My friend Joanna wanted to treat me to a birthday lunch, and as she has been busy for the past couple of weeks, today was the day. We went to the Barrio Chino, the Buenos Aires version of Chinatown, and it was my first time there, believe it or not.

The trains have not been running for months because of extensive track maintenance, station upgrading etc., but now that they are running again it’s much easier to get there. The station for Barrio Chino is Belgrano C, which is one of the stations that has been upgraded. If you live here, you know what it looked like before, and here it is now. What a transformation!

The whole area is quite small, and full of the typical small stores you’d expect.

Joanna has a favourite restaurant she wanted to take me to, but when we arrived it was closed. As we walked down the street we noticed that several other restaurants were too, and then we realized it was Monday, which is a day many restaurants close in Buenos Aires — having been open almost around the clock on the weekend. Fortunately, we found a little Thai restaurant, where we had delicious lunches. I had noodles with beef, and Joanna rice with chicken — and a nice bottle of white wine to go with it. I’m usually a red wine drinker, but I think it can overwhelm Chinese food and I did enjoy the white for a change.

After lunch we had a good wander around. Although we are now into the winter season, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the sky clear blue, as you can see in the photo, and the temperature was in the mid-teens, so great wandering weather.

We went into a couple of fascinating stores, with great food items you can’t get anywhere else. I also found some bamboo paddles to use in my painting, and that was a score for me. Here’s my pile of purchases! Now that I’ve found my way to the Barrio Chino, I think it will be one of my regular places to spend an afternoon.