Tag: Argentina

“Travel” Weeks 74-76

It was a long wait until the day to leave finally came. I realized I have a pattern of overindulging when I realize I am on my way out of a country and not sure when I will be able to eat any of the things I like to eat there.

Days 428-458:

Rent	12000
3 pints	500
Hot dog	150
Total:	12650 ARS (USD 90.55)

Though I had ended the beer fast by eating the food, that didn’t exactly mean I was done drinking beer. I’m going to miss the panchos in Argentina, not like I ever really ate them, and it bothered me that they were so common in Mendoza while choripans were hard to come by, but who could resist a restaurant called Los Panchos de Villa.

Ribs	1320
Carrefour	1076
Produce	290
Firewood	170
Total:	2856 ARS (USD 20.44)

I did my shopping a day early for an Easter barbecue, I decided to go all in on ribs–lamb, cow, and pork. Apart from the pork ribs, I went to the Carrefour for coffee, dulce de leche, medialunas, bread, and one of those Easter cakes (rosca de reyes). I was really committing to my Easter weekend indulgences to celebrate the end of Lent. Unfortunately, I didn’t have another diet lined up afterwards, so this is going to get embarrassing as I keep listing all the unhealthy stuff I buy.

Vea	312 ARS
Total:	USD 2.23

No one joined me for my Easter BBQ, and I basically filled up on salad and bread before the meat was cooked. I did, nobly, manage to eat all the pork and beef ribs, but that gorgeous rack of lamb ribs in a Xinjiang-spice rub was completely left over. So, I decided to make a shepherds pie. I kept the bones (in the freezer) to make soup stock later in the week. I used a whole carton of cream to make some really rich mashed potatoes for the bottom of the pie.

Don Humbolto Vegetables	470
Snacks from Vea	570
Total:	1040 ARS (USD 7.44)

Don Humbolto has good prices when you buy in bulk. They’ll have prepacked 2kg bags 100 pesos for vegetables, 150 pesos for fruits. I believe I bought corn, acelga (chard), garlic, scallion, and ginger to make hot pot/Chinese soups. At the Vea, I splurged on some cookies (on sale), peanuts, and bananas.

Ferruccio Soppelsa Gelato	500
Booze (Atomo)	870
Mandarins, Onions, Peppers	120
Total:	1490 ARS (USD 10.67)

Fancy helado is expensive, 500 pesos only buys a half kilo. I picked up my last bottle of whisky and two bottles of wine at the Atomo.

Vea — Beer and cookies	880 ARS
Total:	(USD 6.30)

I didn’t need to go to the store for anything. I just wanted to buy more cookies on the last day of the sale, all crackers/cookies were on sale. There was also a good price on Imperial beers, so I picked up four liters. The subtotal was 1200 pesos, as I said, a good deal. The Cookies & Cream ice cream gave me a hankering for Oreos, which were not available, but I got some packs of assorted cookies. Eating the entire package in a sitting was not a good idea. Doing it again on Monday, a terrible idea.

These last few “days” look bad, but I have a fridge full of veggies that I am slowly eating my way through.

Fruit (6 kilos)	450 ARS
Total:	USD 3.22

I’m not sure what day I bought the fruit (apples, pears, and bananas), but it was somewhere during the week, maybe Thursday. On another note, I had been planning to use Ramadan as an excuse for a third dry month in 2021. However, given that I will probably not be drinking in Florida, it would be foolish to waste my last opportunity to enjoy the price-quality ratio of beer and wine in Argentina. So, I split the difference when I was suddenly reminded of the start of Ramadan on Monday. I decided to enjoy coffee, water, tea and fruit during the day and just have one dinner after sunset and no prohibition on alcohol at night.

2 Pizzas & 1 Dozen Empanadas	1050 ARS
Total:	USD 7.52

Somehow I only got 2 meals out of this enormous takeout order.

Helado Lomoro	500
“Garbage bags”	100
Total:	600 ARS (USD 4.29)

Back to a cheaper gelato place to get a full kilo this time. I did not wait until sundown to eat it, but did split it into three distinct servings to be eaten throughout the afternoon and evening. I got caught right outside my door on the way back and was guilted into buying a couple of kitchen garbage bags by a peddler. They were really out in force in the neighborhood this day. Usually, you only see the walking vendors if you are in the restaurant and bar zones.

Mate	590
Carrefour	1350
Total:	1940 ARS (USD 13.89)

I hadn’t drinking any mate for over a year, but now that I’m leaving Argentina, I suddenly have the urge to finally get around to buying my own mate cup so that I can pick up the habit. I also needed to get my fix of steaks, so I bought a package of bife de chorizo (and some wine of course) at the Carrefour along with more coffee and the hierba mate. “A mate” refers to the drinking vessel and stainless steel straw.

Wine	340
Veg	80
Deli	370
Total:	790 ARS (USD 5.65)

I went by the old Chinese grocery store, which still sells insanely cheap wine (3 bottles for 340 pesos!) Of course, I can definitely taste the difference these days. I had a craving for tabla/picada so I grabbed a pack of salami, ham and cheese with some bread at the butcher shop (which is also a deli). By this point, I had basically given up on the Ramadan-inspired interval fasting. Although I really enjoyed the focus it gave me during the day, the growing desires for snacks in the afternoon were no longer sated by a piece of fruit, and I chowed down on the picada as soon as I got home, a good hour before the allotetd hour.

Vea	700 ARS
Total:	USD 5.01

After several days of steaks and cold cuts, I have a burst of cooking inspiration. First up is the remains of the giant bags of apples and pears I bought. I now have the habit of turning them into pies, but I still don’t want to learn to make pie crust, so I make do with the ones that are designed for savory pies. Second up, I bought a pumpkin at the Carrefour many days prior and with a bit of ginger left in the fridge decide to make a curry. It turns into a Thai-style curry with cream and coconut flakes. It was delicious, but I wasn’t expecting it to provide three gut-busting meals, especially when I run out of rice with the second meal.

Vea	1289
Chicken Wings	240
Total:	1529 ARS (USD 10.94)

Beer is still on sale, so I pick up four bottles of Andes Origin. The final bit of ginger and a sale on chicken wings inspires me to try to make Korean Fried Chicken. The results were not so good, but I am confident it will be amazing next time I try. I also pick up black beans and tortillas because I decide I want to have huevos rancheros for breakfast my last few days in Mendoza.

Eggs and Cabbage	150
Milanesas	255
Wine (@ Carrefour)	530
Total:	935 ARS (USD 6.69)

Another Argentinian meal I will miss is the milanesa. The butcher advertised a sale on veal and pork milanesa cuts, but by the time I rolled in on Sunday, I could only buy pork. The plan was to mix and match “a caballo” (topped with a fried egg) and napolitano (tomatoe sauce, ham and cheese). I’m finishing off pumpkin by attempting to make pumpkin fries (also a failure). The cabbage is to make sauerkraut. One of the wines from the Carrefour is a relatively good one (Trapiche reserva) that I will save for my final asado.

Mailho Gelato	320 ARS
Total:	USD 2.29

They increased the price of the 1/4 kilo by 20 pesos since my last visit. 🙁

Beer and cookies from Vea	1060 ARS
Total:	USD 7.59

Okay, I guess I decided I would miss the giant one liter bottles of nice beer more than the Malbec, so I took in my four empties for one more round and bought cookies from the grocery store bakery (as opposed to the packaged shelves).

Leather wallet	750
Soccer kit	950
Ice cream and coffee	370
Alfajores	450
Carrefour	3398
More Alfajores	480
Jackhouse Hamburger and Pint	920
Total:	7318 ARS (USD 52.88)

I couldn’t put off the gift shopping much longer with only two full days left in Mendoza, but of course, I make sure to buy myself some presents too, like the wallet. I had to go to Western Union to get more money, and then spend it all within 24 hours.

PCR Test	6000
Souvenir shop	1930
Salad	80
Butcher	2660
Drinks and dessert	445
Cash back for asado	-3500
Total:	7615 ARS (USD 55.18)

I finally get some people to join me for an asado on my last day. Of course, I have to do all the work, shopping, and cooking. That may be a good thing since it forces me to learn the Argentinian way of making asado by not being able to rely on help. I may have made a small mistake when adding up the costs for the asado (also including about 300 pesos of pork ribs from Carrefour the day before), but maybe I should count my labor when we are splitting the bill.

