More Adventures - Argentina 2009

Things you need to know about eating and drinking in Argentina

1. If you order beer in a cafe, you will get a small dish of salty snacks - peanuts or chips, or sometimes, several kinds. But those are only for beer drinkers. Snacks do not come with wine, soda, or cocktails (which hardly anyone drinks anyway). The moral: if you want a salty snack, someone in your party must order beer. This can be difficult at times, since 80 percent of the beer offered is one brand, Quilmes. You can also get Heineken and Stella, but that's about it. We did have Salta beer in Salta, which was pretty good.

2. Soda always comes in a bottle, and then you get a small bucket of ice, with tongs, to go along with it. This is true in even an inexpensive restaurant. We've only seen one can of Coke the whole time. Speaking of soda, for some reason Fanta (orange soda) is wildly popular. We've even seen people mixing it with beer, and people having it with dinner in addition to wine. Someone told us that is trendy at the moment.

3. Coffee is everywhere, but no one is carrying it around. There are cafes on every corner, where people can be seen having coffee at all times of the day and night. It is clear that a good amount of business, along with socializing, is done over coffee. We've seen a few Starbucks, but few if any people carrying around paper cups of coffee.

4. Staying on the coffee theme, cafe con leche (coffee with hot milk) is the drink of choice for many and has its own rules and rituals. For example, cafe con leche is always served with a small glass of soda water. We've been told that it is needed to sip between sips of the very strong coffee, but no one appears to drink it. Cafe con leche also comes with some kind of very small sweet, such as a cookie or bite of cake, even at breakfast time.

5. Contrary to popular belief, the national dish is not beef, it is a tostada -  a toasted sandwich usually containing ham and cheese. It is ubiquitous - served at all times of the day and in almost every restaurant. Often it comes even if you didn't order it. The bread is super thin, so it is light and actually pretty good. Pictured here is typical breakfast, including cafe con leche, medialunas (croissants) and tostadas. Note the mineral water and small bite of cake.

6. On to dinner. When you go to a restaurant, often you encountered a locked door, even in a nice neighborhood. (We've inquired and only heard about how that was to keep the a/c in.) At the table, you will be greeted with a great bread basket that includes up to 7 kinds of different bread. Delicious. The beginning of the meal, ordering, getting your food, etc. goes at a pretty typical pace. But once you're ready for the check, forget it. You might as well settle in a for a long wait. One more thing: many restaurants have a small table set up next to the table where you are dining. This is an overflow area for wine and water bottles, bread, etc. It actually is a great idea because the table doesn't get too crowded.

Mountain of the Seven Colors

We spent the night in Purmamarca, in the northwest of Argentina. The Mountain of Seven Colors flanks Purmamarca, and offers a dramatic backdrop to this beautiful town. Here it is in the morning:

And here it is from a different angle in the afternoon. The position of the sun changes the colors.

Salta La Linda

We just got back from a side trip to Northwest Argentina that took us to many interesting towns plus some of the most majestic landscapes either of us has ever seen. The home base for that trip was Salta, a lovely city that has a population of around half a million but seems much smaller. Salta retains many of its original Spanish colonial buildings, which is one reason they call it Salta La Linda or Salta the Beautiful.

Salta lived up to its reputation. We loved it. There are more photos in the photo album in the right hand column.

Cabildo's Little Devil

The town hall in Salta is called the Cabildo. I took this picture of the weather vane on the top as we were in pizza in the main square. This little guy is known as the Little Devil.

Llamas

Our tour guide Estevan was messing with this baby llama at a roadside market. He was trying to get the llama to spit at him. He never succeeded, but the llama did pucker up several times as a threat.

Daddy llama was sitting down next to his son, keeping a close eye on Estevan.

Later that night, I had my first taste of llama steak, a specialty in Northwest Argentina. It's lean and tough, almost chewy, but it was very very tasty. This particular dish was served with rellenos stuffed with guacamole.

Food!

We've taken lots of pictures of food on this trip, and know that a few of our friends (you know who you are) will enjoy looking at them. There's a new photo album in the right hand column just for you. These are just a few; check back for more. Pictured on the right was an odd tomato and mozzarella salad with, that's right, thick deli-sliced mozzarella. We have had fresh mozzarella here but also have seen lots of this as well. No bad but not what we were expecting. On the other hand, where we are right this minute, in Salta in Northwest Argentina, we have had unbelievable goat cheese made by the people who own the goats. More on that later.

Dog Walkers

There are dogs everywhere - all different sizes. We have never seen more dogs being walked without leashes anywhere. There are also a lot of dog walkers. This is something you see several times a day.

El Cuartito

While we were planning the trip we bought a book called The Authentic Bars, Cafes and Restaurants in Buenos Aires, and we have been trying to visit some of the places that are profiled. Several of them are pizzarias - pizza is huge here (along with a lot of other Italian things; eveyone says Ciao, for example). This place had the trademark on old school atmosphere. The slices pictured are fugazza, a traditional pizza with onion (really delicious); faina, more of a snack really, made out of chickpea flour; and a ham and pepper slice. All washed down with a giant bottle of beer, of course.

