Our Last Asado on Loyola

We put our parrilla to use and made our version of an asado on the rooftop in this apartment on Loyola for the last time last night. We check out on Saturday and move on to another place for about 2 more weeks before coming home. So, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather outside considering one of the top things we fell in love with about Buenos Aires is the way they grill just about everything. Tonight we made chicken with lemon, green zucchini, red bell pepper, corn on the cob, sweet onions...yum. Typically, we'd put a bunch of steak on there but Don had eaten that for dinner for the past two nights in a row so we went a little lighter and healthier. It was somewhat nostalgic being on the terrace snapping tons of pictures of Don and everything around us as I tend to do. We've had a lot of good times in this apartment---omelette and champagne parties at midnight, swimming in a kiddie pool on the rooftop, blasting Lil' Wayne until our neighbor below yelled at us that people don't do that on Sundays...But, alas, it's time to move on.

Ready for Summer...with a Pool!

Don has finally gotten another one of his many wishes with our apartment here. Today we went to Easy and bought a mini pool for our rooftop terrace. We wanted a really big one but the owner was afraid that the ceiling would come crashing down (although he did joke that we could get the biggest one possible if we were willing to swim in the ground floor garage!). So, we settled on a nice size that will comfortably fit Don and I, but that could fit more people if we don't mind getting extra cozy! Now, at home we might think of this as a kiddie pool, but we've had to modify our expectations somewhat for our terrace in Buenos Aires. It gets just as hot here, if not hotter, as in DC so we are set with a cool relief for those humid days of 100 degrees that are sure to come around December. Now all we need is a blender and we are poised to have some fun days, and funny stories, with this pool. Anyone up for a dip during the New Year's Eve party?

We also just met our neighbors across the way - Jonathan and Beverly - and they invited us over for an asado. We had a lovely time drinking wine, eating pollo a la parrilla, homemade bread by Bev, and homemade guacamole also by Bev. They are both obviously great in the kitchen and fantastic on the grill. Not to mention we have someone else who feels our pain about the incessant dog barking in this neighborhood. It's pretty much the only noise that could be prevented that people just will not step in to stop. Oh well, you can't have everything.

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)!