Friday, September 16, 2011

The Argentinian Salt Debacle


First off, let me apologize for the terrible delay in my blog posts.  Just last Friday, I was all excited to continue what was supposed to be a consistent Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting schedule, when BAM! No internet.  The router wasn't working for some reason, and it took a while to finally determine that no amount of troubleshooting could fix it.  The thing was shot.  Oh well.

Now, a more dedicated blogger would probably head up to the nearest Starbucks or other such establishment, order a latte with a pinch of salt, and get to work.  But I am a two-post novice.  I wasn't ready for the burden of, well, expectations.  Which brings us here.  A week later, and no activity.

But now it's fixed!  The router, I mean.  Or more accurately, I got a new one.  In all honesty, this happened yesterday, so I might have posted something then, except that A) Thursday is not Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, and frankly, I like order; and B) I was a bit distracted yesterday playing Minecraft (which I was finally able to update to 1.8 (go here, if you've not heard of Minecraft)) and petitioning Notch to add salt blocks.  Yay, Internet.

But salt!  I should say something about salt.  So before I get back to my regular schedule of topics (and I have a long list of things to say about salt), I'd like to briefly discuss an article I came across just today.  The article is a bit outdated (June 11, 2011), but it's still worth noting:

"SALT SHAKERS DISAPPEAR FROM BUENOS AIRES TABLES"


*Gasp!*  Could it be true?  But it is.  It looks like Argentinians aren't complying with the World Health Organization's standards and, on average, are consuming eight more grams of salt than the daily recommended maximum dose (a meager five (that's only about a teaspoon)).  Now I don't know about you, but I eat at least double the amount of salt that the average Argentinian eats, and I'm doing just fine, but the Argentinian government (el gobierno) has deemed it necessary to remove salt shakers from all restaurant tables in the Buenos Aires province as well as to reduce the amount of salt that provincial breadmakers use by at least 40%.

Eff no.

Now, in the policy's defense, patrons can still request salt, "but only after [they] have tasted their food."  If I go to Buenos Aires, I'm bringing my own salt.  I don't want to be babysat when I eat.

I picture myself, bumbling through some Spanish:
"Me gustaría... sal, por favor."
"¿Han probado su comida, señor?" says the waiter.
Silence. "¿Qué?"

Professional egotist, Angelica Slom, has this to say about the policy: "For me, this is perfect.  In reality I would not miss [a salt shaker] if it was not on the table."  It would not surprise me if she was a smoker.

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You can read the article here: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-11/world/argentina.salt_1_daily-salt-intake-shakers-hypertension?_s=PM:WORLD

15 comments:

  1. They shouldn't disappear. D:

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  2. starbucks with a pinch of salt...interesting. Great post however! I look forward to more!

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  3. hmm taking salt away by force seems a bit heavy handed

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  4. Food without salt is...boring! I can understand your displeasure at the news. Cross Argentina off of places to visit before I die then, I guess...

    Loving the blog! Surprised at the topic, and curious to see how many posts you can make about just salt. But we shall see, no?

    Following:
    christiantale.blogspot.com

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  5. i eat way too much salt and i'm doing fine. then again, some smokers live to 100... still, this seems extreme. WTF argentina?

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  6. Good to hear you got your router problem fixed. Also nice to see that you're batshit crazy like me. :)

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  7. Well, here's some spanish 101:

    Could I have some salt?: Podría darme algo de sal?
    I don't wanna be babysat while I eat: No me gusta que me cuiden como un bebé mientras como.

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  8. OMG! No salt??!?! Even though I'm hypertensive, I can't do without my salt! Say it isn't so! Perhaps one of those foreigners is actually a salt vampire and wants it all to himself!

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  9. Salt is a necessary thing to eat with food. It's like ... food. And salt. They kind of fit together.

    Sometimes I pour so much salt on my food my lips start to blister, which might be a bit overboard, but I tell myself it's for a good cause.

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  10. I'm always so ashamed at the time I spent in high school Spanish classes with so little to show for it. Especially having met this Transylvanian fellow who speaks a language for every color in the rainbow (which is probably a bad expression, considering there are something like 6,000,000 distinct shades discernible to the human eye).

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  11. Lmaoo this blog is brilliant, the name and names of posts really tickled me aha.

    Thanks for following I will return the favour, and I also noticed you liked the song on my last video.
    Just thought I would link you to the song and in the description is a free download link for a few songs by the artist
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4_G94urKoA

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  12. I'm from Argentina. It's not as bad as it makes it look like. Not every place has taken salt off the tables. It is true that people here eat WAAAAY too much salt though.
    Don't worry people, you can still come to Argentina. That article has a good amount of bullshit, no one will deny you salt before tasting your food and most places still have salt in the tables.

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  13. Well, thank goodness for that. I didn't want to have to blacklist a whole country. Especially one that big.

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to prove that you're worth your salt.