In what might be the worst offender in a lifetime of questionable decisions, I took my flight home and returned from Buenos this week. A whirlwind vacation that started on my birthday, when Mili greeted me like this, ended with 31 pounds (!!) of laundry, hundreds of photos and many more awkward stories.
Buenos Aires is an amalgam of many cities, a reflection of its past as center of trade and a point of entry for European countries into South America. Its relaxed pace, with the mid-afternoon cafe breaks and long lunches, reminded me of Madrid (as did the party-til-dawn club scene), while the Belle Époque architecture and obsession with croissants (called medialunas) echoed Paris. Some blocks could have been lifted straight out of New York, while others bore a striking resemblance to Kolkata. But even though it recalled so many other places, the city retained a warm, welcoming vibe all its own — a place where cab drivers applaud drunken backseat singing, locals help you practice Spanish while also teaching you to tango, and the gelato guy lets you try every single flavor in the store without question.
(In case you couldn’t already tell, I loved it. Why am I back in NYC again?)
The food of Buenos Aires reflects its European heritage. The aforementioned medialunas are ubiquitous, as is gelato, pizza and pasta (often handmade). A popular cafe drink, the submarino, requires drinkers to literally melt a bar of chocolate in a glass of steamed milk, and depending on how much chocolate you use, is very similar to the chocolate I used to drink in Madrid.
Beef, of course, is king in Buenos, and almost every block has a parilla on it. The famed pampas of Argentina produce excellent grass-fed beef, which is then lightly seasoned and tossed on an open grill, producing some of the best steak I’ve ever had. A parilla, which refers to both the type of restaurant and the type of grill, can offer as many as 15-20 different types of grilled meat, including a sirloin, rib-eye, tenderloin, flank, short rib, and even pork chops, chicken and offal.
Many places offer a parillada, which is a sampling of the grill (usually for sharing), but for our parilla experience, we went to Don Julio’s in the Palermo Viejo neighborhood and they don’t have that. Mili and I ended up created our own parillada of sorts, ordering the sirloin, tenderloin and a pork chop. We didn’t even bother with sides — those are ordered separately and we didn’t want to detract from the main event. Topped with a bit of chimichurri, the meat was perfect — tender and juicy and perfectly seared — proof that good meat needs very little to be very, very tasty.
Some of the other culinary highlights: the pairing of pumpkin with a slightly sharp melty cheese, like Provolone, was very popular, and tasted awesome. I had this in both cazuela and tart form, and would love to try this as a baked pasta or possibly an empanada.
I also tried a choripán for lunch one of the days. This sandwich, popular for a grab-and-go snack, is simply a hollowed-out roll filled with a link of grilled chorizo and a bit of chimi. So simple, but so good!
Not sure if it was a highlight per se, but we also tried mate, a drink made with the dried leaves of the yerba mate plant. There is a ceremony to drinking mate — the preparer pours the leaves into a mate (a hollowed out gourd that can be decorated in a myriad of ways), then pours hot water on top strategically and drinks through a bombilla, a metal straw with a sieve at the bottom. The preparer must drink all of the mate before adding more water and passing it on to the next victim. The taste is definitely an acquired one, as the mate is herby and bitter, but porteños love it, and it’s not uncommon to see people drinking it on the street.
And lest you think that all I did was eat there, don’t worry — I also found my summer home. On Saturday, we visited Tigre, a river delta about an hour outside of the city, better known as “the Hamptons of Buenos Aires.” An hour’s river cruise (and a casual encounter with the Buenos Aires Rowing Club) was enough to convince me that moving to Tigre is a must.
We also explored the parks of Palermo, the colored houses on El Caminito in Las Bocas, got our culture on while watching a ballet at the beautiful Teatro Colon, learned how to tango, roamed through a many-blocks-long artisan crafts/flea market/street fair in San Telmo, and managed to squeeze in a spa day and some quality girls time. All in all, a very successful trip.
Now remind me, why am I back in NYC again?
WHY ARE WE BACK????!!!