Tough Life- Steak Edition Pt.2: Featuring Thanksgiving!

I know I squeezed a lot into the title up there but I also squeezed a lot of freaking food into my stomach in the second half of our all you can eat bonanza week. Here's some more reviews of the places we ate:

Lateral Bar and Cafe- Rep. de la India 2899
We woke up late and had a packed agenda of sightseeing and a tango class at 1:30. We didn't make the tango class. While exiting the Recoleta cemetery and arguing about whether or not we had time to see some flower sculpture before getting in a cab to go across town for the tango lesson, I looked at bill and Tom's faces. They obviously did not want to tango. Tango was vetoed, we saw the flower sculpture and then we came back to Palermo and attempted to go to lunch before hitting up the Evita museum. We all wanted pizza. Bill remembered seeing a pizza place on our walk home from the restaurant the night before so we went over there. They sat us on the roof terrace, passed out menus and like 10 minutes later told us the "oh btw there's no pizza today because there's a problem with the oven". Ok, so we left. Next we walked into an Italian place called Guidos and asked for the menu. They said there was no menu but for 150 pesos per person they would give you what they felt like making that day. This kind of thing works beautifully in Italy, I'm not convinced it would work so well in Argentina. We left. We were starving, it was like 3pm at this point, and we decided on a small cafe on the corner. They had pizzas and salads and beer and happiness as a side. I forget exactly what we ordered but it was all very good. The salads were enormous and the pizza was the best we've had yet in Buenos Aires (that's not saying much, but it was pretty good). It was well past 5 when we realized the museum was only open till 7 so we rushed out as fast as we could with our stuffed stomachs to see Evita before she closed.

Pura Tierra-3 de Febrero 1167 and Cumana-Rodríguez Peña 1149
Tom and Jen went out to eat by themselves Tuesday and Wednesday night. The report we got was that both restaurants were awesome, delicious and cheap. This seems to be a theme in Buenos Aires.

Sheraton Golf and Spa Resort: Lobby Bar- Colonia, Uruguay
Our ferry to Uruguay left promptly at 8:45am Thursday morning and 1 hour later we were docking in Colonia. The town of Colonia is exactly what it sounds like: quaint, quiet and colonial looking. We strolled around town, hit up the local craft market then hopped in a cab for a short drive to the Sheraton. Can we just take a sec to talk about the Sheraton hotel? After 5 1/2 months of staying in bare bones, no frills, and sometimes questionable accommodations do you have any idea what it's like to walk into a Sheraton and know you are going to sleep there? Jen has a bazillion hotel points from traveling for work so she booked us our own room for the night. It was huge, it's the first really comfortable bed we'd had in over a month and there was a gigantic jacuzzi tub. Ahhhhhh luxury. After lounging at the pool we were hungry for lunch so we grabbed a corner at the lobby bar and ordered sandwiches. I got the chicken club, Bill got the salmon cucumber and cream cheese. Tom and Jen got a hamburgeusa complete and a steak sandwich. I loved the food. It was such a nice change from all the heavy stuff we had been eating lately. If you ever stay at this Sheraton (no the Sheraton is not paying me for this review but they freakin should) get the chicken club.

Toasting to Uruguay at lunch.

Meson De La Plaza- Vasconcellos 153, Colonia, Uruguay
It was Thanksgiving so of course a big, delicious meal was in order. I had skyped my family in the afternoon and I was jealous that they were eating tons of turkey. My mom had made 6 pies, brownies and 3 different kinds of cookies! I'm really happy that we decided to come back in time for the holidays because we originally weren't going to be back until the end of January. I love thanksgiving, I love getting ready for thanksgiving, I love eating with my family, I love seeing my family, I love everything about the holiday. And I love Christmas even more. I'm the type of person who hates giving gift cards because I want to wrap presents and I want people to have real presents to unwrap. I love decorating the tree, I love shopping in the stores, hanging lights in the windows, making cookies, etc etc you get the idea. So I was a little homesick and nothing cures homesickness like an awesome dinner. It was not traditional Thanksgiving dinner but it was super awesome. I had pumpkin soup, followed by ink squid raviolis stuffed with shrimp. Bill ordered a salad to share and steak. I forget what Tom and Jen had for apps but they got the lamb and meat filled raviolis. Of course copious amounts of wine and a couple hours later we were ready for dessert, which was grandma cake. I asked the waiter was grandma cake was and he started by saying "it is a brownie, with dulce de leche....." I told him he need not say more and to bring me this thing immediately. It turns out there was syrup and ice cream and a bunch of other delicious things on it but bill and I inhaled it so quickly I didn't take a picture.

