buenos aires.
buenos aires
after having checked the city’s list of highlights i decide to make it more of a food-eating than sight-seeing event. so i combine the walks through the city with culinary explorations.
the first trip to the cafe gran victoria at the plaza de mayo is promising:
- smoked patagonian venison and wild boar: deserves a double hurray.
- filet mignon with ratatouille: the vegetable is nicely cooked to the point but again they ignored my 'jugoso' order. maybe i have to cut off the waiter’s finger to communicate 'bloody' unmistakably? just an ok.
at the plaza mayo demonstrations are going on to get information about the fate of people who ‘disappeared’ during the dirty war in the 70ies, when the military regime got rid of everybody who seemed to have a different opinion. apart from this demonstration, as a tourist you’re not really aware of this past, you certainly don’t see it if you don’t know about it. for the argentines it’s still a daily business, although it looks like a hopeless and frustrating one.i continue to the famous cafe tortoni. i admit it has the ambiance of an old viennese café house, but the media lunas are a bit burnt and the coffee is far from being of famous quality. well, it's hard to keep up with its own fame.
i stroll through the streets and end up in the nice quarter of san telmo again: cobble stone streets, small shops and restaurants, people chat with each other on the streets. apart from the tourist stuff it actually looks like a functioning neighbourhood. a village in a town in a city. the economical problems are obvious though. let’s say it has a morbid charm. in the evening i try the steak house 'desnivel'. a basic, cheap, loud place for locals and tourists alike. the food is good but the service is somewhat different: the waiters just do as they like. they see you or they don't, they take your order or they don't. you get a pepper mill if you beg often enough, and for farewell the waiter hits you in the back just nicely enough not to break too many of your bones - i have my revenge and crush his hand as hard as i can :-) i can't help it but i think this is part of a show only to make people talk about them (just like i do). as their food is good enough they can obviously follow this sm-style service. who knows, one day they show up with leather and chain gear-
buenos aires
the next morning i visit the national art gallery with a little stopover for some coffee and a lot of croissants and another coffee and more croissants. the museum is a bit of everything from the early middle ages to the impressionists, to contemporary argentine painting. and some good pieces from rodin. not too bad for a morning trip.
i return through the parks to the ultimate buenos aires tourist highlight: the cemetery of the rich and famous and the very important in recoleta. it’s a must to go to evita peron's grave. it’s easy to find: just follow the masses and stop where people gather to take pictures (that's like looking for lions in krueger park: just look for a traffic jam). well, some mausoleums are impressive but in the end it’s nothing but some marble and concrete. i guess i lack a needed fascination for dead generals and presidents and presidents’ wifes. at least i can say i’ve seen it. one day i might be able to use it for trivial pursuit?
back to the restaurant routine:
on today’s list is the fancy and celebrated steak house ‘las lilas’ at the harbour. - bbq zucchini with frisee salad and ricotta (the salad is fresh the zucchini is nicely cut but unfortunately burnt, a beginners mistake - i know what i’m talking about...you have to watch it permanently), not a bad idea but ruined by its careless realization.
-good meat, it’s cooked as ordered! but for a price 3 times the standard a must.
summary: if you have money worth a try. you pay for the quality of the meat but also for the location. i’m strolling trough san telmo again. to my shame i have to admit that it took me rather long to find out what the real good coffee in this country is: cortado. an espresso with a bit of properly foamed milk on top. don’t copy my mistake: do not order cappuccino. so i use my new knowledge and order a cortado with more of the croissants. some tango dancers do a good show at the plaza dorrego in between the stalls that offer antiques. after this little intermezzo and more walking i return to the dinner table in san telmo: a steak place. again? well, yes and no. it turns out not to be like the other places i’ve been so far. the ‘el viejo’ close to the plaza dorrego is the place to have steak in argentina. not because it’s famous, just because it has the best meat and they are able to do it the way i want it. it’s an unassuming hole in the wall but in terms of steak the 'plus haute cuisine'. and we're talking about 3 dollar for a 400 g fillet. may all vegetarians forgive me for this moment of pure culinary lust. but to be honest: if i were a cow i wish i would end up like this. if they kill me anyway i want turn out at least as a perfect steak. that’s what i call respect for a cow!