Uber to Airport	408 (credit card) ~ 4.50 USD (?)
Airport Transfer Bus	780
Cafe con Leche y Alfajor (Havanna)	290
Half bottle of wine & 2 empanadas	708
Candy	30
Total:	1808 ARS + Uber USD 17.60

It was a long day of traveling. The flight from Mendoza to Buenos Aires took less time than the bus ride between the two airports in Buenos Aires. It was nice that it took the scenic route in order to pick up more passengers at Puerto Madero so I could get another look at the Pink House and the obelisk (from a distance hiding behind the radio building/tower with Evita’s smiling face).

I couldn’t enter Ezeiza airport until about 4 hours before my flight, but fortunately there is a green space with shade and food trucks outside the exit for international arrivals. I was able to sit there until dusk when the mosquitos started eating me alive. It would be somewhat ironic to get malaria right now. It took a line time to queue to get into the airport (each airline has its own lane), then queue to check in. The visa overstay thing ended with a whimper. The ticketing agent was shocked that my visa expired, and I tried to explain that it was reportedly alright. He needed confirmation from the airport Migraciones office, which was achieved by sending someone with my passport while I waited two minutes. When I got to passport control to leave the country, the officer didn’t even comment on it, just stamped me like normal and wished me a good trip home.

Somehow I managed to perfectly spend down the remaining cash, helped out by dropping a 2 peso coin in a tip jar and keeping 2 25 centavo coins as possible souvenirs. Of course, I still have fistful of Chilean pesos and 30 bucks worth of Uruguayan pesos.

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Last Running Total: 7236.77 USD (RMB 46854.5)
Daily Average: 13.04 USD (RMB 84.4)

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So time really has lost all meaning in pandemic. I’ve been roughly counting the weeks and days for the past year of lock down, but as I am about to leave I actually did a check based on my entry and exit dates. It has been 555 days in South America, though I was only traveling for under 150 of them. So these means the daily average in the past 10 posts has been seriously under counting the denominator.

I am not counting my flights into/or out of the country in the total, but I think the lost luggage compensation basically paid for both of them. Pro-tip #1: have the airline lose your luggage. Suffer for a week, then enjoy a free vacation! Pro-tip #2: experience a once in a century pandemic that shuts everything down, find a cheap rental, and cook for yourself every meal.

“Travel” Weeks 71-73

It was a fairly boring month, as my consumption was mostly restricted by my goal to go 40 days without alcohol for fast and otherwise eating an uberhealthy diet until the last week or so. It was also a very low productivity month. In the second week, I spent a day or two filing my taxes and made the momentous decision to set an end date to my South American adventures. It was necessary after spending a year in lockdown in Argentina and no indications as to when I would be able to freely travel again. I only needed a day or two of research to book the tickets out of Argentina and back to the US at a time when hopefully half the population will already be vaccinated. This knowledge flipped a switch in my mind making it hard to stay focused on the present. Meanwhile, I’m about to submit a paper for a summer conference and the old patterns of academic procrastination haven’t been cured by a two year post-doctoral research trip.

Days 397-427:

Rent	12,000
Eggs and produce	290
Total:	12,290 ARS (USD 87.94)

When I moved into the house, the “small print” said that the rental price would be adjusted every 6 months. Sure enough, my landlord upped the price. 20% is a lot, but since Argentina and Mendoza especially is acting like the pandemic is over, there has been a fairly steady stream of tourists spending a couple nights in the house. I have the best bedroom, so another reason I decided to set an exit date was to ensure that I wouldn’t have a surprise eviction.

Vegetables and Fruit	299
Total	USD 2.14

Popcorn & Lentils @ Atomo	110
Vea	590
Total:	700 ARS (USD 5.01)

At the end of the third week of dieting, I was starting to crave an occasional cheat day. I’m mixed as to whether popcorn counts as healthy or not. I certainly use plenty of oil and butter to pop it, but most of that seems to stay on the sides of the pot. The Liquidation shelf of the Vea is my Achilles Heel and 83 pesos of that bill went towards three individual aljafores and a candy bar which were all marked down half off. Bananas, butter, and dried beans made up half the rest of the bill, so…

Produce	550
Total:	USD 3.94

Vegetables	210
Carrefour	1225
Total:	1435 ARS (USD 10.27)

For the next weekend of cheat eating, I decide to make chicken stock with on sale chicken thighs (@169/kilo), then use some of the meat for a taco salad, which I load up with cheese, olives, and corn chips. For the actual junk food, Carrefour has the same candy bar I really liked at the Vea, but it is 90% off instead of 50% off, I try some new kind of sweet biscuit (not quite cookies), and round it out with some prunes (which I will eat in one sitting).

Grido Helado 1/4 kilo	150
Total:	USD 1.07

The Carrefour snacks only served to awaken the beast of my sugar cravings. I was saved by the fact that Grido upped the price of their 1/2 kilo by 20 pesos while keeping the 1/4 kilo price unchanged. It’s still technically a better unit cost to go for the larger container, but the sticker shock was enough to convince me to just go for a half.

Vea	485.75
Bananas	130
Apples & Cherry Tomatos	250
Vegan Helado	120
Total:	985.75 ARS (USD 7.05)

It was a lot of running around for one day. With an uptick of banana prices at the Vea, I decided to grab those at a fruit shop which uses a bait and switch model (they advertise the price of the clearance bananas), and picked up a 2kg bag of apples and 1kg bag of cherry tomatoes from another fruit shop that is cheapest when you grab the prebagged/preweighed fruit they have on sale.

Eggs and salad veg	220
Total:	USD 1.57

Soda & Baguette	190
Pan de Campo	110
Carne (Vacio)	770
Total:	1070 ARS (USD 7.66)

I decided to do a barbecue on St Patrick’s Day. The office guys were going to join me, but they backed out at the last minute because they were slammed with work. It was a little rainy, but I managed to build a fire and slow roast the cut of beef (and chorizo and morcilla). The problem with barbecues is that I get hungry during the slow process of prepping the fire and slow cooking the meat, so I after a big bowl of salad and snacking on nearly a half loaf of bread, I’m not hungry by the time the meat is ready.

Lentils and popcorn @ Atomo	180
Carrefour	742
Produce	400
Total:	1322 ARS (USD 9.46)

Vea	1730
Lomoro 1/2 kilo	280
Total:	2010 ARS (USD 14.38)

Surprisingly, Carrefour had the best prices on bananas in the city that day. I almost never buy produce there. Even though I don’t have any plans to use it, I pick up a bag of rice. Similarly, I buy a blend of olive oil and sunflower to substitute for both my cooking oil and my salad oil as those were getting low. If only I could have satisfied my weekend sweet tooth with the 90% discounted peanut brittle.

The truth is, it takes a long time to go through 2 kg of apples, so I had been starting to cut them up, toss with cinnamon, sugar, and oats and throw in the microwave for a perfunctory apple crisp. Two uncontrollable desires governed my shopping on the weekend. One, I wanted apple pie and two, I wanted to make my own granola. So, I made a individual baked apple dumplings inspired by the Foodwishes recipe. At the Vea, I went nuts picking up a 1kg of rolled oats, shredded coconut, white sugar, brown sugar, butter, and flour. Stocking up on all these baking supplies with 5 weeks left in Argentina was bad enough, but there also happened to be an irresistible sale on chocolate bars (6 for 679 pesos), which only is available once in a blue moon. Finally, how could I make mini apple pies without some vanilla (and dulce de leche) ice cream to accompany them.

Contact lenses	1300
Almonds and chickpeas	280
Carrefour (again!)	950
Total:	2530 ARS (USD 18.10)

I don’t usually go to supermarkets three days in a row, but I realized I was out of laundry detergent. I also needed a new notebook and some sort of filling to finish off the six leftover empanada wrappers after making the apple pies. I settled on cheese since I could get all of those things together at the big Carrefour. It came out expensive because I saw a 10 pack of disposable medical-style triple-layered with metal insert face masks (499) at the checkout. With the almonds on hand, I made my granola on Tuesday. My attempt to make oven-baked banana chips did not work out well, but the granola was very delicious and very fattening.

Beer, Butter & Milk @ Vea	755
Onion, garlic & red pepper	70
German-style brotchen	180
Osobuco & herbal drink	345
Total:	1350 ARS (USD 9.66)

I have clearly transitioned back to a food-oriented way of life, but it is hard to follow what I am doing since I often buy things in advance, or plan meals based on spontaneous purchases because something looks good at the supermarket. For example, Vea usually has the worst prices on cheese but I saw a good looking chunk of parmigiano at decent price, so I picked it up on Sunday. This suggested I make pasta, so I was thinking about the family recipe for beef-tomato sauce and using some of the beef for empanadas. However, when I decided on queso cremoso for those, I had to come up with another plan for using the parmigiano and settled not only on making a fettuccini alfredo, but attempting to make fresh noodles (Tuesday’s lunch). Still wanting to work some meat into my diet, I was inspired to make a big pot of goulash because I had also recently purchased a new package of paprika.