My ink squid ravis

What was left of the grandma cake

The Mujer Bridge in Puerto Madero
Las Lilas- A.M. de Justo 516
Everyone kept telling us we had to visit Puerto Madero. It's the newest and most wealthy part of Buenos Aires. Think high rise million dollar condos on the waterfront. Also on the waterfront are a bunch of old warehouses converted into 5 star restaurants. The look and feel of the place made me think of what DUMBO was 10 years ago, or maybe what's happening on the greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront in recent years. a lot of high rises with no other signs if life. No grocery stores, gyms, public space or neighborhood feel. These things always take a little bit of time to appear so maybe in 5 years Puerto Madero will be a full fledged neighborhood. Actually strolling down restaurant lane reminded me of the meat packing district. Formerly gross, now chic and expensive, Las Lilas is the creme de la creme of restaurants in PM. We mentioned to our bike tour guide that we had dined there for free (Tom and Jen generously covered the bill that night, thanks guys! Kisses!) and he exclaimed "my god! You are living the life, to eat at Las Lilas and not pay!". The restaurant was gorgeous, service was impeccable, the food was out of this world and with dessert came a drink caddy with bottles of grappa and limoncello. Our meal started with a mix plate of apps, and some grilled provolone. I had the strip, Tom had the rib eye, bill had short ribs, and Jen had chorizo. we polished of the obligatory 2 bottles of wine and numerous dessert shots (on top of real dessert which was a dulce de leche something or other) before stumbling into the beautiful warm night surrounded by the cozy lights of the port and the Mujer bridge. It doesn't look like people dancing tango, I don't care what anyone says. It was on the cab ride home that we were passed a fake bill by the cab driver which we already vented about, but all in all it was a great night, and a great way for Tom and Jen to end their trip.

Mixed app plate

I'd like my steak medium por favor!

I need a caddy like this at home!


-Claire

Tough Life- Steak Edition. Part 1

Bills older brother Tom, and his girlfriend Jen, came to visit last week. It was nice to see some familiar faces and we took a great little side trip over to Uruguay for Thanksgiving. I still maintain that they came to Buenos Aires, not to see us, but to have an intimate experience with the world famous asada. We ate like crazy. Here's the run down of the restaurants/bars we went to:

Sugar Bar- Costa Rica 4619
An expat bar in Palermo. We immediately recognized it by the American flag on the giant tv screen. They serve wings, burgers, etc and show American football games on Sunday. There are expats of all nationalities that hang there, but most seemed American. A girl sitting at the table next to us was listening to our convo and jumped in when she heard a mention of Snookie. She had been in BA for a couple of months and hadn't heard a peep about the Jersey Shore and was overly delighted to discuss the latest and greatest with us. She also introduced us to her prized "souvenir" of Argentina (her words not mine)- a very handsome gentleman who gave us some tips on where to go and what to see. The drinks were super cheap, we had a couple of rounds and in true BA fashion, headed off to dinner around 10:30.