The Museum of Clothing History (sort of)

We love unusual museums. We have many under our belts: The National Museum of Funeral History and The Museum of Printing History, both in Houston; The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in St. Paul; and of course, two visits to the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, WI. To that collection, we have now added the Museo del Traje - a small museum of clothing. The photos speak for themselves:

 

San Telmo Excursion

On Sunday we took the Subte (subway) to the San Telmo district. This neighborhood has a rich history. In the 19th century the upper-class citizens of Buenos Aires built their mansions. They were abandoned in 1871 when yellow fever epidemic hit. Newly arrived European immigrants immigrants moved in and converted the mansions into tenements. More recently many of the building have been restored and it the area is now populated with artists, students, and (of course) tourists.

We attended the "Feria de San Telmo", the Sunday street market that reminded us of a Cooper Young Festival on steroids. Tango dancers, bands, crafts, t-shirts, food, "mate" (more on that interesting drink later), and general people watching.

This photo shows a small section of the market; it branched on the side streets and into the little parks and squares. 

We ventured down one of the side streets and came across this fellow cooking up lots of "bife". I'm not sure if it was a private cook out, but there was a long line of people waiting to be served.

The first souvenir

 

Jardin Zoologico

We arrived Saturday tired from not having had much sleep on the overnight flight. So after lunch, we decided that a visit to the zoo nearby would be a restful thing to do. It was old fashioned and wouldn't pass muster in the U.S. but we enjoyed it.

Many of the animals were housed in small buildings that were designed by a prominent architect named Carlos Thays. The buildings had been expanded with cages that matched the style of the buildings. Also there was quite a bit of non-animal themed sculpture, some within the exhibits.

Some of the small animals were not penned in, but wandered around freely. On the other hand, in one exhibit a regular old cat had wandered in, and someone was petting it.

You could buy food to feed the animals, but some people were just throwing their peanuts at the animals to get their attention, I guess how people used to do in other zoos back in the day, before natural habitats were created.

Updating the travel blog

Planning our trip to Argentina and getting the blog set up makes me reminisce about our last big trip, to Southeast Asia. That was a really memorable journey. I decided to leave the pictures and posts up for that one, just for old times sake. I'm guessing there will be quite a contrast. Unfortunately our favorite travel companion Jeanne will not be along this time. That would bum me out more if I didn't think that she and I (and the three of us) will be doing a lot of fun trips together in the future.

This is our first trip to South America and we're excited. I'm celebrating a pretty big birthday this month and it seemed like a fitting time for a longer trip, since we hadn't been on one for a couple of years. Buenos Aires has been on the short list for awhile. We decided to do a longer trip and get outside the city for an excursion. There are lots of different regions to travel to, including the Mendoza region (wine country) and of course Patagonia. After a bit of research, we decided on the northwest, based in Salta. The region seems to combine interesting towns with some incredible geography. I look forward to posting lots of great pictures. There is also a secondary wine region (around Cayafate) in that general area which we'll be able to explore.

-Emily

We're Home

Everyone is back: Jeanne in New York, Emily & Les in Memphis, and John & Alan in Phnom Penh. It was a great trip. We're sorting through more than 1000 photos and we'll post a dozen or so this weekend in a new photo album.

Final Day

It's Thursday morning in Luang Prubang - our last day in Southeast Asia. We've not posted to our blog as often as we would have liked, mostly due to lack of time. That's a good thing, I suppose. We've got a lot of travel in front of us - a flight this afternoon to Bangkok with an overnight stay, and then a 6am flight on Friday from Bangkok to Tokyo. We'll post more pictures and thoughts over the next 24 hours. It's been a fantastic trip and we want to document it.
    Luang Prubang is a lovely city, very colorful and quiet. After 4 days I have yet to see a policeman. Laos is a poor, communist country that has seen plenty of conflict, both internally and as a pawn in the battles between superpowers. Yet the people are gentle and sweet, and the smiles are genuine. The pace is slow, and the food is unique and really great. And they make a great beer - Beerlao - which is served in large bottles and consumed in abundant quantity. This is a place where one could settle in and never leave. In fact, we've met several westerners who have done just that.
- posted by Les

Toilets

In Southeast Asia "squat toilets" are the norm. (I won't describe these, just use your imagination). But the restaurants and hotels that cater to tourists have the traditional toilets that we all know. Since the public restrooms in Siem Reap (Angkor) are used by both tourists and locals, the powers in charge thought it necessary to post signs on the proper use of these facilities.

Monks in Luang Prabang

Early every morning the monks leave their quarters and walk, single file, to the wats to pray. Along the way, the local people line the road and offer alms of fruit, rice and bread. These alms are placed into orange bowls carried by the monks. We observed this ritual this morning at around 6:30 am, as a couple hundred monks in bright saffron colored robes came down the street. Most of them - in Luang Prabang at least - are young boys. It is customary for every boy to become a novice monk and spend three months studying in the wat.
    In the afternoon you see these boys walking down the street, sitting at computers in the internet cafes, or wrestling in the grass in front of the wat - still wearing their orange robes and usually carrying a black umbrella. The photo below is a novice monk walking down the street in front of the Apsara Hotel (the white building with balcony on the left), where we are staying.