Meanwhile, as I was about to reach my 40th day without alcohol on Sunday, I was stocking up on whatever beer was on sale–which happened to be Budweiser and Stella Artois (Noir).

Salad veg	70
Total:	USD 0.50

The advantage of front loading all the shopping for my burst of kitchen inspiration is that I only needed to get a few more vegetables to make a couple salads and last me through the weekend. Furthermore, with the reintroduction of alcohol on Monday, I had decided to try something invented by the Paulaner monks hundreds of years ago–a beer fast. Some people do the entire period of Lent with only beer for nourishment. I wanted to try it for four or five days. Thus I need beer on hand and no food in the house.

Four happy hour beers	750
More beer	170
Total:	920 ARS (USD 6.58)

The first day of the beer fast was…interesting. I had calculate that on average, one could drink 3 liters of beer and still be running a starvation level calorie deficit, but 3 liters is quite a lot to consume, so that was roughly my target. It was pleasant to slowly nurse a liter over a 3 hour period in the afternoon, but going out for happy hour drinks was a bit of a mistake because I was left with quite the hangover the next day and no chance to self-medicate through greasy, carb-laden foods.

Patagonia and boullion	400
Total:	USD 2.86

On the last day before the change in weekly offers, I figured out that Atomo had relatively better price for Patagonia, which is basically the premium Argentinian craft brand. Beer seems to be the most flexible priced thing in Argentina with prices going up every time I blink, such that it is cheap to get a pint for under 200 when I used to be able to find 90 peso pints.

Antares	400
Total:	USD 2.86

I ventured out once again to try out a new (to me) bar for happy hour. Ordering barley wine was a mistake (or blessing in disguise) and I left shortly after 8pm when I would have otherwise tried to squeeze in a 3rd pint of either the cream stout or the porter.

Vea	698 ARS
Total:	USD 4.99

Despite not drinking so much, I was still woken up in the middle of the night and unable to fall back asleep. Though that often happens if I drink alcohol, I couldn’t rule out the possibility of hunger. I was feeling a bit better when the sun came up, but ultimately to prospect of going 2 more days without food was too daunting. So, I swung by the Vea, picked up a “Korean squash,” a sack of potatoes, tomato sauce, a whole grain baguette, and a couple bottles of wine (for later). Then I proceeded to make a congee with rice and half the squash in order to nourish myself and take it easy on my digestive system. The funny thing is that introducing solid food back into my diet made me feel lightheaded than I was before, so it was a day of rest for me. Thus, ends the experiment to try a beer fast, which lasted 3.5 days or 84 hours. I’m still taking it easy because I am looking forward to a barbecue on Easter Sunday.

The cost for this month came out to be exactly the same as last month, or $196 despite the extra $14 in rent and $9 for new contact lenses. I guess even the splurging out I did the last week or so was more reasonable than what I did over my birthday weekend. I fully expect my next month to be expensive, as I buy souvenirs and live bigger as I come closer to the end.

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Running Total: 6906.09 USD (RMB 45355.7)
Daily Average: 16.17 USD (RMB 106.2)

“Travel” Weeks 68-70

It was a “bipolar” month. The first two weeks were spent in a stupor of eating rich food, enjoying alcohol, and manually processing linguistic data. The second two weeks were the start of a new diet with the onset of Lent and long days of coding.

Days 469-496:

Snacks at Vea	196
Rent	10,000
Total:	10,196 ARS (USD 76.97)

To start off, the supermarket still had Christmas sweets on the liquidation shelves, and I really enjoyed the slightly hard nougats and a pound of peanuts.

I went a little crazy with the shopping. I was still on my morning muesli kick despite the expense of running through granola and nut mixes so quickly. Beginning to ramp up for the holiday week, I stocked up on whisky and wine. I screwed up a bit with the purchases. Despite priding myself on having a keen memory for which shop has the best price for a particular class of items, I overpaid 20 or 30 pesos on the whisky & milk I picked up at the Atomo, when I should have just bought everything at the Carrefour.

Coffee & Nut/Dried Fruit Mix	940
Whisky & Milk	528
Salad & Fruit	150
Wine (5 Liter Jug)	380
Lomoro Gelato (1/2 kilo)	280
Total:	2278 ARS (USD 17.20)

Produce & fresh noodles @ Vea	290 ARS
Total:	USD 2.19

Chorizo	235
Helado (1/4 kilo @ Gridos)	150
Total:	385 ARS (USD 2.91)

I wanted to make a big pot of “Italian sausage” spaghetti sauce, but the price of chorizo at the Vea was way too high, so I was able to swing by the butcher shop in the morning for just right amount. In the afternoon, I only bought a 1/4 kilo of gelato because that was literally all I could afford, having spent almost every peso in my pocket.

Carrefour	2000
Veggies and Eggs	280
Total:	2280 ARS (USD 16.31)

After getting some money through Western Union at a slightly better rate (139.75), I was able to do some shopping at the Carrefour. Not content to eat leftover spaghetti all week, I picked up ingredients to make pizza, steak fajitas, and chocolate cake. As there were bags of Starbucks coffee on the liquidation shelf for a 20% discount, I grabbed a bag despite having a bought a pound of beans the previous week. I also bought myself a decent-sized, good quality plastic cup. When I moved in to the house, I laid claim to the largest drinking vessel available (by always keeping it with me). However, the ancient plastic was starting to crack and eventually left pools of water on my desk.

Vea	840
Zipper Repair	480
Total:	1320 ARS (USD 9.45)

I wasn’t going to eat fajitas or pizza without some beer to accompany it and plenty of junk food–chocolate covered peanuts, medialunas, and pepas (the little cookies with a bit a jam). I can’t believe it has been over two years since I lived in China, and longer than that since I had purchased new clothes. My pants are pretty much all in pretty sorry states, but I had managed to avoid wearing one pair of shorts since I arrived in Argentina because I discovered that the zipper was broken. Between my house and the supermarket is a shoe repair shop that also advertises fixing zippers on pants and jackets, so after putting it off for nearly six months, I finally bought myself a birthday present and handed the shorts over. Now, if I can just find a tailor to patch up my jeans and the other pair of shorts.

Powdered sugar	87
Omas Bakery	430
Total:	517 ARS (USD 3.70)

So, I decided that I needed powdered sugar to make a simple butter frosting for my birthday cake and I bought treats at the German bakery for both Chinese New Years Eve and pastries for my birthday breakfast.

Birthday Lunch	650
Craft Beer	700
Total:	1350 ARS (USD 9.66)

After a long agonizing decision of which restaurant was offering the tastiest sounding lunch option, I went to one that included a glass of wine and had a matambre a la pizza for the main. Matambre is a thin cut of meat from the underbelly and is the ultimate carb-free pizza crust. That makes three consecutive days of eating “pizza,” except day one was (leftover) fajita pizza and day two was a calzone/giant baked dumpling. Despite some ominous clouds and scattered showers, I was able to visit the bar street again in the evening for a couple drinks at a bar which served full liters in giant glass mugs.

Brunch	600
Mailho Helado (1/4 kilo)	300
Jack House Cheeseburger	890
Total:	1790 ARS (USD 12.81)

The birthday weekend truly kicked off with a brunch at a very popular cafe which have been regularly passing by since June. I had to sit outside (a good thing) in the blazing sun (a bad thing) and it was insanely expensive since I went full out on a proper brunch. I, obviously, skipped lunch but had some fancy gelato (“Indian” chocolate and “Turkish” chocolate flavors) for a mid-afternoon meal. One was a dark chocolate with figs and nuts, the other a white chocolate with spices and nuts. It’s crazy to drop 300 pesos on a small container of ice cream, when I could literally walk around the corner, get twice the volume and pocket 50 pesos in change. But there is a remarkable difference in quality. In the evening, I crossed another eatery off the bucket list, scratching the itch for a burger and fries at a distinctly American style brew pub where I spent 30 minutes before hand studying the menu of options for meat, meat, or more meat and settling on a fairly traditional double patty BBQ, bacon cheeseburger topped with onion rings that I washed down with a pint of IPA. Also, insanely expensive, but worth it. Since I went at an American dining hour, I was the only patron there to enjoy the vintage Star Wars posters and rock music. Strangely, I attempted to tip, but the waiter/cashier gave it back to me. Apart from the past couple days, I have not been patronizing any dining establishments, but I have noticed that the waiters just accept my money without counting it to see if it is right.

