[Meat is] the edible part of the muscles of the bovine declared suitable for human consumption by an official veterinary inspection…Meat will be clean, healthy, and properly prepared…
-Codigo Alimentario Argentino, Chapter 6, Alimentos Carneos y Afines
I arrived hungry in Buenos Aires by bus coming up from Patagonia and heading to Bolivia. I thought I’d try the station restaurant and sit at the counter. There had been a lot of sheep down there which made me want anything but lamb stew. Quite a menu even so, and all the steaks were given by weight in grams. I asked the bow-tied waiter, Este es el mas grande?, pointing to a cut weighing half a kilo. No, hay peor todavia. There’s still worse, he replied.
I looked again and saw that the cabrito al horno was double the price of his biggest bife. I’ll try the goat, I said. Good choice, he answered, our Sunday special. The roast kid he put in front of me was small and shriveled and dried out. Really? I asked the waiter, this is special? On weekends, he explained, Argentina tires of beef.
I looked closer at the wording of Argentina’s Food Law 18284, Article 247…Con la denominacion generica de carne, se entiende la parte comestible de los musculos de vacunos, bubalinos, porcinos, ovinos, caprinos, llamas, conejos, nutrias de criadero, pollos, pollas, gallos, gallinas, pavitos, pavitas, pavos, pavas, patos, gansos, codornices, declarados aptos para la alimentacion humana. So yes, there was a lot more than carne de res on the menu. I didn’t ask if the special was suitable or properly prepared or even legal to feed to humans, but it sure was different…