relax, take a load off
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Monthly Archives: March 2010
street snaps: chacarita
i like old things
I wish I had a Buenos Aires apartment to furnish. And a record player for that Mercedes Sosa album. Growl. Palermo’s flea market, or mercado de las pulgas, is much less touristy than San Telmo’s. More stuff for less people. Very manageable.
best adobo found!
Forgive me, I am enamoured. I’ve always been drawn to Filipino adobo, chicken or pork. In New York, my favourite lunches always featured adobo dishes from Bayan. There’s already a post on this blog about Filipino food featuring adobo. But those adobos seriously pale to THE ONE at Cocina Sunae, a puerta cerrada in the Chacarita barrio, owned by the very talented Christina.
It’s best I’ve ever had, and Christina got this recipe from her mother. I’d go on and on about the simple genius of simmering chicken in a secret blend of ingredients like soy sauce and vinegar. But I’ll spare the nonplussed further boredom from foodie rantings.
The other pictures are of the dinner party and the brilliant dessert: homemade green tea ice cream, a fried banana which reminds me of goreng pisang, and thinly-sliced pears. Yep, we had a good Saturday night.
cultural learning curve: work talk is a downer
Dinner conversations start off very differently in this city. Back in New York, “What do you do?” is the initial refrain. And definitely in Singapore as well. That question very rarely comes up in Buenos Aires. The people D and I have met are more curious about our interests. The job question comes up pretty late in the evening, or sometimes on the second meeting. Maybe its obvious that we’re giving jobs a break. But I get the sense—that in Buenos Aires—my identity is not tied to what I do for a living. That is a novel concept for me—I’m used to workaholism as a norm. It’s quite impossible to survive without strenuously pushing the limits all for work. And people in BsAs work hard too—some of our new friends put in long hours. But they don’t talk about work very much. It’s nice to not obsess about the source of stress.
street snaps: alto palermo
mercedes sosa: cantante y leyenda popular de argentina
En el hotel en Iguazu, nos llegamos a conocer con Gabriel, el conserje de hotel. El es un chico muy amable y se gusta mucho la música criolla de Argentina. Nos presentó a Mercedes Sosa, una mujer muy importante de la musica argentina. Ella murió en el año pasado pero su música ya vive en las corazones de mucha gente en Las Americas. He incluido uno de su canciones que me impactó muy profundamente. Se llama “Solo Le Pido a Dios”
shocker, it rained a lot in the rainforest
Nutso rain for most of the three days we visited Iguaza Falls, or Las Cataratas de Iguazu. Let me recount the crazy part:
(Hotel room, 6:30 am)
Davidson: Babe, I don’t think you should bring the camera. It will get ruined. All that water, plus it’s raining heavily.
Denise: Uh, what? (scratch, scratch) It’s so early. What time do we have to meet the tour van? Uh, ok.
Yes, I didn’t bring my camera for fear of damaging it. And it wounded me to see other tourists whipping out their little cameras right in front of me. It hoits—not quite the same as when a legless amputee wants to kickbox. But I can most defs say that my camera is like a phantom limb, and thank heavens we met some nice Australians who will email their images to us. I’ll post those pics when I get them.
Blurgh. Lesson learned.
(By the way, the picture above is of La Aldea de la Selva, where we stayed. I highly recommend it—it’s in the jungle and incredibly well-designed. Very harmonious with the surroundings, understated and super comfy. If I’m gonna feel like a tourist, I may as well enjoy it.)
giant croquette explodes with gooey cheese
They call this ostensibly innocuous appetizer la bomba. It just came with our order—most restaurants in BsAs offer a menu ejecutivo (a set, prixe fixe lunch) which includes apps, a drink and dessert. Usually around AR$30 per person. And quite a decent deal considering what the same resto charges for dinner. Oh yeah, la bomba was definitely tasty enough for a ham and cheese croquette. Though I was expecting something more spectacular with that name.
a quick glimpse at puerto madero
Puerto Madero is the newest barrio in Buenos Aires—only 20 years old. Home to newish-moneyed types, offices and a giant ecological reserve. Some locals have told us they don’t have a taste for it, but that it’s worth checking out because it is different from the rest of town. It started to rain 15 minutes after we arrived. Woopsies, I guess we’ll ride bikes in the ecological reserve next time. Bus ride home was 2 hours in rush hour traffic.
