Beautiful Buenos Aires

Back to Argentina after a crazy September - including a blizzard of professional development and special events at work.  Then the closing on the sale of John's house and all the work of moving everything he owns into either my garage, my basement or a storage locker.  Everything is moved out of his house, although it still needs to be sorted, organized and tidied a bit.

We spent the weekend recovering and relaxing in my brother's condo in Port Clinton, and then it was time to head back to Argentina.
John and I were in Buenos Aires for a few days before flying to Cordoba; he at work in their Pacheco plant and I starting my online courses (I'm teaching two this term), and trying to relearn the Spanish I've forgotten.  
If you don't speak Spanish, Buenos Aires is a great place to start in South America.  Many of the signs, menus, etc are in English as well as Spanish. While we were only in Buenos Aires for a few days, it was wonderful.  I can hardly wait to come back later in October with my girls! 

Some of the highlights:
Our hotel.  We stayed at the Dazzler Tower on Heras, which is in the Recoleta neighbourhood, close to great restaurants and beautiful parks.  The staff were super helpful, especially when my flight to Cordoba was cancelled and I needed to make changes by phone. Not sure I would have been successful without Ana at the front desk. 

The food.  So much good food.... I especially loved the empanadas and tamales at El Sanjuanino, the tapas at El Burladero, and the fish and grilled vegetables at La Lorenzo.







The grilled vegetables at La Lorenzo were served on a little stand that contained hot coals, so the vegetables kept cooking at your table as you ate dinner.  Delish!

We arrived at the tapas restaurant on a Tuesday night and couldn't get a table - no room!  So we sat at the bar for dinner, which was very entertaining and the food was fantastic.

El Sanjuanino, a true little hole in the wall with the best tamales and empanadas

My 'office.'  There was free wifi at the cafe next door to the hotel, so I sat there for two afternoons drinking tea and working away on my online course.  No one tried to hurry me along, or accused me of loitering.  They almost seem disappointed when you ask for the bill.  For 15 pesos, about $3, I sat there all afternoon, drinking tea, working on my laptop, and watching the world go by.  Felt a little bit like JK Rowling.

The view from my office

Riding the A Subte line.  I had read on another BA blog (Buenos Aires or Bust) that the A line on the BA subway (subte) had antique wooden cars with vintage lights so I decided to go and check it out for myself.  The first A train that came along was a regular modern train, but sure enough, I waited for another and along it came. Beautiful wooden interior with windows that open all the way and doors that you have to pull open manually.  When the train takes off from the station, it takes quite awhile for the doors to eventually close.  I can't imagine the TTC ever allowing anything like that in Toronto.  Thanks for the tip Amber!

Interior

Doors open, windows open, as we speed away down the track.

Dogwalkers.  They were everywhere when I went for a walk on Wednesday morning.  And every single one of the dogs was adorable. Need I say more?  How can you not love a city that loves its dogs?

Daily Schedule

Even though I'm on vacation, I like to have a daily schedule.  In Buenos Aires, I would start my day with a trip to the gym in our building every other morning, breakfast in the flat, shower and work on my course.  Once my work was done, I'd head out to explore the city, picking up groceries if necessary, and returning to the flat when it started to get dark around 5 pm (it is winter here, after all).  When John would get home from work, we'd get cleaned up and head out for dinner. Since BA is such a tourist town, it was easy to find lots of great restaurants that were open by 8:30 pm.

Cordoba is different and my schedule is not working anymore!  I have to get out of the mindset of doing my work first and then heading out for the afternoon.  The problem is that most stores in our neighbourhood close down for an afternoon siesta.  By 2:30 pm everything from variety stores, fruit and vegetable stalls, the dry cleaners, and even the hair salon is closed for the afternoon. 

The market across the street -
"Open Monday to Saturday
8:00 to 2:00;   5:00 to 9:30
Sunday
10:00 to 2:00"

This morning John had a driver picking him up at 5:30 am for a ride to the airport.  He is heading back to Buenos Aires, returning tomorrow night around 8 pm.  We decided to go out for dinner last night, and headed out 'early' since he had to be up to early in the morning.  The first restaurant, San Honorato, was locked tight and inside we could see that they were just beginning to set up for the evening service.  It was 8:25.  We went to three other restaurants, all locked tight, until we finally found a parillo (BBQ) place around the corner from our apartment that was open. I think they may have unlocked the door early by accident, but they let us in.  The staff were still folding napkins and setting glasses on the table, and had only begun to get the BBQ going, so we thought we'd better order a salad as it might be awhile before dinner was ready.  Did I mention that it was almost 9 pm by the time we finally found an open restaurant?  And that we were the only customers until about 9:30?  I'm not sure how long it is going to take to adjust to this schedule - it may be a very long time.

Late night dinner at El Patio Parrilla - salad, grilled vegetables and beef.
There was a cutting board in the middle of the table, and they served John's steak and my beef medallions
on the cutting board, so neither of us had a plate. 

Maybe that's why all the shops close down for the afternoon. Everyone needs to go home and have a nap so they can stay awake for dinner at 10pm.  I think we may start having more meals at home; it's just too hard to wait til 9 pm to head out for dinner.  And I don't have to work in the morning! 

Food, Glorious Food!

Anyone who knows me knows that my life revolves around food.  Yes, my family is most important, but after that, life revolves around food.  I've made the adjustment to Argentinian style dining, but it hasn't been easy.

Mealtimes are not the same as in North America.  Breakfast at our hotel is served from 7 to 10 am on weekdays, and from 8 - 11 pm on weekends.  John has to delay the start of his workday if he wants to be able to have breakfast before he leaves for work; normally he would be at work before 7 am.  Lunchtime is around 1:30 or 2 pm.  There are lots of great cafes for lunch, or sometimes I just grab an empanada from a stand in one of the pedestrian malls.

John and I had lunch at La Fontaine, an outdoor cafe featuring works by local artists, and the ubiquitous stray dogs.

Dinnertime.........well, you've got a long wait til dinnertime my friends.  Restaurants in Buenos Aires and in Cordoba don't open for dinner until at least 8 pm and often not until 8:30 or 9 pm.  And since Argentina is famous for slow service, by the time you are seated, have some bread and some wine, you might not be eating around 10 pm. Then you wait for your bill and by the time you walk back home, it's bedtime.  We usually get to the restaurants shortly after they open, and within half an hour they are always packed with local families as well as tourists and business people.

Portions here are enormous and no one has heard of doggy bags, so John and I will often split a salad and an entree.  Or we each order our meat entree, and then split a side of vegetables. Meat courses come with just meat, and then you order whatever side dishes you want such as potatoes and veg. I've been keeping my eyes open for vegetarian options so that we have a selection of nice places to eat when Madison and Shelbe come to visit in the fall.  Food here tends to be on the bland side, and any ethnic dishes tend to be blander than they would be at home to cater to Argentinian palates.



John's steak at Alcorta.  Back home, we might call this a roast and serve it to a family.



BBQ places (parilla) are very popular with a variety of meats cooked over wood coals. 

Dulce de Leche is super popular in Argentina.  To paraphrase the old lady in the Frank's Red Hot commercial, "They put that sh*t on everything!"  For those of you who aren't familiar with Dulce de Leche, it's made by slowly heating sweetened milk until it's like a caramel sauce.  The literal translation is Sweet of Milk, and we've seen it listed that way on some menus that were translated into English.  You can find it in any kind of dessert including dulce de leche flavoured ice cream.  You can buy it by the jar, or in big tubs, at any grocery store. On the breakfast buffet, dulce de leche is available to spread on your toast, and the English translation is "Milk Jam." 

The English version of the Dessert Menu at Da Minga, in Buenos Aires. It's wonderful that they have English menus, but not everything translates.  Some items for dessert include Lemon Foot; Pears to the Burgundy or the Mist; and Pancake of Sweet of Milk, which is probably a crepe with dulce de leche. 

We had the Apple Tarantella, which turned out to be like cheesecake with cooked apple slices on top, covered with dulce de leche.  Delicious! 

The odd thing is that even though the locals seem to subsist on a diet of white carbs (facturas, medalunnas, chirrillos, etc), red meat, red wine and late meals, the obesity rate of 18 % in Argentina is lower than Canada (24%) and the United States (34%).  How is that possible?

Because the economy in Argentina is not very strong right now, we get a great exchange rate for our dollar, which makes eating in restaurants here very reasonable. And wine is dangerously inexpensive - about 40 to 50 pesos for a nice bottle of wine with dinner, which is about $10 Canadian.  In the grocery stores, if you buy food that has been grown and processed in Argentina, it is very cheap. If you buy something that has been imported from any other country, it is usually very expensive.  For example, I saw a tiny little container of blueberries, wilted and shrivelled that had been imported and they were 22 pesos ($5 Canadian).  For the same amount of money, I could by a mountain of local produce.

We are really looking forward to moving into the apartment on Tuesday.  We'll have a full kitchen with a big fridge and a gas stove with an oven so we can start eating some meals at home.  We had a tiny kitchen in our BA apartment with just two electric burners and a bar fridge, but even then we were able to eat some meals that we had prepared ourselves.  I'll miss the breakfast buffet each morning, but it will be nice to eat what we want and when we want. 

'Home cooking' in Buenos Aires