Our First Parilla

We did it! It took a while to get things rolling but Don and I have successfully accomplished our first Argentine asado. We made rib eye steak, sausage, chicken stuffed with ham and cheese, red peppers, corn on the cob, creole sauce, and potatoes. The day was sunny and beautiful on the terraza! Other than our outdoor table umbrella almost blowing off the building, there were no major mishaps. Everything came out just as we wanted. Buen provecho!

MEAT - Parilla al Carbon

We love the meat here. Bife de lomo, bife de chorizo, morcilla, asado...we love it all. Click the title of this post and it'll take you to a link with meat cut definitions (US vs. Argentina). It took us a while to figure it out but we can order at a restaurant or a grocery store with confidence now. So we have an asado - Argentina's barbecue grill - on our roof top terraza. Don and I are just learning how to use an open flame carbon grill so we went over to Gina and Javier's for our first lesson. Javier is definitely what we'd called an expert so we're learning from the best. And Don is fabulous when it comes to American barbecue so expectations are high.

Here's Javier at the asado and a look at the food.

We had choripan, a popular sandwich here taking its name from the combination of chorizo (sausage) and pan (bread). Hence, choripan. Our sausage was the tasty morcilla - or blood sausage - on grilled baguette. Que rico!

We'll let you know how it all turns out when we try it on our own (aka with Javier's help)!

Debate Night in Buenos Aires

First debate of the presidential general election season! We went out to an event hosted by Democrats Abroad to see Barack Obama's performance in a friendly atmosphere. The venue, a restaurant/bar called El Sacramento, was absolutely packed! One big screen showed the debate in English and one in Castellano, the form of Spanish spoken here. There were probably a few hundred people there and I gave a rambling interview to some poor guy who wanted me to speak in Castellano about what Obama will do for Latin America for his online blog. Ha ha!

In any case, the event was much better than the one we attended back in May when we were here. We just preferred the new venue and, of course, this debate had generated a lot of interest so people were really excited.

Who do you think "won" the debate?

After the debate we went to a great late night party in Palermo thrown by our friends Linnea and Colleen. They had a lot of really fun people over to their apartment. Unfortunately, Colleen is leaving for Chile to work for a while so we'll only get to know her for a short time. Linnea should be around a bit longer and we're going to another party tonight, this time in San Telmo. We'll write more about the San Telmo area of Buenos Aires later.

Ciao!

A look at where we live

A lot of you have been asking for pictures of where we live. Click on the thumbnails to pull up larger photographs of most of our apartment. Some pics didn't come out too well so we'll add them later (our bedroom and living room aren't here yet). Enjoy!

Errand Fatigue

It's Tuesday morning, Don and I are eating fruit salad and zoning out after a busy Monday. It was errand central over here: getting cell phones, signing up for a gym membership, fixing credit card problems, and getting Skype. Ahh!!! It felt like a day back in DC. But we needed all those things. Don still needs to arrange Spanish lessons so that's on today's agenda.

The best part of the day was getting Skype (gracias, Gina!!). Everyone should sign up so we can talk for free. It is quick and simple and I already talked to my sister, Taylor, and Don talked to his mom. And, yes, Djenaba, you and I chatted it up for quite a while as Don keeps reminding me since I went to bed so late. Just go to http://www.skype.com/ and follow the easy instructions. I love where we live here because we just walked a few blocks away and bought the headset so that within minutes of signing up we could call anywhere. Our Skype name is donmarieba. Let me know if it works.

We treated ourselves to Osaka again and took a few pics of our favorite bartenders there. We found out that we're all neighbors so we are sure to hang out soon.

Hola, Lucas!

Hola, Jose!

Spring is here, too! It's finally warming up and hopefully my crazy cold goes away. I have been sneezing like never before. We can't wait to walk the parks, go to the zoo, and just enjoy the sun. This week we'll plan our trips to the Cavas Wine Lodge in Mendoza and the Llao Llao Resort in Bariloche. Yea!

**New Year's Update: The boutique hotels are filling up like nobody's business so we're trying hard to find good hotels to recommend. Email us pronto if you need help.

First Weekend Wrap Up...

