SaltShaker

Buenos Aires - Catamarca is a province in the northwest of Argentina, along the border with Chile, essentially in the Andes mountains. None of this is particularly relevant. It comes up because I am exploring the world of the empanada. If you’re not familiar with these, they are essentially savory turnovers, either fried or baked, [...]

Buenos Aires - Spent the day yesterday with some new friends, a couple of young Argentine guys. It brought home a couple of interesting cultural (and probably age-related) differences. One arrived a few hours early, while we were having breakfast, he’d left the other sleeping. So we hung out and waited for the other to [...]

Buenos Aires - Last night it was off to meet Heather in her neighborhood of Las Cañitas. This is the hot, new neighborhood for locals with enough income to afford it. It’s also thankfully lacking in tourists, as it’s not easy to get to via public transportation, and it’s a recent enough phenomenon that it’s [...]

Buenos Aires - That’s not “wunce”, but “ohn-say”, or “11″. It’s a part of the Balvanera neighborhood that is historically the Jewish quarter of the city. I’d read enough about the area to know to expect something quite similar to the Lower East Side of New York City. Much of it is very much like [...]

Buenos Aires - Several friends have asked that I share a bit about daily life other than food and wine, just to “get a feel” for Buenos Aires. On my previous visit I did a lot of the touristy stuff, and probably won’t do as much of that this time around. So first off, here’s [...]

Buenos Aires - Face it, you’re stuck learning Spanish vocabulary with me. The Zapallito Redondo is a “summer squash”, i.e., zucchini, but in globe shape. It’s native to the southern part of South America. You can find “regular” zucchini, but they’re not near as common. The redondo is a bit more dense and a touch [...]

Buenos Aires - No, not “loco”… Locro is a delicious stew of corn, potatoes, squash, and a bit of meat, all marinated and slowly braised. It is classic cuisine from the north of Argentina, and also from the surrounding areas. (More as I get a chance to research it.) We dropped in at a little [...]

Buenos Aires - Had an invitation from an old friend from New York who picked up and moved to Buenos Aires about 7 months ago. She’d never been here before, but friends told her she’d like it, and she does! Kudos to Heather for the gumption to just up and go!
Anyway, she is now working [...]