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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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?

* * *

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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More Buenos Aires ... and tapas!

Everywhere you go in you see these. These are what you put your trash in for collection, supposedly every day. Why put your trash in a basket on a pole? To keep it away from marauding gangs of dogs. Though I have not seen roaming dogs in the city so much, but in the country lots. 

And for those times when you have something really important in the trunk of your car.

* * *

It was Ian's birthday, so we ate at this tapas place called A Manger in Palermo which was just wonderful. All kinds of delicious looking treats lay in bowls of oil: beef, smoked trout, anchovies, a variety of olives, sund-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, salamis, cheeses ... seemingly an endless choice. You just wander round and point at things and the waitress memorizes everything you said, then brings it all out in little wooden bowls together with bread and you dig in.

I have a few photos below that I grabbed from their FB page as what they have looks infinitely better than the grainy snaps from my old iPhone 3GS (my travelling phone that I would not be devastated if I lost.)

Spaghetti sauce - again

Making a good spaghetti sauce is something everyone should be able to do. And there are an awful lot of great ones out there that are quick and easy to do; one of my favourites being garlic and olive oil which can be done in about three minutes. However, for most people when you say spaghetti sauce, they automatically going to think of meat sauce, or Bolognese. And here is where is gets difficult because there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of variations.

I have read quite a  lot  on the subject, and I have found out  several factors that run through most of the recipes - a kind of  common thread if you will.

1/ It takes a while. Plan on 3-4 hours. Yes,  I have done a few that have been ready to eat in an hour  or  less, but you will end up sacrificing that depth and layering of flavour that long cooking gives you. The sauce will be fine, don't get me wrong, but there is no substitute for long and slow cooking.

2/ Umami  - and lots of it.

OK so I lied. There are just two.

The following is pretty much my default recipe for Bolognese sauce - feel free to add/subtract/change it in any way.

You are going to start with about 4-5 slices of bacon, or pancetta, diced, plus one finely diced onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. Actually, while you are at it finely dice another onion and some more garlic and set it aside. Do the same with a large stalk of celery and a medium carrot (you can grate the carrot if you like).

In a hot saucepan with some olive oil, add your bacon or pancetta and brown. Then in go the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook on medium-high heat till the onion starts to change colour, then add your ground meat - about 1 1/2 - 2 lbs. You can use ground beef, or a beef/veal mix, or any ground meat I suppose. I like a somewhat fatty mix - not the extra lean stuff. If I am being really serious I buy the meat whole and grind it myself.

The meat is now browning nicely, and so to this you are going to add around 1/4 or 1/2 bottle of white wine. This you are going to keep on high heat until it is almost all gone, then add a whole can (16 oz) of diced Roma tomatoes. Here you can add seasoning: salt, pepper and a couple of bay leaves are a must, oregano or basil are good too at this point. Dried is fine as it is going to cook for a while. Once it is bubbling, turn the heat right down and put a lid on it. This is going to keep going for around an hour or so. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't stick.

After an hour, take off the lid so the liquid begins to reduce. You want to end up with a reasonably dry mixture.

In a separate pan with hot oil add your remaining onion and garlic. Take another whole can of tomatoes and strain off all the liquid. Once the onions are brown, add your strained tomatoes and turn the heat down and add seasoning - salt and pepper. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of ketchup and a tablespoon worcestershire sauce. A bay leaf or two is nice. This will cook slowly for another hour.

While this is happening, watch the meat carefully, adding liquid (wine or water) if it gets too dry and sticks. Do the same with the tomatoes but add olive oil.

At the end of the hour, add enough olive oil to the tomatoes so it just covers, and then raise the heat. You want it bubbling. Fry the tomato for about five minutes, then strain the oil.

Add the tomato to the meat and combine, keeping the heat low. Here you can add a little of the tomato juice you strained off. This will go for another 30 minutes or so.

Taste and adjust seasoning and you are good to go. If I have fresh basil I add it at this point just to refresh it. It will stir in and disappear quickly.

Spoon over pasta, sprinkle with parmesan and serve. If you have done it right it should look something like this:

El Desnivel and San Telmo

Sunday, we headed into town, dropped off the car and took the Subte into the centre and from there a  short taxi ride to the legendary parrilla El Desnivel, so called because it has two levels - an upstairs and a downstairs. It is also right on the edge of the San Telmo craft and antique market. 

Unfortunately, there are no pictures as having planned to bring my phone out to get a SIM card, I somehow managed to forget it at the last minute. I did manage to bring a long sleeve shirt out with me which was a great move as later in the day the clouds rolled over and it became fairly chilly. I also succeeded in getting some local funds so at last I had some pesos in my pocket.

The restaurant was bustling but we managed to find a table upstairs. The San Felipe and soda arrived quickly and we settled down to survey the menu. This time we were determined to avoid the fries and get a salad.

