Frank and Alan, I could not agree more but apparently I didn’t give that impression in what I wrote.

Alan, I think you’re right in one sense. There’s lots of “concept” restaurants that look to sell food in niches, etc. Then there’s the restaurants that sell to expats. I bet you anything there’s amazing Bolivian and Peruvian food here for cheap because the Bolivians and Peruvians want to eat it and they know what it tastes like. They also don’t have a ton of money so it’s going to be cheap.

This is what i wanted to be my interesting point:
Let’s accept for a moment that ArteX3 has awesome Mexican food. Now how come they don’t serve that at lunch to differentiate themselves from everyone else who serves essentially the same thing? There’s no Mexican food in Palermo Viejo during lunch. I could be wrong but if they’re already a Mexican food restaurant, why not play it up. I can only assume that the concept doesn’t sell during lunch…

And I want to be really clear here. I like Argentine food. And ArteX3 is my favorite lunch restaurant in Palermo Viejo right now. But you guys are right, I was being an ass in the post and these comments are what I deserve.

But I did get ideas for a future post on authenticity

Oh, by the way, in general the local palate may not be too adventurous but they are starting to go down that path. Yep, I meet people who won´t eat anything other than steak or pasta but then I also meet some who tell me that they spent time in the UK or the States and they miss Indian food, or Bagels or Cinnabuns, but they can´t put cookies on that list anymore

And for me, the answer in most countries would be that first the concept sells, because very few people in the diners’ country actually know what the authentic ‘ethnic’ food tastes like back in it’s original country, but that secondly, the food itself sells, but in many, if not the majority of cases, people are fooling themselves if they think they are getting the real McCoy.

For example, with Indian food in Great Britain - we have our own version of it, that is quite different to what is eaten in India, which has been modified to suit our tastes. But if people enjoy it, and it tastes good, who really cares at all if it is ‘authentic’ or not?

There is truth in what you say. But there are locals with adventurous palates. Marce is one and Diva is another for example. My own wife is another example of this. Maybe in my line of work I get to meet more locals that love foreign food because my products are, in a way, foreign and people that look for that are going to find me. I say this because I run into clients and customers that start talking about food and what they loved when they traveled to either the USA or to Europe etc.

This I guess is more of a nitch. Comfort food fair here is more like mila or choripan, ñoquis on the 29th, medialuna and coffee for breakfast, mate and medialunas in the afternoon, grilled steak on the weekends, etc.