March 11th, A few words from Debbie: According to our travel “bible,” The Rough Guide to Argentina, we have traveled over 1000km to reach Mendoza. (Side point from me, John. A British traveler sitting in the lobby across from me just made an unsolicited comment that the Rough Guides are the best. He said that they have an excellent guide to Greece.)We arrived yesterday afternoon and after a nearly perfect job of reading our maps and guiding John through the city, we arrived at our hotel of choice, The Aconcagua, named after the mountain which is the highest peak outside the Himalayas. It is a four star hotel,with nice rooms, large pool and terrace, etc etc breakfast and parking included all for about $70.00 a night! You just can’t beat the prices. We were hungry, so set out to find lunch and ended up at a nice outdoor cafe, La Florencia, where we had a “light” lunch : seltzer, a bottle of 2004 Salentein Malbec which was WONDERFUL, nice balance, concentrated up front fruit,and dry; it was a bit pricey at $15.00 but worth it! I (Debbie) convinced John to share the grilled goat. It was so tender and delicious with a flavor similar to lamb but not quite as strong. We also had a salad, and do I love these salads; they put everything in an ensalada mixta completa: fresh beets, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, egg, celery, sprouts, lettuce; each place seems to have some different ingredients but most everywhere there are onions, tomatoes, and fresh beets! Yummy. OH and then coffee and a shared dessert; figs and nuts in a very sweet simple syrup sauce. That folks, is a typical light lunch, otherwise we would have had two entrees and two desserts.

Anyway, I just wanted to add some interesting tidbits of information and observations for those of you who travel or who are amused by these things:

First of all you NEED small coins and bills. You need them for tipping at restaurants, the bellboys, the guys who run up and wash your windshield at the stop lights, for a bottle of water,whatever.. and you can never seem to have enough small denominations :so every time you go through a toll station on the road, GIVE THEM A BIG BILL! They have all the $ 2 pesos!

Next, there is NEVER any pepper on the tables, anywhere. You have to ask for it and then they bring a pepper mill and add the pepper for you… I love pepper, so I am tempted to bring my own pepper shaker along next time.

The women and young girls here are mostly beautiful with very shapely figures. They definitely dress to show off their shapes. They all wear very tight jeans, pants, or capris and NEVER wear shorts in public especially in the cities. Even in their jeans in the 85-90 degree temperatures, they looked “dressed up”. They wear heeled sandals, nice tops, lots of jewelry and dress to be noticed. Too bad they smoke a lot while walking down the streets.

And lastly, every hotel, cabana, etc., no matter how humble, has a bidet in the bathroom… very European. (There are MANY descendants here of Italian and Spanish origin). However, one should always carry tissues, especially when going into public restrooms. I have been in the cleanest, most functional bathrooms, only to discover there is NO toilet paper or hand towels!!

So far, we have been in Buenos Aries, Rosario, Cordoba and now Mendoza. We have tried about nine different Malbecs: Santa Julia 2005, Cuesta Del Madero a blend from San Telmo, which we loved; 2003 Finca Las Moras, 2004 Colon; 2003 Trapiche Coleccion Roble Malbec, loved this one too; La Linda 2004. As for the food, we have had Chicken, Pork, Goat ,Beef, Beef and Beef, Pasta — I wanted to try the kidneys but haven’t yet and I definitely didn’t like the small grilled intestines,but no fish at all (we can have all the great fish we want in Stonington!)I leave it to John to go into more detail if he ever wakes up this am!

I think our plan is to leave tomorrow morning for Uspallata where Seven Years in Tibet was filmed. The scenery is supposed to be breath-taking. We will be able to get a good view of Cerro Aconcagua which is, as I mentioned ,22,840 feet high (Everest is 29,035 and Mt. McKinley 20,320 while Mt Blanc 15,771) and therefore, is the highest peak in both the western and southern hemispheres. So if the day is clear it should be quite awesome sight! We are hoping to find a quiet but nice estancia to stay at for 3-4 days and then we will head back to Buenos Aries for the long plane ride home.

March 8th: It is now 5 days later and we find ourselves at the Windsor Hotel in Cordoba, this hotel is not cozy. Our expansive room with matching windows overlooks a plaza and the facade of a typical neoclassical style church. We have learned a lot in the past days about the food here.

Our best meal was yesterday at a small restaurant in Oliva on highway 9 about 75 Kilometers from Cordoba. We had been driving for about 4 hours from Rosario through the Pampas. The Pampas is sort of like our agricultural Midwest. There is a huge farm machinery show going on at the moment called Feriagro Argentina. Check it out to get a feeling for mega-agriculture here. The exposition grounds seemed to take up a square mile and we passed trucks all day carrying every imaginable type of farm machinery. Anyway back to our best meal at “La Nonna”. It was a reminder that good food takes good product, a good cook, and a good waiter.

