Kale

I find kale a little daunting sometimes. When it is big and old and leafy it's just not worth the effort. But when it's young, you can treat it much as you would any other vegetable. With that in mind, I bought a large bunch the other day at the 19th Avenue Farmer's Market on Woodbine and 19th, along with some onions, apples, plums, peaches and a basket of sweet cherry peppers that I am still deciding what to do with. More on those later though.

This morning, I was going to make some salmon for Serena's lunch, but realized I didn't have any around. There came a brief thought of just handing her $ 10 and letting her buy her own, the kind of thought that comes by frequently when it is 7:30 in the morning. But I pushed it aside and remembered the kale.

First, I deveined and finely shredded a few leaves, wilted it in a pan and then added it to a fine clear chicken soup with carrot I had made the day before.

Next, I did the same with a couple more leaves, diced a tomato and minced a garlic clove. As a portion of penne was nearly done, I tossed the kale in some olive oil, added the garlic, salt and pepper. Into that went the tomato and simmered on a medium heat till they started to break down.

At that point, the pasta was almost done, so I drained it and added to the kale/tomato. Tossing it in the hot sauce would cook it the rest of the way, though I still wanted it a little undercooked as it was for lunch - as it would keep cooking in the thermos. I added a little pasta water and olive oil to make more of a sauce.

Finally, in with a few cubes of feta and it's done.

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I still had a good couple of handsful of kale left, even after my attempt to get Serena to eat it all this morning, so I decided to use more of it for lunch.

The salmon I was going to make this morning had defrosted (I usually buy large pieces, cut it up into single portions, vacuum seal it and freeze it). That was easy - salt, pepper and a nice hot pan, deglazed at the very end with a splash of lemon juice.

The kale - I deveined it and tore it into rough pieces and followed much the same procedure as this morning except there was no pasta and it became just a vegetable dish. I also splashed in some balsamic right at the end.

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Relaunch!

Hello everyone. You might have noticed I took a short break in between posts. About a year to be precise. That doesn't mean I stopped making and eating and thinking about food - far from it. But I felt things were getting repetitive - after all you can't eat something new every day which is what I thought a food blog was supposed to be. 

Clearly it's not, but even so I don't know how professional bloggers do it. Most of my time each day is taken up with wife, dogs, children, some time for me, errands, wife (yes I know she is in there twice .. love you honey!), stressing about piles of junk in the garage and not doing anything about it, planning things and then seeing the plans go awry at the last minute (case in point - I was going to mow the lawn today but as I sat down to write it began to pour down), travel, work ... and so on. Who has time after all that to research new recipes, visit new restaurants and supermarkets, revisit and rework old recipes - you don't just make something once and then cross it off the list. There is always some improvement you can make and I'd say you would try a dish at least a dozen times before you can safely say it's done. Then again, that may just be me, but I'd be very disappointed to find out that any of the sites I read engage in anything less than scrupulous testing and re-testing.

So, here we are looking ahead. I do have quite a few new things to write about: I have got a dry rub mix I really like for barbecues, as well as a very tasty sauce that goes well with ribs; I've been playing with pork belly a fair bit, and venturing out more into the world of desserts - not having a sweet tooth makes desserts drop all the way to the bottom of the list of interesting things to try. having said that, I found a chocolate cake that has turned out really well each time I tried it - courtesy of smitten kitchen. I've also been dipping into Gordon Ramsay's playbook from time to time and been very happy with the results.

What else? Well, we got a new dog, making three in total. His name is Charlie Brown, he is a chocolate brown toy poodle and he is 8 months old. I'll post one or two pictures of him later.

So until next time. 

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Last day in Buenos Aires ... and taps!

My last day I took it easy. Woke up and went for a long walk round San Telmo, all the way down Defensa till I found a small cafe - the Cafe Continental - where I had a cafe con leche and an empanada. Alright, two empanadas. The waitress explained that they were just being made and I'd have to wait ten minutes. Actually, I didn't understand anything she said except 'ten minutes', so I just pieced together the rest. Spanish is easy!

After my coffee and empanada desayuno (breakfast), I walked some more and found the San Telmo permanent antique market. Sundays, it is all spread out around the square and the surrounding streets, but the rest of the time it's indoors. Made a few purchases and then wandered back to the hotel, stopping off at the supermercado Carrefour, where I naturally picked up a few things.

Lunch was with Ian and his Argentinian friend Rod at a place in San Telmo named El Gijon. The proprietor of the place, seeing Ian and I were new, promptly gave us a very nice business card-sized calendar with his logo and restaurant name and address on the front. And on the back - a completely naked woman. I seem to have lost mine so I can't put the picture up, but even if I hadn't I couldn't anyway. Not without lots of pixelling.

The food itself was very good - deep fried squid followed battered hake, mashed potatoes and a mixed salad, meaning this was the only meal I had had up till then that didn't involve red meat.