after the first bite i applaud the master at the grill. the chef just grins and shrugs his shoulders as if saying 'what can i do. i am that good'. he’s not really what i would call a respectable impression: he smokes his cigarette in between the action scenes and looks just like somebody who stands hours next to burning charcoal. but to give him the praise he truly deserves: what he does is simply perfect. so it's fine he doesn't look like a mother in law's favourite candidate. i order another one of these heavenly pieces. the waiter is irritated: 'una mas??' - 'si. no quenta. lomo. porfavor. jugoso!' (that’s all the spanish i know: no bill, fillet steak, please, bloody). he laughs and screams the order through the restaurant to the bbq chef. by the way: the 2nd piece was just as good.
buenos aires.
i walk along the harbour pier to the tourist part of the quarter la boca. this is not the harbour of fancy restaurants and tourists, this is the harbour of rusty ships, oil and poor people. the houses and huts are falling apart. people hang out in the streets. if i spoke proper spanish i’d have a closer look and talk to the people but under these circumstances i keep a safe distance. you never know what misunderstanding you cause. it’s one of these rare moments when i don’t take my camera out. the more i see the more i have a feeling this is not an area that is recommended for tourists. this can’t be the ‘la boca’ that is such a hype. at the end of the pier i know that i have finally reached the tourist area. suddenly the houses are all painted and sort of renovated to cater for the usual needs: restaurants, art and other junk. after the impressions of the last 30 minutes this is absolutely absurd. it’s like you go through a door and enter a completely different world. it’s crowded, noisy, colourful and cleaned up. the weirdest thing of all: every restaurant has its own dancers on the street (some of them rather pose for pictures then actually dance) and to make things worse its own tango music. the tango has finally prostituted itself. it’s a real circus. where san telmo has kept an ambience and authenticy this is just a show to get a piece of the cake. but who am i to criticise: i’m part of it. but at least i can make a statement, so i leave after a coffee. and i wonder why they stopped to make it look nicer after the first 2 street blocks. a lot of room for optimization. dinner at the tomo uno in the grand plaza hotel. for a change no steak tonight. - fried filot dough filled with goat cheese and herb + cheese sauce: very nice, but the sauce would improve with a bit white wine.
- tomato rosemary soup: the only remarkable thing is that it is not remarkable at all.
- sole with lemon butter sauce and chicory and some unknown green-red salad: yummy.
- orange sorbet with citrus sauce: well done.
summary: not bad, not outstanding.
buenos aires.
i have no drive to do the trip to the river delta at tigre. instead i do another standard buenos aires tourist thing: the guided tour through the teatro colon. the most remarkable thing about the tour is that i meet my english teacher from high school. this is very, very strange. is that normal? i have serious doubts. as there is nothing else on my list for the day i return to the harbour for some lunch at 'katherine': - crepes filled with crab, mushrooms and leek, saffron sauce: great texture, cooked to the point and the sauce is perfect.
- patagonian lamb with spinach and tomato filling + carrot-onion confit: the meat is tender and tasty but the confit is too oily.
- warm white and dark chocolate cake with amarena cherry sauce: great combination of flavours and colours. outstanding idea and realization: the cake is a baked dough bowl with melted chocolate inside. interesting effect when you open it. i have to find out how this is done.
summary: great place to have non-standard argentine food. 3 thumbs up. as you can see, i can give positive criticism...just give me a reason: be creative and do it right. i return to downtown to check the malls out. apart from the change problem (the atm gives 100 pesos bills that nobody accepts, except you have a 95,40 pesos bill) here's another one: available size of clothes. i wouldn't say that 'large' is an unusual size. but that's blank theory. here’s the reality: fancy designer shops in a fancy mall. that’s where usual tourists from usual countries with usual sizes shop. e.g. me: no pygmy, no giant, simply 1,85 metres, no fat belly. 1st shop: only medium sizes, 2nd shop only xxl. no sweaters for me, no revenue for them. to compensate my frustration and have some entertainment i go and visit the guys from dior and yves saint laurent. nothing beats showing up with boots, t-shirt and backpack. but to be honest: it’s disappointing. no expected strange looks to comment on my appearance. that’s only half the fun. they probably know you hide a credit card somewhere or they are just relaxed... i doubt that they are that cool in germany - yup, exactly, there's no relaxed germans. ysl has nice ties so i get some... one day i’ll even put them on (too bad i return too late for the company’s x-mas party to show off some international haute couture...).
