Making dinner for the American family in Argentina….

Let me preface this blog post by saying we are really having fun here!  However, living in a foreign country while simultaneously trying to learn the language, the customs, and prepare dinner for a family of 6 can be a daily challenge!!  While eating out is a great option, we can all agree that it gets old after a few meals.  Also, part of our whole experience is learning “how to live” here which means learning how to grocery shop, prepare meals, get directions and all the other minutia it takes to survive.

I like to believe I am a good sport about most things but the grocery store is one area that I would prefer to just avoid!  Fortunately, we have a grocery store just 2 short blocks away from our apartment which makes life easy.  We generally forage for a days’ worth of groceries.  This way things are fresher, we have less to lug, we buy only what we need, not to mention it gives us something to do!

The children had been hankering for some items which we have been unable to buy at our local corner mercado.  We had heard talk of a store about 3/4 mile away, Jumbo (pronounced Jooooombo), and it supposedly carried some American brands of food along with a wider variety of groceries than our local market.  So, off we went to investigate.  It was a short fifteen minute walk to the Jumbo, which turned out to be part of a mini-mall with several other stores, including a gigantic hardware store.  Good to know in case Dan decides to tackle any casa improvement projects while we are here….NOT!

Let me digress for a moment from meal prep to shopping:  I would describe Jumbo as a 1950s Target store-a large store with huge selection of items from clothes to food to electronics-however, many of the items in this store are items our parents had in the 1950-60s.  This is where it gets confusing; is the first time the Argentines are seeing these types of items or are they making a comeback and this is all part of a “retro” fad we are experiencing?  I have been racking my brain to see if I recall this “retro” look in the housewares, electronics, clothing, and/or even the cars in the U.S. before we left.  Have we even been gone that long????  Did I completely miss this trend?  Wouldn’t be the first one I missed!

I find the timing of all of this ironic:  Here I am surrounded by late 1950 model cars, kitchen appliances and furnishings and I have simultaneously become enamored with Madmen (the TV series on AMC).  Coincidence??

Lest you think Argentina is stuck in the dawn of 1960, it is not.  Cellphones are everywhere and iPhones are a popular choice.  WiFi is available in almost every corner café and the latest Dan Brown novel is sitting in the bookstore window. So, they are very much present in 2009 but it seems they make choices about what they want to embrace and what they will forgo.  I like that!

Now that I have completely gotten off topic, let me return to my original thought…making dinner.  We ended up getting the ingredients we needed to make an average dinner in our apartment last night of chicken parmigiana, angel hair pasta and a salad.  But let me show some of the things we had to wade through to get there:

and the theme of 1950-60s continues on our walk home!

so happy with their finds…they haven’t figured out that we have to lug it all home on foot!

directly from the set of Madmen. a modern convenience no modern family should be without!

it was a tough decision…pig’s head or chicken parm…now you see why I really do not like the grocery stores!

Skip..the laundry? why yes, I think I will!

Tony seems to really love Buenos Aires-doesn’t he look especially happy?

they love their mayo here…dan is learning to adjust

ahhh….we arrive at utopia!