Don Julio- Gurruchaga 2107
An awesome parilla in Palermo. Things did not get off to a good start when we walked in. There was a wait and we asked if we could have some drinks in the meantime. When the waiter came to deliver our sparkling wine he promptly spilled it all over Tom. We ended up getting a great table on the second floor overlooking the grill so I figured they felt bad about the spill and made up for it with good seats. Every square inch of shelf space is filled with empty wine bottles with messages people scribbled on them in their half drunken stupors. The food was solid, service was good, the wine was great and I drew portraits of each of us on the second bottle for the restaurant to keep. We had sweetbreads and grilled provolone for apps, we all had steak in different cuts, and dulce de leche crepes for dessert along with some other delicious things I can't remember. We were pleasantly surprised at the bill also. I think it was under $200 for all of us, which is fantastic. We left the restaurant at 2am and there were still families with small children eating dinner. Kids definitely have a different schedule down here, none of them are going to bed at 8pm like at home.

We took a pic of the BK bottle :)

Wherever Bar-Santa Maria de Oro 2476
Tom and Jen went to Bahia Blanca for a couple days to visit Jen's pen pal from childhood that she still keeps in contact with. They wrote each other for 25 years and just met for the first time here in Argentina, crazy right!? We decided to continue the "going out after dark" streak alive and went to our language school for a meet up. We actually took a nap so we missed the language exchange part but we joined everyone after class and went to Wherever Bar for drinks. It's a very laid back, cozy, yet spacious bar that has a small menu of food and a large selection of drinks. We chose off the happy hour menu and I think our beers were like 12 pesos each. Im beginning to think it's cheaper to go out in this city than buy groceries and stay home.
After that we went to Plaza Serrano and picked one of the many many many bar/restaurant options for a hamburguesa completa, fries and a drink for 35 pesos each. One thing I'm absolutely taking back to the states with me is the fried egg on a hamburger. It's awesome.

Random Street Fair- Centro
Bill and I stumbled upon an Italian heritage festival somewhere int he center of the city on Saturday afternoon and got steak and sausage sandwiches.

Desnivel's- Defensa 855
Upon their return from Bahia Blanca on Sunday, we went to the San Telmo market for a little stroll. Bill and I had checked this market out before and thought they had some good souvenir stuff. I think Jen and Tom bought some small things, and we came across a really lively, loud and good street band. It was an all out dance party in the street with a few hundred people working up a sweat. We made our way down to Plaza Dorrego and had a drink while we watched some tango dancing, then went back down Defensa to Desnivel's. We got there at the height of dinner and things looked pretty busy. After some confusion caused by language barriers we were finally seated. Then there was comical confusion when ordering, specifically when I tried to ask what the pork was stuffed with, making a lewd hand gesture to try and drive home the point. All in all the food was good, what we got of it anyway. They were out of the stuffed pork and the ribs. Our blood sausage came out cold but the waiter immediately remedied the situation. I actually really liked this place. The atmosphere was super laid back which is how it should be when your gobbling up steak and downing cheap wine. The electricity went out for a hot minute during a torrential downpour and the restaurant erupted in cheers, prompting us to order another bottle because we didn't have an umbrella, and why not? They were cheap as shit, delicious, and it was early by BA standards, only a little after midnight. 2 weeks of Spanish class did come in handy at the end of our meal when i asked the waiter to please call us a cab, which he did with pleasure. Probably laughing at my Spanish the whole time.

Mmmmmmm blood sausage....

Cooking with Teresita- www.try2cook.com
We took a cooking class outside of the city in Adrouge. We took the Subte to the train and around an hour and 15 minutes later we were in a delightful suburb of BA. Teresita was great, her house was gorgeous, and we learned how to make a proper empanada which apparently we've been doing all wrong. While the filling was cooling in the fridge she cracked open some bottles of wine and we had a seat in her lovely garden sipping away and meeting the other people in the class. We stuffed our empanadas and baked half and fried the other half. When all was said and done there were mountains of corn and carne empanadas on the table with even more wine to help wash it down. I think I ate 5 before throwing in the towel. Bill was more ambitious, scarfing down 8 empanadas before declaring he was going to barf. We wandered around the town for a bit before getting back on the train home. I took a nap to help digest all the greasy fried carne goodness in my belly.