Hey, everyone. It's Sunday night and we are winding down early from a long day of relaxation : )

On Saturday night we went to Opera Pampa, a musical/equestrian show of the founding of Argentina. The horses are the main attraction and the dancers are wonderful, also. However, our driver got us there 45 minutes late and we missed the empanada and wine reception and the opening of the show! We have been trying to calm down and realize that everything happens late here --- but that was a bit much. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good photos of the horses but we did get a pic of the fantastic parrilla that they served after the show:

They automatically thought we were Brazilian and so they sat us next to a couple who they told us "they also speak your language, Portuguese." To which we laughed, of course, and that didn't work out too well.

We made for up for all the mishaps with a lazy Sunday brunch at a boutique hotel called Home. When you see the photo of the front of the hotel, you'll understand why you can't judge a book by it's cover. The hotel is so unassuming but very modern and stylish inside. The food was tasty and we enjoyed the atmosphere. Check the bottom of our blog for links to boutique hotels near our apartment if you're planning to visit, which we hope you are for New Year's Eve!!! Here is how the front of the hotel looks:

We rounded out the day people watching at Plaza Serrano and saw our first rain here. You wouldn't believe the mad dash when the rain began, as if it were a monsoon! The plaza has been described as the Bohemian heart of Palermo Viejo and there are loads of bars, restaurants, and shops. Jewelry and crafts are bountiful. It's one of our favorite places to hang out so we know you'll be hearing more about lazy Sundays there. Enjoy the pics of how the plaza looks on a typical cloudy Sunday.

**Update: Don has found the Cowboys game on ESPN en espanol. He is soooo excited; and they're winning.

Going on the City Tour

Remembering how much fun we had on the turibus (a double decker) riding around Mexico City, we decided to take the city tour here. Well, we have now officially seen all of the various sections of Buenos Aires - too bad we didn't realize that we had actually done that when we were here in May this year. It was still nice to see things like El Caminito en La Boca, which we hadn't seen and is a very colorful street designed for tourist attraction. We saw lots of interesting art and little shops.

Oh, and we hadn't seen La Casa Rosada where the president lives or heard all of the history about the founding of Buenos Aires. All in all, we learned and/or re-learned some things.

Being in the Metropolitan Cathedral was also beautiful. It is very ornate and awe inspiring. The remains of Jose de San Martin are laid to rest there. San Martin was one of the principal liberators of South America from Spanish rule and he is also known as Argentina's liberator.

But, we'd have to say, a great part of the day was having charcuterie and cheese at The Alvear Palace Hotel before the tour began. We loved the hotel last time and not a thing had changed! Check out www.alvearpalace.com and you'll see it's a member of the Leading Hotels of the World. It's never too hard to find our style if we try.

Want to know more about where we live in Buenos Aires? Check out this wikipedia entry for Palermo, the largest neighborhood in Buenos Aires: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palermo,_Buenos_Aires

Dinner last night

Te Matare Ramirez was pretty interesting. The food was really good -- we had veal cutlet salad and some chicken entree with sweet potatoes and cheese that was excellent. But we were not exactly prepared for the theater show. It was a couple in real life who perform a show called Rubor. I didn't understand everything and it was difficult trying to translate for Don. Maybe we'll go back for another show after several weeks of Spanish classes.

And, we forgot our camera! Got to get some pics added to the site...

Besos!

First post!

Hola y bienvenidos a Argentina!

OK, here we are trying to use our new blog for the first time. Bear with us : )

We just got here on Sunday and are settling in...there's lots to do before the fun starts! So far we plan to take a city tour on Friday and to see Opera Pampa this Saturday. We saw Tango at Faena Hotel back in May so we're trying something a little different.

Luckily, we found a good rep at Mawa Travel who can help us book wine tours in Mendoza, travel to Bariloche, waterfalls as Iguazu, and the hills of Patagonia. That should keep us busy! Look up the places to get more info. Once we're more experienced bloggers, we can add hyperlinks.

We've already been to 2 of our favorite restaurants from last time: La Cabrera (Argentinian Steakhouse) and Osaka (Peruvian Fusion). Excellent food and we're filling up our tummies everyday!!

Tonight we are going to an aphrodisiac restaurant that sounds really cool, somewhat like Tantra in Miami. It is called Te Matare Ramirez, named after a guy who used to seduce married women and the husbands would call out "I'll Kill You, Ramirez!" So the story goes...

**For some reason, we cannot get the Dell laptop to connect to wireless internet here (cable modem connection only). If there are any technical experts out there (read: Terry Ford), please email us pronto!

That's all for now. We miss you all.

Don and Marie