Rare imported delicacies found at Carrefour in Corrientes

[allcraz]

Hi Kurt, we've never exchanged comments before but I've read many of yours and they always surpass a person with average intelligence. This time I feel compelled to reply.
And just to mention, I don't have children of my own so there may be things I don't know in this case, but I have participated in the lives of many families and their children so I do have some insight.
And if I remember correctly you and your family will shortly be returning to live in the US.

My comment is as follows: Goldfish crackers, while a "fun" food are outright junk. They are not produced in Argentina, however there is a limitless variety of cracker and cookie products that are on the same par as Goldfish. Since we are not comparing high quality goods here I think that it's fair to say there are many comparable items here, maybe not of the same shape, concept and flavor of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, but fun to eat all the like.
I personally wouldn't encourage consumption to children of these types of goods living in another country and making it into a cult following and "buying up all of the stock" to ensure an endless supply.

I personally think it's better to consume local products when it comes to items in this category. If we were talking about appliances, electronics, or any type of equipment I would be all for buying the imported variety because it is simply far superior to what is available on the local market.
Also buying 20 packages of cookies or snacks is decadent, and not something I would encourage even if they were the last few packages of Oreos ever again to be produced. It's one thing to stock up on paper goods, toiletries, etc to save money on a bulk purchase, but one thing I don't miss about the US is being outside of a Wal-Mart store, seeing an endless stream of 400 pound people with swollen ankles and green yellow toenails, carting out huge quantities of junk food. I once saw a 30lb bag of potato chips offered for sale at Wal-Mart that were packaged in bags that were the size of the black plastic garbage bags that the encargado uses. Who needs this amount of potato chips at one time? When your kids return to live in the US they will have access to all of the goldfish they want, but they may never remember nice treats that do come from here like "conitos de dulce de leche", "colaciones", pepas, etc.......you get my drift? When I hear stories like this it reminds me a time that I travelled to Paris, and right next to my hotel was a McDonalds. I was standing on the sidewalk, saw a tour bus pull up and let out about 50 young people who were all speaking english and many wearing UCLA sweatshirts, all filed in to eat at McDonalds, again this was in Paris, if you get my drift.

Anyway this was not meant to bash you but I felt it was necessary to speak my mind in this case.
Cheers, David

Ugh, please...let Kurt's kids enjoy their Goldfish and save your preaching. We already have to sift through enough of these petty posts on this forum...now you have to go and judge a dad's supermarket purchases? Live and let live. How could this simple, non-controversial post have made you feel "it was necessary to speak your mind?" The fact that you do not have kids should have stopped you from posting in the first place. I don't have kids either, but I at least have enough sense to understand that any parent who gives into his kid's ear to ear smile over a simple taste-of-home snack is perfectly normal. But what do I know...I was just posting about Mac and Cheese yesterday.

 

[ba_2007]

I'm genuinely puzzled, do you people believe these extremely poor quality, industrially processed 'food' items are high quality?

Goldfish crackers ??

I guess it must be a 'taste of home' thing?

I find it very odd.

Spoken like a true newbie...

Just wait until you have been here for a few years and all will be revealed.

 

[fifs2]

Spoken like a true newbie...

Just wait until you have been here for a few years and all will be revealed.

Yup Id say give it 2 years and you may be lusting for Tayto cheese & onion like a madman..happens to us all..each to their own craving. My personal one is Irish soda farls and screw anyone that tells me go make the buttermilk to bake these homemade. Sometimes homemade just doesnt cut the mustard..(Söt och stark is how I like the latter and only sweden will do for that thank you very much..)

 

[kurtdillard]

I'm glad this turned into a lively thread David, thanks for your compliments about my posts overall If you don't have young kids then you don't know what its like constantly telling them 'no' to McDonalds, Coke, Dr. Pepper, etc. Most parents make accomodations, so we let our kids have Sprite once or twice per week, the rest of the time they drink water, milk, or fruit juice. Does that make me a great dad or a bad one? They haven't eaten at McDonalds or a similar fastfood restaurant in over a year. But we make compromises and let them split a bag of goldfish crackers over 3 to 4 days and we let them have ice cream for desert several nights per week. Since you don't have young kids I don't see how you can understand how many times we have to say 'no' every day, but saying 'yes' occassionally to a few bits of junk food isn't going to kill them and rewarding them when they behave well is an important part of parenting.

To Dublin who questioned my taste in snack foods, did you not notice I bought the crackers for the kids? And as Fifs and ba_2007 said, wait until you've been away from home for 4 or 5 years, you'll be surprised at how much you relish certain beers or packaged foods that you thought were crap when you lived in Dublin.

 

[Davidglen77]

Kurt thanks for your well thought out response. Unfortunately SOME of the other people on this board are not intelligent to recognize that my response was in no way a personal attack, and was nothing more than my point of view in no way intended to offend you. I am not going to bother to counterattack them as their own harsh and belittling responses speak volumes about their extremely low levels of intelligence and utter lack of wit.

