My Last Week in Buenos Aires

It's my last week in Buenos Aires before I go back to the UK and Ireland for Christmas and every day and night is packed with press lunches, end-of-year drinks and dinners, so it's all go.

Monday night I have more British friends visiting - a guy I worked with in Brazil back in 2004 and his friend, so I rope in Steel Drama Queen and a couple of her other friends (English and American) and we head to Miranda, which never fails to impress.

We start with a provoleta - my new favourite thing - and it goes down very well with my friends. I've had enough steaks in the last week to last me a lifetime so I go for my usual mouthwatering chicken Ensalada Jacinta, while my pals go for steak, lamb and one lot of pasta. We're all suitably stuffed and my buddies head down the street for an ice-cream (how many other countries do you know that have ice-cream parlours open at midnight?) while I head to bed for a very early morning the next day.

Tuesday night it's a business dinner with an economist visiting from the U.S., and we go to Happening, an upmarket parrilla in Puerto Madero that's very popular for business lunches and dinners. The steak is absolutely perfect and I even struggle to eat mine, but the service is unbelievably bad. Our waiter keeps abandoning us for up to an hour at a time and our water and wine glasses are left empty for long periods. I try several times to catch a waiter's attention and fail. I realise they are understaffed but, unfortunately, there's little in the way of apology and it becomes a three-hour dinner - not what I was hoping for by 1am when I'm shattered from the previous night.

Fortunately, I've been to Happening before for a business lunch and the service was a million times better, so I won't judge it permanently based on Tuesday evening's performance. 

The economist has some very interesting chat and tells us he has a Havanna index - i.e. Argentine inflation based on the price of a box of alfajores each year. He says it's risen something like than 120% (I don't remember the exact figures) since a year ago. Insane. 

Wednesday I walk around to my colleague's house nearby in Palermo for a quiet evening of wine, cheese and ham. And champagne to celebrate the end of 2011, of course! I notice an interesting-looking Evita museum in his neighbourhood and vow to visit in the new year.

Now it's off back to England and Ireland for three weeks. I'll miss you and your scorching heat, Buenos Aires!

I'll leave you with this shot of a Christmas tree near the Bosques de Palermo taken on my final 8.5k-run home from work of 2011:

Cluny & La Cabrera

For my newly wed friends' last weekend in Buenos Aires, we book Cluny for Saturday night with another couple who are actually on their honeymoon (Me? Gooseberry? Never) and La Cabrera for a final Sunday-night parrilla.

Cluny, on El Salvador, right in the heart of Palermo Soho, is a very stylish, cool, sophisticated restaurant with a smart, dim-lit interior and we begin our evening with a pisco sour on the white leather sofas in the bar/reception area. The place has a nice, calm ambience and the staff are friendly, but we're disappointed to find it half-empty - on a Saturday night at 11pm. I can only put this down to the fact that it's quite pricey and there's an abundance of other places to eat in the same area, but that doesn't stop La Cabrera from being chock-full every single night.

Pic from Cluny's website

Cluny describes itself as French-inspired with a Mediterranean feel. I order the Patagonian lamb and the warm chocolate pie with melting centre and we enjoy a couple of bottles of wine. The food is good but just not spectacular and the place lets itself down a little on the ambience.

La Cabrera is a much better experience. We arrive a few minutes early, at opening time, and we actually have to wait outside with a crowd of other diners until it opens - the place is that popular. We are seated at a small round table tucked away in one corner and are immediately hit by the ambience - the place just has a busy, lively vibe to it. Within a short space of time, every single table is full and the waiters rush from one set of customers to another, hurriedly trying to serve everyone. The place just has bags of character and history. The walls are adorned with restaurant reviews and different artefacts and the ceiling is complete with chandeliers made of forks and spoons and plenty of other relics to keep a roving eye occupied.

We start off with a provoleta - a delicious, semi-hard provolone cheese, grilled with oregano and served in a round dish. It is mouthwateringly moreish and is easily consumed by the three of us, despite the fact that my friend's husband has a stomach bug and isn't planning to eat much. 

The steak at La Cabrera

The restaurant recommends the Ojo de Bife (Rib-eye steak) as its speciality so we go to order two 200g versions, but the waiter says we're better off with a 400g chunk to share, as the flavours will be better. He isn't wrong. It's one of the best steaks we've ever eaten - juicy, fatty in a good way, tender and nicely medium. The steak comes with a huge selection of accompaniments in tiny pots - olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, bits of salad, peppers and different salsas. Needless to say, my friend quickly gets over his 'food poisoning' and is happy to tuck into a bit of meat!

The dinner is nicely rounded off when our bill comes with a tree made out of Chupa Chups lollies to suck on the way home. 10/10 for La Cabrera - I'll be coming again.

The lollies that come with the bill at La Cabrera