Feria de Masticar 2014

Hello everyone,

I return after a long and busy absence. I believe it has been a month and a half, more or less, since my last posting, which is due to a variety of factors including heavy workload during the week, and weekends spent out of the house or away from home.

In any case here we are again--and the world keeps spinning so I'll keep jotting down these experiences, if only to occupy some of that empty space in that ceaseless earthly rotation.

I would like to spend this blog talking about a recent fair I had the opportunity to attend. The annual Feria de Masticar--Food Fair of Buenos Aires--occurred during the 17th-19th of October, in a large, enclosed public space used for city-wide events. Very well-organized, the fair was divided into sections based on types of foods or beverage; there were sections for coffee and tea, fruit and vegetables, desserts, asado, sandwiches, beer, wine, and just about any other tasty food related item popular in Buenos Aires culture.

I had been feeling a little depressed that day -- yes, I'll be open about that -- but as I had been looking forward to this fair for the entire week I wasn't going to let the moody blues bring me down; though I found it a touch of comic irony in going to an enjoyable event and eating good food, and yet feeling deeply saddened. I apologized to my girlfriend ahead of time for the slightly nihilistic outlook I was bringing to that evening's entertainment. Yet as with most-authentic human endeavors I beat on in self-consumed loathing, which I found nothing short of tragicomic-- funny in it's self-centeredness--but that is beside the fact.

Crowds and food for everyone.

The highlights of the fair for me were twofold. The first is that the fair had something for everybody. No matter an individual's interests in life, one must at some point eat--and Masticar literally had food to appeal to anyone's culinary interests. We stopped at vegetable stands, at coffee bars, and several different restaurant locations: and received exceptional service, explanations on the products offered, and other locations we could obtain their products.

$10 peso gourmet salad! I'll take that any day.

Specific examples of the good stuff include learning about organic produce and where it can be found in the city; a big challenge considering most if not all produce in supermarkets and verdulerias is not organic or, if it is, it isn't labeled as such. The second highlight, a wonderful, to die for ice cream panini sandwich made with peanut butter and raspberry sauce; a few moments in the heaven of tragedy : )

One of the highlights; La Cabrera serving
chorizo from a bus!

There were two downsides. The first were the crowds. The place was packed, which one expects of such a heavily advertised venue. The second downside was that you had to pay using small paper tickets, which you exchanged for $100 peso notes at little ticket counters throughout the venue. I remarked with my girlfriend that it was a smart marketing ploy because you weren't physically exchanging money with the restaurants themselves, only tickets. As a result, this made everything feel very much like a game of monopoly, where you weren't actually using real money, and thus likely to spend more. I think we spent a total of $250 pesos each at the event--which was much more than we had intended.




As it is an annual event, I would highly recommend it for following years as a way to know the Buenos Aires restaurant and foodie scene quickly, especially if you are only here for a short time.

Cheers and all best,

Kyle

Grilled vanilla ice cream panini sandwich!!!