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And the Lord Said …

Let there be light — please!

We woke up this morning to no power. It was chucking it down with rain, quite normal for Argentine winter, and sometimes when we get a deluge like that it does knock the power out.

I haven’t been feeling well over the past couple of days, so I just went back to bed. Before I did, though, I switched on the bathroom light so that I would know when it came back on. I think that was around noon or just before.

Imagine my surprise when I found out it wasn’t just “the usual thing”, but a power outage that covered
Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Chile — 48 million people without power! I mean, that’s big enough that people in the rest of the world might even have heard about it. Apparently this has never happened before and nobody knows what caused it, although of course everyone is blaming everyone else!

Anyway, all is well now — but I’m still glad I don’t have to go out in the rain today.

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A Little Spontaneous Tango

I’ve been under the weather this week with a rotten cold, so haven’t been doing much that’s interesting. But last night Venetia had a little dinner party for just six close friends. Besides me, there was our hilariously funny Irish friend Sally, Rob and Alex, who entertained Venetia and me to dinner at their home a few weeks ago, and my tango teacher and good friend Alejandro.

Venetia is a great cook, and served us a beautiful caprese salad followed by a chicken dish to die for.

Of course she is usually the photographer, and I should take taken up the slack while she was busy serving dinner, but I forgot!

Conversation flowed and there was a lot of laughing. Alejandro thought we should do a spur-of-the-moment tango demo, and of course I’m always up for that. Feels different dancing in outdoor boots instead of elegant tango shoes, but I enjoyed it anyway. I hope you do too. Thanks to Venetia for filming it.

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Our San Isidro Aventura

You know those times when things turn out very differently from expected, but maybe even better? Well Friday was one of those times.

Cecilia had invited Venetia, Vivian and me to go to San Isidro, a town a few miles past where she lives, to see a concert. It was a charity event put on by the College of Notaries, and she told us it was to be a flamenco show. Well, when we arrived early to get our tickets, we discovered it wasn’t flamenco, but zarzuela. I think she just registered that it was a Spanish show and assumed flamenco.  Zarzuela is a kind of Spanish operetta type of music — no dancing! But we were there anyway, so what the heck.

We were early though, and decided to use the time to go and have a glass of wine before the show. San Isidro is not Buenos Aires, and finding a place open was challenging. We asked a flower seller, who told us there was a wine bar “just down the road”. After we walked several blocks, we found the place. It was called “Best Wines”, but it turned out it wasn’t a regular wine bar where you could just go in and drink wine. It was more of a wine tasting place, and a bit of an Alladin’s cave if you like either wine or whisky.

But…

The guy told us we couldn’t stay because they were closing in half an hour! There were two customers at the back, happily quaffing away, but he said they had been there for a while and he couldn’t serve anyone else. Well, Cecilia went into her Argentine feminine wiles routine, telling him we were going to show and would have to leave in half an hour anyway. The two men who were drinking at the back were also egging him on to let us in. Long story short, we were finally welcomed in, offered a choice of lovely wines and he gave us some nice cheese and ham to go with it at no extra charge. How nice was that. We had a lot of fun there — if he hadn’t been closing we might have been tempted to stay there instead of going back to the non-flamenco show!

As it happened, the show was fun too. Although it did have a kind of church basement feel to it, the two singers were professionals who had sung at the wonderful Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and they were wonderful. Interestingly, even though they spoke and sang in Spanish, it was very obvious that this was not South American music, but Spanish through and through. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the video. I hope you enjoy it.

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Barrio Chino

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.

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Tina Turner Is In the House!

Well, she wasn’t really. Instead, it was our friend Joanna Maddox doing a Tina Turner tribute show at Notorius, an intimate little club about a ten minute walk from my place.

Joanna is originally from Atlanta, but lives in Buenos Aires. I try to get out to see her any time she is playing, and as I also love Tina, this went on my schedule as soon as I heard about it!