March 3rd: Today it has been raining. So we went to the Plaza Palermo Viejo. The “Lonely Planet” guide calls the suburb of Palermo ground zero for innovative cuisine in Buenos Aires. We found a comfortable white leather sofa in a restaurant aptly named Meridian 58 after its longitude. We began with a bottle of 2004 La Linda Malbec from Mendoza. We thought we would just have some wine and watch the rain and the people, but when a great looking dish went by we pounced. It turned out to be Chop Suey, a dish long abused in North America with celery and corn starch. Fortunately the stir fried vegetables and chicken were lightly seasoned by a deft hand with soy sauce, a sprinkling of sesame seeds, and a mound of radish sprouts: simple, light, elegant. An attractive dessert followed, see the photos, along with cappuccino and a San Juan brandy.

Tango Time

I (Debbie) was determined that we had to see The Tango before we left the country! So I convinced John to go to a Tango club where the Portenos go to dance…not a Las Vegas type show, but more like the local Friday night dance club where you get a floor side table for the night, food and drinks, Salsa and Tango lessons all for??? we are still not sure of the price. Oh, let me mention, this all happens after 9pm… that was the beginning of the Salsa lessons. All the men lined up on one side with all the women opposite and we started with 1-2-3. Very Basic…..Anyway, after a while we got the basic step and rhythm down, or at least I did; John proclaims he has two left feet. The Portenos and most Latin and South American peoples LOVE to dance and it is a JOY to watch. This is a serious part of their culture: from little three year olds on the floor (at 11pm) to older couples in their 80’s the floor was always crowded until they put “rock and roll” on, when everyone immediately got off the floor!! One did not have to have a partner either; men searched the crowd for any single woman who looked like she wanted to dance… and they all did, including me.. but the Tango was too complicated for us to attempt the group lesson and it was so crowded, I couldn’t see the instructor, so we just watched. The reason to go to a milonga (Tango Hall) was not to “pick up” someone, IT WAS TO DANCE —mostly the Tango. It was a bit strange to see 70 and 80 year old men asking 20 year old women to dance and we never saw anyone refuse an invitation! Then, there were the couples who REALLY knew all the intricate steps, turns and moves of the Tango. They flowed around the room in a circular pattern; the women following the mens’ lead as they guided them through the steps: if you want to see the real Tango being danced and can’t make it to Argentina, rent Tango Bar! We finally left the club at 2am and people were still coming in… no one but we Americans would be leaving before 6am!

March 2nd: We toured downtown Buenos Aires today. We experienced the crush of humanity on the subway ride in. Actually, it was no problem since the riders were all tolerant, cheerful, and respectful of each other. After touring the downtown for 5 hours, we needed lunch so we hunted for a restaurant called “El Obrero” (the worker) in a rough part of town called La Boca. I had to show the cab driver the street on my map. The restaurant was recommended by a fellow who flew on the same planes with us from Providence. He and his wife, an Argentinean, bought an apartment here and he assured us that we would find “comida tipica” at El Obrero. We also found the restaurant in a very helpful online guide to the restaurants of Buenos Aires. Unfortunately the guide wasn’t helpful enough because El Obrero was closed. I still don’t understand why “mediodia y noche” didn’t apply to 3PM. So we asked our sympathetic cab driver to take us to a really good “big beef” place (My Spanish is not at its best yet). He dropped us off at Estilo Campo where we had a very enjoyable meal.

Estilo Campo is the quintessential upscale Argentinean steak house dripping with ambiance, complete with the “merry go round” style roasting pit, scads of committed professional waiters, and a full line of appetizers, wines, desserts, brandies and Cuban cigars. They take pride in actually selecting the beef that they serve. At our waiters recommendation we ordered the Asado al Asador (Roast on a Spit) and the Vacio al Asador (Flank Roasted on a Spit). It is going to take a while to adjust to the meat here. Last month there was a wonderful article by Richard O’Mara in the Christian Science Monitor, about understanding how they raise the beef. The article goes on to describe the different ways they cut the meat and of the asado (barbecue) and asador (barbecuer). We got the costilleta or meat near the short ribs. We would ordinarily consider this stew meat needing a long slow cooking process to break down the connective tissue. One thing, for certain, you have to cut it into small pieces. The flavor was good. In the photo you can see the concentrated outer layer of barbecued goodness. I would describe it as meatier than our beef. Oh well, I expect to explore these questions over the next three weeks of dining and make my peace with the Asado.

The wine we had with the meal was a generous Malbec, the 2004 Alamos from Catena, described very well in this review.

We completed the meal with a Chocolate Mousse that was very densely flavored, an espresso, and a generous warm glass of domestic brandy, Reserva San Juan, which I will have again.

I of course took some photos.