The other day I went for a morning of shopping with Venetia and Lina to a great old barrio called Flores. It’s old and a bit run down, and there are lots of people selling goods on the sidewalk. But there are bargains to be had, which is why we go! This time we were a bit unlucky, because there was a fire at the end of a street, and the street that was blocked off was the one with the higher end stores with good prices—have to go again, that’s all! But we did manage to, as my sister-in-law Elise always says, “get some money spent”.

Then we went for lunch to an old Bar Notable called La Farmacia. As the name suggests, it used to be a pharmacy a long time ago, and in the tradition of the Bares Notables, they’ve kept a lot of the artifacts from that time.

Venetia and I had been there before and remembered having a marvelous provoleta dish, which we had again. Provoleta is a very Argentine dish that’s based on baked provolone cheese with added seasonings. The only problem with the traditional ones is that if you don’t eat them fast they cool down and get a bit hard. But at La Farmacia they have a special version which they cook in a cast iron escargot pan. The pan stays hot, so the cheese stays gooey and delicious right to the end! I’m including Venetia’s photo of it before we dived in and devoured it. Of course, as a vegan I’m not supposed to eat cheese, but I’ve decided to relax my rules a bit when I’m out because sometimes there aren’t many vegan options. And sometimes there are mini provoletas!