Dozen Empanadas	480 ARS
Total:	USD 3.43

It’s so much cheaper to make empanadas by hand, but they taste so much better when they come from the shop. The crusts are thinner and crispier, and the fillings just burst with flavor and hot grease.

Carrefour	890 ARS
Total:	USD 6.37

I ended up buying at consuming a large bag of potato chips and a bag of cookies to accompany some salami, cheese, and wine as my dinner on Monday.

Vino y carne	1266
Watermelon & Bell peppers	180
Firewood	90
Total:	1536 ARS (USD 10.99)

For the final day of my insane eating week, I planned to make a barbecue. I had invited the guys who lived in the house, but it ended up being just me, which was fine since I had purchased just about the right amount for one gluttonous person. It’s called Fat Tuesday for a reason. I picked up a kilo of ribs and a half kilo of chorizo. I had no intention of bothering with a salad, corn, or any roasted vegetables, but when I bought some watermelon, I picked up a green and red bell pepper on a whim. Those went on the grill, stuffed with cheese, salami, onion, etc. I managed to eat everything except two chorizo that I wrapped up and threw in the freezer.

Fruit	550 ARS
Total:	USD 3.94

It should come as no surprise that I managed to add about 6 kilos to the scale from my low at the end of January. I started Lent with a 40-hour fast, breaking it with the remainder of the watermelon on Thursday. A day later, I stocked up on fruit, buying 2kg bags of peaches, bananas, and grapes, plus another 3kg+ section of watermelon to last me the weekend and then some.

Salad	70
Total:	USD 0.50

I added simple salads of lettuce, cherry tomato, cucumber, and green bell pepper (which must be in season since it has gotten so cheap lately) to my diet.

Fruit and yogurt from Vea	437 ARS
Total:	USD 3.12

I started adding carrots to my salads, more watermelon (at 25 pesos per kilo!), reasonably priced apples and two kinds of yogurt to make peach-banana smoothies.

Contact solution	800
Nescafe Gold	428
Salad	90
Total:	1318 ARS (USD 9.43)

I made a special trip to the Carrefour to see if I could grab more coffee on sale before it sold out. I decided to try Nescafe since it is about a dollar less than Starbucks and a different flavor than the half full package of coffee I was still drink. I got even fancier in my salad with some arugula.

Produce	360
Watermelon	60
Total:	420 ARS (USD 3.00)

I picked up some green onion and celery to make a soup stock over the weekend, and a dozen eggs to start enjoying tomato egg drop soup. On my afternoon walk, I decided I didn’t have enough fruit and bought more watermelon. I also started putting lentils on my salads.

Fruit and yogurt @ Vea	562 ARS
Total:	USD 4.02

Apples, bananas, and my timing was good to stock up on yogurt cups at a discount. The main dairy brand tends to go on sale (buy one, get one half off) not quite every other week, but pretty regularly. As a treat, I also picked up a bottle of soda water and some packs of sugar free drink mix. In 11 days, I managed to lose all of the weight I had packed on since the start of the month. Too bad it isn’t as easy to make up the difference with the budget.

---

Despite being the shortest month of the year and having one of the best exchange rates to date, this was the most expensive month since I moved into the shared house, costing me an even $196.

Running Total: 6,710.08 USD (RMB 43,594)
Daily Average: 13.53 USD (RMB 87.9)

Travel Weeks 64-67

I began the New Year with a fast, detox, and diet that did not quite last the entirety of January but should result in a much cheaper than average month. For the detox, I abstained from meat for most of the month, alcohol until the inauguration on January 20, garlic/onion (or other “stimulating” vegetables) for about two weeks, and caffeine for a week. From the meager meal on New Years Eve to my first solid food of 2021, I fasted for 40 hours.

Days 438-468:

Fruit	Jan 2	530 ARS
Photocopy	Jan 5	10 ARS
Salad & Fruit	Jan 5	210 ARS
Total:		750 ARS (USD 5.49)

I ate a lot of fruit (watermelon, grapefruit, apples, bananas, and nectarines) the first week and introduced “watery” salads after a few days of just fruit (watery meaning just lettuce, cucumber and tomato). I was a few days late in making my rent because I didn’t have enough cash to cover it and it is generally difficult to complete any sort of financial services at the beginning of a week/month in Argentina. But after 6 visits to different Western Unions, I was able to get my money. The new exchange rate (132.46 pesos to the dollar is a bit lower than last month’s).

Rent	10,000 ARS
Total:	USD 75.49

Dairy, Carrots, Fruit	Jan 7	540 ARS
Beans and Bullion	Jan 8	200 ARS
Nectarines	Jan 8	70 ARS
Total:		810 ARS (USD 6.12)

Gradually I enrich my daily salads with carrots and green bell peppers plus protein from chickpeas (canned) or black beans (dried). I also start eating yogurt every morning and I go through a liter of fresh milk over the weekend, hand making banana smoothies. The secret weapon of my diet is the daily cup of broth I make from bullion cubes.

Eggs and Produce	340 ARS
Total:	USD 2.57

I introduce cooked vegetables (chard & leek) and eggs into my diet, making soup stock from scratch and the previously purchased black beans. I save the beans for salads and the stock for making egg drop soups and eat all the vegetables.

Lentils & white pepper	190 ARS
Salad bowl	120 ARS
Vegetable peeler	190 ARS
Professional knife sharpening	400 ARS
1 kilogram chickpeas	160 ARS
Salad & Bananas	190 ARS
Total:	1250 ARS (USD 9.44)

A busy shopping day. Being meatless, I continue to stock up on dried legumes both from Atomo and the Central Mercado. The house had a vegetable peeler but it disappeared in mid December. Tired of mangling my carrots and cucumbers with a dull kitchen knife I both splurged on a new peeler and took my personal knife (which I had purchased back in May/June) to get sharpened. Another notable thing about this house is the total lack of bowls, which make my diet of salads and soups rather difficult. Buying a single oversized glass salad bowl has probably been my best investment in Argentina as I now use it for basically every meal.

Champagne	248 ARS
Olive Oil (900 mL)	390 ARS
Total:	638 ARS (USD 4.82)

I had to go back downtown to pick up my knife the next day, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger on a new bottle of locally made olive oil from the central market and picked up a bottle of champagne a week out from the inauguration because it was looking like there may be reason to pop the cork early with a forced eviction from the White House.

Vea	420 ARS
Vegetables	300 ARS
Total:	720 ARS (USD 5.44)

I’m doing a lot of running around on a day-to-day basis, but I don’t mind because I am making a concerted effort to get my steps in. At the Vea, I buy another week’s supply of yogurt and carrots, new conditioner, and superglue to attempt to repair my the broken band of my step counter. On top of my usual fruits and salad fixing, I pick up beets (30 pesos) and chard (15 pesos) because they are just so cheap.

Supermarket Vegetables	315 ARS
Total:	USD 2.38

I didn’t plan out my weekend very well, so when it came time to get the vegetables for the next round of soup stock, I found myself on a Sunday afternoon when all the greengrocers are closed. So, I overpaid a little to get the tomato, onion, and celery I needed. Fortunately, it must be corn harvesting season, as fresh ears of corn are down to 15 pesos a piece.

Eggs, grapefruit, and nectarines	290 ARS
Total:	USD 2.19

And, I still needed a second trip on Monday to get the rest of my staples. I pay 110 pesos per dozen eggs at the greengrocer, while the supermarkets typically charge 70 pesos per half dozen. The grapefruit, an expensive vice (but I’m eating half a grapefruit a day) is 50% more expensive at the supermarket too.

Grido Helado (sorbets)	250 ARS
Total:	USD 1.89

To accompany the champagne at the dawn of a new era, I go for a half kilo of strawberry, passion fruit, and peach gelatos.

Carrefour	704 ARS
Fruit & Veg	280 ARS
Empanadas	100 ARS
Total:	1084 ARS (USD 8.18)

Having broken the seal of the diet with ice cream and champagne, I bought some ladyfinger-type cookies at the Carrefour (which I had gone to mainly to buy balsamic vinegar) as well as three empanadas for my lunch that day. I also had a bottle of Cabernet for the weekend.

Carrots and Watermelon	Jan 24	140 ARS
Eggs, fruit, & Veg	Jan 25	400 ARS
Vea	Jan 26	1040 ARS
Total:		1580 ARS (USD 11.93)

I suppose it is better to splurge on watermelon to satisfy a lazy Sunday afternoon sweet tooth than gelato. However, by the time I hit up the Vea, I am back to my usual self succumbing to the temptations of discounted peanuts, holiday nougat, and medialunas. As the weather has been unreasonably hot and I am still trying to eat a big bowl of tomato and egg soup every day, I decide to switch my breakfast and dinner for the rest of the week, starting the day with soup and saving the yogurt and fruit for dinner.