Although I don't have kids, I have participated in the lives of many. And see friends and relatives constantly say no to their children. I certainly am no authority and having to combat the "I want this and I want that" on a daily basis for 18 years (or more) per child. I am sure you children will grow up to be excellent citizens of where ever you reside at the time. Choosing to supply them with a sea of Pepperidge Farm goldfish will have little or no effect on them overall. I think it's more of you saving yourself the trouble of having to battle with them over what seems to be such a minute circumstance. You are benefiting more from the goldfish than they are.
Again, just my point of view, enjoy your family, the goldfish and all the best to you.

 

[earlyretirement]

David,

I don't think anyone was personally attacking you at all. So sorry if it came across that way. Your post came across as preachy. Simple enough. And I was just responding as a parent and someone that does have young kids.

It doesn't matter if you have "participated in the lives of many". If you don't have them I will repeat you don't know what it's like to raise them daily.

No, the Goldfish crackers won't make or break Kurt's kids. But you still don't get the point when you post things like, "you are benefiting more from the goldfish then they are'. That isn't true.

I've been in Kurt's shoes with my kids. In fact with the same goldfish crackers he is talking about. I've been in that exact same situation. It's not even the taste of the crackers and it doesn't matter where they are produced.

The point is seeing their faces light up when they see something as simple as a cracker shaped like a goldfish is truly magnificent and wonderful!

Again, I don't think anyone was personally attacking you at all. Certainly not me. If my post came across to you as an attack I apologize. That wasn't my intent.

 

[Davidglen77]

David,
I don't think anyone was personally attacking you at all. So sorry if it came across that way. Your post came across as preachy. Simple enough. And I was just responding as a parent and someone that does have young kids.

It doesn't matter if you have "participated in the lives of many". If you don't have them I will repeat you don't know what it's like to raise them daily.

The point is seeing their faces light up when they see something as simple as a cracker shaped like a goldfish is truly magnificent and wonderful!

Thanks for responding and for taking a step back in regards to my response. What I will say is that this whole thing about "not knowing anything about children because you don't have any" is not fair and it's amazing how when a non-parent say something even if it's well intentioned and one gets immediately ganged up on from parents if they have an opininion on something related.

So you think it doesn't matter that I have "participated in the lives of many", well I think it does. And here's why: When I was 23 years old back in New York, my cousin was getting beat up by her husband daily, and her kids were subjected to this drama every day, we lived in the same neighborhood, she would escape to my 1 bedroom apartment, would sleep there with here 2 kids, 3 and 5 years old, worked weekends, so I had my whole 2 days off every weekend during a whole year turned into a babysitter - I cooked, cleaned, told them stories, played, said yes and no to many of their requests and did everything that a parent did. A few years later, I had a neighbor who was a single mother with an 10 year old son, mother a former drug addict, father unknown, the kid was so nice, he loved cars just like I did when I was a kid, I took him to the auto show, drag races, bought him a first set of tools, showed him how to change oil, brake pads, let him always put air in the tires of my car, spent hours at the video arcade, flying kites, playing frisbee, going to the beach, etc. So maybe SOME of us who aren't parents understand A LITTLE about kids, is that possible??

 

[Sockhopper]

Well I was a parent with a child living in foreign countries with him between the ages of 5 and 15. The odd time that I brought a food treat from North America for him, he thought it was just weird. He wanted only what his friends or class mates liked. For a couple of years, he even took to telling them that I was from "the old country" which used to crack his new dad and me up! His peers' tastes influenced what he liked way more than mine once he started going to school abroad.

 

[kurtdillard]

Thanks for more constructive posts David and everyone else David, I agree with what you say about having some understanding based on spending time with other families. I hope my response didn't come across as confrontational, if it did I apologize too.

 

[Ashley]

I think that even if you don't have children, most expats can appreciate the joy in finding something familiar here: peanut butter, goldfish, whatever...a tiny taste of home now and again is a welcome find. Buenos Aires isn't renowned for its vast culinary options in the supermarket and as far as its "junk" is concerned, the "quality" of the options is particularly abysmal. I, for one, haven't bought a packet of cookies here in years as the primary ingredient is "grasa bovina"...the worst, grossest, cheapest and unhealthiest butter substitute available. My husband found some of those fish crackers in a store in Puerto Madero the other week, along with some Dr Pepper and he bought it up (we're only talking 3 bags and 5 cans here). I was delighted! And if I were to ever come across PG tips tea, salt and vinegar crisps, twiglets and Lancashire cheese, I would buy up every last one I could get my hands on. I think it is one thing to be a long-term expat in a country with limited food product options and pine away for your old favorites and quite another to live abroad refusing to enjoy local produce and eat at your regular fast food restaurant day in day out instead.