Asado!

One of the things John and I were really happy about in moving to this new house is having some outside room.  Our bedroom opens right onto the balcony!  We have a great parilla (barbeque grill) and almost immediatley made use of it when we moved in! 

We invited over some friends, all threw meat on the grill and ended up with some great barbeque!  We weren't exactly sure how to go about lighting it, using the charcol, etc. but really, it's not that different than the in the states. 

A really common (and very cheap) thing to grill here is chorizo sausage.  They grill it and eat it in a sandwich with some salsas and maybe mayo, ketchup and mustard and it's delic!! We had several choripans that night as well as some steak, ribs, and other meats!



mmmmm



View from our balcony.  Sorry it's kind of dark

A New Home!

I´m late in posting this, but about a month ago John and I moved houses.  We only moved about 15 blocks, but it seems like a huge move!  The neighborhood  is still Palermo but it´s now "Palermo Soho" and not "Palermo Hollywood" whatever that means...

It´s a huge move in the sense that it has a totally new feel.  The neighborhood is a little bit older, a lot more residential and a lot busier.  We live on the 8th floor (the top floor) of a strange architectural building and have a parilla (argentine grill) and couldnt be happier! 

We live with a French couple and a guy from Mexico.  When we moved in we lived with a Mexican guy named Rodrigo-he moved out and another Rodrigo from Mexico moved in-weird!

The kitchen-small, but does the trick

The living room-notice the HUGE window that spans one whole wall!

Hallway-nothing too special here

Living room again-not the nicest, but it works!

Bathing Buddha

A couple of Sundays ago John and I went to the Chinatown to stock up on all the imports us Americans can't live without, ie soy sauce, sriracha sauce, hot sauce, etc.  To our surprise, they were having a Buddha party in the street. 

I decided I wanted to join in on the Buddha festival, and went to watch what was happening.  After reading through the Vow of Buddha I thought it'd be a great thing to do!

Below is a rough translation of the Vow of Buddha:

To take the Vow of Bathing Buddha

1. In bathing the right shoulder, I wish to speak well.  In bathing his left shoulder, I wish to do good deeds,  In bathing the bathe back I wish to have a positive mind

2. In bathing the right shoulder, I wish to have a healthy body.  In bathing the left shoulder I desire to rid of all the accumulated karmas.  In bathing the back I desire to increase my wisdom.

3. In bathing the right shoulder, I wish to be more compassionate.  In bathing the left shoulder I wish to have more patience.  In bathing the back I wish to serve the good of society.

4. In bathing the right shoulder, I wish to have a thriving business.  In bathing the left shoulder I wish to have a united family. In bathing the back I wish to have a harmonious society

5. In bathing the right shoulder, I  wish to increase my wisdom.  In bathing his left shoulder, I wish to have successful studies.  By bathing the back I wish to have good affinity with everyone else.

So, as you might have guessed, what was set up was a spot to bathe Buddah.  I asked for help from some of the men working the bath area and he explained to me what to do.  First, I was to bow to Buddah to show respect.  Then, I was to bathe his right side, followed by his left side, followed by his back.  A lot of people were out for the event, it was pretty cool!

This is how you do it...

First the right side...





Then the left side...





Then the back...



Then the bow!

This dude loved bathing Buddah!

Feliz Cumple!

For John, I feel bad. 

He unfortunately has the role of boyfriend to a rather needy girl come every May 5th.  You see, May 5th is my birthday.  For as long as I can remember my birthday has been the most important day of the year.  In fact, I recall telling my mom once that my favorite holiday was my birthday (mind you she had asked expecting an answer like Fourth of July, Christmas, etc.) But really, why wouldn't someone love their birthday the most?  It's a day (I'd like to think it's a week rather than a day, really) that's yours-you don’t have to share it with anyone, and everyone is supposed to be nice to you.  Chances are, you get a free dessert at a restaurant... and you get gifts... it's the best.

So, for John, I feel bad.

I believe he agonized over my birthday this year-what to do, what to say, how to spend it, etc.  In the end, he executed it just perfectly!  He knew that we would be traveling over my birthday so he decided to cut to the chase and have a celebration before we left. 

He chatted me at work one random day and said "don’t go home tonight, I have a surprise for you."  Then, he signed off! I had no idea what to expect or what was up his sleeve.  I thought maybe he wanted to surprise me randomly with something cool.  The longer I thought on it though, the more I realized it was probably birthday related-which was obviously very exciting! 

