Spices, salt, and ethnic dishes were generally eschewed by the local populace for simpler fare that is hearty, filling and aesthetically pleasing. Market growth and the evolution of the consumer base to include tourists and expats have expanded the tastes of the region. Buenos Aires’ most popular restaurant list now includes cuisine from Italy, Spain, Japan, France, Scandinavia, Mexico, China, Turkey, Morocco, India, and Armenia.
“A few years ago, outside of Italian (mostly poor quality) and a few French bistros, Chinese takeout places, and Peruvian home style places (only, at that time, frequented by Peruvians and Bolivians), there was nothing here,” Perlman says. “Now there are restaurants from all sorts of Asian cuisine, various other Latin American, North American, Caribbean, and European, and today, I just heard about a West African place that has opened up. That’s all very, very new, and really adds to the food scene here.”
Fusion restaurants like Osaka rank high amongst Buenos Aires travel guides and the local populace. The chefs here fuse Peruvian and Japanese cuisine to comprise an innovative and extensive menu. While still not going as far as to serve the traditional Wasabi ball and pickled ginger, unless requested, it is a step in the direction of increasing the demand for even more ethnic products and restaurants.
Argentina is also home of the largest Jewish community in Latin America, making kosher products ever increasing in demand. The Abasto shopping mall in Buenos Aires is the location of the only kosher McDonald’s outside of Israel. Kosher goods are attractive to a broad range of consumers, like vegetarians, who view them to be of a higher quality.
There are also a number of restaurants that serve aphrodisiac, vegetarian, and macrobiotic food. The variety of restaurants in each category covers a range from sophisticated to fast-food chains satisfying every taste and every pocket. The remarkable thing here is that “budget” doesn’t translate to “poor quality” or “unhealthy” as it does in many other markets. Although “good for you” products are relatively new to Latin America, consumers consistently make health conscious choices.
There are local fast-dishes called minutas. These are dishes that take a short time to prepare but are not as unhealthy as typical fast food. The most popular are: milanesa (breaded meat) with fried potatoes, and empanadas (dough filled small portions of ground meat, olives, boiled egg and spices).
“My favorites probably take more time than cooking just based on location, and those are the open air parrillas [grills] along the north and south boardwalks [Costanera Sur and Norte] where you can get a steak or grilled pork or sausage sandwich for a few pesos and eat them with a soda or beer while looking out over the river or the ecological reserve,” says Perlman.
Argentina is the world’s second largest producer of organic food. It is reported that there are approximately 7.4 million acres of organic crops and livestock is naturally grazed in pastures. Organic farmland in the U.S. is approximately 3.7 million acres. Argentine beef is world renowned for its quality and flavor because it is grass-fed as opposed to grain or corn fed.
However, the use of feedlots for finishing cattle is on the rise because of increased availability of grain and silage to Argentine cattle farmers. Animals that are finished in confinement begin life and live in large pastures with high quality grasses until a period before slaughter when they are moved to smaller pens and their diet supplanted with grains and corn. According to an article at Cattlenetworks.com, 4.5 million to 5 million animals passed through pens in 2008. In 2001, the figure was 1.5 million.
“There is no turning back—more than 50 percent, and likely 70 percent or 80 percent, of Argentina’s cattle are going to be finished in feed lots within the next five years,” Juan Carlos Eiras, president of the Argentine Feedlot Chamber, told local daily La Voz del Interior.
This trend begs the question: Will the negative impact of increased growth and the financial crises be an overall decrease in quality?” Argentina banned the use of both antibiotics as growth promotants and growth hormones in 2004. But as they enter the global feedlot market, which has requirements in opposition to the ban, pressure to emulate exactly North American feedlot standards will increase.