Food Glorious Food!!!

I’d like to speak to the manager!!!

We’ve just arrived at the arrived at the airport.  

Chef appeared.  His son is with him.  There were hugs all around, and then we headed toward the exit, parking, and the trip into the city.  

My knee is killing me.  I should have taken a photo, it was huge and aching, but I pushed through it.  As with my NYC trip, complaining isn’t going to help.  

Just do it and hope for the best.  

We walk slowly to the car, get settled and there is much discussion about what should happen first. 

What I wanted more than anything in the world was water.  I was sooooo parched.  

Adam, however, was not feeling well.  Unbeknownst to me, until he woke up about an hour before the plane landed, was that he’d been sick at his stomach all night.  

When we exited the airplane, he looked clammy, and pale, and you could see it in his face that he wasn’t feeling great.   

He put on a good face. 

As we drove into the city, there were jokes, and questions, as we learned about the Buenos Aires.

Ultimately, we decided to go to our Air BnB in Palermo.  Chef had just chatted with the owner, and he was expecting us in about an hour.  Chef suggested, we show up and see what happened.  

About 40 minutes later, we arrive.  

As soon as we get out, the owner is there.  

He is so nice.  And warm.  And gives us big bro type hand shakes. 

He’s also like 6’4,’ muscular, speaks with a Scandinavian accent, and is very, very sexy.  

But I digress.

He registers us with the building, gets us keys and up we go.

We are staying on the top floors, 29 and 30, of a luxury high rise building.  

He gives us the tour.  Shows us how the appliances, air conditioner etc work.  

Jokingly, he asks if we want a tour of the gym, since it seems like we might enjoy spending time there. 

Very funny.

And then he is gone.  

Chef leaves.  

We are alone.  

Tired.  

Adam is still not well.  

We agree that first things first we need water.  

Adam goes to get water, and then we both shower.  I have enough oil on my forehead to fry French fries.  

I lay on the couch downstairs, with my foot elevated, he naps upstairs.  

Two hours later, we are alive and hungry. 

Like ancient hunters we go out, in search of food.

We considered this as an option, simply because of its name.

We wander around, not knowing anything about where we are, but eventually find a diner.  Well, I don’t know their word for it, but it was a diner. 

We sit.  We order.  

A cheeseburger to share, with French fries.  I order a water and a beer.  Adam orders an Americana.  

The beer arrives and it’s a 1L bottle.  For one person.  

This is going to be a great trip.  

We eat.  I think it’s delicious.  It’s not an American burger.  It’s a version of a smashburger, between two shells, similar to a tortilla shell, but not quite the same.  Adam is not as thrilled but I think it’s because he isn’t feeling well.

We pay.  

But first we google what to tip in Argentina.  

The going rate is 10%. 

Never in my life have I tipped 10% on purpose.  

I read the article again, but it’s says 10%.  

And not mandatory.  

We get the check.  

It’s 5,000 pesos.  

We give her a 1000 peso tip. 

When we hand it to her, she comes back with the change, we explain it is for her and she is so overjoyed. 

We just appreciated her patience when I tried to order soda water.

Fun fact:  Spanish for soda water is:  Aqua con gas.  I’ll never remember this.  

Before I go on, let me tell you about currency in the country of Buenos Aires.  

The official currency is Argentine pesos.  

And the government has an official exchange rate, just like every country, that they recognize.  

BUT.

And here is the interesting part.  

There is also what’s known as a blue dollar.  And it is a black market exchange rate that is recognized by everyone.  It is not illegal, and it is almost double what the official exchange rate it.

The official government exchange rate today was 176.37 pesos for every dollar.

The Blue Dollar exchange rate is 344 per dollar.  

Almost double.  

If you use your credit card, debit card, or go to an official exchange place you’ll pay double. 

Also, the dollar is really, really, strong right now.  

Lunch, with the tip was less than $20.  

We head back home, stop for more water.  30 minutes later we are asleep again.  

The alarms go off.  We are up and at it, and we meet Chef downstairs at 6:15 to start our evening adventure.  

First, we learned from sexy Air BnB guy that a restaurant we want to go to, offers 40% off if you dine before 8.  We had planned to eat there anyway, so why not spend less.  

As with European countries most people don’t even start to think about dinner here till 8:00.  

The restaurant doesn’t take reservations, and when we get there at 6:30, a line has formed around the block. 

Chef goes up to the door, realizes that they have no more seats for their first seating at 6:30, and instead puts our name on the waiting list.  He is told to come back at 8:10.  

He tells me when he returns that the English speaking tourists were all losing their minds at the door because they’d been standing in line for an hour and we still going to have to wait.  

We go in search of cocktails.  

As we walk, he points out things that are special.  The coffee shops on every corner.  The pharmacies.  The stores that only sell vegetables.  The stores that only sell candy.  The stores that are open 24 hours and sell water and beer.  The restaurants that aren’t even open yet and it’s 6:30.  

We wander and see a bar, that is open.  It looks cute.  

We go up to the door and it won’t open.  We assume it’s a private party.  We try again.

We stand outside, discussing our options.  

Adam, finally gives it one last go, and a man from inside, opens the door.  

Turns out the lock is broken and the door won’t open from the outside without a key.

