Supermarkets.

[PhilipDT]

Ok I'm not the Argentina hating expat. I actually really enjoy living there, and having been in the states for a month now, am really missing home. That said, there is one huge, massive, gripe I have about BA that becomes all the more apparent when I go shopping in the states.

BA supermarkets suck! If I could have a US supermarket next door in buenos aires I'd be so happy. I snapped a few pics the other day at a run of a mill supermarket, if I had been at Whole Foods my head would have exploded.

I present now, Supermarket Porn!


To think, I used to take this for granted.....


Why can't I get lamb at Coto? Its on the menu at every restaurant, but my butcher just looked at me like I was crazy when I asked him if he had any.

Then right next to it delicious Salmon. Ended up buying that coho and grilling it over a cedar plank at my folks house. Blew the socks off any Argentine salmon I've ever had. Plus 6USD/lbs * 2.2 * 4.2 = 55 pesos / kg

Shellfish!

At this point the fish guy was starting to ask me what I was doing taking so many photo's, I replied that I was taking pictures to show my Argentine friends what an American supermarket looks like. He said, "but isn't buenos aires a port city, surely you have lots of good seafood". He was shocked to hear that for some mysterious reason the massive coastline of Argentina seems to somehow not produce any fish.

 

[PhilipDT]

Wandering away from the pescado I found heaven. Cheese!!!! Cheeses from France, Italy, Holland, Spain, Pais Basco, Austria and more! How a cow country like Argentina managed to not develop a cheese culture is beyond me.

But what to drink with dinner. Oh wait, I can choose from wines from more than 1 COUNTRY!!!!! What a novel concept.

Or I could go for an Argentine wine for cheaper than I could back home.

And finally, best for last. For a country that has so many cafes and whose residents drink so much coffee, my BA supermarket has a dreary selection of poor quality beans that have either barely spent a second in the roaster or were thrown in with sugar. Plus its only South American coffee..

This is my paradise. Self serve. I got as much as I could in the frame but it actually goes the entire aisle.

If only one day I could have this selection of food and drink in Buenos Aires, I would be ecstatic.

In all of the threads bitching about restaurants people suggest cooking at home. But you can't even cook at home if the ingredients don't exist.

 

[bmagda]

In all of the threads bitching about restaurants people suggest cooking at home. But you can't even cook at home if the ingredients don't exist.


SO TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[legilber]

Please tell me this is a Kroger.... And preferably in the midwest... I cannot wait to go there and buy EVERYTHING!!!

 

[DontMindMe]

I welcome any and all food porn on this site! Thanks for posting.

Last year when I was teaching, I made a photo slide show for my students of my life at home. Five of the pictures were of the grocery store, including an entire aisle of different varieties of salsa. This was at a small-ish Kroger. I have had three dreams about Central Market in the past year.

While I do like going to the verdulería to get my fruits and veggies and the carnicería to buy meat, I do not like taking a bus 45+ minutes to get to barrio chino, where basmati rice is like 52 pesos right now. As much as I want to eat out during my upcoming trip home, I think I'm going to be cooking more than anything! Especially in my parents' awesome kitchen. My kitchen here is tiny, shared by three, and in the winter you have to cook in an overcoat because we only have heat in the bedrooms, and the kitchen window doesn't close all the way. :/

 

[El Duderino]

I miss the Whole Foods in Chicago, in the Lincoln Park (yuppie) neighborhood. The place is a mall for natural food lovers. It's pricey, but I'm missing it now here in BsAs.

 

[starlucia]

I am depressed.

 

[fifs2]

Ok so its expensive at 16.80euro a kilo but my kids love Sword fish steaks that are desperate dan sized..and with monkfish tails at 3 yes euros a kilos we are in fish heaven!!! But I do miss a good Argentinean steak of course...but the ice-cream is as good if double the price...mojito flavor being quite wonderful!

 

[julicar12]

I wish you had taken pictures from the cereal aisle I miss the variety so much! Where I leave is plan corn flakes land =(

Also, what surprised me the most is how many pictures you were able to take without having a bunch of security guards descend on you. Once I was writing some product info (price, weight) for doing some price comparisons later and the supermarket police took away my notepad and asked me to leave the supermaket =(

 

[PhilipDT]

What surprised me was that half way through I realised that I was blatantly taking pictures with an iphone4 without feeling like an onlooker would be waiting for me to leave so he could rob me.