What Does Chinatown in Buenos Aires Offer?
Sushi and Venezuelan Harina de Maíz are Some of the Strange Examples
Aug 29, 2009
Firstly, it is very easy to get to. The number 64 bus from Colonel Diaz and Berruti, just outside of the Alto Palermo shopping mall (nearest subte station being Bulnes), goes all the way there in about 10 minutes. It's the final stop on the route too, so it's very difficult to get lost!
What is There to Do in Buenos Aires' Chinatown?
A few pleasant hours can be spent wandering around the supermarkets and marvelling at all the fantastically tasty things available to buy. In New York's Chinatown and London's Chinatown, the sight of soya sauce on the supermarket shelves is not so exciting. However, in Buenos Aires it is like a dream come true.
The Argentine palette and expensive import costs keep the produce available to buy very narrow in Argentina's capital and, even though the feel of BA is very European and cosmopolitan on the surface, the reality is actually a lot different.
Restaurant Menus in Buenos Aires' Chinatown
In addition to the excitement brought about by the supermarkets, the local restaurants offer some excellent bargains. Four meat spring rolls, listed as a starter for the bargain price of 6 pesos, actually turns out to be more like a main course meal as opposed to a light entrée.
Similarly, when ordering a rice dish, be prepared to share. The portions are the size of Andean mountains and will result in the wrapping-up of all the left-overs to take home for another day. Soups are tasty, filled with spices that are not to be found elsewhere in Buenos Aires, and the service is excellent.
Buenos Aires' Chinatown is Also Little Tokyo and Little Venezuela
The wholesale markets are strange. El Barrio Chino is clearly a mixture of anything from the East; Argentines not batting an eyelid at the clear differences between Japonese and Chinese food and culture, for example.
There is the usual fair of (very reasonably priced!) noodles of every nature, dim sum pre-prepared and ready to be deep fried, spring rolls for the same and a range of sauces and spices to complement your meal. However, it is also possible to find pre-packaged sushi with salmon, which at only 10.50 pesos a roll, is a bargain! Chinatown or Tokyo? It is hard to say for sure.
Furthermore,'harina de maiz' (corn flour) found in countries like Venezuela and used to make the famous arepa and pastelitos that the Venezuelans simply cannot live without, is also sold in Chinatown. Rarely sold in the rest of the city, it is strange to think that Chinatown is the best place in Buenos Aires to buy food from other countries in South America, but this really is the case.
Chinatown in Buenos Aires is THE Place to Buy Fish and Seafood
One very large supermarket houses a HUGE, fish section, which in Buenos Aires is a little bit of a rarity too. Whole catches of fresh salmon and weird kinds of molluscs, still living on their icy supermarket bed, are just two examples of what are on offer. Prawns (large ones!) and eels, fresh tuna steak and trout are also widely available.
Fish can be found in other parts of Buenos Aires, for sure, but not to this kind of degree and rarely with such a variety. However, if a trips to El Barrio Chino is a little too much of an effort, there is a great fish place on General Las Heras in Recoleta that is also very affordable - again, a little difficult to encounter in BA.
Buenos Aires is a Capital City That Needs its Chinatown For Diversity
Full of Eastern souvenirs, incense, noodles, soy sauce and specialist vegetables, El Barrio Chino has more to offer the residents of Buenos Aires than most other capitals in the world because it is the one place in this city where the Argentine palette does not rule.
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