Food in Argentinia

If you travel to Argentina, everyone might ask you to eat as much steak as possible, as the meat might be excellent down here… First of all, yes, they are all right. The meat is fantastic, and it’s, compared to Europe, very cheap.
But there is more Argentina is offering, and I must mention other things about food, so let’s talk aside from the meat.

First of all, my findings are general grocery shopping.

products from Europe you might know (Haribo, Milka, Ferrero, Nestlé) are very very expensive in Argentina. For most of them, you can find an affordable local replacement. (see two good examples below)
The same applies for other products from companies like Nivea as well.
Argentinia is a chocolate-, chips-, and cookie-country. Gummy bears are very rare… Haribos are only available (if they are at all) in tiny sizes, and the local brand is not as delicious as Haribo. (sorry for that)
If you are “addicted” to protein and used to buy protein-enhanced products (bars, milk, pudding, bread, etc.) you are entirely lost in Argentina; they don’t sell this. They may have specialized shops for that, but I haven’t seen one.
They only know two sizes of bottles for soda (coke, sprite, etc.): 500ml and 1.75l… I haven’t seen any 1l bottles yet. 🙂
The same applies to other products just vice versa. For example, yogurt or pudding are expensive, they sell it in a maximum of 100ml… So I need 5 of them. 🙂

Canteens in Buenos Aires

The concept of, let’s call it, public canteens in the center of Buenos Aires is fantastic. It is a buffet from 11 am to 3 pm; you pay by kilogram. You might eat there, but it’s for takeaway. You take the plastic box, walk around within the offer of 100 different dishes, and smash everything together in the box. The price is just okay…

The Sweet Buenos Aires

You will find a lot of cafés, bakeries, and pastry shops across Argentina. The size of these pastries is sometimes astonishing :), even if they are really really delicious, you might not have dinner if you ate one piece of cake in the afternoon…
National Geograpfic once mentioned an Argentinian Ice Cream as one of the best of the world: https://www.nationalgeographic.es/viaje-y-aventuras/las-10-mejores-heladerias-del-mundo
I was there, yes it was good, but the best? I may be someone other than the ice cream guy. If you want to taste it, take some time with you; even on a cold day, I had to wait 30 minutes for my ice. Fun fact: they don’t have scoops like in Europe; you pay based on grams.

Going out for dinner

Yes, sure, I will add some pictures of steak below; feel free to love it. But have you ever had Epanadas? These are amazing little things! An empanada is a baked or fried turnover consisting of pastry and filling; my favorite filling is “carne picante” (minced meat with jalapenos), but they also have pork, chicken, cheese, or ham. They are more planned as a snack or a starter, but, pff, I don’t care about standards if it’s delicious. 🙂
Going out for dinner and eating healthy in local restaurants is challenging. Many restaurants are used to fry almost everything; some steak restaurants do not even have vegetables as a sider on the menu. And if they have a salad as a side, it’s mainly lettuce, onions and a tomato… It took a while for me to find healthy dishes beyond all the unhealthy restaurants.
A lot of restaurants have closed between 5 pm and 8 pm. Consider this planning dinner.
Local beers during dinner are the ones you should prefer. But beer is cheap in Argentina, so you will get only bottles around 700ml (smaller sizes do not make sense for the producer). If they don’t have draft beer, you have to live with that 🙂 I can recommend “Patagonia”. Another option is switching to a global beer like Stella or Heineken. There, you get a 330ml bottle or can for the same price as the 700ml Patagonia. Fair deal?
The prices might be outdated if you see menu cards on Google Maps older than three months. Due to the inflation, the prices are changing very frequently here.
If you see something on the menu from Europe that seems familiar to you, like Spaghetti all Arrabbiata, do expect to get the local version of it… You might be surprised what they do understand how it should look like. 🙂
Talking about Arrabbiata: Argentinian kitchen is not used to very spicy food.
Last but not least, talking about tip: 10% are normal in Argentina, some restaurants only allow it to give it in cash, so have some notes prepared for that.

Empanadas:

Some other dishes:

The local version of “Spaghetti all Arrabbiata” and an “American Breakfast”:

Aaaand some steaks:

The big brands

Yes, they have all the common big fast food brands down here: McDonald’s, Burger King, and Co…
Surprising for me was Starbucks. They have many of them in Buenos Aires, but the prices are almost the same as in other countries. Compared to the local prices, selling a coffee for a small fortune seems out of mind. That’s why Starbucks is rarely crowded; sometimes I am alone in a Starbucks; have you ever seen that in the US? They have a local coffee brewery called Havana (also producing the most famous chocolate in South America).. they are cheaper and also pretty good.