We go in, and there are about 30 seats.  Its tiny. And every seat is taken.  

Chef approaches a man behind the counter, and we are offered seats on the street.  We don’t care,, it’s a drink, then on to dinner, so we go outside and get comfortable.  

The restaurant is a wine bar, and is called https://www.pain-et-vin.com/home

The guy who greeted our table, the same man from the counter, comes out and says hi.

He asks if we speak Spanish, we say English.  He jokes that his English is terrible, but we’ll figure it out.  

The he asks about water. Still or Sparkling. We get both.

He goes into the restaurant, and I think to myself, WOW.

He is super skinny, kind of a rocker haircut and one arm isn’t a sleeve tatoo, so much as it’s all colored in.  No design.  No pattern.  It’s just tattoo green.  He has tattoos on his hands.  One on his neck.  His fingers are covered.  

And here’s the thing. 

He looked like he should be the entertainment for the night with his band, not the wine steward.

He helped Adam choose a bottle and it was perfect.  

The server is super nice, funny, has terrible English skills but was great.  

We enjoy the space, the street, the wine and most importantly the company. 

In no time at all it was time to go back to the other restaurant.    

We get there about 20 minutes early, but they are ready for us.  

We are seated. 

What follows was an amazing culinary adventure.  

The restaurant was called La Cabrera.  http://lacabrera.com.ar/menu-la-cabrera/

The restaurant was fun, is well known, and specializes in meat.  

The server was a grumpy old man, who we grew to like a lot.  

The tables very close together.  The service was excellent, but very different than an American restaurant.  

First, the staff did things that would get them fired at my restaurant, but I’d go back tomorrow if I could.  

There is a menu to show you how to order your steak.

We sit and are started with bread and olives.  

Turns out there is a restaurant fee added to the check to cover expendables, like plates, linens etc.  Too add value to the charge, they offer complimentary things to start.  

We ordered wine.  They didn’t serve liquor, so wine it was.  Chef defers to Adam and he selects a beautiful chardonnay.  

While we are waiting on the wine, chef orders.

And he ordered all the things.  

Chinchulin, which are Agentine chitlin’s 

Sweetbreads:  Look it up if you don’t know

Blood Sausage:  Look it up

Beef Kidney

Argentine Sausages

Empanadas. 

The food started coming out and it filled the table.  There were four boards, each covered in meat, with their own sauces in ramekins.   

There is so much food we don’t know where to start.  We toast to the coming week and we are off. 

These are the chitlin’s.

On the right is beef kidney! The left is Chitlin’s.

In the back the ramekins are chimichurri and puréed carrots.

The red in the ramekin is a beet puree, not ketchup. On the right is a salsa criolla, and in the foreground is a ramekin of spices that you use to soak up the meat juices.

Delicious sweet breads!

Argentine sausage on the left, blood sausage on the right.

I’ve haven’t tried a few of these things.  And if you know what most of them are you might not eat them.  Turns out everything was delicious.  Everything.  We keep, cutting pieces of meat and then passing them around the table.  

We are full before the boards are empty.

They also served with traditional side, but they are tiny, tiny, tiny portions.  Enough for everyone to have one fork full.  All equally as good.  

The table is cleared. We order more wine.

Adam selects a red, but the server says he should go with something else.  Chef ultimately decided to go with Adam’s selection of the red.  It too was delicious.  

Then came the entrees. 

EXCEPT.  

We had ordered a tomahawk ribeye but they are out.  So they substituted a 2” new York strip and a long bone short rib, cut length wise, and grilled not smoked.  

We wait a few minutes and the food is delivered.  Two big boards covered with meat.  

These were also served with their own accoutrements.

The NY Strip on the left, the long bone short rib on the right.   

The carving of the meat!!!

All was delicious. 

The boards are cleaned, our plates are clear and what now it’s time for dessert.  

We are discussing whether we even want dessert, when Chef realizes we never got the empanadas.  Which is a big deal, because that’s one of the main reasons he is in Argentina to begin with.  

We all laugh about it.

But alas it’s too late.

We order dessert.  We decide on the surprise dessert.  You order and they bring out the dessert special of the night, without knowing what it is.  But alas they are out of that as well, which is one of my favorites the Eaton Mess.  

Chef, in Spanish, tells our grumpy waiter that we would like him to bring us a little bit of each dessert, and 15 minutes later it appeared.  

The pistachio gelato was the hit of the night.  

We finish up with coffee. 

And.

Finally, after three hours, we were given the check.  

I’ll let you all guess how much this meal was in American money?  

Go on guess, I’ll tell you tomorrow.

We pay, discuss the tip at great length, end up leaving 25% and head back to our car.  

After dinner, Chef gave us the 60 minute tour of the city.  Past places like the zoo, the botanical gardens, the National Theater, the National Cathedral, Casa Rosado, all of the big shopping areas, and beautiful buildings.  The French Embassy, was especially beautiful.  

Then it is 11:30. We are back in our Air Bnb.  

Adam showers and heads to bed.  

I stay up and write yesterday’s post and start this post, which takes longer than it should because I was so tired.

This was my view as I sat at the dining table writing my post.

I get to bed around 3:30. I lie there awake, with my knee throbbing in the dark, very grateful for this experience.