Ely's Guide to Inflation

Receipt from Freddo. Note the price. The stamp means that they've given me my ice cream and I can't go back for seconds on the same receipt.

A quarter kilo of ice cream at Freddo, a major chain of premium "export-quality" ice cream now costs 12 pesos. When we first arrived here a year and a half ago, a quarter kilo was -- if I remember correctly -- 8 pesos. Therefore, 50% inflation in 18 months. Given that our salaries haven't increased with inflation, this represents a considerable reduction in my ice cream purchasing power.

According to INDEC, the national statistics agency that has been discredited in recent months due to allegations of political meddling, the official inflation is at 8.5% since December 2006. (However, when the cost of a good or service increases, INDEC tends to remove it from the basket of goods that it uses to calculate the official inflation rate. That explains why, according to Argentina, the 35% increase in our health insurance doesn't really count as inflation.) Unofficially, the inflation rate is probably closer to 15% a year.

I've been keeping an eye on the price of ice cream because I find it a pretty reliable way to calculate inflation on consumer goods. Of course, ice cream isn't the only item to increase in price over the last few months. Just about every item in the grocery store costs more now than it did when we arrived. Like I said, the only thing that hasn't increased is our salaries. Or tomatoes, due to the "spontaneous" tomato boycott carried out the week before the heated national elections that brought prices down from a ridiculous high of 18 pesos a kilo to about 3 pesos a kilo.

Cultural notes:

Calidad de exportación: when Argentines (specifically Argentine businesses) want to advertise a product as high quality, they say that it's "export quality." The best of the country's bounty -- principally beef, wine, leather + other grain products -- is slated for export to the United States, Brazil, Europe and the Far East. The second-rate products are sold at home. Argentina also has the highest number of psychologists per capita. You can draw your own conclusions about the national inferiority complex.

***UPDATE***
In today's La Nación: According to a report published today by former INDEC employees (fired last spring for political reasons), the real inflation rate for 2007 is 26%. Compare this to the "official" inflation rate of 8.5%. I'm the one who does the monthly accounting here, and 26% inflation feels about right.
Link: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/economia/nota.asp?nota_id=982841

Lado Bueno

Literally, the good side. And is it ever good....We ate this ice cream as the final course at an asado at Omar's house. The ice cream was fantabulous. We must have ordered at least a kilo and a half for eight people. I remember we had lemon sorbet, because we mixed it with champagne and slurped it up with spoons. We also had sambayón, which is a sweet, caramel-coloured ice cream laced with alcohol that kind of tastes like rompope, which itself kind of tastes like eggnog. I can't remember the rest of the flavours. Chalk it up to the several glasses of wine that I consumed that night.

Top picture: Lado Bueno ice cream
Middle picture: Pablo helping himself to a heaping serving
Bottom picture: Jacob polishing off a half-kilo of ice cream

Cultural notes:

Asado: a typical Argentine bbq of grilling meat over glowing carbon, usually in a brick oven. Carnivores in the know swear that it makes the meat taste better. (I prefer grilled veggies.) However, an asado is more than just bbq; it's an excuse for friends to get together, tell jokes and drink copious amounts of wine and beer into the wee hours of the morning, play foosball (where available) and eat more than they should. Traditional food usually consists of grilled and bbq'ed provoleta cheese, shredded lettuce, onion and tomato salad, and a side or two of cow. Dessert (if any) is ice cream ordered from the neighbourhood joint (free delivery!).

House: most porteños live in apartments, and it's hard to have an asado on the balcony of an apartment. The best way to experience an asado is to make friends with an Argentine who has a parilla, a terrace, a patio, and a house in the suburbs. See above and below.

Omar: standard-issue Argentine, skilled in the use of bbq-related tools. (Every asado comes with one of these, and with "these" I refer to both the man and the tools.) Asador par excellance who has promised me a bbq of grilled fish at some point this summer. He has recently become an associate in ice cream-related crime, owing to the fact that his job as a graphic designer at a local publishing house doesn't keep him busy enough. (Un asador excelente quien me prometió que me iba a hacer un asado de pescado en algún momento este verano. Su trabajo de día no lo mantiene muy ocupado, por lo cual está ayundandome lograr mi meta de conocer cada heladería en la ciudad de Buenos Aires.)

More Mar del Plata Madness

My second and third ice cream in Mardel came from a heladería across the street from the hotel we were staying in. I can't remember what the place was called, but it had a fab decor scheme, excellent ice cream, a convenient location, and atrocious English translations.

Here is a picture of one of the several ice creams I had there in my three-day stay.

Being the super-nerd that I am, I even took pictures of the menu translations. Would you like a cup-ice on the basis of vainilla covered in syrup cofee, tiramisu ice-cream whith whipped cream and chocolate in branch? Or how about a serving of cheese-cake ice cream, vainilla macerates (ed: uhm, excuse me, what's a macerate?) with syrup red fruits whith strawberries amarenas and wafer with sauce? Or would you prefer a Strawberry Queen cup (On the basis of wood, queen ice-cream, with whipped cream and little cigarettes of chocolate)?

How about a dictionary, a thesaurus, and an English translator?
(I really shouldn't complain though -- it's folks like these who keep me employed.)

The author would like to thank Cadbury Stani Adams PLC for sponsoring the weekend getaway in Mardel, and Jacob for sponsoring the ice cream runs.

Mar del Plata

The best ice cream in Mar del Plata is from a heladería called San Marino. When we went - a windy evening in December - the place was packed, despite the fact that it is located in an out-of-the-way edge of the city and it was 1 am. I don't remember the prices, but the ice cream was delish. The cones, however, were unimpressive. They were made of a soggy material that had the taste and texture of wet cardboard.

Ice Cream Madness

I realize it has been a long time since I've last posted to this blog. (Thank you to Pablo, Leandro, Jacob, Leo, Jen, Christine, Ryan, and others for the frequent reminders.) Sorry. Mil disculpas. I have been busy eating ice cream. Actually, the frequency that I've been eating ice cream lately is embarrassing. It's a mystery that my clothes still fit.

Since my last post in October, and I can dutifully report that the best ice cream in the city is from Persicco, La Volta or Lado Bueno, the best ice cream in Mar del Plata is San Marino, and the best flavour combos are milk chocolate and mint chocolate chip or chocolate, banana and watermelon.

In the following posts, I will try to give you a summary of what's been happening in the last few months of ice cream madness.