I wasn’t sitting in a very good place to shoot video, and because of all the speakers and other equipment around, I couldn’t get into a better place. We were also sitting too near the drummer — you’ll see what I mean when you watch the video. Never mind, this will give you a taste. Joanna stayed in character every moment until the show was over — she even sashayed Tina style along the passage for the intermission. Great Show.

I was with Joanna (a different one) and Wendy, and we ran into Betty and Michael, two other friends who live just three doors away from Notorius. They invited us back to their place for drinks, and it was after 1 am when we left. It was a lovely rounding out of the evening, and I enjoyed my walk home in the wee hours.

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Shopping for Tango Shoes!

Last week I signed up a new client, so I celebrated by buying new tango shoes! I had to choose between two pairs I really loved, so I’m hoping another new client will come along soon so that I can go back for them.

I’m only half kidding about that, because these puppies are expensive. They have to be, because of the way they are made. They’re not just pretty shoes; they have to be engineered in a certain way to stand up to the abuse they take on the dance floor, and they have to be well padded without looking it, otherwise nobody would be able to dance in them. But Comme Il Faul shoes are an investment and worth every peso.

Here’s the video of the great tango shoe buying adventure!

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25 de Mayo — Argentina’s National Day

On May 25, Argentina celebrates the May Revolution of 1810, which marked the beginning of its independence from Spain. (There’s another celebration on July 9, but we’ll talk about that then!) In any case, although there are numerous local fiestas, I wanted to go to Mataderos. It is still technically a barrio of Buenos Aires, but quite far out of the centre — almost an hour’s drive. My friend Sally had arranged for her friend Liz to drive Sally, Venetia and me there and we arrived around 2 pm — the worst possible time for finding a parking spot. Eventually we paid a young guy 20 pesos and he gave up “his” spot — just a public spot on the street but you always find these enterprising folks claiming spaces and renting them to late arrivals like us!

Catedral Tango

By that time we were really hungry, so we went to a parilla that came highly recommended, Catedral  Tango. We all decided to make lunch the main meal of the day, so we went all out and had steaks and red wine. Here are some pictures of the place.

It was so busy because of the holiday that they had set a table up on the stage, which is where we sat. The owner said anybody who sat there had to do some kind of performance, but we managed to escape before that rule was enforced!

It really was a great parilla, and the steaks were excellent. Here’s a picture of mine. When I saw it I thought I’d have to have a doggy bag because it would be too much for lunch, but it was so delicious I ate it all — as well as the french fries! We could have had salad, but come on, what’s a steak without chips really?

The focus of Mataderos is really the gaucho culture, so I was quite surprised to see so much tango — until Liz explained this was yet another place credited with the beginnings of tango. There were huge pictures on the walls of the old tango masters. In fact, I made this video to show you.

La Feria

Once our hunger was well and truly satisfied, we ventured outside, where there was a huge feria going on, with lots of artesanal food and jewellery and clothing and candles and … you get the idea. I’m a sucker for those places, especially when I can buy stuff from the artists who made it. Did I buy anything? Well of course! Venetia and I egged each other on as usual and we both bought stuff. If you know me, you know the first thing on my list — earrings. These are what my mother used to call shoulder bruisers!

There were several stalls selling honey, but although I do love real honey I didn’t need any as I have plenty right now. But I couldn’t resist this photo. Quite often you’ll see stallholders with honeycombs — but these ones had actual bees!

There was a great festive atmosphere because of the holiday, which you can see from these photos of the stage show and the flags around the streets. We all bought little blue and white rosette things to pin on our jackets. Here’s mine, which I was glad I kept on this morning because the waiters in the cafe where I had breakfast were all wearing theirs!

 

We missed it!

One of the main attractions of Mataderos is the gaucho show, in which gauchos display their horsemanship skills. I’ve seen it before at another place and was keen to see it here. However, we spent so much time at the feria and the stage show that by the time we found the place where it happened, the show was over and they were packing up! Oh well, we’ll just have to go back! There’s a fair here every weekend even though not quite so festive, so we will do that one of these days.

