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

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...

A Long Weekend of Buenos Aires Dining

No sooner have I got settled again in Buenos Aires than my newly-wed couple friends arrive for a 10-day late honeymoon. They are staying with me in Buenos Aires for a few days either side of a trip to Mendoza and a bit of gaucho ranch life, so I set out to show them my favourite dining spots in the capital, plus a few new ones we'll discover together...

Thursday 24 November - Bardot and Soberbia 22 

We kick off at Bardot on Honduras for a pre-dinner cocktail. I've walked past this place many a time with its purple and pink interior and thought it looked like a trendy brothel, but apparently it's a Peruvian-Japanese sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, the restaurant tends to look empty whenever I walk past, so we just sit outside for a cocktail on the street. The Pisco Sour - a cocktail made of pisco liqueur, lemon, angostura and egg white - is simply perfect and refreshing.

Bardot, Honduras - image from http://www.restobardot.com/es/index.html

After the cocktails, we end up at Soberbia 22 because we leave it a bit too late to book and everywhere else is so busy. I really fancy going to Las Cabras on the corner of Fitz Roy and El Salvador, but unfortunately the place is heaving and they can't sit us down until 11pm and my friends - newly arrived from London - are a little too tired for an Argie-late mealtime. So we head to 22, a pretty empty-looking parrilla on Fitz Roy with Guatemala - the only place we can find that's not completely heaving. 

We sit outside on the street and, unfortunately, see a lone cockroach scuttle up the wall right next to our table, but we're not too perturbed since it's not inside the restaurant and it's a hot, hot night - I guess we can't take it out too much on Soberbia 22. The steak is pretty good and my newly arrived travel friends are perfectly happy, so we all go to bed well-fed and well-rested.

Friday 25 November - Cabaña Las Lilas

Friday evening, we head to Cabaña Las Lilas, a famous, touristy steak joint in the popular Puerto Madero port area. I have been here twice before, in 2007 and 2008 - the first time brilliant, the second time disappointing - so am not sure what to expect of it in 2011. One thing's for sure though, the place couldn't fail to disappoint any newcomer to Buenos Aires in terms of its decor and atmosphere - as you walk through from the front entrance of the restaurant on Alicia Moreau de Justo, you can't fail to notice the enormous raw steaks on show in the kitchen, where you can also watch the chefs at work.

A chef at work at Cabana Las Lilas

We barely know where to start with this huge array of steak on offer... Ojo de Bife, Bife de Chorizo, Asado de Tira, or the enormous Bife de Costilla... 

We kick off with the Cabaña Las Lilas house cocktail, consisting of gin, peach pulp and champagne. Then, because we are mad, sun-obsessed English folk, we decide to sit outside on the terrace in the baking evening heat - a decision we later regret.

I've somehow managed to wangle myself a free steak and wine lunch at an Argentine mining company's end-of-year press do, so I can't quite manage another steak and I order the pollo de campo - an absolutely exquisitely grilled free-range chicken, which I cannot fault. The others order steak and are not disappointed in the slightest. The accompaniments are enormous and we're so full we can't quite manage the limoncello and sweet treats that come with our coffees... 

Limoncello at Cabana Las Lilas

I can safely say Cabaña Las Lilas is happily back in my good books. Yes, it is certainly one of the most expensive places to eat in Buenos Aires - as you might expect in one of the most touristy areas - but the food is abundant and can't be faulted, and my guests are well-nourished and delighted.

Saturday 26 November - Osaka Part II

After an afternoon in La Boca, in which we get scammed by a cafe bar that gives us a 50-peso note as change that we only realise is fake when a taxi driver refuses to accept it, the three of us are happy to be back in the comfort and safety of relatively scam-free Palermo Hollywood in time for dinner. I am proud to take my guests to Osaka, and I dare even say the sushi restaurant is even better second time round. We order the usual mix of salmon sashimi, mouth-watering ceviche and a few hot dishes and, of course, the essential Saturday-night pisco sour for good measure.

Sunday 27 November - Olsen and San Telmo Sunday

Lazy Olsen Sunday brunch

We arrive early for brunch at the well-known Scandinavian vodka-bar-come-brunch-spot Olsen (on Gorriti 5870) as I know it's hard to get a table here on Sundays - the place is full by 12:30. The menu is super-simple but it works: think coffee, orange juice and scrambled egg or omelette. We while away a couple of hours in this hip, open-air eatery (though it's a little too early for vodka).

After brunch, we jump in a taxi to San Telmo, the neighbourhood known for its Sunday antique markets, funky gift shops and restaurants. We wind up in an old deli place with a cool interior and ask if we can just order some cheese and bits of ham and salami. The old man on the deli counter looks at us as if we're complete nutters for ordering off-menu, but eventually turns up with an enormous plate of cheese, olives and assorted ham. Seeing our order, a couple at a nearby table asks for the same and, soon enough, we've started a trend and the entire restaurant is chomping away on huge plates of delicatessen items. 

