The government's latest attempt to contain rising prices has been to roll out a fleet of mobile fishmongers selling cheap haddock in poor neighborhoods near Buenos Aires, the capital.
Trucks decorated with blue waves and the slogan "Now There's Fish for Everyone" are pulling up beside local parks and greeted by thousands of people who stand in long lines to take advantage of steep discounts.
Argentines are the world's biggest beef consumers and many profess to not liking fish. But with beef prices up 30 percent over the last three months, and the subsidised haddock selling at around half the normal price, this fish is hard to refuse.
Under cloudy skies, hundreds flock toward the trucks as they roll into Ituzaingo on the western edge of Buenos Aires, where many families can no longer afford steak.
There are grumbles about the quality of the fish, which is presented in brick-like squares. There are complaints about having to wait for hours as around 5,000 line up over the course of the day.
"It has a weird colour, but what do I know?" one woman told reporters upon receiving her portion.
President Cristina Fernandez launched the dozen or so trucks by visiting one herself and buying some fish. It was the latest in a series of improvised attempts at controlling inflation, which is casting a shadow over a tentative recovery in Latin America's third largest economy.
Opponents say the haddock program won't work. They call it a gimmick meant to shore up Fernandez's support in towns around the capital where she has traditionally been strong.
Her policies are geared toward stimulating economic growth, which is expected to pick up this year after being constrained in 2009 by the world crisis. But high inflation is taking a toll on Fernandez's popularity.
Economists expect Argentina to close 2010 with consumer prices up more than 20 percent for the year. The government, accused by analysts of manipulating economic data, will likely report much less than that. But labor unions are already demanding wage increases of 25 percent.
Earlier Fernandez strategies aimed at forcing prices down included export curbs on cattle ranchers and attempts at negotiating cheaper beef prices with meatpackers and supermarket chains.
Rather than openly acknowledge inflation, Argentine officials refer vaguely to a "reaccommodation of prices.” Fernandez rejects orthodox ways to fight inflation on grounds they would stifle growth.
Wall Street accuses the government of playing semantic games rather than confronting the problem with measures such as reducing government spending, which Fernandez refuses to do.
"If they want less spending, let them come and govern," she said recently in a challenge to opposition politicians getting ready for the 2011 presidential election.
The fish trucks were mobilized last week and are scheduled to continue until Easter. During the period of Lent, weeks of self-denial leading up to Easter, fish consumption rises in the mostly Roman Catholic country.
"The program is good but very slow," Alicia Carrasco, a bespectacled, middle-aged woman said as she waited for a numbered ticket to allow her to go stand in the haddock line.
"It's half price," Eduardo Baumtrog, leaving the station with two white plastic bags full of frozen fillets, said with a weary smile. "Lets see what it tastes like."