i return to the hostel with the symbols of luxury, capitalism and decadence. may i mention that i have to find my way through a mass protest of thousands of people? may i also mention that every other word on their banners was 'che' or 'communism'? just like eating some juicy steak while marching with the militant international vegans. that’s true entertainment. final dinner at 'casa de esteban de luca' in san telmo.
- variations of cooked and dried ham and gruyere: the best dried ham i’ve ever had. no shit. incredible.
- fillet mignon with merlot sauce: perfect meat but the sauce is too sour, very plain mashed potatoes.
- lemon sorbet: simply lousy.
he service is remarkable in its own way. usually the waiters in the better restaurants are attentive, very friendly but 'invisible'. here we have some of a different type: 'service according to the price of the ordered wine'. as i can't drink a whole bottle i have to get one of the small bottles. 1 out of 1 is not a big choice, so i have no chance but to be classified as guest type 'small bottle' which equals ‘worth to be ignored’.
here’s an example of the alternative. welcome to tonight’s show. the cast: a waiter, some guests (no wine experts). the waiter makes a big fuzz about recommending some special wine, accidentally (really?) the most expensive on the list. the guests are so intimidated or feel so well consulted that they take the wine with great joy. to make their status visible to everybody in the restaurant they get real wine glasses (i’m not only guest type 'small bottle' but also ‘small glass’: hardly the size of a proper glass for white wine). with a lot of blabla and even more gymnastics and a very loud bang (ups, why not shake the wine a bit, too?), so that every guest who hasn’t seen the glasses yet hears about the ‘expensive bottle’ guests, the bottle is opened. then the cork is given to the guests ceremoniously. unfortunately this gesture is neither appreciated nor understood. their helpless faces show that they have no clue what to do with it. to widen their horizon the waiter elaborates on the issue of the cork for complete 2 minutes. now the decanter is brought to the stage. with more dynamics than elegance the waiter pours the wine. here i am a bit disappointed: i would expect that the complete ritual would be shown but there is no check for sediments with the candle. you think that was it? we’ve only seen the 1st act ‘wine’. now comes the 2nd part ‘food’: as they are defined as 'expensive bottle’ guests they have to endure permanent attention. 'anything else?, how do you like it?, blablabla '. not 2 bites without the waiter showing up... fascinating to watch, i feel sorry for them. i’m tempted to order one of the expensive bottles only to return it with a simple 'the cork is not ok'.
by the way: it takes 15 minutes to get the bill. but only 15 seconds to pay without tip.
summary: from terrible to fantastic, you can have it all in one menu. the waiter's show is impressive but might turn the meat chewy and the wine sour.
i wonder how long i would survive as a professional critic. after a week the chefs' mafia would start to sharpen their knifes and i would end up on some plate (hopefully not overcooked). i guess a german critic is like a persian poet: a natural extremist. the one is born to complain about every little fuzz but certainly for a good reason and the other can't but elaborate on the most prosaic thing with colourful flowery words. maybe a persian critic survives longer...but is it my fault if they hear 'well done' when i say 'bloody'? if they did it right i would praise them endlessly. not necessarily in the flowery way but precisely, formally correct and with a very well hidden humour. in short: the german way.
buenos aires.
final day, shopping day. doesn’t that sound exciting? just another pair of shoes and a leather jacket. yes, leather is quite cheap. and off to the airport. again a trip is finished. highly recommendable: great landscapes, nice people, heaven if you like steak, hell if you're vegetarian.
after having checked the city’s list of highlights i decide to make it more of a food-eating than sight-seeing event. so i combine the walks through the city with culinary explorations.
the first trip to the cafe gran victoria at the plaza de mayo is promising:
- smoked patagonian venison and wild boar: deserves a double hurray.
