A Lazy Palermo Monday

Today is a bank holiday in Argentina (Dia de la Soberanía Nacional) and my friends have gone off to a ranch in Mendoza, so I spend a lazy day wandering around Palermo Soho for a bit of Christmas shopping.

On the way to the shops, I stop for lunch at Club Serrano, a relaxed little lunch spot in Plaza Serrano/Plaza Cortázar where you can sit on the rooftop café/bar after 2pm. I order a very healthy caprese salad and freshly squeezed orange juice and watch the world go by from above before I head down into the throng. The waiter seems amused that I like to come here by myself and asks me a few questions about where I'm from, what I do etc. Always good to have a bit of banter when you're solo-dining...

Coffee, Havannet, magazine, biscuits and sunshine... bliss

One of my absolute favourite things about this country is Havanna, the coffee-shop-and-chocolatier chain that specialises in alfajores, a sandwich-biscuit a bit like a Wagon Wheel, filled with delicious, sickly-sweet dulce de leche. I have actually already eaten one too many alfajores though, and my new favourite treat is the Havannet - a dark chocolate, upside-down cone filled with dulce de leche with a biscuit bottom. A bit like a Walnut Whip, only filled with soft fudge instead of marshmallow. Probably one of the most calorific things money can buy, but I couldn't care less - it's divine. I stop off mid-shop for a café con leche and a Havannet with free biscuits - ludicrously expensive with the inflation in this country, but still nice and relaxed and no more expensive than, say, Starbucks.

They have an offer on boxes of Havannets and biscuits if you buy a coffee there, so I buy a couple of cases to take home as Christmas presents and one for the office, which should make me popular over Christmas...

Buenos Aires Dining: El Obrero

The Irishman arrives on Friday morning - his 40th birthday - and, typically, for the first day in ages, it pours with rain. He wants to go clothes shopping in Palermo Soho because he came to Buenos Aires four years ago and remembers it as being cheap as chips. I have already assured him about massive inflation and that it's more expensive to buy clothes in Buenos Aires now than it is in London, but he doesn't believe it until he returns to the same stores he went to a few years ago and sees the price tags for himself.

We wander around in the rain for hours and get soaked but we find him a few cool shops, make a few extortionate purchases and finally head to El Obrero for a birthday dinner. El Obrero is one of the more famous restaurants and adorns the pages of every guidebook I've seen, but we've had it recommended to us by various people and we can't wait to try it. We've made a 9pm booking as it books up fast.

We get a taxi to La Boca, which is essential since the area isn't safe to walk around at night. I am way too dressed up for this place in a long, silky, colourful dress but it's a special occasion. El Obrero is packed to the seams, half with tourists and half with the locals. The walls are covered in football regalia, menus and posters and it has a cosy feel.

The photo is from the restaurant's website as I didn't take many of my own

We order celebratory champagne, followed by a bottle of delicious red, and a couple of steaks, medium. We have several enormous side orders and proceed to stuff our faces. The service is simple but the food is absolutely delicious - certainly a perfect 'Welcome to Argentina' meal for the Irishman, and extremely affordable. 50 British pounds for two steaks, one portion of mashed potato, one portion of chips, a salad, two glasses of champagne champagnes, water, bread and a bottle of wine.

Buenos Aires Woes

Why is everything so difficult here?

Woe #1 - The sardine-effect on the subte. Whereas in London I would at least get a seat after a couple of stops of being squashed in a hot, sweaty, human sandwich, here I have to stand for my entire 10-stop journey, while I get jolted from left to right, hitting my fellow passengers with my enormous bag as I go.

Woe #2 - The oven in my flat is from about 1853. There is no button to light the stove or the oven. After two days of vain attempts, my neighbour finally came around last night and showed me how to light it manually with a super-long match. I have a massive fear of fire. This is not good.

Woe #3 - The supermarkets don't take cards. What is all that about?!


Yesterday, on my way home from the Palermo Soho experience, I decided to stop at one of the small local supermarkets in Palermo Hollywood to pick up a few bits and pieces.

I fill my shopping basket with a ton of essentials - shampoo, conditioner, bread, toilet roll. I am shocked to find a loaf of bread that's 16 pesos. That's about £2! A small bottle of non-main-branded ketchup is also about £3 and practically everything is more expensive than it would be in England. I can barely believe it. No wonder the restaurants are so full here - it's cheaper to eat out than in!

Finally I get to the counter and the Chinese dude behind the till puts all my items through. I go to pay with my credit card and he shakes his head at me.

"No credit cards," he says in heavily accented Spanish.

"Why?" I say, thinking the machine is simply broken.

"No credit cards in supermarket," he says. This is a permanent thing, it's not just for today. 

I have racked up more than 100 pesos of goods and I only have 60 pesos in change, so I have to put most of it back. The shop assistant looks at me as if I am stupid.

Bear in mind this is a decent-sized supermarket, larger than, say, a Tesco Metro or Sainsburys Local in the UK. And they don't take credit or debit cards. Unbelievable!

Exploring Palermo Soho

Thank God today is a bank holiday. I can barely walk, for all the post-marathon stiffness, so getting to work might be a bit problematic. 

After a long and well-deserved lie-in, I decide a walk around the area to ease a bit of that lactic acid would be a good idea, while getting to know my neighbourhood, so I set off for a wander.

I head towards Palermo Soho, which is on the other side of the train tracks. It turns out the area sometimes known as Palermo Viejo is divided into two zones - Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood. Palermo Soho is the bit south (hence Soho) of the tracks, and Hollywood is north of the tracks, where I live. Hollywood has a huge concentration of incredible restaurants and lots of tiny supermarkets, while Soho is home to all the trendy, expensive clothes shops, cute little cafés and chic bars and nightclubs. 

A few years ago, when I first visited Buenos Aires, I found a great little roundabout surrounded by market stalls, restaurants and bars, but I don't remember exactly where it is or what it's called, so I set off walking, map in hand. It turns out you can cut across the train tracks on Honduras, which is just a couple of blocks from my flat - meaning I could have saved myself a bit of a walk when I was lost in the rain the other day. Doh!

It takes me about fifteen minutes walking along Honduras before I hit Plaza Serrano (also known as Plaza Cortázar) - the roundabout with all the cool restaurants and bars. The stalls are all still there and I spend the afternoon perusing and doing a little shopping. This place is a shopping paradise. The only bad thing is it is so expensive compared with four years ago when I first came. Brazil isn't the only place that's been hit with inflation!

I go for lunch at a place called Maleva, where I went with my friend Michelle in early 2008, almost four years ago. I seem to recall we popped in on the off chance and ended up paying £5 each for an amazing three-course meal complete with wine. So when I walk in today, I'm expecting similar. I'm dying for my first steak after four days in Argentina and I order the Ojo de Bife Maleva - a rib eye steak in barbecue sauce. Barbecue sauce is by no means my favourite way to enjoy steak, but after wandering past better-looking restaurants and feeling reluctant to sit in a posh place all by myself, I settle on Maleva, where I think I'll feel more comfortable.

Sadly, the Maleva experience just doesn't compare with what I had in 2008. The steak is average and is smothered in thick, gloopy, sickly barbecue sauce. And it sets me back much more than it would've done four years ago. I walk out feeling greasy, over-full, yet still unsatisfied. I won't be going back there.

I head home via the supermarket and settle down to rest my legs for the rest of the day. Bank holidays rock!