The Grocery Store

Travel Journal: The Grocery Store

In which our heroine spends 35 dollars on a week’s worth of food.

Supermercados

If you decide to rent an apartment, it will probably come with a well-stocked kitchen: plates, teapot, wine glasses, pots and pans, cooking and table utensils, a microwave, a stove, and if you’re lucky, a dishwasher and a set of spices. Unfortunately, rental apartments do not come with a refrigerator full of food. If you plan to cook during your travels you are going to need to go grocery shopping.

Most grocery stores in San Telmo are owned by Chinese immigrants. Be aware that it can be a little difficult to understand Spanish that is spoken with a blurred Argentinian/Chinese accent. And most grocery stores in San Telmo have very few employees. Usually there is a clerk reading a newspaper and someone else dozing behind the meat and cheese counter. Customers are expected to do their shopping without assistance. The grocery stores in San Telmo range from very tiny closest-sized spaces that sell wilted produce and a large selection of chips, soda, wine, and cheese, to enormous spaces that offer everything you could hope to find. More comprehensive grocery stores are labeled as Supermercados. There are at least three Supermercados of varying sizes on Tecuari street. The largest runs perpendicular to Tecuari on Avenida Independencia.

In addition to the ridiculously low prices, one lovely thing about grocery shopping in Buenos Aires, is the baskets. At the Supermercado on Avenida Independencia, they were bright blue. You either carry them with a looped plastic handle, or drag them on the floor behind you on little wheels.

Yoo-Hoo, I’m a Tourist!

Despite my desire to be an independent woman abroad, I was unable to locate milk without assistance from a store employee. Although I had wandered the aisles many times, I couldn’t seem to find it. So I asked a stock boy, “Do you sell milk?” His answer: “Of course.” He pointed me in the direction of the dairy aisle. I wandered over to the dairy aisle, gave it another precursory glace but was unable to locate the milk.

I returned to the stock boy.

Me: “I couldn’t find it.”

Him (pointing): “It’s over there, below the cheese.”

Me: “I looked, I couldn’t find it.”

Him (sighing): “Let me show you.”

He led me to the dairy aisle, and low and behold, there were little plastic pouches of milk underneath the cheese.

Me: “Oh, it’s in a bag.”

Him: “Yes.”

Me: “What do you do with the milk after you open up the bag?”

Him (looking at me like I’m an idiot): “You pour it in a pitcher.”

Me: “Oh. Thank you.”

When my valiant beau and I returned home from our shopping excursion, I realized that there was an empty glass carafe on a shelf alongside the inner door of the refrigerator. When I cut open the plastic pouch of milk and poured it inside the carafe, it was an exact fit.

Travel Tip: The Benefits of Cooking at Home

One of the benefits of living in an apartment is having a kitchen. Cooking at home is a great way to save money while traveling abroad. Instead of spending money on meals, you can spend your money on trips to the Mendoza Wine Country and Uruguay, or on souvenirs like elegant leather handbags and silver jewelry.

Produce Stands

Supermercados are the best place to go for canned goods and packaged items. But the best place to buy produce in Buenos Aires is at a local produce stand. Produce stands offer prices for fruit and vegetables that are considerably cheaper than those offered at Supermercados. Most of the produce is also of higher quality. At the produce stand closest to our house, we bought fresh lettuce, basil, parsley, peaches, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, and spinach, all for about U.S. $5.00. However, the largest selection of produce can be found on the San Telmo Mercado alongside Defensa. There are multiple stands to puruse, and many of them sell berries, fresh herbs, and mushrooms in addition to the standard produce offerings of street side stands. The San Telmo Mercado also has stands that sell meat and cheese. We purchase a variety of chorizo and huge, hunk of gouda for around $3.75.

Shopping at both the Supermercado and a produce stand in the San Telmo Market, my valiant beau and I purchased an entire week’s worth of groceries, including 2 bottles of wine, for around $35.00. An average pasta dinner for two, with salad and an excellent bottle of wine, costs approximately $5.00.

Below is a list of San Telmo prices for a variety of basic items in the Supermercado:

Item/Pesos/ U.S. Dollars

Milk/$2.00/$0.58

Cheese/$8.00/$2.32

Butter/$2.45/$0.71

Yogurt/$2.57/$0.74

Eggs/$4.65/$1.34

Pasta/$3.30/$0.95

Ravioli/$4.29/$1.25

Olive Oil/$13.00/$3.77

Vinegar/$10.99/$3.18

Lentils/$4.25/$1.23

Cereal/$10.00/$2.90