recoleta but there's bound to be one fairly close.

 

[Napoleon]

On a small scale, where Vicente Lopez crosses Rodriguez Peña has some food specific stores. The market has been there for over 100 years, but mainly there's a large grocery store with smaller, more specialized shops (on the Rodriguez Peña side) for your shopping pleasure.

Absolutely NOTHING like what I visited in Livorno, Italy. That place was AMAZING!

The San Telmo Market was built to be like that, but most of the food vendors have given way to "antique"/"junk" vendors. Although I do like a lot of the stuff they sell, I really like big food markets.

 

[Magis]

Thanks for the replies. I don't mind travelling outside of Recoleta at all!. The Mercado Progresso looks fantastic!