Ian had to leave around four, so Rod and I chatted over coffees for another hour, then I went off to buy some CDs at Zivals, on Corrientes and Callao. Walked back to the hotel where I took a brief siesta before going out to dinner at Hola Luis in Colegiales. Hola Luis is an Armenian restaurant that has been around for a while and one that was a welcome change from all the grilled meat I had been having. I did knock back another half bottle of red after two days of abstinence. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the food as it came and was eaten so fast.

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The taps I have come across here are pretty strange. Both of them - the hot and cold - go from closed to fully open in about a quarter turn. This is great because you can turn them on and off really quickly, but not so great because the hot water is insanely hot - and I mean skin-blisteringly hot - so you have to make hundreds and hundreds of tiny adjustments to get a bearable temperature shower. It may be that I came across the only two places like that and everyone is reading this going "huh?". But I don't think so.

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In which I take a tour

I went and did a very touristy thing, which was to take a tour.Surprisingly, it wasn't a complete disaster. We met out tour guide, a Brit named Jonathan, at the Plaza Italia next to Garibaldi's statue which is now covered with graffiti and cats.

He gave us a brief historical rundown of the area, and then explained how to take a bus, how to FIND the right bus, and how to work out where it is going. What he didn't mention was that it is quite common in Buenos Aires for there to be no street signs so working out where to get off the bus was not really explained. All buses are P 2 so it is a good idea to bring lots of change.

We took the 29 to Abasto to see the house where Carlos Gardel lived. Gardel was an enormous star and huge figure in the world of tango of the 20s who died in a plane crash at a relatively young age (forty-something - I am too lazy to look it up but I have linked to his wikipedia page here so you can). I was taken to see his grave earlier in the trip before I had any idea who he was (see pic below). Tradition states that his statue must always have a lit cigarette between his fingers, though I imagine most of the time he has to make do with just a cigarette, lit or not or even a burnt out stub.

The whole area round his house has lots of murals and memorials, including several good examples of filete, which is a sort of street sign art.

I liked this piece of graffiti.

From there we walked to the huge Abasto mall. It used to be THE market serving the whole of Buenos Aires, lay empty for 15 years and then was redeveloped. Apparently there is some law pertaining to buildings that are empty for 15 years ...

Fairly typical food court style food. They do have the world's only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel - I guess thanks to the large Jewish population of Abasto.

I got myself a cortado (an espresso with little hot milk) jarrito (which is a size between a single and a double). I just like saying "jarrrrrito."

Next, another bus ride to the ... I forget where. Oh right, the national congress. More historical stuff here and interesting bits of trivia.

Then a subway ride to the Plaza De Mayo, which luckily for me was five minutes' walk from my hotel on Yrigoyen and Peru. More pics, including the Pink House and Evita's balcony, then back to the hotel.

I am not usually the tour-joining type but this strikes me as the kind that is immensely useful if you have just arrived in Buenos Aires. Jonathan takes you to a few important places you might not otherwise have seen, plus teaches you how to get around on public transport, which I am sure no one teaches you. Oh, and did I mention the tour was free?

His website is here - so if you ever find yourself in the city for a few days, join up!

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Sunday football

Ian is a Liverpool supporter, so this has been a pretty good trip for me, seeing them fail at almost every step. He had planned to get up early to go to the local bar to watch the Liverpool-Man United game but didn't make it. Just as well in the end. We did get in to watch the second game - an industrious looking Arsenal against quite a dull and frankly fragile Man City team. Fortunately Arsenal salvaged a point late on as Man City were thoroughly undeserving of anything better than a draw.

We settled in to Sunday lunch. Of course, we were an hour earlier than anyone else, but by the time we left the place was completely full. Again, it was a typical parrilla meal with the usual chorizo and morcilla, plus the addition of provoleta, which is something I had before but forgot to mention. It is a very Argentine speciality and is basically grilled provolone cheese with (I believe) oregano and olive oil, and possibly something else. I am not sure if it isn't a little harder than regular provolone but as it is cut into slices around 1/2 and inch thick and grilled it is a little hard to tell. Anyway, it is delicious!

Pickled eggplant again. I must find out how to make this when I get back!

The provoleta comes off in a big round like this. You can see it here too with my sausages and a sort of salsa plus the chimichurri. Going to do this one too for sure! The chorizo was delicious. The morcilla was very tasty too, but I have not had any as good as the first day here in Mercedes. I am now wondering how many sausages I can smuggle back in to the country. Then again, having 'sausage smuggler' on my permanent record doesn't sound too appealing does it?

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Dogs in Melincué

Dogs are seen pretty much everywhere here, and most of them just roam around free. Many of the houses I walked by had two or three in the garden, and at least another one on the street. None of them are in the least bit aggressive - I guess you don't survive long as a street dog amongst humans if you are all territorial and growl all the time. It seems that someone introduced greyhounds here at one time as I managed to catch sight of half a dozen or more roaming around.

