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Harrison's avatar

Love this! Reminds me of the Mortadella Focaccia sandwich recipe I adapted from L.A.-based Roman cuisine restaurant Mother Wolf for easy home cooking!

check it out:

https://thesecretingredient.substack.com/p/recreating-evan-funkes-la-mortazza

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Dan Perlman's avatar

Love a good mortadella sandwich, thanks! Here in Argentina we have one producer (Las Dinas) who rather than pistachios, uses walnuts in their mortadella, and it's one of the best mortadellas I've ever had, anywhere.

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Harrison's avatar

woah that’s super cool about the walnuts!! thanks for putting this on my radar I had no idea. gonna go try to find some to eat… do you know if there’s a place in NYC i could get my hands on this?

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Dan Perlman's avatar

In NYC, no idea. I haven't lived there in 20 years. Not even sure if Las Dinas exports. They must do some, I know Mauro Colagreco, the chef-owner of Mirazur, who's from Argentina, uses their cured meats there, in the south of France. Though, he's from Tandil, where they're located, so he may have a special "in".

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Argentine Film Festival London's avatar

Thanks for the explainer. Last time I was in BA was 2 years ago, and prices seem to have jumped hugely since then. Back for a visit next week so will be interesting to note frst-hand how much things have changed...

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Dan Perlman's avatar

2022 inflation: 95%

2023 inflation: 211%

2024 inflation: 117%

So, yeah, we've had some "jumped hugely" pricing!

At the same time, the official exchange rate to the dollar over those three went roughly in 2022 from 100:1 to 180:1, then in 2023 from 190:1 to 690:1, and then in 2024 from 860:1 to 1050:1... while at the same time the blue rate went from 110:1 to about 1200:1. So in dollars, the inflation has been far less.

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Argentine Film Festival London's avatar

20,000 pesos for a sandwich - that's about 20 dollars, right? Insane! When did Buenos Aires get so crazy expensive?!!

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Dan Perlman's avatar

It's about $15.25, but that's also a huge sandwich, big enough for two of us to share for lunch - part of why I tend to order the half focaccia sandwiches. Still, with the steady inflation we've had over the years I've been here, things are far more expensive than they used to be. Eating out these days at somewhere "nice" is on par with many metropolitan cities in the US - we're not talking NY/LA/SF prices, but easily equal to eating out in, say, Denver, Chicago, Houston...

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