Venetia’s pictures

Just as I was finishing this post, I received this photo of a yummy smelling asado from Venetia, as well as some others which I’ve interspersed with my own. I love her video of an aging gaucho and his lady dancing in the street — enjoy! Thanks Venetia.

So all in all it was a lovely, festive day out, and an opportunity to join in the national celebration of my new adopted country — amazing Argentina!

 

 

 

 

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Down Memory Lane with The Beats

Last night Venetia and Cecilia came to my place for a quick dinner before going to the Grand Rex Theatre downtown to see a great Beatles tribute band called The Beats. They are recognized as one of the best Beatles bands in the world — and they are from Argentina! Who knew? They were really excellent and put on a terrific show.

Paul had all the familiar moves, including the little head shake, and you could really believe you were watching Paul McCartney up there. And John definitely had the John Lennon attitude, which you can see at the end of the first video below. John was always my favourite Beatle.

It really was memory lane because Venetia is from London and was there during those heady times back in the sixties. As they showed the old footage of Abbey Lane and all the other Beatles landmarks, she saw shops she used to shop in and lots of familiar streets. Cecilia, although Argentine, was living there too at that time and also recognized many of the spots. I wasn’t in London, but I did have the once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing the actual Beatles live in concert in Glasgow — one of those nights you never forget.

There are many videos of The Beats on YouTube, so I’m linking to one of the shorter ones. And the second is one that Venetia made last night, which gives you a good feel for the experience. It were fab!

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I Fought the Stove and the Stove Won!

Remember that old song, “I fought the law and the law won”? Well, in my case it wasn’t the law — it was the oven.

On Tuesday night I had my first dinner guests, Marcia and Cliff. They are friends from BAIN, and Marcia is the realtor who found me my great badass apartment.

Getting ready for the evening proved to be yet another of those sagas I seem to get myself into! Where shall I start?

Well, if you know me well, you know cooking is not my favourite pursuit, and I have a small repertoire of things I make for company. This time I decided on my “Portuguese themed” dinner: bifes de cebolada and pudim flan – a yummy meat dish with onions and tomatoes and the Portuguese version of creme caramel.

Foolproof.

Usually.

Dishes

In my famous boxes that took three months to get here, I brought my china dinner set, my silver cutlery and my wooden salad bowl. What I didn’t bring was serving dishes, because I didn’t have enough room in the boxes. I only realized this on Sunday, so I spent Monday morning running around buying serving dishes. Fine, that’s me ready. No.

I need an oven proof dish to make the pudim flan. Out again in the afternoon to get that.

Back home, planning to make it Monday evening, I remember I make it in a bain marie — and I have nothing to put the water in big enough to accommodate the dish. Out again to get that. I find a baking tray in the supermarket that seems deep enough to do the trick. Ready for action.

Oven

The stove in my apartment is gas. Now I realize that serious cooks always prefer gas, but see paragraph 3 above — I am not a serious cook. Not only that, but I’ve always had electric cookers in Canada and, truth be told, I’m a little nervous of gas. I’ve made friends with the top burners, of course, as I need to use them all the time, but I had never used the oven.

Ovens are strange here. Instead of me trying to explain the difficulty, check out this funny video on YouTube — it pretty much says it all! http://pickupthefork.com/2012/10/07/how-to-turn-on-an-oven-in-argentina/

Here’s a photo of the wee hole in the floor of my oven where the flame is supposed to come out. Hah!

Well, I got tired of burning my fingers, so I went out and bought one of those gizmos to light stoves so I could hold it down long enough for the pilot flame to catch. I waited. I waited. I waited. Nothing happened. On Monday when my cleaning lady came, I asked her to show me. She did what I had been doing. We waited. We waited. We waited. Nothing. She said she thought it was broken. OMG, a faulty gas oven — now I’m really freaking out!

I sent a WhatsApp message to my landlady. Turned out she was at a family wedding in New York, but she called me back and walked me through the process — same process, same result. Now she’s freaking out in New York, and tells me to turn off the gas in the apartment. I was pretty sure that wasn’t the problem because the burners worked, but I did as she said. She told me to ask the portero, Alejandro, to help.

