Buenos Aires

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Another Great Concert at the CCK

On Sunday night, Venetia and I went once again to the Centro Cultural Kirchner (popularly known as the CCK) this time to see a concert by the Damian Boletin Quintet. We had no idea what to expect, but what we got was fabulous.

The program was an eclectic mix of non-traditional tango, modern jazz and material written by Damian himself that isn’t readily categorized. But it was one of the best I’ve seen there. I really can’t believe these excellent concerts are totally free.

Here are some photos and, if you are curious about the music, a short video shot by Venetia — who is thrilled with the quality produced by her new iPhone!

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Great Women, Great Conversation!

Last night I went to a meeting of a book club run by my friend Lola — she is American and her real name is Dee, but Lola is her tango name so that’s what I call her!

Anyway, there were some really interesting women there and the conversation was fast flowing and varied. People read poetry, including one by the iconic Argentine writer Jose Luis Borges, which was challenging even in English!

Here’s a photo of us all except Venetia, who took the photo, and the next photo has her smiling face in it too. On the left is Jeanette, who is from Australia. When she divorced and her children left home, she took out a bank loan, sold her house and embarked on half a year of travel around the world! And now, six months later, she’s at it again and that’s how she found herself in Buenos Aires. Now that’s badassery!

I expect to attend a lot of events with this lovely group in 2019.

 

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The Best Steaks Are at This Place!

Of course we all know that Argentina is famous for steaks, and Buenos Aires is chock full of great parillas where you can enjoy them. When I first came here, I heard that La Gran Parilla del Plata — popularly known just as La Gran Parilla — was one of the best. I wouldn’t doubt it, even though there are many I haven’t tried yet.

La Gran Parilla is in the lovely old barrio of San Telmo, which still retains its character despite little pockets of gentrification, and is a typical Argentine steak house. People don’t go here to eat other types of food — it’s all about the steak. They have a variety of cuts and we all have our favourites. Mine is the bife de chorizo, which is sirloin. Many prefer the lomo, or filet mignon, and there are several great ones.

Although I grew up eating my steak well cooked (some might say burnt), here I’m learning to eat it rarer. I now order it a punto, which is medium leaning to the rare side.

As you can see from the photo, they don’t skimp on the servings! We were four women. Lola and Venetia both like theirs bleeding all over the plate, so they shared the smaller one furthest from the camera, which was lomo — actually it’s just the angle of the camera that makes it look smaller but it definitely wasn’t. Lucy used to be one of the group here, but last year her company transferred her to Boston, and she was back for a visit. She hadn’t had a Buenos Aires steak for a year and she didn’t want to share! So she and I each had one of the monster ones at the front — but I brought home what I didn’t eat and it was sliced up in my salad at lunch today and finished off with a plate of homemade chips for dinner!

Truly, if you’re a steak lover, this is the place to be!

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Tour of the Congreso

Today I went with some friends on a tour of the Congreso, which is the legislature building containing the Chambers of the Deputies and the Senators. Lovely old building, with just the kind of grandeur you usually see in buildings of this type. I did remember to take pictures, which I often don’t!

The Senate Chamber

The Senate Chamber, lower levels

The President’s Seat

Ceiling of the Chamber of Deputies

Three types of marble: the beige is Argentine, the whitish Italian and the red Spanish

Monument to Eva Peron

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The Big Game!

I don’t know how widespread news of this went, especially if you are not into football (soccer), but a couple of weeks ago there was supposed to be the final of the Copa de Libertadores, between eternal Buenos Aires rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. But the rowdies among the fans made so much trouble they had to postpone the game. After much deliberation it was decided that it was just too hot a ticket to be played locally, so the championship would be played in Madrid! Today was the big day.

I was at Cecilia’s house for lunch when she got a phone call from her nephew, who had flown to Spain for the game! He told her to switch on the TV, and we found him hovering in the background behind a television crew waving to us on camera! (That’s him on the phone.)

A little while later he sent this video, taken before the game started. You can get a feel for the atmosphere, and the red colours around show that he is firmly in the River camp. He must have been very happy, because they won the game 3-1 — worth the trip to Spain!

I can hear a lot of celebrating going on outside. I hope they run out of breath before bedtime as that singing isn’t the kind that helps you sleep!

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At the British Embassy

Yesterday I went to the annual Christmas Fair at the British Embassy. Last year I was disappointed because it was billed as the annual garden party, so I was expecting something quite different! Anyway, as a Christmas Fair it was quite nice.

We had a lovely day for it, with the temperature more the way it should be, as it has been a little below seasonal. Bought some plum pudding for Christmas dinner and did a little Christmas shopping (including for me!)

But I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to Christmas in summer!

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Osvaldo’s New Studio

Before going to the BAIN event last night, Venetia and I stopped off at the studio opening of our friend Osvaldo Puente, a talented and innovative artist. His studio is in a beautiful old building with original wrought iron features and elevator — unfortunately my photo missed this, but it also has a high, high, high skylight ceiling.

Osvaldo uses actual earth in his paintings, combined with old photographs, pieces of lace and more to create evocative pieces that make you think as we as enjoy visually. You can read more about his art at his website at http://www.osvaldoeduardopuente.com/

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Holiday Dinner Party

Last night was the holiday party of Buenos Aires International Newcomers, commonly known as BAIN. It’s my favourite of the expat groups I belong to, mainly because there are quite a lot of Argentine members too.

The event was held at a restaurant I hadn’t been to before, Cabernet in the barrio of Palermo. It was fun meeting up again with folks I hadn’t seen since I left in May, many of whom were welcoming me “home” and that felt good. Here are some photos of the evening.

Two late nights this week — and work to do next day! That’s Buenos Aires!

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Funky Restaurant Discovered by Accident

Last night Venetia and I went to an event which we had misunderstood from the announcement. We thought it was a guided walk to see some of the flora and fauna of Argentina, but it turned out to be a lecture — all in rapid Spanish! We weren’t up for two hours of that, so we left. After a walk around the lovely Parque Lezama, we decided to look for a place to have something light to eat. It was a bit too early for typical Argentine dinner, so we thought some tapas and wine would be in order.

We walked up a lovely street called Caseros in the barrio of San Telmo, and discovered Napoles. We had both walked past the window before and were intrigued but never went in. Tonight we did, and what a discovery it was.

I made a quick video from some photos I took, but if I had photographed all the cool things it would be a feature length movie! It was a huge place, filled with an eclectic collection of artifacts — statues, busts, pictures, vintage clothing, full size cars and more!

We sat at a table near the front and enjoyed some provoleta (a typical Argentine dish made of grilled provolone with herbs and spices) and a glass of mellow Malbec, while glorying in the fantasy all around us!
Check it out.

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Ricardo’s Birthday Party

Ricardo Hadis is one of the people I met socially last year in Buenos Aires, so when he came to Toronto on a business trip a few months ago, he invited me to spend a day with him. We had a great tour around the St. Lawrence Market area and then had lunch at the Distillery District and dinner in a great French restaurant — can’t remember the name.

When he celebrated his 75th birthday here in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, he invited me to his party. And what a party it was! It took place in a lovely Italian restaurant called Giuseppe, down by the river. The theme was heavily Italian influenced, but there was one fun Mexican song, and lots of Argentine ones which I didn’t know but clearly the locals did!

I forgot to take a a photo along the waterside outside, but you can kind of see it through the window behind the performers in the video. Note the birthday candle Argentina style! I hope you enjoy the video.

By the way, YouTube seems to have disabled the ability to stop related videos coming up at the end. If anyone knows how you can still do this, would you please let me know in the comments? Gracias.