Plenty of wine was readily available

Stuffing our empanada shells

Finished product, ready to eat!

Bella Italia- Republica Arabe de Siria 3285
Jen had made dinner reservations at a parilla for that night but after we all awakened from our naps we started thinking that maybe we needed a break from the endless piles of asada. So we went to Bella Italia for pasta. There is a Bella Italia cafe caddy corner to the restaurant. It looked very busy in there but we went to the actual restaurant across the street. It was just what I needed after so much steak. The atmosphere was a little too romantic for a group but nice nonetheless, who doesn't like dim, soft lighting? The service was great, the pasta was great. We got raviolis and Tagliatelle to share which were delish. The risotto we shared was really rich and heavy, then the mixed seafood grill came out and by that time I was in pain. The empanadas, the pasta and the risotto were all making me actually look 5 months pregnant. But I ate some mixed grill and then......dun dun dahhhhhhhhh!!! Dulce de leche volcano appeared. It was a cake with the middle cut out and dulce de leche poured in.

The love of my life- Dulce de leche volcano

It was oozzing over the top. Ugh. I've never hated myself so much. I couldn't even walk home, I waddled. I haven't seriously exercised in almost 6 months. While on this trip I've lost a couple pounds here and there and gained a couple pounds as well, nothing too noticeable either way. What I have noticed is the complete loss of muscle mass that been replaced by jiggly stuff and I'm not happy about it. I'm also not going to get up and go jogging so the jiggly will have to stay until I get back to the gym in BK. I lamented to Bill that I seriously didn't want to eat like I did that day ever again. But of course we did. Those restaurants will have to wait until part 2.

Too be continued!!!

-Claire

¿Como es Buenos Aires?

It's easy to say you've fallen in love with a place. Travelers do it all the time, we have too. But this is a different kind of love, not the typical fantasy day dream produced by whirl wind traveling escapades, (see Vienna, Paris, etc) but true love. The better or worse kind where practicality and daily life supersedes romance. Not that romance is dead, but instead of  Palaces and the Eiffel Tower, you get date night in Palermo. Admittedly, the closest experience we've had to home yet.

Such a perspective is deepened when thinking of these neighborhoods as mash-ups of familiar places back home. Palermo is reminiscent of Park Slope and Forte Greene (there's actually a Palermo SoHo too) with designer boutiques, restaurants, cobblestones and remnant colonial charm. Puerto Madero blends Red Hook's revived waterfront look and feel with the restaurants and prices of the meat packing district; the cranes still stand, the steak is abundant and shit is expensive. There's even a China Town, which aside from Paris, is the only other we've encountered on our trip. We've made similar associative comparisons between home and our destinations before, but being a couple of Brooklyneers it's inevitable. Whether or not its true in this instance is questionable though as we're near the end of our trip and are greatly looking forward to going home. I could just have Brooklyn on the brain and see it everywhere.

For clarification, a Brooklynite is someone who is born, bred and lives in Brooklyn. A Brooklyneer is someone who has moved to Brooklyn and made it their home (think pioneer). A term coined by my friends father, Sgt Lynch of the NYPD, (retired) current resident of Bay Ridge. </shout out>

Running through these neighborhoods are an infinite number of Collectivos (busses), dozens alone going down Santa Fe, the nearest artery to our apartment. It runs for several kilometers straight into the heart of the city and is lined non stop with commerce. Most of the high end and chain stores are relegated to the malls, but every manner of mom and pop, boutique and local establishment can be found in this endless stretch of a shoppers paradise. Not the Barney's sample sale kind, but in it's own Buenos Aires way.

Like any city, there are numerous construction sites littered throughout the booming neighborhoods. Buenos Aires is a city on the upswing, it's construction sites are fully operational. We haven't passed a single stalled site that was so common back home.  Instead, we live adjacent to a site that has a daily grill going for the workers. Everyday, Around 10:30 in the morning, the smell wafts it's way into our apartment and reminds us that it's almost time to go to class. People build their own Bacon alarm clocks, but this is far safer and easier to manage. I  imagine that some clever Argentinian has seen the Bakon alarm clock and is now hidden away in his secret lab/BBQ working feverishly to create the Asada Alarm Clock. Did I say imagine? I meant hope. 

