First thing of excitement… my computer is fixed! Whoo hoo! So I filled in my past few blogs that were missing pictures with pictures. I also put up a couple of pictures of my friend Clarissa and I "learning to dance tango." Feel free to skim through them and check my new pictures out. On another note, I’ve been here nearly three weeks now. And it seems like even longer. I have done so many things. I know the area well. I’ve made good friends. It seems as though I’ve been here months.
And in this time, there has been something in particular that has surprised me… the food. I have heard so many wonders about the food in South America. Apparently, Argentinean food is supposed to be amazing. I came down with high expectations. Instead, though, I have found it to be fairly unexciting, bland, and only moderately edible. While my host mother cooks exceptionally well (she is obsessed with organic foods and constantly has an array of fresh health foods on hand, which I really enjoy), most other places are surprisingly dull to eat in. When I eat out for lunch (my program does not provide lunch and I am not allowed to use my host family’s kitchen so I often have to eat out), the food is usually terrible. When I go to my friends’ houses, they complain about the food and I have found that I often agree… it’s not any food I would want to brag about.
Comparison one: the staple. Most cultures have their own particular staple food(s). In Brazil, it’s beans and rice. I eat beans and rice for lunch. And for dinner. Every day. Barely room for ifs, ands, or buts around that one. And the beans and rice are very good. In Argentina, I assumed it was the beef. Obviously as a vegetarian, I do not eat the beef so I assumed I would be missing out on the “staple” food. However, most of my friends hardly ever have beef to eat and if the chance does arise, it’s cheap and fatty… certainly not too appetizing! While a very nice Argentinean restaurant probably has some of the best beef in the world, my limited budget would never even bring me within smelling distance of it.
Well, now that I think about it, Argentina does have a staple food. The empanada. It’s a pastry type of thing with any sort of salty or sweet filling, from pizza to beef to cheese to corn to chicken to spinach. If some sort of filling will go with the flavor of pastry, the Argentines will have made an empanada out of it. It’s almost become a joke because they are so bad for you and so repetitive that for lunch my friends and I say… “Empanadas? Or empanadas?” as there is little else to choose from. The first couple of days of eating them, they were exciting and new. By day four, we were begging for something different.
Comparison two: Fast food. While people constantly joke that fast food is an American thing (as it originally was), it is clear that fast food is not shunned here. On the contrary, fast food seems to be the up and coming new favorite. There are two McDonalds and a Burger King within walking distance of me as well as two “Super Pollos”, a non-American fast food chain. There is also the brand new “CBC Tacos” that just opened two weeks ago two blocks from my house. After discovering this restaurant last week, my friends Nikki and Clarissa have gone five times to eat there because there is nowhere else they can find food they enjoy. And, because I have been here such a short period of time, it’s very likely there are more nearby. Every time I pass by the McDonalds, there are lines, especially for the ice cream line since it is so hot here.
However, the McDonalds here will only somewhat resemble the McDonalds in the United States. In addition to the regular ordering area, there are two other areas to order at. One is a very classy looking section that resembles a Starbucks and includes delicious hard ice creams, coffee drinks and a bakery at high, Starbuck’s prices. The other section is completely for soft ice creams. There are other differences too. The tables are cleaner, there are more employees working, service is faster. Every McDonalds I have seen has a strict dress code of a McDonalds denim shirt, McDonalds denim pants and a McDonalds hat, making the employees appear very uniformed. As fast food was imported by other countries, it is clear that the quality improved.
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