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The following brief account is for the foodies over in Cooking and Baking, as well as the travelophiles here.
I am a South Americanophile. I love going there and regret that I didn't start visiting South America long ago, except I wouldn't give up my love for Asian travel or Turkey, either.
Generally, I travel with my daughter who is currently an el. ed. teacher, so that means we have school breaks, plus a couple or three days to go wherever. We were fairly limited, as a result of the time constraint to staying in the general vicinity of B.A., but we did want to visit Uruguay, particularly the World Heritage town of Colonia, that is just across the river from B.A. Unfortunately, traveling around Easter in family-centered countries has a few drawbacks, not least of which is that all of the local people are taking advantage of the holidays if they are able, so we did make reservations at a hostels in B.A. and Montevideo (because there was no room at my expense level in Colonia).
The following are some highlights:
The people are incredibly helpful and kind.
It is easy to get around in both B.A. and Montevideo. The former has cheap cabs, the subte (subway system), and in Montevideo we often took the bus. Both cities are very walkable--except that B.A. is so enormous that even people like us who will walk for ten or twelve hours can't do everything on foot.
The Recoleta with its famous cemetery with the remains of Eva Peron is incredible. Even though Evita died in 1952, people still bring loads of flowers to her mausoleum every day. When you walk through the grounds it is not unusual for some other tourist to rush up to you and ask if you can tell them where to find Evita's grave. Unfortunately, we did not go to Chacarita to see the grave of the tango great, Gardel. From what I understand, it is a substantially different type of place.
B.A. has a vibrant group of young clothing designers. You can find interesting items at a number of locations in the city. They are kind of like impromptu showings of items in store-fronts or even enclosed parking structures where cars are parked on one side of the building and next to them are racks of trendy jackets, skirts and so forth.
Having seen a lot of crafts both here in the U.S. and in countless street markets around the world, I must say that the stuff in Argentina is very high quality, on the whole, even though you have to watch for the type of metal used in those amazing dangling earrings and artful necklaces. B.A. crafts are what I would call modern urban, not indigenous as in many other parts of S. America.
Tango. We did not go to any of the tango shows, although I would have liked to. Instead, we saw the guerilla tango on the streets. Often it was performers who regularly move from one big tourist street venue to another to advertise the real shows, but sometimes it was a kids who do what kids do best--add contemporary moves to the old tried and true. I could definitely stand and watch people doing the tango for an afternoon--but that isn't how it works. The dancers want the donation, and if they dance for too long, the crowd isn't putting new money into the hat. I did visit a few music shops and managed to pick up a pretty diverse group of CD's, ranging from Gardel and Piazzola to Chango Stasiuk, whose music I had been looking for ever since I found out about him on the BBC World Music webpage.
The food. Okay. As I posted on C & B, it has been probably 15 years since I had eaten steak, but my daughter and I knew that we would not be saying no to the experience on this trip. We waited until we got to Montevideo and visited the meat market around 1:30 p.m. The meat market is a collection of "stalls" that serve the parrillada, the grilled assortments of meat and meat products. We kept it simple--sirloin steaks that come with fries, bread and chimicurri, the fantastic garlicky sauce that generally accompanies the grilled meats. There were some really unusual looking sausages that I would never be able to eat, as well as some cuts of beef that have no appeal to me--like cuts from too close to the spinal cord for my taste. The meat was perfectly cooked. It tasted just as my primal beef memories thought it would. It was absolutely fantastic and we loved sitting at the bar watching the guy cooking everyone's orders and keeping the wood fire burning to his standard.
Of course, nothing can quite match that fantastic, simple meal, but B.A. and Montevideo have a few other taste treats. Empanadas are great. We would generally buy these huge Caprese empanadas from street vendors and that served as lunch. The artesanal ice cream is fantastic, as is the artesanal chocolate. I have to admit, I missed my S-bucks, but cafe con crema serves fairly well as a latte. The problem is that I am not a latte person--I like regular drip best. Since we were there at Easter, there were scads of chocolate eggs. If you have been to Italy around Easter, you know what I'm talking about: hollow eggs with a surprise inside. They are often wrapped in fancy foil or cellophane and many are elaborately decorated with chocolate or bits of nuts.
We definitely want to return!
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