- filet mignon with ratatouille: the vegetable is nicely cooked to the point but again they ignored my 'jugoso' order. maybe i have to cut off the waiter’s finger to communicate 'bloody' unmistakably? just an ok.
at the plaza mayo demonstrations are going on to get information about the fate of people who ‘disappeared’ during the dirty war in the 70ies, when the military regime got rid of everybody who seemed to have a different opinion. apart from this demonstration, as a tourist you’re not really aware of this past, you certainly don’t see it if you don’t know about it. for the argentines it’s still a daily business, although it looks like a hopeless and frustrating one.i continue to the famous cafe tortoni. i admit it has the ambiance of an old viennese café house, but the media lunas are a bit burnt and the coffee is far from being of famous quality. well, it's hard to keep up with its own fame.
i stroll through the streets and end up in the nice quarter of san telmo again: cobble stone streets, small shops and restaurants, people chat with each other on the streets. apart from the tourist stuff it actually looks like a functioning neighbourhood. a village in a town in a city. the economical problems are obvious though. let’s say it has a morbid charm. in the evening i try the steak house 'desnivel'. a basic, cheap, loud place for locals and tourists alike. the food is good but the service is somewhat different: the waiters just do as they like. they see you or they don't, they take your order or they don't. you get a pepper mill if you beg often enough, and for farewell the waiter hits you in the back just nicely enough not to break too many of your bones - i have my revenge and crush his hand as hard as i can :-) i can't help it but i think this is part of a show only to make people talk about them (just like i do). as their food is good enough they can obviously follow this sm-style service. who knows, one day they show up with leather and chain gear-
buenos aires
the next morning i visit the national art gallery with a little stopover for some coffee and a lot of croissants and another coffee and more croissants. the museum is a bit of everything from the early middle ages to the impressionists, to contemporary argentine painting. and some good pieces from rodin. not too bad for a morning trip.
i return through the parks to the ultimate buenos aires tourist highlight: the cemetery of the rich and famous and the very important in recoleta. it’s a must to go to evita peron's grave. it’s easy to find: just follow the masses and stop where people gather to take pictures (that's like looking for lions in krueger park: just look for a traffic jam). well, some mausoleums are impressive but in the end it’s nothing but some marble and concrete. i guess i lack a needed fascination for dead generals and presidents and presidents’ wifes. at least i can say i’ve seen it. one day i might be able to use it for trivial pursuit?
back to the restaurant routine:
on today’s list is the fancy and celebrated steak house ‘las lilas’ at the harbour. - bbq zucchini with frisee salad and ricotta (the salad is fresh the zucchini is nicely cut but unfortunately burnt, a beginners mistake - i know what i’m talking about...you have to watch it permanently), not a bad idea but ruined by its careless realization.
-good meat, it’s cooked as ordered! but for a price 3 times the standard a must.
summary: if you have money worth a try. you pay for the quality of the meat but also for the location. i’m strolling trough san telmo again. to my shame i have to admit that it took me rather long to find out what the real good coffee in this country is: cortado. an espresso with a bit of properly foamed milk on top. don’t copy my mistake: do not order cappuccino. so i use my new knowledge and order a cortado with more of the croissants. some tango dancers do a good show at the plaza dorrego in between the stalls that offer antiques. after this little intermezzo and more walking i return to the dinner table in san telmo: a steak place. again? well, yes and no. it turns out not to be like the other places i’ve been so far. the ‘el viejo’ close to the plaza dorrego is the place to have steak in argentina. not because it’s famous, just because it has the best meat and they are able to do it the way i want it. it’s an unassuming hole in the wall but in terms of steak the 'plus haute cuisine'. and we're talking about 3 dollar for a 400 g fillet. may all vegetarians forgive me for this moment of pure culinary lust. but to be honest: if i were a cow i wish i would end up like this. if they kill me anyway i want turn out at least as a perfect steak. that’s what i call respect for a cow!
