My First Conference and My First Real Steak

I may not have had a full five-day week in Buenos Aires yet, but the real work begins today regardless. An annual oil and gas conference is happening at La Rural, a conference centre in the capital, so I head there with my trusty colleague to mingle with some industry types and make a few contacts. My colleague is relocating to Rio de Janeiro and I'm making the most of our crossover period while he's still in Buenos Aires so I can learn the ropes. 

The conference is dull as dishwater but I make a few contacts and meet some other journalists. I'm quite surprised to meet at least three other British reporters and several other foreigners. Working in São Paulo, all my colleagues were Brazilian, but it seems in Argentina the foreign media companies use foreign correspondents instead of locals. I guess more foreigners want to live in beautiful Buenos Aires than in smoggy Sampa.

The silver lining at the boring conference is meeting a fellow young British journalist with whom I immediately hit it off. Let's just call her the Steel Drama Queen. We swap numbers and arrange to meet up soon.

In the evening, I go for dinner at nearby restaurant Miranda with a girl from work who I know from the São Paulo office - she's visiting Buenos Aires. Miranda is a really popular restaurant one block from my flat in Palermo Hollywood. I say popular because every time I walk or drive past, whether it's 11am on a Sunday morning on 1am on a week night, the place is heaving with people.

Miranda during the daytime

The Argentines like to eat out late though. I'm used to a 6pm dinner and I arrange to meet my colleague at 8:30pm, but she has a traffic-related disaster and arrives an hour late. At 9:30pm, the place is still just filling up, and when we leave after 11:30pm, it's absolutely rammed, with some people only just arriving.

I order the bife de chorizo with grilled vegetables - an enormous stack of roasted pumpkin and other veg - and mashed potatoes. My first proper steak (let's not count the one I had on Monday) is perfect. We finish off with waffles and ice cream and I head home exhausted but finally satisfied.