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Touring Melincué

In the middle of Melincué is a lagoon. Lagoon might not be the right term for it - it is actually a huge lake - and in the middle of the lagoon is an old hotel. In its heyday it was a hugely popular destination, everyone swam there, popular singers and groups performed there - it must have been a great place to go. However, thirty years or so ago, the lake flooded, completely engulfing the hotel as well as parts of the town. By the time the floodwaters receded years later, the hotel was gone.

It is about a 20 minute walk out to the hotel. The weather was warm but fairly blustery, so by the time we got back to the car we were quite hungry, so we dropped in to Esther's for lunch. 

Esther's is a local haunt that does a very nice cannelloni with a cheesy tomato sauce. The cannelloni is actually a sort of pancake and the filling is very tasty and light. You get a fried (meat) empanada for starters which is really tasty too, filled with meat and carmelized onions and a few raisins. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a shot of the cannelloni, but the ravioli depicted here are somewhat similar, though having tried both the cannelloni are the ones to go for. It also comes with a small plate of meat, just in case you haven't had enough meat for the day.

I am discovering more about Argentine cuisine. They certainly like their meat. I have not seen a lot of vegetables though, but salads make an appearance quite frequently. The desserts are all very heavy and creamy and fattening, and of course wine is ever present. To be honest, without really researching it in any way, I had assumed it would be a sort of vibrant, lively mix of European (Spanish) and Mexican but is turns out to be quite a conservative cuisine. The most challenging flavour is the chimichurri sauce and even that is, well,  a little bland. You see evidence of this conservatism in the supermarkets, which show quite a lack of variety. Coriander, for example, the world's most dominant herb that grows practically everywhere, is hard to find. Now, I have not been to a great variety of restaurants, but what I have been eating is pretty standard everyday food.

After lunch, we wandered round the town a bit. The centre is not huge, maybe a few square blocks, with a gas station, a couple of bars, a few shops, a bank, a post office, and a kiosco which is a sort of local general store. Add in a jail and the police station and that is about it. None of the buildings are above two stories high.

This is something I see everywhere. There are very few actual corners to buildings here. Instead they slice it off at a 45 degree angle and have a door there. Nice use of space!

We ended up down at the old disused railway station. The trains don't run through Melincué any more, though the big grain silos down by the station are still operational, and they are the only signs as to how money is made here.

This is the women's restroom (I presume). I peered in through the window which seemed slightly less dusty than the others, and saw there was someone actually living there.

* * *

Around nine, we started to think about dinner. The hotel Ruca Malén offers a parrillada, which is a sort of non-stop parrilla. This weighs in at P 80 per head, including wine/beer/soft drinks. The house wine was a bit rough so we chipped in an extra P 10 each for a more decent brew.  

First out was the filambres which is a cold cuts and cheese plate, then a selection of sweetbreads - namely some liver, some tripe, as well as the ever-present chorizo and morcilla. [Interesting note here, in Argentine Spanish the 'll' is pronounced 'sh' ... so it is 'morcissha' or 'parrisha']. Next up was a plate of fries and a mixed salad - a 'mixto' - that is a very typical salad of lettuce, tomato and raw onions, followed by the next item on the parrillada: the vacio - two big chunks. After that, we were pretty full, so we grabbed a couple of coffees, finished our wines and wandered out.

* * *

Rather full, we walked up into town to one of the two bars. One is a very clean, almost upmarket bar. The other is a typical spit-and-sawdust bar. Naturally, that was the one we went in to.

They were just in the middle of setting up for the band, whose name I didn't get but turned out to be a heavy metal band. The band were just a three piece: drums, bass and guitar, with a vocalist. No one really made any effort to dress up, so they just looked like guys from the bar. Their set was supposed to start at 1 am, so we hung around through their soundcheck when they ran a couple of numbers. 

Satisfied that we didn't really want to sit around for the actual gig, we chatted with our table of guys, one of whom turned out to be the mayor and told us how, because the election was tied, they tossed a coin and he won.  How many times do you sit in a seedy bar at 1 am drinking with the mayor? Not often I bet.  

We decided to head back to the hotel, but instead dropped into the other bar for a nightcap, after which we really definitely positively decided to go back to the hotel. However, I remembered we had still to visit the casino, and it being only ten minutes' walk, it seeemed a good idea. 

The casino was just absolutley packed. I have no idea where they all came from, though I assume they are the kind of people who used to come for the hotel and lagoon fun. we stayed long enough to find one slot machine free, so I played P 50 and won $ 0.30. We wanderered back to the hotel - finally - where I slept till 8:30 so I could get up in time to follow the football on the bbc site in my phone. Just text updates, but well worth it!

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Note: Sorry for any typos but blogging on the ipad is just horrible. This site, hosted by blogger.com is a nightmare to use. I can no longer upload photos direct, but I have to go through the stupid Google+ or use their "Instant Upload" feature. What if I don't want everything uploaded instantly? Ever thought about that?

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