Ever since I got home from my travels in December, I’ve been itching for more! The job search began, and when it started, I immediately felt like if I didn’t travel some more before going back to work I would regret it…thus 2 weeks in Buenos Aires was born.

I left Monday morning after a hike with my brother to the Hollywood sign and am writing to you from my apartment in Hollywood…Palermo Hollywood, that is, my neighborhood in BA.

In a day in a half I’m already off to a great start. And trust me, you’re going to be pleased when I start posting the Argentine fashions later on this week. I’ve already got my eye on a few trends that I must say have me a little perplexed!

My first night in town I decided I had to go with a traditional dinner. There’s a Parrilla (which translates to grill) that I’d heard was decent in my neighborhood, Miranda, so I walked in at 10pm or so and sat at the bar. Coincidentally I found myself next to 3 girls from America who went to the University of Michigan like I did. I ordered a glass of Malbec, the popular Ojo de Bife (read:Rib Eye), which came with a delicious chimichurri (very different from the green chimichurris I’ve had at Argentine restaurants in LA), an egg cooked in a roasted red bell pepper, and some crispy potatoes. I’m not going to lie, I’m not a huge steak person in general so I’m curious if the more I eat here the more I’ll be able to discern one from the next…I guess we’ll see. I will say, however, anything would taste great dipped in this chimichurri sauce. And the egg inside the pepper which I was curious about was a pleasant surprise! Seeing as it was my first night in BA, I felt like dessert was in order…something of the Dulce de Leche variety…so I got a crepe. My waiter wasn’t kidding when he said this was a rich dish. I probably only ate a quarter of the actual dulce de leche that was inside the crepe and it was still fantastically rich – you can see in the last photo how much of it I left on the plate!

 

For my first full day in BA I decided to start in the center of town where all of the government buildings are. I took the subway to Plaza Mayor, where at one end there is the Casa Rosada (translated as The Pink House – their White House, and where Evita famously addressed her people from the balcony).  The amazing thing about this is that it’s located just at the end of a major Plaza where people pass through, congregate on the grass, hold protests, etc.

 

Also off the Plaza Mayor are the Cathedral Metropolitana, the beautiful Banco de la Nacion Argentina, which is stunning inside but unfortunately photos aren’t allowed.

   

From the Plaza I walked towards the widest avenue in the world, Avenue 9 de Julio, which also houses the Obelisco, a landmark which commemorates the founding of the city, and which kept popping into sight wherever I was in this area of town.

  

My last stop for the day was at Teatro Colon – the opera house, considered to be one of the top 5 in the world. In order to peak inside you must take a tour. The theater is much larger than expected, and the acoustics are pretty great – one of the tour guides sang an aria for us so that we could experience it the right way…wow! The theater is still working today, staging not only opera but ballet and other musical concerts, but unfortunately they are dark in February…I guess I’ll just have to come back another time!

 

        

That was the end of my day, but dinner was not too far away. I was trying the first of many “closed-door” restaurants that I’ll be going to while here. This is a big trend in the city, where basically restaurants are created in people’s homes. Sometimes it has a restaurant feel and other times it is one communal table for all of the guests that night. iLatina was first up. I arrived, rang the bell and was greeted by a man wearing what looked like a Liberty of London uniform, and from there the night of Latin American food and influences began.

  

I talked to some other Americans at other tables and even ended up spending the second half of the meal eating with another lone diner at the table across from mine.

But let’s get to the important stuff, the food:

White corn aniseseed arepa with spicy avocado mousse and chicharron + Banana chip with hogao (a Colombian tomato and onion sauce) and goat cheese.

Bread board – banana bread, chipa (delicious! made with yucca flour and cheese), coconut bread, focaccia and cacao bread + lime and pepper flavored butter

Blue corn tortilla with beef-cheek mole and Mezcal marinated red onions  

Caramelized Prawns  with spicy pineapple and fennel

Ceviche with whitefish, lychee, coconut, roasted Peruvian corn, accompanied by butternut squash and green mango. After eating the ceviche with the butternut squash you then drink the remaining juice, or leche de tigre, and then finish it off with the spoonful of green mango on the left. Best dish of the night (and worst photo)!

Seafood soup with grilled octopus

 

Braised pork in reduction of Colombian coffee and sugarcane

Palette Cleanser – Mojito-flavored ice cream or sorbet

Ecuadorian cacao truffle with sea salt and olive oil

Avocado and Aguardiente ice cream with cinnamon popcorn.

Colombian Coffee with cinnamon and cardamom, as well as delicious petit fours – dulce de leche, lavendar, cacao, and a citrus jelly.

There was not one misstep in this meal, and the best part was that it probably cost less than half of what it would in the States! From dinner it was off to a bar, to do as the Argentines do. Getting a late start today as a result of the late night, but hey that seems to be the way they do around here :).

More tomorrow…