We met at a subway stop and he took me downtown.  We hurriedly walked through the shops and rows of stores and stopped in front of one in particular.  He told me he had done extensive research on leather jackets and had one picked out for me but wanted me to try it on first.  We went into the store, and unfortunately, it wasn’t really what I was looking for (although at that time I didn’t know what that would be).  We shopped around some more that night, but didn’t find just what we were looking for.  We'll try again another day. 

As we were heading home he says well that's just part one, part two is at home.  When we got home he had gone to a place nearby that we've both wanted to go that has lots of great spreads, cheeses, meats, breads, etc.  He had bought a little bit of everything and a bottle of wine! 

John, I'm singing your praise!

Not in Kansas Anymore?

At first when I started traveling I thought it was kind of cute and funny when the "you're not in Kansas anymore" jokes were made.  Haha, I'm from Kansas...and there was a movie about Kansas once...

Now it's old.  No, I don't have a dog named Toto and no, I don't have ruby slippers.  Alas...the jokes will continue, and I will probably continue the courtesy laugh and smile. 

However, a big however, the other day when John said I guess we're not in Kansas anymore, it made a lot of sense, and was rather funny - I'll explain:

We went to the Eco reserve here in Buenos Aires.  It's a beautiful, huge park at the edge of town (literally backs up to the river) that has walking and bike paths and large overgrown trees and grasses.  Sunday was a beautiful day and we spent a long time walking around the park and taking in the nature.  I was going kind of crazy with the camera taking photos of the fields when John remarked "I guess you know you aren't in Kansas anymore when you are taking pictures of fields."  It was funny to think that for really, most of my life I have lived near fields.  There was nothing special about a field - in fact, it was boring before moving to Buenos Aires.  Now it's a treat, it's a great escape from the streets and noise and bustle of a city. 

Some of the pictures, however, I took as an interesting juxtaposition - it shows the fields, grasses and nature, backlit by the skyscrapers and tall buildings of the city. 

Just Around the Corner

Keeping in line with the idea that we'd be trying out great new places and doing "cool stuff" we ventured out on Friday to try what was supposed to be a great place in our neighborhood for pizza.  We, unfortunately, failed at finding the place we were looking for; however, we did find what is potentially a new favorite.  The place couldn’t be any more Porteño. We sat down outside (as there were actually no tables inside) and the waiter (eventually) brought us our menu...a 5 foot chalk board with a few options for pizza, pasta and meat.  He did explain, however, that most of the options were no longer available, and that really, the option was pasta or pizza.  That was really just okay with us, because we wanted pizza anyway...

We were given the option of margarita pizza, mozzarella, or "of the chef," we decided to go with the chefs creation.  He asked if we had any limitations on what the chef could put on it.  We figured it was just whatever was left in the kitchen, and were slightly worried, but went ahead with it. 

It turned out to be excellent!  Below are a few photos from one of our new favorites.



A rotating menu I'm sure...



John, a bottle of wine, and a contraption that carbonates water instantly - a big hit here in BA





Pa´los que se atrevan

Well, we are off to a running start!  Neither John nor I felt like cooking last night, and thought we should take advantage of the last warm(ish) nights to sit outside somewhere and get some dinner.  Thanks to our handy organization system, we knew exactly the place to try out.  It was close enough to walk home, and we´ve had our eye on this place for some time now. 

La Fabrica del Taco or, The Taco Factory in English is a fun and what we thought to be, authentic Mexican restaurant.  We both agreed that the owner has got to be Mexican because the flavors are so spot on!

Today I actually happened to find an article on www.wander-argentina.com that did indeed confirm the owner’s nationality: Mexican.  In the article it reads, “First and foremost, we will always be about tacos,” says owner, Federico Lobeira, who aims to recreate the feel of the Taquerías in his hometown of Monterey, Mexico.”  Perfect, we were right!

We both started with Negra Modelo beers (not common here) and a plate of guacamole.  The guacamole was Johns favorite part I think- It was fresh, and creamy…oh so good.

We also both ordered Tacos al Pastor (a personal favorite), piled it on with spicy sauce (on the bottle it reads: for the brave-and not for argentines) They were delicious!  We both agreed that it was better than a lot of the Mexican food we get back home. 

Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me, so these are some of the photos I´ve lifted from the internet. 



Oh so classy neon front...





Al Pastor meat for the tacos, yum!



Hard to see, but the hot sauce bottles read: For those who dare, For the Mexicans, and for the Argentines.  Argentines are not known to like spice...