I remembered the chorizo and morcilla from yesterday was very tasty so made sure we got some of that. For the main meat we went for a lomo, or tenderloin. It weighed in at P 75 or less than $ 20 but it turned out to be at least as big as my hand and around an inch and a half thick. We asked for it medium rare and it was, though to be honest the outside was closer to medium, but by the time you got half way in it was nice and bloody which meant it was still moist and soft. It was probably the best piece of tenderloin I have had in a long time, if not ever. It also had the benefit of leaving a huge puddle of delicious juices just begging to be mopped up.

Dessert came, somewhat unnecessarily. The same as the previous day - a flan mixto - which is a very tasty eggy flan topped with a caramel sauce and Chantilly cream and most likely scrapes in at around 1000 calories.

A couple of coffees with a generous splash of Reserva San Juan - an Argentine brandy - and off we went into the market. The bill came in at under P 200 but that was mostly due to the tenderloin.

* * * 

The San Telmo Sunday market was a varied craft and antique market, though you cannot be 100% sure about some of the antiques. They did have an awful lot of lovely glassware plus some very interesting antique soda bottles, as well as various leather crafts, incense, and some street performers including a street musician who did some close-up magic in slow motion that - just when you thought you had managed to figure out what he was doing - ended up completely baffling you.

The bus back home was scheduled to leave around 7 so we dropped in to another bar/teahouse where I had a jarrito, which is a size somewhere between a single and double espresso, plus a pastry with quince jam inside.

* * *

I still haven't made up my mind about this place. So far there has been nothing that has made me go "wow!" or make me think I could spend much time here at all. It has a feeling of decay and drabness about it. The people do seem happy and friendly though - at least the ones that I have seen and met. Ian informs me the inflation rate is quite high, much higher that the official rate, so he stocks up on things like shampoo as he knows it will be much more expensive in a couple of months. Apart from that, I have been kind of surprised as how not cheap a lot of things are. I imagined .. well I am not sure what I imagined. We are planning a trip to a town about six hours' drive so perhaps I will get a better idea then of what things are like away from Buenos Aires which is home to a third of Argentina's population. We shall see.

* * * 

Parrillas and pulperías

On my first full day in Buenos Aires, my friend Ian was determined to give me as traditional a time as possible. Of course, this meant finding somewhere to eat so we piled in the car and set off for the little town of Mercedes, about an hour or so from where I am staying in Ituzaingo, which is already 45 minutes from Buenos Aires itself.

As we got into town, Ian started looking for an old guy to ask where the best parrilla was. A parrilla meaning a grill, so it is a place where all the food is barbecued. A few circles round the small town and we found one.

The place had about a dozen or so tables, and it was about half full. A few empty metal plates with  some meaty remnants on lay on an adjacent table. I was already hungry.

I left the ordering up to Ian. We each got a small bottle of local wine, San Felipe which you drink mixed with soda. On its own the wine is not too bad, but the soda does cut some of the harshness and makes a slightly more refreshing drink out of it. The wine arrived with a plate of pickles - aubgergines, peppers, carrots (I think) and onions. 

Next up was a pile of fries "provencal" also very traditional which came with a sprinkling of garlic and parsley.

Finally, what we had been waiting for. The meat. It came with two big ribs with chunks of meat on - called tiro de asado. Then a big chunk of flank complete with a layering of fat and skin, called vacio. Completing the meaty feast were two big sausages - a chorizo and a morcilla, or blood sausage. The chorizo and the vacio were my favourites - the vacio looked like it would be fairly tough but was perfectly done, the inch thick flank just fell apart and you just had this wonderful layering of smoky grilled flavour and fat. Definite win! 

It was all delicious and far to much for the two of us, though Ian assured me this was quite normal for Argentina. We did order a salad but I suppose the waiter either didn't hear us or assumed we were joking.

I apologize for the somewhat blurry picture, I can only assume the meat was making my hand shake.

Dessert also arrived. I am not even sure why we ordered it. We got another bottle of San Felipe to share, a couple of coffees and we staggered out into the late afternoon sun. The total cost was around P 250, or $ 50. 

* * * 

We decided to make our way right away to the pulperia  which roughly translates as a general store. This is what is was since the 1850s when it opened, serving the local gauchos. For most of the 20th century it was owned by one Roberto "Cacho" Di Caterina, and thus it became known as Cacho's pulperia. The place mentions a few times that he was the last pulpero, and now that he is dead I suppose there are no more, though his granddaughter and her husband seem to be running the place so I am not quite sure how that works. 

We went in and sat down. In the centre of the room were a couple of old guitarreros, and another one stadning up with a drum that had an animal (cow) skin on that muffled the sound. 

We stayed at the bar for quite a while surveying the wines and spirits on offer.

We decided more wine was out of the quesiton, so settled on a Legui which is a sweet burnt liqueur made from rum, sugar and herbal tea. As you can see from the picture, they have a lot of salamis hanging up and as Mercedes is famous for its salamis and peaches, I couldn't resist. The Leguis were going down very nicely, so the board of cold cuts came out at a very welcome time: the salami, a cured ham and some local cheese - fontina I believe - plus some bread. By the time we left sometimes in the evening, we had had ten Leguis, plus the cold cuts, for a total of P 150, or $ 30. 

This is the corner of the bar where the bottles and indeed the whole corner itself have remained untouched for a century.

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