Learning To Cook Using Limited Range Of Local Ingredients

[Zorawar]

Unless I am just shopping in the wrong neighborhoods, I find most of the City's food markets, large and small, seem -- outside of the famous national export items -- to offer a very narrow and low quality range of cooking ingredients. The shelves of highly processed instant sauces and corn-syrup based jams, condiments, etc., remind me of childhood trips to US markets in the late 1950's. I suspect the subject has been exhaustively covered on this website, but would still appreciate any suggestions for interesting weekend farmer's markets, and/or Internet or printed sources of recipes which help one make use the narrow choices in the stores, and seemingly second-tier produce on offer at the charming, but monotonously stocked Peruvian greengrocers.

I am determined to make the best of what is available, and not sink into the expat syndrome of whining about the lack of kale, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

What ingredients are you looking for specifically? It's entirely possible you're shopping in the wrong neighborhoods and or wrong stores. I love to complain about how horrible the selection is here, but if I'm willing to shop in a few stores and go out of my way, I don't find my self that limited.

 

[RodalfoWalsh]

Those Peruvian green grocers are terrible. Find a good verduleria (they're few and far between) or go to one of the big supermarkets.

 

[polostar88]

Intersection of Vicente Lopez and Rodriguez Pena has a number of vegetable stores and two good butcheries.

There are also two expensive fish stores on that block but the seafood looks bad, like everywhere else in Buenos Aires.

 

[Girino]

There are various factors that in my opinion can make it harder to shop:

1) limited knowledge of cooking by the locals (few ingredients repeated all over)
2) limited money to spend on healthy food when there is cheaper processed/ready made food
3) import restriction
4) national tendency to be lazy, so that the stocks vary from week to week, it seems there is no planning ahead

 

[garryl]

Have you tried barrio chino yet ? I found a nice bag of oatmeal and greens and uncommon spices, also there is a kitchen stuff store, I found a few useful things that I can't find on Santa Fe.The price is also a lot lower, quality is as bad as the ones you find in other stores, so no harm is done. I think BsAs probably has a lot more ingredients than you think.

(not sure if this is correct) I find many locals to eat quite simply, look at the shopping basket of the shoppers at Disco, I see " a bag of tasteless dry hard white bread, big bottles of coke/sprite, chunk of beef, waxed apple, ham .. ". WTF, I was living like that for a while plus not exercising well. I felt terrible. But I do enjoy other things BsAs can offer, which I can't have in US, many things. So not too much complaint. Have to keep the spirit positive for all the expats. (but it has be a crime to sell and eat those little white bread on the table of every restaurant, especially the ones individually wrapped in the plastic bag.)

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Barrio Chino
Sabores de India (cuidad de la paz...look them up on facebook)
Caballito (Mercado del progreso)
Armenian shops in and around calle Armenia

Also, for good pork and chicken I buy from my local feria itinerante, look that up on the BA city gov website for the one nearest you. You can get a limited (frankly not so impressive, or cheap!) section of organic cheese, milk and yoghurt from Chacarita's organic market (nr fed. la croze station).

After trying most of the fruit and veg places in my neighbourhood I've worked out that if I want yucas or chilis i go to a run down bolivian / peruvian place...same for papa andinos...more "conventional" stuff I get from a slightly more expensive place nearby.

In short, you can't get it all in one place, you need to develop a bit of a shopping routine, I won't say it's a pain as I kind of enjoy it, but it is time intensive and a bit of a hassle.

 

[Happy Lady]

We lived in Recoleta for 20 years and recently moved to a small town in the provincia de Cba. The food available here is much more limited than what we were able to find in BA. The vegetables here are all old and bad, for the most part. Try those stores that polostar mentioned. The fish stores on that block do not have good fish. Be wary! We bought our bread at Lepe, the panaderia owned by those two guys who have a segment on the gourmet channel and it is very good, although expensive. Also, there are some organic growers that deliver to different parts of the city, in Recoleta it was twice a week. Their veggies were very good. I don't remember the names so you will have to google that. Barrio Chino has some good things and we went there about once a month. I agree it takes a bit of time. We are retired so we have plenty of that and enjoyed looking and sometimes finding good quality produce and meat. The average diet, as serafina stated is limited and most probably contributes to the lack of available food items.

 

[Happy Lady]

I forgot to give the address of Lepe. It is in the 1600 or 1700 block of Montevideo. Give it a try. I think that they have other places in the city,too.

 

[BaltRochGirl]

Agree with the suggestion to post specifically about the items you are looking for. Barrio China has a lot more variety at the big grocery stores, it's a good place to stock up on sauces and spices, but for most it's not convenient for daily/weekly shopping. As stated it's very unlikely that you will find a one stop shop. I would suggest you wander around close to your place and find a good fruit/veg stand, they're often cheaper and better than the big grocery stores. Find a local Chino that has decent stuff and then supplement with products from the big grocery store as needed. Prices will vary wildly from one shop to another depending on the product.

For more specialize stuff check out the monthly markets like Buenos Aires Market, where there are a lot of specialty food stands and then just google and wander. Not everything you crave can be found here but with some effort a lot can.