Remember too that if you buy UHT milk (sold in tetrapaks without refrigeration), the milk will taste substantially different to the refrigerated pasteurized milk sold in plastic bags. It will also often have an odd brownish color due to the Maillard reaction ... same as the dulce de leche.

I know we've discussed this before on this forum, but part of the problem is the hard tap water in BsAs - I always use bottled water for brewing coffee. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/argen...argentina.html

Most of the coffee sold in supermarkets is from robusta beans, hence the lower quality. The café torrado is pure drek in my opinion ...

Here's a thread that has some opinions from locals/expats about coffee: http://baexpats.org/food-drink/10333...ffee-city.html

Jumbo carries several imported coffees (though expensive), such as Illy, Segafredo, Dallmayr, and I believe a Colombian brand.

[If you like Starbucks-style coffee, you can of course buy from their stores]

John

It also has a (IMnshO) nauseating esmell.

Hellish stuff.....a while back my wife had to buy some because there was no pasteurised for some reason - strike I think. Even the cats refused to drink it and I just had my coffee black till normal service resumed.

It's interesting to note the huge variation in UHT milk consumption in Europe: e.g 8.4% in the UK compared to 95.5% in France. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-h...ure_processing

John

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.4; Series60/5.0 NokiaN97-3/22.2.110; Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) AppleWebKit/525 (KHTML, like Gecko) BrowserNG/7.1.4)

Please note that Crema is full cream... and not all brands are semi solid. If you want liquid cream, La Serenisima is the choice... SanCor tends to be more semi-solid.

The closest to half and half is made at home.... buy Leche Entera and thicken it with La Serenisima Cream.

On a final note... for those that insist on crying about the coffee, please note that Starbucks brings in various types.... I gather this will make you feel less homesick.

Naw, I don't drink that here, I don't drink that there.

Why not....??? If its good coffee, its good coffee.... I dont care if its served at McDonalds or Burger King.... or Starbucks. Will you say that the beans they sell here and can grind to order are not the same international grade as elsewhere..??

Dont let the Medusa's Vagina label turn you off..... :eek: :p

I am not a fan of Starbucks wherever it is sold. Not that I don't drink it from time to time, but it isn't that great. And I'm sure it costs a fortune down in the deep southeast where you live. And no, fear not, I'm not suggesting that Starbucks deports lesser beans down to Argentina. China may send lesser nailclippers that don't cut well and then snap apart altogether, but Starbucks sends the same beans. ;)

So, how about that half-and-half!

I hadn't thought of Starbucks....do they sell beans? If anyone is passing by one can you find out the price please?

I've now been living in Buenos Aires for about a month, and my only disappointment is the absolutely horrible coffee found everywhere. I lived in Costa Rica once upon a time, and became forever spoiled with truly great coffee.

I have had to resort to buying my beans at Starbucks, as the 100% Arabica Colombian is about the best I've managed to find. The price is $38 for a little bag of beans, which is outrageous no matter where you are in the world.

I have no other complains about Buenos Aires or Argentina though. It is a great place so far. I might just have to switch to tea (or malbec.)

38 pesos might be worth it if it's decent stuff...however, that all depends on the size of the bag.

As for switching to tea.....I'm afraid I've found the quality of tea available another disappointment. Liptons Yellow label is okay but is pretty weak. Indeed, apart from seafood and fish the tea and coffee quality are about the only things I have a problem with living here. Most of the other foods I ate in the UK I can either get here or recipe up myself.

Hiddy..... you can get Twinings at just about every half-way decent Supermarket. What on earth is a subject of Her Majesty doing messing around with Liptons...????

Hiddy... on a side note, when will you conjure up some fish & chips for me to try the real stuff.....??? Im ashamed to say Ive been to London many many times but never got around to trying the stuff... aside from the Fat Duck and other fine expense account establishments, London is so darned full with good Indian and Japanese places that I never got to eat fish and chips.....

I dont want to start a foodfight, I really dont... but I have to get this off my chest. And Im not pointing fingers in any or all directions... but, more than 99% of all the visitors and resident expats that I hear cry about the coffee could not tell the difference between a Cabrales, El Bohio and Cafe Dolca and Starbucks if presented with identical cups of coffee served blind.... or so say the same thing in another terms, if I take a bag of strong Cabrales blend or a good quality Cafe Martinez blend and give it to some guy making espresso in the Soho (New York) and serve it to the same "gurus", I assure you they would bet their second mortgage, their IRA and their 401Ks that they are in the presence of the umost elixir brewed from Blue Mountain..... :rolleyes:

Buenos Aires is rampant with a Coffee-Snob-Virus.... maybe it makes folks forget that Argentina is not a producer of the stuff....? But heck, Im just a seller of overpriced spoof-juice so what the heck do I know...????

Not here out in the sticks you can't.....anyway, it's over-rated if you ask me. We shall be bringing tea back from the UK......lots as it's light to carry. ^

I make fish n chips quite regularly here using merluza (hake)....the secret is in the batter mix.....I use cerveza instead of water or soda. Good olive oil to fry it in and once ready, drained then sprinkled with salt and vinegar. The end result is a decent imitation of the real thing. I have to say the potatoes here are very good for making chips. ^
You used to get it wrapped in newspaper when bought from a fish n chip shop in the UK but the authorities banned that practice. :rolleyes: