Restaurant Summary

In no particular order, places we enjoyed eating:

Club Social  Deluxe (San Telmo on Av. Caseros) - romantic atmosphere, very good list of appetizers (or small plates), and main courses.  Jake had braised rabbit, very tender and flavorful.  I had churrasquitos de cerdo (thin pork chops) with roast peaches and sweet potatoes.

Cabana las Lilas (Puerto Madero) - large, fancy restaurant with excellent service.  Known for its home-grown beef but also many vegetable side dish options.  Try the soufleed potatoes as a side.  They bring out a tray of amuse bouche for the table and after dinner a tray of small desserts.  We also ordered a chocolate torte that was very dense and delicious.

Bar Poesia (San Telmo, corner of Chile and Bolivar) - traditional bar with good food and coffee, nice literary atmosphere.  Huge lomo (beef tenderloin) sandwich, salads, excellent apple strudel.  Good licuados too served in pitchers.  American breakfasts available in the mornings.

Bar Federal (San Telmo, Bolivar) - like Bar Poesia but more historic.  Pretty much the same menu as Poesia.

Bar El Federal in San Telmo - beer and picadas

Bar Territorio (San Telmo, Bolivar near San Telmo Market) - small corner bar with a small but good menu.  Excellent spaghetti with shrimp in a tomato sauce, really good large salads.

Brocolino (Centro, Esmeralda in 800 block) - Italian with homemade pasta.  First recommended by my parents they have good food in a quiet atmosphere off busy Esmeralda.  Good bread basket too.  Lamb raviolis in sage cream sauce!

Antonino's (San Telmo, Bolivar 1083) - fish store with many pre-made dishes.  Seafood empanadas, paella.

Chifa Man San (San Telmo, Peru half block south of Independencia) - ceviche!  Also whole crispy fish, typical Chinese food.  Man San soup was good with won tons and different meats.

Place on Plaza Serrano in Palermo - sorry, can't  remember the name but it has some tables outside and a balcony with tables on the second floor.  Really good brownies and imaginitive selection of licuados.  The sandwiches sound good too, but we haven't tried them.

Chorimovil - (Puerto Madero) - choripan stand we liked on Calabria (in the middle of the park).

Aldo's (San Telmo, on Moreno just east of Defensa) - wine shop and restaurant.  We ended up only having a glass of wine here because they had a fixed price menu for Valentine's Day.  The regular menu looks good though and the wine selection by the glass or bottle is excellent.  Pretty place.  See their website for more info.

Caseros (San Telmo, Caseros street) - Sort of a similar menu to Club Social Deluxe.  Modern country decor.  Best to make a reservation on weekends.  We shared a ceviche (not quite as good as the ceviche at Man San).  Jake had lamb chops that were excellently seasoned but a little tough.  I had the lobster raviolones in a cream sauce.  Rich and delicious!

Cafe Origens (San Telmo, Corner of Peru and Humberto) - nice cafe with muffins, good coffee.

Coffee stand in the San Telmo Market

Coffee stand in the San Telmo Market - great coffee, good snacks.  Fun to sit and watch the market shoppers go by.

Coco Marie, shaded by Ailanthus!

Coco Marie (Palermo, 1700 block of Armenia) - cafe is behind a lingerie store with the same name.  Shaded, pleasant seating area.  Healthy and tasty sandwiches and salads.  Good cucumber lemonade comes in a bottle large enough to share.

Bar El 55 (near Parque Centenario, corner of Gallardo and Juan Ramirez de Velasco) - really good licuado and frappucino.

Also see postings on the two Puerto Cerrado (closed door) restaurants we went to, NOLA and Casa Salt Shaker.  Both excellent!

At the Zoo

Another uncaged animal - the nutria!

Feeding the deer

The B.A. zoo was started in the Victorian era and is still being updated, but it has a lot to recommend it.  It is overrun with maras, a large, jack-rabbit like rodent.  The zoo sells food to feed many of the animals so it is really easy to see most animals as they are all begging for food.  I know this would be a huge NO in the States.  Even animals that were not supposed to be fed were having food thrown at them.  There are 2 carousels for kids and the obligatory fast food stands.  The original buildings are very elaborate so the zoo is also interesting from an architectural perspective.

Welcome to the zoo, watch your kids.

Bear begging for treats - despite the do not feed sign

Notice chutes for rolling food down to the animals

Need a lawnmower?  Hire a giraffe.

No problem checking on this hippo's dental work

Jake communes with a mara

Antelope

Multicultural Day

Yesterday was Jake's birthday and our last Sunday in Buenos Aires.  It being Jake's birthday necessitated an American-style breakfast at Bar Poesia with fresh squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs and really good bacon.  It being the last Sunday necessitated one last stroll through the Sunday market in our neighborhood.  In the afternoon we went to see Dura de Matar (the latest Die Hard movie).  Bruce Willis is just as popular here as in the US.

Some store names wouldn't work so well in the U.S.
such as this one for an independent designer's clothing store.

Finally we dined at another Puerto Cerrado, this one at an apartment in Recoleta.  Casa Salt Shaker is run by Dan, a chef and sommelier, and Henry, a tango dancer and teacher.  The other guests were a couple from Winston Salem, NC doing a short tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, a woman from Scranton, PA on her way to trek in Torres del Paine, a couple from New Haven, CT who spoke impeccable Spanish and had lived in Spain and Portugual, a couple from London - he a professional chef and she in the catering business, and a woman from, gasp, Buenos Aires!  After a cocktail we sat down for a delicious 5 course meal paired with wines.
1. A light, slightly spicy melon gazpacho with cilantro sorbet and sparkling white wine,
2. A wafer of polenta and parmesan topped with feta, melon, almonds, raisins and paprika, served with a chardonnay
3. A firm white fish with a carrot coconut puree and grilled endive served with a rose wine,
4. Loin of rabbit with a sweet potato puree and lightly sauteed arugula served with a really good pinot noir
5. honey cheesecake with a plum compote served with a Moscatel dessert wine.

Doors in Colonia Uruguay

We were amused by several doors in Colonia Uruguay.  Room 17 was our hotel room in Posada Plaza Major.  As you can see from the exterior and interior pictures, the door was a little small.  The top only came up to my shoulder, so even Sylvan had to duck.  Yes, this was the only door to the room.  We were told that this part of the hotel was from Portuguese times and that the Portuguese were very small.  We did not believe it.  Nice hotel, generally, as you can see from the fountain with the tourist in front of it.  (Ooops, I guess the photographer didn't get a picture of the fountain, only the tourist -- just goes to show my priorities.)

As you can see, Sylvan did not have to duck for the main gate to Colonia, a drawbridge from colonial times. 

Colonia, Uruguay

View of the Plaza Mayor from the lighthouse

Historic street in Colonia

Car as planter

Mid-week we decided to do an overnight trip to Colonia, Uruguay.  Colonia is almost due east of Buenos Aires, on the other side of the Rio de la Plata.  We walked to the Colonia Express ferry terminal (probably wouldn't do that again as it required crossing some highway entrance ramps with no crosswalks) and were quickly processed through customs and immigration.  This ferry takes about an hour to reach Colonia.  It is less expensive, but less luxurious, than the Buquebus ferry.  It was perfectly adequate though for such a short trip.  Arriving in Colonia, the ferry terminal is a 10 block walk or so from the historic area.

Colonia has been designated as a UN World Heritage Site.  The historic area is compact and blends into a more modern shopping district that then winds around the coast to suburban areas and a few resort hotels. It was the site of many battles between the Spanish and Portuguese, but now seems a peaceful, tourist-oriented place.  Colonia turned out to be an hour ahead of B.A., so we dropped off our backpacks at our hotel and went to the nearest corner restaurant, El Farol, for lunch.  Sitting outside under umbrellas admiring the plaza and colonial buildings, we shared a plate of salmon with shrimp sauce.  The food sounds better than it was, but the view was pleasant.  In the afternoon we strolled around town, stopped for the obligatory licuado and expresso, visited cute shops, and watched the sunset over the river.  We had dinner at "The Drugstore" which I had read good reviews of.  They offer smaller plates of food, although certainly larger than what I think of as tapas size!  Again though, neither the mussels provencal nor the fried calamari were all that special.  In honor of my brother's birthday, we sought out a piece of chocolate cake elsewhere, but that was also better than it looked.  Happy Birthday though Bro!

Sunset over Rio de la Plata

Happy Birthday Joe!

Balustrade along the river

We were supposed to leave on the 11 am ferry, but were surprised by longer than expected lines and then that we needed our piece of paper proving that we'd paid Argentina's reciprocity fee to return to Argentina.  I had mine, but Jake had left his at home and we had a very difficult time attempting to access the damn thing on line.  Eventually securing the required piece of paper we also got seats on the 5 pm return boat.  It was a steamy hot day, so we decided to have as leisurely a lunch as possible at one of the waterfront restaurants.  We shared a salad of orange slices, cured ham, toasted walnuts, and cherry tomatoes, and a lamb risotto that were both very good.  Realizing that it was Valentine's Day we ordered a dish of strawberries covered in chocolate sauce for dessert.

No problems this time checking in and getting through immigration.  While we were in line to board the boat, a young guy came up and asked if were from NM having seen the flag sewn on Jake's backpack.  He was from NM and had just graduated from MIT.  He was spending a couple months traveling before starting a job in Chicago.  It's always fun to meet smart, young, independent travelers.  Gives me hope for the next generation!

MALBA and Murga

MALBA, museum of Latin American contemporary art

Yesterday's highlights were a visit to MALBA, the Museo de Arte Latinoamericana.  There was a really interesting exhibit of art by Oscar Munoz, a Colombian photographer.  The mixed installation of photos, videos and charcoal drawings really made you think about the nature of photography and time.  For instance, a table with a projected sink on either side and projected images of photos of faces in the center.  A hand would take one of the photos, hold it in one sink and it would be rinsed away.  The blank paper would be put back on the table.  Then a blank photo would be put in the other sink and an image would be washed onto the photo.  Or another piece had a series of circular mirrors at head level.  When you breathed onto the mirror an image would briefly appear blocking out the reflection of your own face.  Okay, maybe you just have to see it to get it.   We also loved this bench whose slats wandered off over the edge, down to the floor below and reformed into a second bench.

There is a nice cafe at the museum as well with somewhat different sandwiches, fancy teas, and good pastries.

foam covered youth

End of the show for this group

Littlest murgeros, costumes are often decorated with cartoon characters

In the evening we went back to see the murgas perform in our neighborhood for carnaval.  Hard to take photos in the dark and I still haven't grasped how to take good videos with my camera, but see photos below.  Vendors sell cans of foam to the kids and everyone gets liberally sprayed in the course of the evening.

Extraordinary Meals

Last night we dined at one of Buenos Aires' "closed door" restaurants.  These are mini-restaurants, by reservation only, in a person's home.  We chose Nola, run by a young woman chef from New Orleans and her Argentine, sommelier-in-training, boyfriend.  Their home is a modern space in an old neighborhood.  An enclosed outdoor "hall" leads to an indoor foyer and open plan living dining area. The walls were painted warm colors contrasting with the grey cement floor and exposed brick ceilings.  We were greeted with a glass of champagne and a few minutes to meet the other couples we would be dining with.  There were other American couples from Chicago and San Francisco, a couple from Toronto, and a couple from Alice Springs, Australia.  We all had an interest in food and travel in common, so at least for one meal, it was a very sociable group.

There were four courses, each paired with a wine.  We started with a slightly spicy mango gazpacho topped with shrimp, paired with a floral Torrontes (see recipe here!).  Next was a fried tomato slice topped with a squid salad, paired with a dry, chardonnay-like rose wine from Mendoza.  The main course was a piece of pork shoulder that had been braised for 5 hours, tender and with a slightly sweet glaze.  It was served on top of grits flavored with green onions.  This was paired with a really nice Malbec.  Finally, for dessert we were served individual blueberry tarts with a little goat cheese mixed into the filling.  The goat cheese was only barely detectable and  added a rich, slightly earthy flavor.  This was paired with a sweet, but very flavorful dessert wine from the UcoValley.

On Tuesdays, Liza, the chef, operates a pop-up Mexican restaurant in Palermo as well and I'm sure it would be well worth a visit!  I expect that sooner or later she will have her own successful restaurant in B.A. but until then, see if you can get a reserva at Nola!

Needless to say it was a late night and a lot of wine, and we realized when the doorbell rang at 8:30 am that today was apartment cleaning day and we needed to clear out.  We went to our favorite bar/coffee place, Bar Poesia, and fortunately they were open and even have a good breakfast menu.

A second excellent restaurant we went to, treated by friends visiting for a night from the U.S.A., was Cabana las Lilas in Puerto Madero.  Las Lilas specializes in beef, from its own estancia.  We sat outside on a long covered veranda overlooking the water as waiters brought us an amuse bouche of appetizer selections while we pondered the menu.  Three of us ordered beef, and the vegetarian among us ordered several vegetable side dishes.  The side dishes turned out to be sizable, and probably meant for sharing among a table.  They have the traditional soufleed potatoes, like a puffed french fry.  Grilled vegetables were also particularly good. The beef was absolutely delicious, grilled to order.  We ordered a dense chocolate cake to share, but also got a complimentary selection of small cookies and confections.

I'm compiling a  list of our favorite places that I'll post before we leave.  We have several more recommended places that we hope to get to before we return home!

Menu del dia --at home before siesta and tango

Lunch today from our local fish store . . . empanadas of mussels, octopus, and other unidentifiablea, a filet of abedejo (sounded exotic in the store but turned out to be the humble (from a New England perspective) pollack, and roasted veggies.  Followed by an Oreo cookie.  Are we not multicultural?  Now, time for a siesta.

Tigre

Tigre lies north of Buenos Aires in the delta of the Rio Parana.  Imagine an enormous silty river becoming so wide at the mouth that the waters slow and deposit silt forming thousands of small islands braided by large and small channels of water.  Tigre lies at the edge and is the embarkation point to reach the many islands.

narrow waterway on Tres Bocas

House on Tres Bocas island

We took two trains to get to Tigre.  Trains tend to be very inexpensive to travel on in Argentina, and they show their wear.  The Mitre line crawled out of Retiro station and made its way slowly through the huge railyard  and eventually out into the leafy suburbs.  At the Mitre stop we walked through the station to the Train de la Costa station.  Suddenly the station has decent restrooms, clean floors, and benches in the waiting area, but the train fare is 20 pesos instead of 3 pesos.  Go figure.  Anyway, the Tren de la Costa is a nicer train, but it doesn't really save any time in getting to Tigre.  You do get glimpses of the River along the way.

Silvia Moore, a travel agent we met here 4 years ago whose brother-in-law is my stepdad's college friend's wife's brother (or something like that!), lives in Tigre, and she met us at the Estacion Fluvial where you can catch boats out to the islands.  There are lancha colectivos (like a bus), water taxis, and tour boats.  We took an Interislena lancha out to the island of Tres Bocas.  Lots of weekend houses, guest houses and some full-time residences are built on the islands.  Although Silvia said the water is pretty polluted, we did see lots of people swimming in roped off areas.  Often the buildings are built on stilts to accommodate occasional floods.  Everything, groceries, lumber, water, has to be brought in by boat, but many of the islands do have electricity.

You let the boat operator know where you want to get off, or you wave them down to pick you up from a dock along the river.  We disembarked and decided to walk some first, following a path along one of the narrow waterways until it reached a swampy end, then turned back, took a bridge over the waterway, and walked back along the other side to El Hornero restaurant.  All the seating is in a shady courtyard, shaded by a huge sweetgum tree among others.  From the eclectic menu we all ended up ordering chicken crepes with tomato sauce, thinking it would be a light lunch.  The crepes were huge though, defeating our best intentions.

There was surprisingly little wildlife around.  I expected to see lots of water birds but just saw some cormorants hanging out near town.  Many of the plants planted around the houses are introduced ornamental plants.  The small undeveloped area we walked through was dense with shrubs and small trees and the wetlands were filled with a type of grass or a rush usually.  Speed limits on the river are not enforced and the waves generated can be pretty big.  Many of the shorelines have retaining walls or rip rap to slow erosion.  Maybe you have to go out to the more isolated islands for wildlife viewing.

Grocery  boats

Boat carrying goods upriver

Rowing statue with a rowing club in the background

Sylvan and Jake at the Estacion Fluvial in Tigre

Abandoned boats with the Amusement Park in the background

Back at the dock, there were several groups waiting for a return boat, which eventually showed up about a half hour later.  In Tigre after a stop for expresso at the waterfront gas station, we walked along the waterfront admiring the elaborate Rowing Club buildings.  Tigre has a large number of apparently pretty well-off rowing clubs that got started around the turn of the century.  Silvia also drove us around a little more of Tigre before dropping us at the Mercado de Frutas late afternoon.  We strolled through the market which features a lot more furniture and homewares stalls than it does fruit stalls at this point.  It is probably a really happening place on weekends and was relatively busy even mid-week.  We then walked up to the big train station and caught the regular train (the Tigre line) back into town, fortunately getting a seat for the 50 minute ride.  The Tigre line was in moderately better shape than the Mitre line, featuring air conditioning and a smoother ride.

Definitely worth a visit if you're in B.A.!

Slave Markets in Argentina -- Maybe Just Women

I was struck by this store in downtown Buenos Aires, which seems to be offering slaves.  I know enough Spanish to tell that it must only be female slaves because of the "as" ending on the end of the word "esclavas."  If you doubt they really meant "slaves" check out the "linked chain" logo above the word.  And it looks like you can get the slaves immediately "Las Esclavas Express."  Unfortunately, the store was closed (most of the stores close at random times throughout the day).  But then, we do already have a housekeeper, a doorman, a tango teacher, and many chefs (nearby), so another slave would be surplusage.

The Accounting Profession -- A Lie By Any Other Name

We spent a delightful day yesterday in the town of Tigre, with our travel agent Silvia. 

She used to be an accountant but could not take the pressure.  In a country with high inflation, no company can make a profit buying and selling goods with regulated prices.  By the time the goods are manufactured, the sales price is always less (in real terms, taking inflation into account) than the cost of making the goods.  So, manufacturers sell their goods on the black market, where prices are, of course, higher.  But their books can't reveal the actual prices for which they sold their goods, because that would be illegal.  So, the accountants challenge is to make up some sales prices (and maybe costs of manufacturing) that look like legal prices and still make it look like the deals produced a profit.  Don't get it?  That's because it is nonsensical.  So, Silvia decided she couldn't handle all of that creativity and decided to become a travel agent.  Good idea.

Teatro Colon

From the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (see Jake's post below), we went on to tour another building built to impress the world, the Teatro Colon.  Begun by an Italian architect in 1889, the entrance features 3 types of Italian marble, hand-laid mosaic tile floors, and intricate stained glass windows.  Finished 20 years later by a French architect, the salon features gold-leaf trim and hand-painted ceilings seemingly straight out of Versailles.  The young tour guide related the details of the building through stories of its architects and intrigues, and through some social commentary on the times.  Once in the main opera hall she demonstrated the acoustics by singing a verse from a well-known tango in a lovely voice.  She said that when Pavarotti came to sing at the opera house, he said he could never come back.  When asked why, he said it was because the acoustics were too perfect and he could hear every flaw in his singing!

Funny Money -- OK, call me a cynic.

No picture for this one, just a news flash.  The Argentine government announced yesterday that for the benefit of all consumers faced with the difficulty of rapidly rising prices, it had worked out a deal with the largest grocery store chains to fix their prices for two months.  (We haven't really noticed price increases, but we have noticed that whereas we used to get 6.2 pesos for a dollar four weeks ago on the black market, we now get 7.3 -- good for us!).  So, no more price increases for consumers.  Yippee for consumers.

But wait, there must be a catch . . .   Ah yes, the grocery stores in exchange will give up their discounting.  Traditionally, each store has discounts for using different credit cards on different days -- 20% of for using a Citibank card on Tuesdays, a Galicia card on Wednesdays, etc.  These are big discounts, much greater even than the rate of inflation.  Oh well, yippee for the grocery stores.

But wait, it gets better.  Sometimes banks would underwrite the discounts as promotions for their credit cards.  They didn't like this practice, but if some banks did it, other banks felt compelled to do it as well.  Ah, that nasty competition among banks -- can't we do something to get rid of it?  Why sure!  Just get the government to let us agree to end discounts -- in exchange for the stores fixing prices for a couple of months.  Yippee for the banks.  Everybody is winning so far. 

But wait, it gets even better.  In March or April, the government is facing labor negotiations with some group.  If the government can show that prices of essential items have stabalized, they can give smaller wage increases.  And, look at grocery prices . . . stable as can be.  No price increases for two months!  You don't need a raise!  Yipee for the government.

So overall, the government is helping everybody -- especially those consumers who, the newspapers screamed in the headlines, were being saved from inflation. 

Mafalda and Me

I don't know why the cartoon character Mafalda isn't better known in the US.  We live on Mafalda's corner here in Buenos Aires. Not 5 minutes goes by day or night without someone having their picture taken on this bench by her.  Her Argentine creator, Quino, lived in a building on the same block.  Mafalda is very popular throughout Latin America and in Europe.  She is known for her wise beyond her years, irreverant social commentary or general views on life.  

"Isn't it the case that this modern life has more of modern than of life?"

"From where do you have to push this nation to get it to move forward?

"Life is beautiful, the bad thing is that people confuse beautiful with easy."

"Errare politicum est"

The Palace of Running Water AKA Toilet Museum

We recently visited El Palacio del Aquas Corrientes (more or less), which was the headquarters, including holding tanks, for the water distribution system in Buenos Aires.  The building is pretty incredible as it was built during the period when Argentina was trying to convince the rest of the world (i.e., France) that it was sophisticated and rich enough to deserve some respect.  The exhibits in this museum are less than extravagent, but include some nice items such as this American visitor.

And, this display is undoubtedly the most photographed.

 

World travel is so broadening.

My second favorite item in the museum was this valve, which a visitor could actually operate.  Those machinists really did a great job.  You probably can't see how the value seats in the faucet to create a perfect seal, but I was impressed.

Didn't get a picture of the child care center across the street for the employees of the running water department but it was called "Little Drops of Water" ("Gotitas de Aqua").  Cute, no?

National Holiday!

Yeah!  A day off from Spanish classes for a National Holiday!  Ask most Argentines and they have no idea why there is a holiday.  Turns out, it is the 200th anniversary of the first Constitutional Assembly.  The constitution granted freedom to anyone born to a slave family (in other words, if you were already a slave, tough luck, but at least your children could not be enslaved), as well as some other freedoms that were subsequently overturned in various disputes between the provinces and the federal government.  Still, it was apparently the first Constitution in South America.

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo -
mothers of children who were "disappeared" during the military dictatorship 

Political banners on the Plaza

On the Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada (equivalent to the the National Mall and White House respectively), hordes of people waited in long lines to get a commerative coin, see the new 100 peso note featuring Eva Peron, gather various other free publications, and to watch big groups carrying flags representing different political parties.  Turns out we had actually gotten a few of the new 100s in our last money pickup and given the suspicion over counterfeit 100s, we were relieved when a shopkeeper recognized the new bill and accepted it.

We have been taking Spanish classes at Academia Buenos Aires, a 15 min. walk from our apartment.  There were 5 other students in my class, two students from Holy Cross  in MA here for study abroad, an American who writes for the web and who had been studying Spanish for 15 weeks, a Brazilian voice therapist here to learn Spanish, and a British woman living in Germany who works as a German to English translator who needs to learn a third language to get licensed as an Interpreter.  We had a great teacher, a woman in her early 50s who is from B.A. and who had a great sense of humor and was well-versed in both teaching Spanish and in history. She does an excellent impression of the grand ladies of Recoleta and could have swooned when she found out that the British student's mom had gone to the same school as two of the Beatles.   4 hours of lessons from 9:30 - 1:30 pm, plus a three hour make up class one afternoon because of the national holiday.  Jake started out in one class, had one day of class where he was the only student, then was joined by two others at his level on the third day.  I think he felt that although his teacher was technically proficient, she didn't quite have the sense of humor to make 4 hours of classes fun.