Carrefour	Jan 28	670 ARS
Starbucks	Jan 28	780 ARS
Vegetables	Jan 28	310 ARS
Watermelon + Lettuce	Jan 29	200 ARS
Cash back	Jan 29	-400 ARS
Total:		1560 ARS (USD 11.78)

After my individual celebration of the inauguration, I was asked about when I–the non-Argentinian–was planning to do another asado. So, after some negotiation we decided to do one on the last Friday of the month. I picked up wine, soda water, and Coca-Cola at the Carrefour for the barbecue, but also a brownie mix for myself. I also took care of all the vegetables for grilling, making salad, or dessert (the watermelon). When we added up and split the expenses, I got some money back and I got to finish off the leftovers over the weekend.

Dried chili	Jan 31	100 ARS
Atomo	Jan 31	283 ARS
Carrefour	Jan 31	1710 ARS
Mailho Gelato	Jan 31	400 ARS
Vea	Feb 1	1360 ARS
Total:		3853 ARS (USD 29.09)

These expenses are most because I got it into my head that I wanted to make a big pot of chili, which involved passing by the central market only to discover that my spice stand didn’t have the whole dried chilis I remember seeing before and that the other bulk dried goods sellers were closed for Sunday, so I still needed to swing by the Atomo to see if they had porotos colorados (red beans), which they didn’t, but I went ahead and picked up a bottle of wine, popcorn and more chili flakes. On the other hand, I decided I wanted to eat oatmeal/muesli/granola in the mornings and I had to go to two different Carrefours because for some reason the smaller one is better stocked than the bigger one. Monday morning, I swing by the Vea to pick up the final ingredients for chili, buying more meat (2 kg and 720 pesos) than I can actually fit in the pot so I end up not even adding the can of beans I resorted to buying at Carrefour.

---

This month ($176.81) was not as cheap as I was hoping. The few peso difference in the exchange rate added up and I really let loose in the last few days of the month, account for 17% of the months expenses.

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Running Total: 6514.08 USD (RMB 42132)
Daily Average: 13.92 USD (RMB 90)

Travel Weeks 59-63

Not much to say to summarize the month, just working and running. Despite a pretty bad diet, I was making a little bit of progress on my weight.

Days 406-437:

Spices at Market	340
Carrefour	1058
6 eggs + Vegetables	260
Total:	1658 ARS (USD 12.13)

I went a little crazy buying spices at the central market, picking up garam masala, tumeric, and Chinese five spice. Of course, I picked up chicken, yogurt, and lentils at the Carrefour for a four day Indian cooking bonanza (where I just added a new dish every day to the leftovers). I also discovered some really delicious chocolate covered peanuts.

Rent	10000 ARS
Total	USD 72.20

So, I had also swung by the Western Union on Wednesday giving me a new personal exchange rate of 138.5 pesos to the dollar, meaning the real cost of my rent was even lower this month.

Vea	1635 ARS
Total:	USD 11.81

I went a little wild at the Vea on Sunday, taking advantage of the ofertas to stock up white wine, olives, roasted peanuts and more. The discounts knocked almost 500 pesos off the bill, though as I review the receipt, there are items I don’t recognize: “Espuma PRESTOB”, “SOBRE NEOPLEX TSII”. Those don’t sound like anything I would have bought. Strange.

Carrefour	1140 ARS
Total:	USD 8.23

There was a several week period where all the supermarkets were offering whole chickens at an unbelievable price (under 100 pesos per kilo). So, I started thinking of roasting a chicken and potatoes, and after a few weeks of stewing it over, I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, the quality of the frozen chickens was a little crummy, so I bought a fresh chicken (at 215 pesos/kg). It’s about the same price because the “marinate” the chickens before freezing, which just means injecting them with water to make them weigh more. The chicken lasted me four meals, and the 3 kg bag of potatoes lasted the rest of the week. Ironically, it was the week of the heat wave and I kept telling people not to use the oven.

Dozen eggs + Vegetables	330+80
Deli	320
Vea	1285
Total:	USD 14.53

Cabbages prices were back down to 50 pesos each, so it was time to shift back into a vegetable centered diet. I saw the price of the watermelons (35/kg) on the way out and turned around to pick up a pre-cut quarter watermelon. I’ve been eating a lot of watermelon, and it’s been a blast to watch the prices go down from 80 to 35 as we get into the season. At the same time, I had the strangest craving to make my own McDonald’s style breakfast sandwiches, so bought the appropriate cheap cheese and salami (instead of ham) at the deli. I also took advantage of the sale on Imperial beers and decided to make fresh meatballs from a mix of beef and chorizo for a spaghetti dinner on Sunday. So… not all vegetables.

Carrefour Hypermarket	2219 ARS
Total:	USD 16.02

More coffee (ground Starbucks in clearance for 478 and a new brand of beans for 426), more snacks (chocolate covered peanuts and chocolate covered raisins), and mozzarella to make pizzas (to finish off the salami and marinara sauce) after eating pasta & cabbage all week.

Dozen Eggs & Vegetables	350 ARS
Total:	USD 2.53

Mostly salad ingredients and a pair of grapefruit.

Wine	460
Carrefour	1778
Total:	2238 ARS (USD 16.16)

Beginning of Christmas prep, sparkling wine (190), 100% orange juice (172), cheeses, crackers, salami, peanut butter, honey, and pork ribs. I still hadn’t used the Chinese five spice for anything, so some braised pork ribs sound like a perfect meal to tide me over until the big day.

Vegetables	120
Famiglia Perin Gelado (1/2kg)	500
Total:	620 ARS (USD 4.48)

I wasn’t planning to do a lot of vegetables, but some lettuce and tomato for a salad and 4 ears of corn to throw on the grill.

Butcher	1970
Bakery	330
Total:	2300 ARS (USD 16.61)

Shops were still open on Christmas Eve, but a lot of queuing was needed to get inside. I bought tenderloin, tapa de asado, and chorizo for the grill along with bacon (because I couldn’t find any at Carrefour). In the second bakery I went to, I found the little cookies I like and grabbed a Christmas pudding stuffed with fruits and nuts.

Vea	288 ARS
Total:	USD 2.08

When was it I accidentally bought two bottles of balsamic vinegar? Well, I finished both of them off this week without realizing the danger, and with a lot of salad leftover, I needed to run to the store. I grabbed some more eggs too, a not-quite-diet coke, a baguette, and a single potato as well. I made choripan with some of the left over grilled chorizo, which were so good with sauerkraut and cheese and the fresh potato chips I made.

Watermelon and salad	200 ARS
Total:	USD 1.44

As I am finishing off the remnants of all the barbecue and Christmas junkfood, I needed to supplement my diet with watery foods, like lettuce, cucumber and watermelon.

A pint of APA	200 ARS
Total:	USD 1.44

I was expecting to be able to go out for a couple pints and maybe a burger and fries or something for New Years Eve, but everything was closed. Not because of Covid, but because of the holiday. Only one bar on the bar street was open, and they closed at 8pm. I’m still expecting beer prices to be 120-160 pesos (non Happy Hour), so 190 was a bit of a shock. Since I wasn’t planning to cook and I was planning on starting a diet in January, I didn’t have any food in the house.The supermarkets were also closed (since what time, I’m not sure) and no food was available on the food delivery app. It was a rather hungry New Year’s Eve for me as I lay in bed and watched movies from 9pm onward.

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Just under $180 for the month, not bad considering how much I drank and how crazy I went for Christmas. Though slightly more than November, December is a day longer. I anticipate January to be very cheap.

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Running Total: 6337.27 USD (RMB 41,401.4)
Daily Average: 14.50 USD (RMB 94.7)

Travel Weeks 55-58

The month of November (since, let’s be honest, is it really even worth updating this on a bimonthly basis) passed rather quickly, and was dominated by American politics and culture, i.e. the elections and Thanksgiving, both events came me a chance to use the parrilla in the back patio of the house and plenty of excuses to over indulge a bit. This should be clearly reflected in the higher expenses of the month.

Days 376-405:

Vea	974.5
Queso	130
Vegetables	300
Carne y leña	1385
Total:	2789.5 ARS (USD 20.41)

This was the last of the stocking up on food and alcohol to barbecue during the elections and manage my stress through election week. My menu included ribs, two cuts of beef, chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage), eggplant, and asparagus on the grill, plus fresh guacamole and fire-roasted salsa with tortilla chips. The five pounds of meat lasted through the weekend.