after the first bite i applaud the master at the grill. the chef just grins and shrugs his shoulders as if saying 'what can i do. i am that good'. he’s not really what i would call a respectable impression: he smokes his cigarette in between the action scenes and looks just like somebody who stands hours next to burning charcoal. but to give him the praise he truly deserves: what he does is simply perfect. so it's fine he doesn't look like a mother in law's favourite candidate. i order another one of these heavenly pieces. the waiter is irritated: 'una mas??' - 'si. no quenta. lomo. porfavor. jugoso!' (that’s all the spanish i know: no bill, fillet steak, please, bloody). he laughs and screams the order through the restaurant to the bbq chef. by the way: the 2nd piece was just as good.
buenos aires.
i walk along the harbour pier to the tourist part of the quarter la boca. this is not the harbour of fancy restaurants and tourists, this is the harbour of rusty ships, oil and poor people. the houses and huts are falling apart. people hang out in the streets. if i spoke proper spanish i’d have a closer look and talk to the people but under these circumstances i keep a safe distance. you never know what misunderstanding you cause. it’s one of these rare moments when i don’t take my camera out. the more i see the more i have a feeling this is not an area that is recommended for tourists. this can’t be the ‘la boca’ that is such a hype. at the end of the pier i know that i have finally reached the tourist area. suddenly the houses are all painted and sort of renovated to cater for the usual needs: restaurants, art and other junk. after the impressions of the last 30 minutes this is absolutely absurd. it’s like you go through a door and enter a completely different world. it’s crowded, noisy, colourful and cleaned up. the weirdest thing of all: every restaurant has its own dancers on the street (some of them rather pose for pictures then actually dance) and to make things worse its own tango music. the tango has finally prostituted itself. it’s a real circus. where san telmo has kept an ambience and authenticy this is just a show to get a piece of the cake. but who am i to criticise: i’m part of it. but at least i can make a statement, so i leave after a coffee. and i wonder why they stopped to make it look nicer after the first 2 street blocks. a lot of room for optimization. dinner at the tomo uno in the grand plaza hotel. for a change no steak tonight. - fried filot dough filled with goat cheese and herb + cheese sauce: very nice, but the sauce would improve with a bit white wine.
- tomato rosemary soup: the only remarkable thing is that it is not remarkable at all.
- sole with lemon butter sauce and chicory and some unknown green-red salad: yummy.
- orange sorbet with citrus sauce: well done.
summary: not bad, not outstanding.
buenos aires.
i have no drive to do the trip to the river delta at tigre. instead i do another standard buenos aires tourist thing: the guided tour through the teatro colon. the most remarkable thing about the tour is that i meet my english teacher from high school. this is very, very strange. is that normal? i have serious doubts. as there is nothing else on my list for the day i return to the harbour for some lunch at 'katherine': - crepes filled with crab, mushrooms and leek, saffron sauce: great texture, cooked to the point and the sauce is perfect.
- patagonian lamb with spinach and tomato filling + carrot-onion confit: the meat is tender and tasty but the confit is too oily.
- warm white and dark chocolate cake with amarena cherry sauce: great combination of flavours and colours. outstanding idea and realization: the cake is a baked dough bowl with melted chocolate inside. interesting effect when you open it. i have to find out how this is done.
summary: great place to have non-standard argentine food. 3 thumbs up. as you can see, i can give positive criticism...just give me a reason: be creative and do it right. i return to downtown to check the malls out. apart from the change problem (the atm gives 100 pesos bills that nobody accepts, except you have a 95,40 pesos bill) here's another one: available size of clothes. i wouldn't say that 'large' is an unusual size. but that's blank theory. here’s the reality: fancy designer shops in a fancy mall. that’s where usual tourists from usual countries with usual sizes shop. e.g. me: no pygmy, no giant, simply 1,85 metres, no fat belly. 1st shop: only medium sizes, 2nd shop only xxl. no sweaters for me, no revenue for them. to compensate my frustration and have some entertainment i go and visit the guys from dior and yves saint laurent. nothing beats showing up with boots, t-shirt and backpack. but to be honest: it’s disappointing. no expected strange looks to comment on my appearance. that’s only half the fun. they probably know you hide a credit card somewhere or they are just relaxed... i doubt that they are that cool in germany - yup, exactly, there's no relaxed germans. ysl has nice ties so i get some... one day i’ll even put them on (too bad i return too late for the company’s x-mas party to show off some international haute couture...).