Deli food in San Telmo

Unfortunately, I fail to note the name of the restaurant, so it will just have to be known as the unnamed San Telmo deli...

The unnamed restaurant in San Telmo

Buenos Aires Dining - Grappa Pizza

Having heard Grappa is the best pizza restaurant in Buenos Aires, I'm eager to try it out when an old Argentine girlfriend suggests we meet up. 

So I'm a bit disappointed when the pizza comes up short of my expectations. The restaurant itself is on a beautiful, cobbled street corner - El Salvador with Ángel Carranza - and is perfect for people-watching, but the pizza tastes a bit fried and greasy for my liking. The service is good and I enjoy having a proper, two-hour conversation in Spanish with an actual local - I'm ashamed at how little Spanish I've spoken after almost two months in the Argentine capital. But unfortunately, Grappa is out and Bakano still wins for me in the Buenos Aires pizza stakes.

Grappa

A Weekend in São Paulo

I've hardly been back from Patagonia for long before it's time for a long weekend trip to São Paulo. For work, but fortunately just for the annual Latin America Summer Party - basically a fun jolly on the beach with loads of free food and catching up with my fellow LatAm journos.

It's the first time I've been back to São Paulo (apart from my brief trip through the airport last month) in two years - since the last summer party I went to in December 2009, after leaving my home in Brazil in December 2008. The first thing that hits me when I step off the plane from Buenos Aires is how cold it is. Like, literally, about 15 degrees C colder than Argentina, just a 3-hour flight away, so I'm already starting to feel a bit skeptical about Saturday's party on the beach!

I am staying at the Hilton Morumbi, the hotel that was once my home for about two months in early 2007, so it feels strange to be back, especially since all my bosses and colleagues are now roaming around the same hotel. I head straight out for dinner with a couple of journo colleagues who work in Brazil and then straight to bed after a late night on Thursday, ready for a day in the office on Friday.

On Saturday it's the Summer Party. We get coaches from the office in São Paulo's Brooklin to Guarujá on the South coast of São Paulo - about an hour's drive. The party is at Forte dos Andradas - a private, military beach where, apparently, President Lula likes to spend his holidays! As such, we arrive to machine-gun-laden top military police-style security.

Photo courtesy of Google Images

The rest of the day is spent lounging around drinking Caipirinhas, Caipiroskas and eating delicious barbecued food and sweet treats. There are tons of activities - fencing, football on the beach, kids' face-painting - but I am, quite frankly, happy just to chill (literally - as it's cold and windy) and get gradually merry while I catch up with friends.

I ate at least six of the delicious condensed-milk-and-chocolate brigadeiros you can see at the bottom of this picture

As the evening draws on, it gets colder and we warm up on the beach with a bonfire and a few more cocktails. I can see why Lula likes this place...

Forte dos Andradas, Guarujá

Saturday night, shattered, we take the coach back to São Paulo and go for some late snacks and drinks at the Hilton's Canvas Bar.

Sunday, I have planned to do a little Christmas shopping at my old favourite Shopping Morumbi before meeting friends for lunch, but on arrival at the shopping centre, I realise nothing opens until 2pm. All I want is some Brazilian coffee to take back to a colleague in London, so I'm gutted not even Café do Ponto opens til 2. How's a girl supposed to get a coffee before noon in this place?!

Instead, I while away the time waiting to meet my friends for lunch by sitting outside the coffee shop in the lobby of the shopping centre, admiring this lovely Christmas tree... Merry Christmas to you too, São Paulo!

Shopping Morumbi, São Paulo

San Telmo Dining - Brasserie Petanque

After a quite frankly mind-numbing conference about fertilizers on Tuesday, I am overjoyed to be invited out for dinner that evening with my new BFF Steel Drama Queen (SDQ) and her friend, who is visiting from London and studying a little Spanish while working up a tan that is already 20 times better than my own and she's only been here a couple of days... sigh...

SDQ takes us to one of her faves, Brasserie Petanque, a French restaurant on a quiet street corner (Defensa with México) in San Telmo. Once again, I have no photos of my own, so here's one from the website:

Brasserie Petanque, San Telmo

The restaurant is authentically French and, on SDQ's recommendation, I go for the traditional French onion soup followed by boeuf bourguinon. The food is delicious, the atmosphere refreshingly French, but the best thing about the evening is catching up with my fellow British girls and having some hearty, girlie giggles about pretty much absolute nonsense. It's amazing how much I miss the girlie banter from back home, especially in an office mainly full of men.