The Food Scene - Part II

We have eaten some incredible food in our time here. In Bangkok and Cambodia as well, a lot of the restaurants serve Thai food. Many of the dishes are curries or stir fries, incorporating coconut milk, chiles, and lots of fresh herbs. The Khmer cuisine of Cambodia uses some of the same ingredients but is considerably less seasoned (some would say it is bland). One specialty there is Fish Amok (pictured here), which is fish with coconut milk steamed in a banana leaf. It is delicious and beautifully presented. In Laos, where we are now, the food draws from both Thailand and Vietnam, along with Laotian specialties. There is less seafood since Luang Prabang is not on the coast, although river fish is plentiful. One local delicacy we sampled is khai phun, dried seasoned river moss, a Luang Prabang specialty. Believe it or not, it was great.

Stuck Inside of Luang Prabang with Those No Wi-Fi Blues Again

We're in Luang Prabang, Laos, which is amazing. It is considered the most historically preserved city in Southeast Asia, and is rich with Buddhist temples and French colonial architecture from the turn of the century. The landscape is lush; we're at the juncture of two rivers. More about that later. This is the first place we've stayed that doesn't have wi-fi readily available (it's somewhat old fashioned here - in a really good way). So stay tuned for more posts in a day or two. In the meantime, check out some new photos we posted from Siem Reip and the Angkor Temples.

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

It's 1 am Saturday morning. We've arrived in Siem Reap (still in Cambodia) on Wednesday, all 5 of us intact and healthy. Thursday and Friday were spent touring the temples and the floating villages of the Tonle Sap Lake. Those adventures will have to wait for another post. Although there are plenty of internet connections (it's amazing that a third world country seems to have more Wi-Fi and cell phones than the U.S.), there has been little time to update the blog. We did manage to figure out our new cameras (Jeanne: Nikon Coolpix S1 and Les: Sony DSC-R1) and the new laptop and photo software (Apple iBook G4 with iPhoto). We're now able to efficiently post our photos in the photo albums, so check them out on the right side of the blog. You can click on any photo to make it larger. Stay tuned...

- posted by Les

Holiday in Cambodia

Phnom Penh is a mess. On the other hand, there is an undeniable charm to this gritty, former French colonial town that is the capital of Cambodia. The architecture is crumbling, the streets are full of potholes (the ones that are paved), traffic is a disaster, and the drainage systems backs up and floods the roads whenever it rains. But the residents are stoic and good natured, and it’s obvious they are working hard to rebuild their city, which not that long ago was considered the most beautiful in all of Southeast Asia. There is substantial investment...

Royal University of Agriculture

We visited Alan today at the Royal University of Agriculture, where he has his office. It was fascinating. Alan is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. State Dept., working in the areas of adult education and English as a Second Language (ESL). Specifically, he is working with college teachers at the University to help them learn instructional techniques for teaching English. The students at the college are preparing for research jobs in the agriculture industry, where the dominant language is English. Unfortunately teachers in Cambodia (including those at the college level) make $40-50 per month. To put this in context, this would around $8,000 per year in the U.S. Consequently most of them have to have other jobs to support their families.

The University campus was not what we would expect at home – a collection of modest buildings off a dirt road. But similarly to American institutions, there were friendly and attentive students hard at work and socializing between classes. We sat in on a vocabulary class being taught by one of Alan’s students, which was really fun.

                                                                                                - posted by Emily

Back to Bangkok for a Minute...

One great, noticeable addition to the Bangkok landscape from my last visit has been hip new, well-designed stores, restaurants, hotels, clubs and products. They are starting to dot the Bangkok landscape. Stores with modern furniture, and those with everyday items – housewares, office stuff, clothing accessories, etc.  A lot of it designed by Thai designers.  During our stay, I ran around the city visiting a lot of them -- hot new, fun stores called Propaganda, Q Concept Store and Playground.  The Metropolitan Hotel reminded me of the Mercer in NY.   The Design Center mentioned is part of this growing trend. I loved it.

Another note: the skytrain and subway system are so modern and efficient and help make this crazy city full of traffic, noise, heat and pollution so much easier to get around in, and also so much less oppressive. 
                                                                                                                            - post by Jeanne

New Years Day

    Sunday was the day that we left Thailand for Cambodia. It was also the day that jet lag hit the three of us: alternating waves of intense sleepiness followed by a second wind of energy. We're 12 hours ahead of U.S. central time zone, so the body is very confused.
    After a fantastic lunch at the really groovy Metropolitan Hotel, we checked out of our respective hotels and made our way to the Bangkok airport, bound for Phnom Penh in the Kingdom of Cambodia. John and Alan accompanied us on the 55-minute flight...

Happy New Year!

Bringing in the New Year at the Sheraton in Bangkok.