Beer, chocolate, cookies	717.75
Total:	USD 5.25

Okay, so maybe I was secretly hoping for a clear blowout on Tuesday night, and the disappointing returns required some serious eating of feelings. Luckily, Vea came through with lots of buy 2 get 1 free sales.

Broccoli and leek	100
Total:	USD 0.73

I had a bunch of cilantro left over from the salsa/guac, so I decided to use it in 葱爆牛肉 (exploding onion beef) and some broccoli to stir fry up with whatever beef remained. It was almost even more satisfying to eat it like that than fresh from the grill.

Grido 1/2 kg helado	220
Total:	USD 1.61

Did you really think the cookies and chocolate would last enough days? I had to get something to celebrate.

Rent	10,000
Vea	691.5
Vegetables	110
Total:	10801.5 ARS (USD 79.02)

Paid my rent late, as usual, but unprompted for. Vea had a sale on olive oil working out to 230 pesos for a half liter (when I paid 250 last time around).

Carrefour	1033
Veg	130
Total:	1163 ARS (USD 8.51)

There wasn’t anything much exciting mid month as I got serious again about dropping all the post-election weight gain with lots of salads and healthy eating. Ironically, after going all out on the guac/salsa, but making do with withered old chili peppers, all the markets suddenly have fresh jalepenos in stock.

Veg	100
Total:	USD 0.73

I’ve almost got it down to a science how my vegetable bill always comes out to about 100 pesos, though my shopping list was a bit different this time. I wanted to get a head of cabbage, but at 80 pesos, I found it too expensive, and went for the acelga (chard?) which is only 15 pesos for a bunch. A green bell pepper costs about 20 pesos, a small head of iceberg lettuce 10, one perita tomato (like a roma or san marzano) was 23, and a single navel orange (which turned out to be not so good) was 36 pesos. Tomato prices really fluctuate a lot.

Grido 1/2 kg helado	220
Total:	USD 1.61

Carrefour	1670
Cherry tomatos	20
Total:	1690 ARS (USD 12.36)

It’s nice to be able to wash my clothes regularly, but in 10 weeks I had finished off the laundry detergent I bought when I moved in. I bought some powder this time, which will be more convenient when/if I need to move. The bill was also a bit high because of the 500g bag of coffee beans (654 pesos). More salads for the next few meals, but this time with steak, cheese, and olives.

Lunch	1100
Fruit and salad @ Vea	560
Total:	1660 ARS (USD 12.14)

I’ve been keeping to the MWF schedule for going out even though that policy long since lapsed. I actually met a new human being and went to lunch at restaurant where we did not have to write down our contact information or anything of the sort. They really shouldn’t be so fast to relax the restrictions, but it was nice to have a restaurant meal for the first time in two and a half months. Watermelon season is coming in, and I also got a good deal on avocados (45 pesos each). I’m surprised how much fruit and vegetables I buy at the Vea because it is either cheaper than the fruits stands I’m familiar with or close enough in price and just more convenient.

Chicken	220
Wine	400
2 Broccoli	70
Total:	690 ARS (USD 5.05)

Fairly self-explanatory.

Spices @ atomo	100
Total:	USD 0.73

I get so bored on the weekends when I force myself to take a break from working. With Thanksgiving coming up, I decided to make a trip to the central market to see if perchance the meat sellers sold turkey. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time I made it there, so I gave up on that idea. I passed by the Atomo on my slightly roundabout way there to get spices for making stuffing and apple pie. They didn’t have (ground) nutmeg or sage and the cloves were a little too pricey, but I did get thyme and rosemary on the cheap plus some baking soda/powder for some future use. The coolest thing was that they bill came out to 97 and they gave me a bouillon cube to round up. It was perfect, since, without meat drippings, I would need something for the gravy.

Pastries @ Oma’s Bakery	120
Total:	USD 0.88

The pastries, which were definitely 30 pesos each at the end of August, are now 40 each. Aarrrggh!

Carrefour	700
Veg	60
Total:	760 ARS (USD 5.56)

I went to the Carrefour because they usual have bakery sandwich bread marked down for immediate consumption and I needed dried bread to make stuffing. That wasn’t the case, but I bought the cheapest bread available. On the other hand, a quarter watermelon and half pineapple were available at steep discounts (33 pesos each). I also needed corn chips because those avocados I bought were ripening too fast and my only hope was to make more guacamole. Monday was also Sovereignty Day, another Argentinian holiday.

Vea	746
Wine	350
Apples	230
Vegetables	380
Total:	1706 ARS (USD 12.48)

Although I did a solo barbecue for the election, I wanted to share Thanksgiving with people, so I let my roommates and working space co-inhabitants know about my plans to make another asado for the holiday. The menu as I imagined it included, obviously, the meat, plus mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, grilled asparagus, grilled corn, a big salad, and an apple pie. It was a lot of running around getting everything. I bought a bunch of beers at the Vea as well.

Corn (six ears)	180
Total:	USD 1.32

I had to go out in the morning to finally find some corn. I was annoyed because I didn’t plan out my shopping trips so well, but in the end I got the corn at the cheapest price. I also went with one of the guys to buy the meat. He fronted the cash, and although I was expecting to pay into that, I think everyone else decided that my other contributions were a sufficient share of the costs. We bought enough meat for six (which is generally 500 grams per person in Argentina), and there was basically just a half a palm’s worth of meat leftover at the end of the day. I was able to finish off the mashed potatos, corn, stuffing, and asparagus by Saturday.

Atomo	636
Eggs and veg (e.g. one carrot, one onion, one tomato)	89
Total:	725 ARS (USD 5.30)

Though I had finished off all the Thanksgiving leftovers by Saturday, I still had two apples, two potatoes, two beets, several celery stalks, a handful of parsley, and a tray full of shredded cabbage (which I didn’t buy, but was able to perform a public service by using). The logical solution was to make borscht and more apple pies (in empanada form). I don’t like dill, so I used parsley, thyme, and nutmeg to season the soup and it came out great. Having bought rosemary and thyme just to make stuffing, I’m going to have to hustle to find ways to use them, like through some rosemary in to some fresh dinner rolls (which I only made because the bakery I was expecting to pass on the way home wasn’t open).

Loaf of bread	100
Total:	USD 0.73

Since I’m going to live on borscht and salad until the next month (Dec 2), I need some bread too.

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Monthly Expenses in the Shared House

Month	Expenses (USD)
September	215.89
October	187.52
November	174.42

I really thought I spent a lot in November, but it’s the cheapest month yet (and also a day shorter than October). So, I guess I should go out drinking on the weekends, go on dates, and organize barbecues every week, or something like that to keep average spending steady.

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Running Total: 6157.61 USD (RMB 40510.3)
Daily Average: 15.20 USD (RMB 100)

Travel Weeks 52-53

Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to spend a whole year in Argentina (six months would have been enough), but here we are. It is certainly a lot different than my first week in Buenos Aires when I had to survive a week with just the clothes on my back. I’m still not sure I understand Argentinians any better when they speak, though I know I know a lot more Spanish than I did. Spending my days working, exercising, planning meals, and watching Netflix is not an objectively exciting life, but it sure beats hanging around the hostel calling the airlines once a day and feeling powerless.

Days 360-375:

Carrefour	1230
Vea	1070
Total:	2300 ARS (USD 17.64)

I made a point of going back to the Carrefour on Monday to take advantage of the liquidation-priced coffee, but the ofertas had disappeared. Nevertheless, the Starbucks grinds were still 66 pesos cheaper in the supermarket than at an actual Starbucks so I picked up a bag plus another bag of cheaper coffee grinds to use for cold brew. As the weather heats up, it will be nice to have iced vanilla/cinnamon lattes in the afternoons.

My shopping trip to the Vea was even more schizophrenic. Basically, I just wanted to take advantage of a bunch of deals before they expired on Tuesday: dark chocolate @ B2G1, wine @ B2G1, and alfajores 20% off. Plus apples, bananas, and carrots which were of good enough quality and price.

Hair Band	50
Flipflops	290
Chorizo (>1 kilo)	270
Cheese (Provo + Muzza)	280
Corn flours & Chili flakes	110
Atomo	227
Lettuce, bell pepper, tomato	80
Total:	1307 ARS (USD 10.02)

After weeks of dealing with my long hair falling into my eyes and months of putting up with a broken house shoe, I finally dedicated my wednesday weekend to some actual shopping, including a pass through the central market where I was picking up some ingredients for a planned deep dish Chicago-style pizza, to be made on Thursday. I swung by the Atomo on the way back to get butter (permanently on sale), whole black pepper corns (a whole 1% cheaper than bulk at the market), sliced olives, and yeast. It turns out that chili flakes were also about 1% cheaper (being on sale) than from the bulk dry goods stand.