There are more parillas per square block than pizzerias in Brooklyn. Which is a good thing because the pizza here quite frankly sucks. Thankfully, Argentina eats more beef per capita than any other country in the world. We've eaten more steak this past month than we have in the past year. Any weight I lost in India has been healthily restored thanks to Argentinian steak and Beer. The latter of which, I know have an obsession which. The beer of choice here is Quilmes, my favorites being the red lager and the bock. Quilmes controls 75% of the market share and was founded by a German immigrant back in the 1800's (impressive beer credentials). They're real beers. Eastern European quality and taste. None of that piney, over hopped, over flavored micro brews that are so common in every bar in Brooklyn. I may not be able to find it when I get home, so I've been drinking a liter a day to get my fill. I'm not becoming an alcoholic, that's just the size of the bottles they come in.

Don't get me wrong, it's not all steak and beer in Buenos Aires. There's enough culinary options here to hold it's own with other big cities, but you'll always be known for what you do best. Here, it's steak, wine, empañadas, and dulce de leche. We've already taken to making empañadas at home and put dulce de leche on everything (except the empañadas). Though there are traditional empañada filling recipes, you can actaually put anything you want in them. We're even going to make banana and dulce de leche empañadas for breakfast tomorrow (ignore the last parantheses).

Before your think all we've done here is eat, we've actually spent hours walking around the city, have met numerous locals and Claire can even speak a little spanish now. What little we've met of the people and have read of it's history, it's easily apparent this is a city of survival. Life goes on in the face of adversity, a little hard to judge from our perspective of swanky shops and fine dining in Palermo, but you can see it lying just underneath the surface. The homeless encampments in the city squares are neither vagrant filled squatter slums, or smelly homeless enclaves you'd find tucked away in places like New York or London. It's not the slums of Delhi either. They appear full of people just trying to get by, but definitely steps above the aforementioned. On two separate occasions to date, we've seen make shift Asadas in progress. I guess when you're country has the highest per capita beef consumption rate in the world, even the homeless eat meat. Sad, but impressive at the same time.

Also sad and impressive is the life of Eva Perone. She came from a small town, became a famous star, married a powerful politician, empowered the impoverished (creating enemies by doing so) and was nominated for Vice President all by the age of 33 before she was stricken down by cancer. Then, her corpse was hidden for 17 years by the military after the Coup. Though it was later returned to her husband, it had been badly desecrated and eventually laid to rest in her families tomb. Her enduring popularity is ever present in the city. She's the only historical figure we've  seen prominently who isn't some old general, on a horse, pointing (we've lost count of these kinds of statues throughout the city). Given her unofficial title of "Spiritual leader of the People", it would be easy to draw comparisons between her and Gandhi. There are similarities in both the legacy of their work and their lasting endearment, but I've already written about Gandhi and wouldn't do her any justice. Gandhi defeated the British empire and her life was cut short, I'll leave the debate up to the historians. Sadly there's no good documentaries on iTunes and I would never endorse Madonna as an actress. However, if you need a floor filler remix while DJing a chelsea nightclub at 5am, that's another story altogether.

There are millions of stories this city has to tell. It would be impossible to recount all the ones we've created ourselves alone.  I've always heard that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America and I've made several allusions to NYC myself, but the truth is Buenos Aires is itself. Calling it anything else dilutes the brand so to speak. Why not just call it what it is? A grand metropolis, full of history, charm, struggles, and achievements.

And steak.



- Bill

*Editorial note: we learned today that the expression "Paris of the South" comes from the countries strong ties to France and subsidized immigration of French people to Argentina in the 1800's.

