Argentina: Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the best. I luvit, luvit, luvit and wish we had more time here. The city is quite european with beautiful architecture and big friendly, happy meat loving Argentinians(the average argentine eats 60kgs of meat a year) who don´t make fun of our spanish. It feels so much more relaxed than crazy Brazil and better still it´s a lot cheaper and the shopping is fantastic!
We´ve been staying in Recoleta, a fancy part of town, which is great cos it´s a lot quieter than downtown. Our hotel has moved us into a different room every night but we don´t mind as it´s a great little place and also very cheap. Everything can be reached quite easily by foot or just a quick 5 peso taxi ride away. Although, our first taxi ride from the bus station was a treat involving an (unrequested) tour around the city plus our first counterfeit note! Cost: 30 pesos for what was only meant to be a 5 peso ride! Very funny. (We have been trying to pass the note but feel very guilty about it so we are keeping it as a souveneir).
Loved all parts of the city, including Palermo, San Telmo and La Boca (although La Boca is very touristy). Senor dave is now a professional tango dancer after our night out at Bar Sur, an intimate bar in San Telmo with about 10 little tables and great tango dancers complete with harpsichord, guitar, piano and a wrinkly old singer with a soulful voice. Tango is so passionate and serious, just the perfect thing for senor dave.
Apart from all the major sites around the city, I loved seeing Casa Rosada where Evita Peron (and famous others)stood on the balcony spurring on the nation as well as the famous Recoleta cemetary where she (and famous others) was buried. Also loved the Teatro Colon which would´ve been even better if their performance season began earlier. However, as much as Dave and I dislike group tours, we joined one to have a peek around the inside of the theatre. Fortunately, we lost the group and ran around ourselves so had a brilliant time watching an orchestra rehearse, then saw a couple of ballet dancers rehearse (one of them was a famous ballet dancer) in a studio, and then found an empty studio complete with a concert grand steinway (!!!!!!!) and had a tinkle. It was fab.
I also LOVE argentine beef. They consume copious amounts of the stuff over here and it is soooooo good. I think we have consumed the same amount the average argentine eats in a year in a week!
What I love about Argentine cuisine:
1. Dulce de leite is delicious and is slapped on almost everything. It´s like caramel but milkier and creamier (Jan would love it).
2. My favourite torta consists of a chocolate base, a layer of dulce de leite and a layer of meringue.
3. Alfajores from Havanna, or handmade from specialty chocolate artisans!! 2 shortbread biscuits with dulce de leite in the middle which is all covered in chocolate.
4. The argentinian asado (bbq) and parilla and the huge variety of cuts.
5. The helados (icecream)are fantastic.
6. A big slab of bife de chorizo is fantastic with chumichurri, a marinade made of parsley, loads of garlic, salt and olive oil.
An observation:
Everyone kisses everyone. Strangers meeting for the first time, men greeting other men folk. It´s fantastic although Dave finds it a little unnerving.
We´ve been staying in Recoleta, a fancy part of town, which is great cos it´s a lot quieter than downtown. Our hotel has moved us into a different room every night but we don´t mind as it´s a great little place and also very cheap. Everything can be reached quite easily by foot or just a quick 5 peso taxi ride away. Although, our first taxi ride from the bus station was a treat involving an (unrequested) tour around the city plus our first counterfeit note! Cost: 30 pesos for what was only meant to be a 5 peso ride! Very funny. (We have been trying to pass the note but feel very guilty about it so we are keeping it as a souveneir).
Loved all parts of the city, including Palermo, San Telmo and La Boca (although La Boca is very touristy). Senor dave is now a professional tango dancer after our night out at Bar Sur, an intimate bar in San Telmo with about 10 little tables and great tango dancers complete with harpsichord, guitar, piano and a wrinkly old singer with a soulful voice. Tango is so passionate and serious, just the perfect thing for senor dave.
Apart from all the major sites around the city, I loved seeing Casa Rosada where Evita Peron (and famous others)stood on the balcony spurring on the nation as well as the famous Recoleta cemetary where she (and famous others) was buried. Also loved the Teatro Colon which would´ve been even better if their performance season began earlier. However, as much as Dave and I dislike group tours, we joined one to have a peek around the inside of the theatre. Fortunately, we lost the group and ran around ourselves so had a brilliant time watching an orchestra rehearse, then saw a couple of ballet dancers rehearse (one of them was a famous ballet dancer) in a studio, and then found an empty studio complete with a concert grand steinway (!!!!!!!) and had a tinkle. It was fab.
I also LOVE argentine beef. They consume copious amounts of the stuff over here and it is soooooo good. I think we have consumed the same amount the average argentine eats in a year in a week!
What I love about Argentine cuisine:
1. Dulce de leite is delicious and is slapped on almost everything. It´s like caramel but milkier and creamier (Jan would love it).
2. My favourite torta consists of a chocolate base, a layer of dulce de leite and a layer of meringue.
3. Alfajores from Havanna, or handmade from specialty chocolate artisans!! 2 shortbread biscuits with dulce de leite in the middle which is all covered in chocolate.
4. The argentinian asado (bbq) and parilla and the huge variety of cuts.
5. The helados (icecream)are fantastic.
6. A big slab of bife de chorizo is fantastic with chumichurri, a marinade made of parsley, loads of garlic, salt and olive oil.
An observation:
Everyone kisses everyone. Strangers meeting for the first time, men greeting other men folk. It´s fantastic although Dave finds it a little unnerving.
posted by W at 9:49 am
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