Author: hwilkie@mhwcom.com

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Wine Tasting

On Friday night I went with Venetia and Lola to a wine tasting event at a gallery in Palermo called Paul French. There were three reds, one white and some champagne, all very nice. The food, unfortunately, was all cold meats and cheese—no vegan options here! Having eaten nothing for dinner, I had to just eat it, which set me on a slippery slope for the weekend—more on that later.

These photos are a mix of some I took and some contributed by Venetia—you’ll be able to recognize hers as they are much better than mine.

The interesting thing about this place is something I can’t really show here. From the outside, all you see is a big black door, with the Paul French Gallery sign. But inside there’s a beautiful long passageway filled with plants, including a lot of orchids, the cafe section and then some sort of decor store at the back. There are a lot of places like this in Buenos Aires, places that you’d never pay any attention to from the outside but contain hidden gems. Yet another reason to love beautiful Buenos Aires!

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Great little neighbourhood restaurant

In Buenos Aires there are a lot of what are called bodegones — kind of old style neighbourhood restaurants, not pretending to be anything else. You usually get good food and unpretentious service. That was the case last night when Lina and I went to Il Vero Arturito, usually just called Arturito.

Afterwards we decided we’d like to go somewhere else for a drink, so we took the bus back to my barrio, heading for La Biela, which I’ve talked about before. Imagine our consternation when we found it closed and shuttered. We had a moment of pandemia panic, until we saw a notice on the door saying they were closed for renovations from the 23rd to the 28th. So we figured they’re getting it ready for the tourists, who will start arriving after November 1. Looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

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I Went to the Movies!!!

After all this time, it was a thrill yesterday to go to the movies—to see a movie in an actual theatre! Venetia and I went to see the latest Bond movie.

We went to the show at 2 pm, and there couldn’t have been more than a dozen people in the theatre—hopefully they will have more at night.

Yet another hopeful sign that life is returning to some semblance of normal.

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Lovely Art Exhibition

Today Venetia and I went to a lovely art exhibition at La Rural, a huge facility that always reminds of of the CNE in Toronto, where the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is held. I don’t know how many artists were represented today, but it was huge! A great variety of art, some I loved, some not so much. I was tempted by a couple of pieces but in the end my wallet stayed closed!

When we came out of the exhibition it was about 4.30 pm — merienda time! We went into a parilla we had both passed many times and never went in. It was old school Buenos Aires, and we enjoyed some lovely veggies grilled on the parilla. Enough that I didn’t need to bother making dinner when I got home—bonus!

A few photos from the parilla.

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BAIN Wine and Tapas at Venetia’s Place

One of the great activities at BAIN is the monthly wine and tapas at the home of a member. Last night was our first one since the pandemia began, and it was wonderful to see many people we hadn’t seen for a very long time.

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Another Bar Notable Evening

If you’ve been reading this blog since before the pandemia, you might remember the “research” visits to the Bares Notables, a collection of old traditional Buenos Aires bars, about which I was going to write a book. I put the book on hold because a number of these old places went out of business. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it, but that’s no reason to stay away from the bares!

Last night, four of us went to a venerable old place called Bar Roma. We started with a group of eight, but there was some high wind activity yesterday and the others begged off. But Venetia, Gillian, Christine and I had a good time and we didn’t get blown away!

Bar Roma has an interesting story, which was the reason I really wanted to go. For many years it was owned and operated by two cousins, Jesus and Laudino (can’t find any reference to their last names), who in latter years were in their nineties and still working. Not surprisingly, it was a bit too much for them, and the place had become run down and not very inviting. They began to look for successors, and eventually this small group of friends took it over in late 2018. They spent four months renovating it, had their grand opening which attracted lots of people in the neighbourhood—and days later the plague came upon us and we went into lockdown.

Some people might have been defeated by this, but not these guys. The bar reopened a few weeks ago, and last night when we were there it was full. They specialize in pizza, and judging by the number of boxes piled up on the counter, their delivery business is going strong too.

I’m happy for them—Viva el Bar Roma!

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More Tango!

Last night I went with my friend Lina to Sueño Porteño, my favourite milonga. It actually opened a couple of weeks ago, but they require proof of vaccination, which I didn’t have at that time. Now that I do, I happily went along last night.

It’s in a different place from before, and although it’s quite a small space, it’s very nice. Julia, the woman who runs it, likes to have theme nights from time to time, and last night it was Charleston. We were supposed to wear fringes if we had them—and I did! I have a great red and black skirt with black fringes on it that Venetia gave me. She bought it in Spain and although she wore it occasionally, she wasn’t that keen on it. I asked if I could borrow it for the milonga, and she said I might as well keep it! Venetia also gave me this lovely black and red shawl for Christmas one year that she bought in Spain—and that has fringe too. I didn’t actually need the shawl as it was quite warm in the milonga, but I’ll be sure to use it another night because it’s beautiful.

Both Lina and I danced a lot in the 90 minutes we were there, and I have to confess my knees are buckling today, and my back is complaining! I asked my physiotherapist if I should push through with my exercises or give them a rest, but he said I should do them. He also suggested I pace myself a little at the beginning and maybe not dance so much—but obviously he’s not a tanguero! After such a long drought, we all want to dance as much as possible, and I’m sure my knees will get used to it. They’ll just have to!

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My Other New Tango Teacher

As I said in last week’s post, my new tango teachers are a couple. Last week I worked on technique with Lis, and this week with Beto on actual dancing. It was interesting, as he has a very different style both of dancing and teaching than Alejandro, so I will need a little time to get used to him. But he is very nice and a lovely dancer!

He did tell me I have a lot of bad habits I’ve picked up at the milonga that we have to work on—but that’s why I have a teacher, so it’s all good!

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Vegan Food—Before and After!

Last night I went out to dinner with Venetia and Lina, to one of our favourite Italian places, La Parolaccia. I love the place and the food, but the issue for me is there’s only one vegan option on the menu. Sometimes I just have whatever I want, but I like to stick to vegan as much as I can. My knees appreciate it!

So I’ve taken to carrying two little containers with me, one with hot pepper flakes and the other with nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is a great ingredient to put in dishes if you want a bit of cheesiness without using cheese. So I went for the penne rigate, added black pepper and my two magic ingredients, and voila—magically transformed!