Hi my name is Jim, and I´m a food nazi
At my hostel in BA, there was a bbq every night that cost $13. I think I mentioned that it sucked a few posts ago about the hostel. Well here´s the whole story, including some background:
When I checked into the hostel, the staff told me the bbq is the best and can´t be beat. I was a little surprised to hear that a hostel has the best bbq in town, but I´ve become less and less trusting of people´s opinions as I´ve been traveling longer, and so I didn´t really believe them. I kept it in mind though.
The next day, while at the Brazilian embassy, I met a guy from another hostel that told me that there´s a bbq in a restaurant nearby our hostels that costs the same price and also has all you can eat meat and salad, including a drink. So basically we had a restaurant and a hostel providing the same deal. $13 spent on dinner in BA is equivalent to about a $40 dinner in the states, so we´re talking about spending a good amount of money here.
The guy told me the restaurant was amazing meat and he really enjoyed it. I tended to believe him over the hostel people, considering the hostel people work at the place where the food is served.
I wanted to go to the bbq at the restaurant but never did, but there was one night where certain friends were going to be leaving the next morning so I decided to try the bbq at the hostel with them just to see what it´s like. I thought perhaps it would be decent. Everyone who had had the bbq at the hostel (somewhere around 10) had told me the bbq was awesome. So I thought, hey why not?
That night the bbq was crap. It was really chewy, tough, tasteless, slightly gamey, and sometimes too salty. If I was at a restaurant where I could converse with the manager, I would have complained. I thought maybe it was just a fluke that night but the other backpackers thought the food was decent. I was shocked. The only guy who told me he didn´t like it was a 60 year old man (who was super cool by the way) that had tasted good meat before.
Other people looked at me like I´m a food nazi. I guess I am. I didn´t think I was, but maybe I am. I´m usually pretty fair about meats too. I know I´m really picky about sushi, but usually not with beef. It was really just not very good. A fair price would have been $5, but not $13.
If I pay for a $40 steak dinner in the states, I expect a certain quality. I didn´t get it from the hostel. It disappointed me. I talked about it, because people asked me how I liked it. I even told the cook. He was sorry, was all that he could say. I laughed in disgust, but I couldn´t expect more from a hostel chef.
This is an example of why i don´t trust other traveler´s opinions anymore. They just don´t know what they´re talking about most of the time. Not that I trusted people´s opinions back when I was in the states either (aka if someone from the midwest told me the sushi was good, I got worried), but I think I felt safer trusting somebody if they told me that so-and-so restaurant tasted great if we were both living in seattle or equivalent.
That might have been because our experiences were closer when we were both city people than it is today. The people I meet today have not been traveling anywhere near as long as I have, and also have not been to the variety of countries & places that I have, so they just don´t really know what they´re talking about. I´m sure other travelers think the same thing about me sometimes as well. I´m sure that when I get home it´s only going to be compounded 100% because most Americans have never really traveled anywhere outside the US and someone is more than likely going to tell me that the paella at a Spanish restaurant is good and I´m going to be wary of that comment.
When travelers tell me how they feel about something, I just assume they are only 50% right, and I think that gets me pretty far in the right direction. This is not malicious, but it´s just to protect me so that I can better baseline my expectations.
When I checked into the hostel, the staff told me the bbq is the best and can´t be beat. I was a little surprised to hear that a hostel has the best bbq in town, but I´ve become less and less trusting of people´s opinions as I´ve been traveling longer, and so I didn´t really believe them. I kept it in mind though.
The next day, while at the Brazilian embassy, I met a guy from another hostel that told me that there´s a bbq in a restaurant nearby our hostels that costs the same price and also has all you can eat meat and salad, including a drink. So basically we had a restaurant and a hostel providing the same deal. $13 spent on dinner in BA is equivalent to about a $40 dinner in the states, so we´re talking about spending a good amount of money here.
The guy told me the restaurant was amazing meat and he really enjoyed it. I tended to believe him over the hostel people, considering the hostel people work at the place where the food is served.
I wanted to go to the bbq at the restaurant but never did, but there was one night where certain friends were going to be leaving the next morning so I decided to try the bbq at the hostel with them just to see what it´s like. I thought perhaps it would be decent. Everyone who had had the bbq at the hostel (somewhere around 10) had told me the bbq was awesome. So I thought, hey why not?
That night the bbq was crap. It was really chewy, tough, tasteless, slightly gamey, and sometimes too salty. If I was at a restaurant where I could converse with the manager, I would have complained. I thought maybe it was just a fluke that night but the other backpackers thought the food was decent. I was shocked. The only guy who told me he didn´t like it was a 60 year old man (who was super cool by the way) that had tasted good meat before.
Other people looked at me like I´m a food nazi. I guess I am. I didn´t think I was, but maybe I am. I´m usually pretty fair about meats too. I know I´m really picky about sushi, but usually not with beef. It was really just not very good. A fair price would have been $5, but not $13.
If I pay for a $40 steak dinner in the states, I expect a certain quality. I didn´t get it from the hostel. It disappointed me. I talked about it, because people asked me how I liked it. I even told the cook. He was sorry, was all that he could say. I laughed in disgust, but I couldn´t expect more from a hostel chef.
This is an example of why i don´t trust other traveler´s opinions anymore. They just don´t know what they´re talking about most of the time. Not that I trusted people´s opinions back when I was in the states either (aka if someone from the midwest told me the sushi was good, I got worried), but I think I felt safer trusting somebody if they told me that so-and-so restaurant tasted great if we were both living in seattle or equivalent.
That might have been because our experiences were closer when we were both city people than it is today. The people I meet today have not been traveling anywhere near as long as I have, and also have not been to the variety of countries & places that I have, so they just don´t really know what they´re talking about. I´m sure other travelers think the same thing about me sometimes as well. I´m sure that when I get home it´s only going to be compounded 100% because most Americans have never really traveled anywhere outside the US and someone is more than likely going to tell me that the paella at a Spanish restaurant is good and I´m going to be wary of that comment.
When travelers tell me how they feel about something, I just assume they are only 50% right, and I think that gets me pretty far in the right direction. This is not malicious, but it´s just to protect me so that I can better baseline my expectations.
posted by Jimmy at
6:53 AM
4 Comments:
in that case, definitely don't hit up rick's asada in el calafate for the all-you-can-eat bbq - it's not nearly as good and you can get a better deal by ordering a la carte. their all-you-can-eat bbq is limited to 4 or 5 meat cuts, none of which are the big juicy steaks that you see most of the people ordering. most of the places to eat in el calafate are mediocre.
ok thanks for the advice. Is rick´s asada good for steak at all then? or should i look for another place for steak?
oops - i'm a few days too late to your blog comments! aaagh! what did you end up doing?
i found a buffet parilla somewhere in town that was run by chinese people. it was actually pretty ok :) and there was some chinese food included to boot
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