Vea	371 ARS
Total:	USD 2.85

Though that massive pizza was enough to last several days, I still swung by the Vea for milk, yogurt, and bananas. I used the remaining half of chorizo to make a fusion Hong Kong Argentina rice casserole on Sunday.

Vegetables	230 ARS
Total:	USD 1.76

The rice dish was enormous and I decided to stretch it out through the week by pairing it with vegetables at every meal (cabbage, spinach, or lettuce). For variety, I grabbed an eggplant and bell pepper to make a sort of shakshuka that also lasted three meals.

Vea	172
Carrefour Hypermarket	570
Total:	742 ARS (USD 5.69)

With my meals set for the week, I didn’t really need to go shopping, but I wanted to use my off day to do some price scouting. In order to deal with the anxiety of the upcoming election, I decided to plan a barbecue. In the Vea, I picked up some hand soap, flour (liquidation priced), and a pair of avocados for 90 pesos. In the Carrefour, I picked up cereal, milk, tortilla chips, and deodorant. I can’t believe after a six month break, I need to start wearing deodorant again. ¡Qué asco!

Vea	1130
Atomo	640
Lettuce, tomato, eggs	100
Ferruccio Sopplesa	430
Total:	2300 ARS (USD 17.64)

Time to start really prepping for the barbecue by buying lots of booze–six bottles of cerveza at the Vea, whisky and a bottle of wine at the Atomo. I also grabbed tomato sauce and fettuccine for weekend meals and a half kilo of gelato at another shop I had never tried before.

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Running Total: 5983.20 USD (RMB 40031)
Daily Average: 15.96 USD (RMB 106.75)

Travel Weeks 50-51

So, I think I can finally call myself a digital nomad, as I have moved from the stage of going through tutorials to actually coding and getting things to work on a real server.

Days 345-359:

Vea Supermarket	670
Lettuce and tomato	60
Total:	730 ARS (USD 5.60)

After noting that the Vea sold packages of 8-10 jalepeno-like chili peppers in the produce aisle, I had a moment of brilliance when I realized that I could pickle them so that I wouldn’t be pressure to eat them all in one weekend. Furthermore, since I was already sitting on half a head of cabbage, I decided to make sauerkraut as well. The logical conclusion to these culinary insights was to make choripan over the weekend, stuffing the baguette with so many vegetables that I could on fit half a sausage in each sandwich.

Carrefour	1050 ARS
Total:	USD 8.05

The coup de grace came on Monday when I dedicated the third and final chorizo into a fried rice with two day old rice cooked in chorizo juices, sauerkraut, carrots, green onion, jalepenos, and egg. My mouth is watering at the memory of the dish that stretched three meals.

At the Carrefour, the most notable purchases were a new toothbrush and toothpaste, and a jar of dulce de leche. I’ve been craving a Hong Kong-style milk tea, but they don’t seem to have sweetened condensed milk in Argentina. Dulce de leche is not an appropriate substitute.

Atomo	556
Starbucks	750
Lomoro Helado	280
Vegetables	80
Total:	1666 ARS (USD 12.77)

I finally got around to buying olive oil (250) for real at the Atomo, where I also picked up a bottle of wine (221 on sale) in anticipation of the next presidential debate. However, since I am still not drinking, I bought a half-kilo of gelato for the Veep debate at a much cheaper ice cream shop. (Not as good, but mostly because I ordered something I thought was chocolate-based, but turned out to be a white, pink, and purple cross between chewing gum and birthday cake flavor). Starbucks upped their prices so much that I won’t be buying coffee there ever again.

Vea	665
Onions	30 (?)
Total:	695 ARS (USD 5.33)

Decided to try a recipe for a warm lentil salad involving onion, carrot, celery, and chard (which I think is called “acelga” here). For some reason, the Vea has the best price on carrots, the acelga was cheap enough, and I appreciated the convenience of not having to buy a whole celery. I had to pop over to the neighborhood vegetable stand for some parsley (which they gave me a handful of for free) and onions. Of course, I’ve been forgetting to jot down these costs, but I think it was 30 pesos (rounding up from 20 something with one extra onion).

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I didn’t need to show my passport at the supermarket because Friday is apparently the weekend and the province just adopted a new weekend liberalization policy so that people can go out Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays without restrictions based on their document number. I took advantage of the “Covid holiday” to take a walk on Saturday up to and around the Central Mercado, which I had never been into before. I’ll have to go back to do some shopping because although there are maybe only 10 counters (2 for meat, one for produce, etc), I found loose leaf Chinese tea and whole dried chili peppers and other tempting items.

Vea Supermarket	564 ARS
Total:	USD 4.32

I guess Columbus Day, or Indigenous People’s Day, is a holiday in Argentina. When I checked the online newspaper to see if it was the case, I found that the President of Argentina had announced that Mendoza and some other areas would have to return to lockdown like in March, meaning no more running in the park for me. Within hours, the governor of the province (who is of a different political party) gave a live address rebutting the order.

I didn’t really need to go to the store, mostly shopping just on impulse–3 tomato purees for the price of 2! chicken hind quarters at 105 pesos per kilo! Tortillas! Peanuts! I swung by the vegetable shop to buy spinach (which, along with asparagus, is fresh and in season right now), but their supply hadn’t been delivered yet. I grilled the first chicken quarter to eat with a salad, but decided to cook the other two adobo style.

Rent	10,000 ARS
Total:	USD 76.65

I was supposed to pay on October 2, and I had the money ready to go, but I decided to wait for the landlord to ask me for it. It was a long wait.

Carrefour	1615
Lettuce and tomato	60
Total:	1675 ARS (USD 12.84)

The chicken adobo was good, but since I was sitting on tortillas and leftovers, I wanted to make tacos. Fortunately, the Carrefour had a half pineapple (86) ready to purchase. It turned out to be a much more expensive trip than I was planning and I even had to turn back an item (684 peso bag of Starbucks coffee grinds) at the register to be able to afford the bill. I bought bananas, prunes, more of the breakfast mix, a big block of cheese, conditioner, and intensive lotion for my dry, dry skin. The adobo chicken tacos with diced pineapple and pickled jalepenos were amazing.

Vea	830 ARS
Total:	USD 6.36

The best part of making tacos is using the leftovers (after 2-3 meals) to make empanadas. Of course, that didn’t stop me from buying more tortillas as well. I’m noticing that the same brand of tortillas went from 68.63 pesos on Monday to 70.69 pesos of Friday! I bought some apples, discounted cheese (Carrefour is usually the best for cheese), and 3-for-2 bars of dark chocolate.

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Running Total: 5927.60 USD (RMB 39,701)
Daily Average: 16.51 USD (RMB 110.6)

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The Cost of Starbucks

The Starbucks thing annoyed me, so I decided to check the logs to see how much it has cost over time:

Date	Price (ARS)	Cost (USD)
January 15	470	$7.99
March 12	520	$6.71
July 1	610	$5.78
September 7	650	$5.56
October 7	750	$5.75

Inflation and devaluation are an interesting combination!

Travel Weeks 48-49

Days 330-344:

This new shared house with an impromptu coworking space (for a small e-commerce business) in the downstairs has proven to be the perfect stimulus for me to find my groove again. I have my own little work station where I spend at least four hours a day grinding away on “work,” which is still currently defined as learning about web development. In the last week or so, I’ve realized I’ve been neglecting my Spanish studies and have redoubled efforts on that with a textbook review and vocabulary exercises. I really can’t wait to get my own language learning platform off the ground because I’m noticing Spanish words slipping in when I try to think in Chinese.

Carrefour Market	880 ARS
Total:	USD 7.53

Not much to note here other than I’ve developed a taste for “breakfast mix” (cashews, almonds, raisins, and sunflower seeds) and otherwise splurged on some salami, cheese and crackers for a lazy weekend afternoon snack.

Vea	985
Veg and eggs	120
Total:	1105 ARS (USD 9.45)

I wasn’t able to do any shopping on Monday because, otherwise unbeknownst to me, the city went into a 72-hour quarantine lockdown over the weekend to prevent people from celebrating “Student’s Day” with barbecues or whatnot. Fortunately, I had enough food to stretch two extra days (though a bit light on the fresh salads). I picked up ground beef and tortillas to eat tacos from Thursday through Sunday, corn flakes, and a big bottle of Listerine, which was a good price (320).