I went downstairs and he wasn’t there, so I left him a note. Meantime I’m wondering how I’m going to cook anything because now I’m scared to turn the gas back on!

Anyway, he came up around 4 pm Monday and gave it a shot. For the life of me I can’t see that he did anything different from what Gabi and I had done, but it worked! Don’t you feel ridiculous when that happens?

Anyway, I planned to make the pudim Monday evening just to make sure it worked and was ready on time. So ….

The pudim flan

After dinner on Monday, I gathered all the ingredients and made the custard. The dish fitted into the baking tray no problem, although a little wobbly as it wasn’t very deep.

I lit the oven — took a few minutes, but it did start. You have to get down on your knees and look under the tray to see the actual flames, and they were definitely there. Problem is, you know how you gradually turn the knob and watch the flame as you adjust it? Well, I’m not a contortionist, so I couldn’t manage that. This meant I couldn’t adjust the heat.

As I stood making the burnt sugar on the stove top, it occurred to me there was an awful lot of heat coming from the oven. An awful lot. Oh well, press on regardless.

I put some water in the bottom of the baking tray and lowered the dish gently into it. It was long and skinny, so a little awkward. Awkward, right, that’s the word. As I put it into the oven, it tipped backwards and the water cascaded down into the oven, hissing and sputtering all the way. I said a very bad word.

Fortunately it didn’t put the flames out, but some of the custard overflowed into the oven tray, which by this time was so hot that the custard overflow cooked instantaneously and stuck to the bottom. I pulled it out and put it down on a mat on the floor to be dealt with later, and went back to the oven, which fortunately also had a rack beneath that one. Got it in — excellent.

Went back to whatever I was doing. This dessert usually takes an hour or so to bake. About twenty minutes in, a burning smell issued from the kitchen, and when I looked there was a burnt skin on the top and the water in the baking tray had dried up. I managed to put some more water in without scalding my hands or incinerating my eyebrows. I knew it couldn’t have cooked inside already so I just gave an Argentine shrug and left it to get on with cooking. (I really am becoming Argentine!) Eventually at about the 45 minute mark I couldn’t stand the burning smell and I really had to take it out. I knew it had cooked way too fast, but I let it cool anyway. You never know.

Tuesday Night

Fast forward to Tuesday. Marcia and Cliff were coming around 7.30 pm. The beef was ready, potatoes and veggies ready to cook when they arrived.

Now, about that flan.

I took it out of the fridge. OK it had a burnt skin on top, but you have to invert it anyway, so I figured I could just lift it off with a knife. I did. Underneath was not a pretty sight. Instead of my usual creamy, silky textured custard, it was a lumpy mess that disintegrated when I tried to turn it out. Totally unusable.

Fortunately, there’s a great ice cream shop just around the corner, and I had left enough time to get there just in case. Forward thinking.

Once they came, everything was fine. We had a lovely visit with lots of conversation and laughter — and champagne. Little did they know of all this drama that had been going on before! (Pity I forgot to take a photo while they were here — they are a good looking couple and I managed not to poison them.)

In any case, I’m better prepared for my next dinner party, with serving plates etc. I don’t think I’ll ever make pudim flan again unless I’m visiting Canada or Scotland, so I’ll have to come up with a new dessert — preferably one that doesn’t need to be baked in the oven. Who wants to be next in line??

I did my best. I fought the good fight. But the oven definitely came out the winner!

This time.

This isn’t over.

Now it’s personal.

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Dinner with Rob and Alex

I met Rob in one of my favourite restaurants just over a year ago. I was getting ready to go back to Canada, and he was going back to London to collect Alex and bring him back here. They now live here — new Porteños like me!

They invited Venetia and me to their absolutely beautiful home and served us an amazing dinner of middle eastern salad with Haloumi cheese followed by a tasty beef tagine — which Venetia pronounced even better than the one she had the other night at Abdala!

Rob decided to look the part for us, and wore a great white outfit from the same part of the world as the food. Great night — thanks Rob and Alex.