i return to the hostel with the symbols of luxury, capitalism and decadence. may i mention that i have to find my way through a mass protest of thousands of people? may i also mention that every other word on their banners was 'che' or 'communism'? just like eating some juicy steak while marching with the militant international vegans. that’s true entertainment. final dinner at 'casa de esteban de luca' in san telmo.
- variations of cooked and dried ham and gruyere: the best dried ham i’ve ever had. no shit. incredible.
- fillet mignon with merlot sauce: perfect meat but the sauce is too sour, very plain mashed potatoes.
- lemon sorbet: simply lousy.
he service is remarkable in its own way. usually the waiters in the better restaurants are attentive, very friendly but 'invisible'. here we have some of a different type: 'service according to the price of the ordered wine'. as i can't drink a whole bottle i have to get one of the small bottles. 1 out of 1 is not a big choice, so i have no chance but to be classified as guest type 'small bottle' which equals ‘worth to be ignored’.
here’s an example of the alternative. welcome to tonight’s show. the cast: a waiter, some guests (no wine experts). the waiter makes a big fuzz about recommending some special wine, accidentally (really?) the most expensive on the list. the guests are so intimidated or feel so well consulted that they take the wine with great joy. to make their status visible to everybody in the restaurant they get real wine glasses (i’m not only guest type 'small bottle' but also ‘small glass’: hardly the size of a proper glass for white wine). with a lot of blabla and even more gymnastics and a very loud bang (ups, why not shake the wine a bit, too?), so that every guest who hasn’t seen the glasses yet hears about the ‘expensive bottle’ guests, the bottle is opened. then the cork is given to the guests ceremoniously. unfortunately this gesture is neither appreciated nor understood. their helpless faces show that they have no clue what to do with it. to widen their horizon the waiter elaborates on the issue of the cork for complete 2 minutes. now the decanter is brought to the stage. with more dynamics than elegance the waiter pours the wine. here i am a bit disappointed: i would expect that the complete ritual would be shown but there is no check for sediments with the candle. you think that was it? we’ve only seen the 1st act ‘wine’. now comes the 2nd part ‘food’: as they are defined as 'expensive bottle’ guests they have to endure permanent attention. 'anything else?, how do you like it?, blablabla '. not 2 bites without the waiter showing up... fascinating to watch, i feel sorry for them. i’m tempted to order one of the expensive bottles only to return it with a simple 'the cork is not ok'.
by the way: it takes 15 minutes to get the bill. but only 15 seconds to pay without tip.
summary: from terrible to fantastic, you can have it all in one menu. the waiter's show is impressive but might turn the meat chewy and the wine sour.
i wonder how long i would survive as a professional critic. after a week the chefs' mafia would start to sharpen their knifes and i would end up on some plate (hopefully not overcooked). i guess a german critic is like a persian poet: a natural extremist. the one is born to complain about every little fuzz but certainly for a good reason and the other can't but elaborate on the most prosaic thing with colourful flowery words. maybe a persian critic survives longer...but is it my fault if they hear 'well done' when i say 'bloody'? if they did it right i would praise them endlessly. not necessarily in the flowery way but precisely, formally correct and with a very well hidden humour. in short: the german way.
buenos aires.
final day, shopping day. doesn’t that sound exciting? just another pair of shoes and a leather jacket. yes, leather is quite cheap. and off to the airport. again a trip is finished. highly recommendable: great landscapes, nice people, heaven if you like steak, hell if you're vegetarian.