Cooking with Davide, Napoli Edition

It's purely coincidence that we have two friends living in Europe named David, but our Italian friend Dave sometimes spells it with an "e". It's a further coincidence that they're both really good cooks, but it is no coincidence that we captured their culinary prowess on video. Here now, is Cooking with Davide, Napoli edition:

Malaga- me gusta de espeto des sardines por favor!*

B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!!!


*no idea if this is correct Spanish

We arrived in Malaga on Sept 21st at 10am. We had been up since 4am so we were tired and I was cranky, in desperate need of coffee. We had tried to look up how to get from the airport to our hotel which was just outside the town and basically the info we found online was "take the train from the airport into the center of the city and there's a bus". To make a long story very short: getting lost, one argument and two hours later we were checking into the hotel Domus which was 15 minutes down the road from the town. If your ever in Malaga, stay there. It was gorgeous and clean and the staff was very nice. Complete 180 from Vienna.

Thus began four wonderfully lazy but happy days. We wanted to recharge our batteries for the upcoming trip to Tangier and India and that's exactly what we did. The beaches in Malaga certainly are not the most picturesque in the world, but they did have something that made bill salivate from the first second he saw it- sardines on a stick. There were a string of restaurants that serve lunch along the stretch of beach we were staying on, and outside each one was a little shack with a row boat filled with sand. On top of the sand was a fire, and stuck in the sand over the fire were sticks with sardines on them. All bill wanted to do in Ibiza was catch a sardine and grill it over a fire in the sand. He was awestruck. And while we were eating our supermarket lunch of bread and cheese next to one of these shacks, a very salty sea captain looking man in a sailors cap came up and starting grilling and entire huge fish on one of the sticks. We decided we had to have these "espeto des sardines" and that's exactly what we did the very next day for lunch.

The town of Malaga is very boastful about being the birthplace of Picasso. You can take a walking tour of Picasso landmarks and visit the Picasso museum, neither of which bill and I did. We have visited so many museums, seen so much art, roman ruins, statues, churches, etc that we needed a break. Besides, we went to the Picasso museum in Barcelona a couple of years ago and I'm sure it was more of the same. I know, we are terrible former art students.
Malaga is a town that truly feels old world. I would not have been surprised if a Spanish conquistador came strolling out from one of the many tiny alleyways that zig zag through the town. The architecture beautiful and grand, a mix of roman (of course) remains and large stone and marble buildings dating back to the middle ages.

The foliage is lush and decadent. Enormous palm trees line every street, along with banana, lime and orange trees growing wild in every space not covered in stone. Bright green parrots live in the trees and peck at the fruit, causing the fruit to fall on the sidewalk below. I almost got knocked out eating my breakfast one morning. We caught the very tail end of the summer season so people were pleasantly scarce during our stay. As we were strolling along the beach one day, looking out over the sea and across to the port, I commented that I felt like we were in a strange paradise on the very edge of the earth. We were preparing for a trip to Tangier, which I'm not going to lie was scaring the bejeezuz out of me, and every time I looked at the horizon I felt like I was looking out at the unknown beyond. Maybe this is how sailors felt before they knew the earth was round? People in ancient times believed the rock of Gibraltar, and it's sister on the African side which formed the pillars of Hercules, were the gates to the end of the known world. We did end up visiting Gibraltar on our way to Tangier but that's a post of it's own....
We visited the castle in Malaga, ate some wild limes from the trees in the cathedral garden (shhhhh.....im pretty sure that was def against cathedral rules) The last day we were there we rented bikes and rode around the entire town, stopping along the way to by bus tickets to La Linea de la Conception, took a picture of the Malageta sign, and strolled through the local market admiring the fresh fish, meat and vegetables. We settled on plates of chorizo and manchengo which we ate in the central garden.

If your looking for a very slow, relaxing vaca in Europe the Costa Del Sol is absolutely the way to go.

-Claire

Cooking with Dave Stephens

Not as funny as My Drunk Kitchen and a little longer, but we manage to crack ourselves up anyway...