Archive for November, 2008

T-Day

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

 Most turkeys taste better the day after, my mother’s tasted better the day before.”
- Rita Rudner, comedienne
Buenos Aires - Just to set your minds at ease, we did indeed celebrate Thanksgiving here. Not in Casa S, but we headed over to friends’ in San Telmo for a turkey dinner with the fixin’s. While there’s no [...]

Pocho Chino

Friday, November 28th, 2008

 A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates seemingly as a nativized pidgin…. While it is arguable that creoles share more grammatical similarities with each other than with the languages they phylogenetically derive from, no theory for explaining creole phenomena has been universally accepted. The relationship between pidgins and creoles [...]

Do You Feel Lucky?

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

 What the hell do you think Leona really puts in that pizza?”
- Lili Taylor as JoJo in Mystic Pizza
Buenos Aires - Those of you who’ve been reading awhile might remember the fiasco I considered the much lauded Guido’s Bar in Palermo. I know, I know, I hear regularly from people how amazing it is, how [...]

The Chronicles of Shawarma: Book I

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

 He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart.”
- C.S. Lewis, author
Buenos Aires - The subject of shawarma has come up numerous times recently, in casual conversation with aquaintances, in more in-depth chats with those closer, and seemingly in a [...]

Who? What? Where? When? How…?

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

 First things first, but not necessarily in that order.”
- Doctor Who
Buenos Aires - There was much speculation, much buzz, much questioning… just exactly what were we going to do at Casa SaltShaker to celebrate 45 years since the pilot of Doctor Who aired - celebrating the longest running science fiction show on television - a [...]

Vetting the Viets

Monday, November 24th, 2008

 When helicopters were snatching people from the grounds of the American embassy compound during the panic of the final Vietcong push into Saigon, I was sitting in front of the television set shouting, ‘Get the chefs! Get the chefs!”
- Calvin Trillin, writer
Buenos Aires - I don’t know if it’s the economy, or just some sort [...]

How Do I Make…?

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008

 Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom?”
- Terry Pratchett, Author

Buenos Aires - Bored? Sitting at home wishing you had something to do, something to stimulate your interest, your intellect, your skills, your tastebuds? In town for just a short [...]

When You Don’t Have a Fire Pit

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

 Linking these extremes is food activist Isabel Alvarez, an anthropologist who has studied colonial cuisine and teaches the history of food at St Marcs University. She owns El Senorio de Sulco, a cliff-edge restaurant overlooking the sea in the elegant Lima suburb of Miraflores. Alvarez, of Andean (Quechuan) and Catalan descent, is evangelical about preserving [...]