Carrefour Hypermarket	1612
Lettuce, tomato, potatoes	60
Total:	1672 ARS (USD 14.30)

I had to use my calculator app while shopping to make sure I could actually cover the grocery bill before hitting up the Western Union for more cash at an even higher exchange rate (now up to 130.4 pesos to the dollar). I bought lots of yogurts, and a 500g bag of “breakfast mix” (which I hope I am able to ration for a while), and a 250g bag of ground coffee (253 pesos) to tide me over until my next Starbucks trip (which really isn’t a big deal, I just didn’t want to run out of coffee on the weekend or take a second trip out in one day). I also picked up some fresh pasta and puff pastry sheets to turn the taco meat leftovers into a sort of pie instead of the usual empanadas. It is nice to have such a selection of fresh pastas in the fridge aisle that are only marginally more expensive than dried pasta. I suppose eventually I’ll upgrade my tastes a step further to buying truly fresh pasta from the shops where they make it (like the one that is 20 feet from my front door).

Helado Mailho (1/2 kg)	390 ARS
Total:	USD 2.99

I wanted to go to the Vea to take advantage of buy-one-get-one free imported Nestle cereal, but it seems that it was another unexpected holiday “Dia de la comerciantes” and the supermarket was closed. It wasn’t a big deal since that taco pie provided enough leftovers to last two days. The important thing was procuring some ice cream to preemptively reward myself for a live televised event on Tuesday night, especially since it is still too early to start drinking again.

Vea	680
Veg (pepino, ajo, banana)	170
Cabbage, verdeo, pomelo	130
Total:	980 ARS (USD 7.52)

It’s crazy that I still go out of my way by four blocks to shop at the old vegetable stand around the corner of my previous flat, but all of the vegetable shops near my new house leave me disappointed by their price or selection or quality. Despite having to skip a Monday grocery shopping trip, I didn’t really have much to buy at a supermarket, mostly just taking advantage of some weekly specials. It is weird that they have bags of “commercial” carrots that are cheaper (50 pesos per kilo) and better quality than any of the vegetable shops (typically 60 pesos per kilo). The most exciting thing is that after several weeks of gathering soy sauce, sugar, corn starch, and msg, I can exercise some Chinese cooking muscles with kung pao chicken as the first dish on the menu.

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As predicted, this period was really cheap, averaging $2.79 a day in expenses. At 216 dollars a month, I could stay in this house and work on my project for the duration of the pandemic.

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Running Total: 5795.68 USD (RMB 39354.4)
Daily Average: 16.85 USD (RMB 114.4)

Travel Weeks 46-47

Days 315-329

Rent (1 month, 30 days)	10,000
Vea Supermarket	1242
Broccoli, salad, garlic	150
Total:	11392 ARS (USD 97.45)

I moved into a new house with roommates to expand my quarantine bubble and recuperate my sanity. The cost of rent is less than half what I was paying and the house is located about a ten minute walk south from the last apartment. I get to explore a new supermarket, where I have a membership card (gifted from the German) and I invest in laundry detergent because I have finally have access to a washing machine!

Tomato, eggs, chili peppers	300
Vea	900
Total:	1200 ARS (USD 10.27)

The produce shop next to the Vea turns out to be a little expensive. I definitely overpaid on the eggs and tomatoes, but I am otherwise excited to make chili over the weekend after stocking up on dried beans and popcorn that were on sale.

Starbucks Coffee	650
Contact lenses	1500
Kitchen stuff	490
Soy sauce	110
Produce	120
Total:	2870 ARS (USD 24.55)

It has been nearly four months since my last purchase of contacts lenses, which only lasted so long because I only wore them for a couple hours every other day. While looking for a postcard in the tourist shops of the main shopping street, I stumble across a store with reasonably priced kitchen stuff. I would love to buy a wok or a medium size sauce pan, but settle for impulse purchases of a salt shaker, a plastic colander, and a liquid soap dispenser. I’m saving so much money on rent, that I don’t mind investing small amounts here and there to improve the environment.

Post card	60
Atomo	716
Bakery	90
Lettuce	50
Total:	916 ARS (USD 7.84)

The old Atomo hasn’t updated their stash of spices in a while, so they are lacking the ones I really need (curry and cumin). Also, they seem to have figured out that the hummus was under priced (I swear it cost 70 pesos when I bought it last Sunday), and upped the price to 135. So, unfortunately, that will not become a regular purchase. I get a fancy hand soap refill at the Atomo so I can start using the soap dispenser and kick myself hard for wasting money. Over the various homes I’ve stayed, many have lacked hand soap at the kitchen, so I’ve sometimes kept my eyes open at the supermarkets for a soap+dispenser. I only ever saw the refill pouches, so when I saw the dispenser at the kitchen store, I snatch it up (because I’m realizing I don’t want to have to walk to the bathroom to wash my hands after doing any cleaning in the kitchen). However, lo and behold, the Atomo has a selection of soap+dispensers available for less than I spent on the dispenser. So, I basically flushed 199 pesos down the sink.

I swing by a local bakery to get some flat bread to enjoy the hummus and a collection of “masa” (little cookies). It was quite a bit of money just for lettuce, which tends to run 40 pesos per kilo. The tendency to just round up is a bit severe when you are buying just a little.

Vea	1070
Vegetables (Onion, carrot, potato, tomato)	180
Carrefour Hypermarket	1114
Cucumber, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes	50
Total:	2414 ARS (USD 20.65)

Neither the Atomo nor the Vea had any curry spice, so I had to make an additional trip to the Carrefour Hypermarket as well. The vegetable stand I visited didn’t have any ginger either, so I needed that as well. I make chicken curry over the weekend. I do some more shopping to improve the house by buying a toilet tank drop-in (because without a definite cleaning schedule, god knows how often the toilet gets scrubbed), air freshening gel (for obvious reasons), and a floor rag. While I would love a cushy bath mat for when I step out of the shower, I’ll settle for something cheap (99 pesos) to stomp my wet feet on.

This is also the beginning of my quest to find garbage bags. It’s rather complicated to explain, but the trash liners for the kitchen bin are way too big (like double the size of the wastebasket) and it annoys me, so I grab a roll of them at the Vea (125 pesos). They turn out to be too big still. At the Carrefour, I grab another roll (139 pesos), which turn out to be too small.

Carrefour Market	550
Total:	USD 4.70

After a futile attempt to go to the post office, I pass the Carrefour on the way back. I don’t need much, other than I am looking for a balsamic vinegar reduction. I swear I had bought one at this Carrefour back in May, but despite keeping my eyes open since last week, I can’t find any anywhere. I need olive oil too, but I pass because there is only Carrefour brand available and it is quite expensive too. What I do spend money on is paper towels (another lavish expense for the shared house at 64 pesos), a third attempt to buy the right garbage bags (129 pesos and still too small!), and a bunch of yogurt because I thought it was on sale, but I didn’t notice the club membership logo (and I have yet to actually sign up for the Mi Carrefour Tarjeta). I give up on the quest for the right size garbage bag for that damn waste bin. At least I have bags the right size for the bathrooms and stored in the bathrooms for when I discover way too late that someone threw out the garbage but didn’t replace the bag.

International Postage	270
Atomo	600
Pomelo and salad veggies	140
Total:	1010 ARS (USD 8.64)

The line at the post office was more reasonable to send the post card. Argentina is apparently not processing international parcels, but they accepted the postcard, warning me that there are no guarantees as to when (or if) it will ever arrive. Boy, that was expensive. I could have bought two decent bottles of wine for that. I swing by an Atomo in the city center on a whim, and find good olive oil at a price I can accept (209 pesos). They don’t have reduced balsamic, so I give up on that and settle for a regular liquidy typo modeno.

Update (9/17): As if to confirm the theme of throwing money away, that bottle of olive oil turned out to be a bottle of balsamic vinegar. I was familiar with the brand/packaging so I didn’t look closely at the words on the label which said “Aceto” (Italian for vinegar) when I was expecting “Aceite” (Spanish for oil).

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It was a rather expensive two weeks (11.60 a day) with lots of splurging on various high cost items, however that includes the entire month’s rent and since I am not drinking alcohol for the month of September, the next period should be pretty cheap (I’m guessing about 4 dollars a day). I understand it is not my responsibility to be buying cleaning supplies or whatnot for a house that I am sharing, but it is easier to drop 100 pesos here and 100 pesos there.

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Running Total: 5753.89 USD (RMB 38866.4)
Daily Average: 17.49 USD (RMB 118.1)