Ranting about food

JG says: My friend Isaac innocently wrote me an email, curious about the food here. This, unexpurgated, is what he got back:


The food down here is alternately wonderful and horrendous. The produce, dairy, pasta, bread and meat from the markets all taste/feel fresh and flavorful. The legendary steak deserves its adulation and the medialunas  (small croissants) are awesome; they taste like hallah French toast. But after exactly 1 month we were sick of the local staples: steak and empanadas (which is one of my favorite foods usually) and ham and cheese on croissants. Fish is expensive and mostly not local. Cans of red or black beans are imported and thus expensive. Finding non-sugared cereal or yoghurt is a full-time job. They love their own style of pizza and serve it everywhere and it's inedible and makes me angry. It's like a block of polly-o melted onto a sponge. Restaurant salads are a middle-American joke. I got some sushi out of desperation and the salmon was good but the tuna was from a can and the veggie roll was cooked. Yesterday I discovered a Syrian market and came home with hummus/tabouleh/babaganoush and I feel like it saved the family.