The Quest for Culinary Serenity, the Battle and How I Prevailed
Victory belongs to the most persevering
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)
It has been over 2 years of constant seeking to reach this moment. I have searched hundreds of little Chinos (Chinese run grocery stores), dozens of big box supermarkets (Coto, Disco, Jumbo,) and countless little fruit stands run by Bolivians, Peruvians, and Paraguayans…all in the name of procuring the perfect ingredients, to enable me to create the perfect home cooked meal here in Argentina.
And my friends…this day, i have succeeded.
Why Such a Challenge?
Its not that this is the greatest meal I have ever had. Neither is it that I feel that the local cuisine is somehow inferior or not good enough to satisfy much snobbish tastes…its simply that one particular meal that I enjoy greatly, that of rice & beans, with a melt the enamel off your teeth spicy salsa, guacamole, and fresh flour tortillas, has proved to be most difficult to reproduce here.
However, I will not allow myself to be defeated by my adoptive homeland, even as others have been in the past. So thus began my quest to somehow, recreate something that was totally foreign to this land, and be able to make it, on an economic level, and easily enough that it could be done on a regular basis at home.
Guacamole – Green-Goo has Never Tasted so Good
In a culinary sense, I am in many ways in heaven in Buenos Aires. One of them is because of the ample supply of fresh, delicious Avocados (Or Palta as they are known here). I mostly consume them in raw form on top of just about anything I can think of: Pasta, Lentils, Sandwiches, Eggs, etc…This is a carry over from back home where I never find it necessary to transform this perfectly formed produce into something else.
However only recently did I decide it was worth the effort to concoct the entrancing green-goo known as Guacamole. The ingredient list is not that hard to come by here. Avacados are everywhere, cheap, fresh, and ready to go. Garlic, in a country where 70% of the population have Italian ancestry…ya again not a problem. And finally
Limes…ya about that.
Limes pose a slight challenge. They are not quite as commonly employed in everyday cooking here as they are the Los Estados. Therefore finding them, at times is a bit challenging. This is only made more difficult when locals sometimes refuse to admit that there is a difference between the two.
For example, when ordering a Corona, if you ask for a slice of lime in it, the staff will always, no matter how clear you make it that you want a lime, and not a lemon, you will still be brought a beautiful, sweating bottle of Corona…with a huge Lemon sticking out of it!
Another common problem is that there seems to be no consensus about what the exact name is for them in Spanish. Sometimes you need to use “Limon” or “Limon Verde” (Green) and just hope they bring you the green ones. Other times the go by “Caipirinha” which is the name of a popular drink in Brazil that is made with sugar, cachaça (alcohol made from sugar cane) ice and limes. I even one time was told that they are called “Limas” by a small Bolivian woman at her little fruit stand.
But like I said, with a decent effort, you can find them without to much trouble.
*Apparently, Argentina is one of largest producers of limes in the world…Strange since limes here cost a good chunk of change…
Tortillas – Like Your Favorite Security-Blanket Food
Its hard to imagine “Latin” food in the United States without these beautiful little things. But after you actually look at the different cuisines of Latin American, you discover real fast that these are very Mexican, and that’s it.
Back home I use these guys for just about everything that you do with bread (save for Peanut Butter & Jelly…that would be kind of gross). My favorite is making breakfast burritos with eggs, fresh Mozzarella, and homemade salsa.
My search for these lovely concoctions of flour and water proved initially to be a most daunting challenge. After falsely assuming that I could find them at the larger grocery stores, I finally discovered them for the first time in the wondrous, “exotic-food” Meca that is China-Town. This first batch was amazing because most remarkably they were homemade and packed by a local firm. Along with my service/shopping buddy for the day Gilda, we found them by complete accident. Because as is the custom of Argentine markets (and even more pronounced in China-Town) things are sorted and grouped together rather haphazardly throughout the store, we encountered the tortillas under the refrigerated case that held ready-made Sushi.
After loading up at the market (nothing like carrying 60 tortillas in your service bag while doing 6 hours of service under the hot Buenos Aires sun), I started to notice that the more common markets also had tortillas after all. Termed “Rapiditas” I have now found a few markets that carry them regularly.
(Dont even try though to find ones made from corn…That technology simply does not exist here…save for the one little Mexican lady who will make them for you fresh and deliver them to you through her website…)
Refried Beans – The Tastiest Black Mush on Earth
Now many of you know me as something of a cook. So you might surprised that of all of the things that are within my culinary arsenal, you might be surprised that one thing that has never been included therein, are refried beans.
Lets be honest, the name itself does not inspire the healthiest imagine in my mind. For that reason I have historically tried to avoid them. But after looking into i realized that despite being termed misleadingly in English Re-Fired beans, they are only fried once, and if you use a healthy oil (like olive) they are not so bad.
So to build this “element” I first needed to find me some black bean. Thats not to hard, the big Jumbo has them, as do the larger Cotos, and Discos, and of course China-Town. I even managed once to find a can of “Cheater” re-fried beans at the big Coto. However not only as they of inferior quality than the homemade ones, but they also carry a hefty-price tag of 18 pesos ($4.50 US) a can.
So like many things that I now know how to prepare, my quest to make this “element” began with me really quickly asking someone how to make them. “Ya do this, do that, blah blah, blah…and you will have your refired beans” a friend told me. Being the occasionally cocksure, audacious person that I am, I went ahead with the aforementioned directions in my head as sufficient for making this dish.
My first attempt succeeded in leaving me with a mush of white crunchy paste, and black bean skins completely separated in a bowl. Not exactly the outcome I had expected.
After some more coaching from “Mamma Grizel” (Thanks for that by the way) I decided to try my hand at it again. And this time after a few key strategic changes, I managed to achieve that which I was seeking.
That first batch was the best black mush I have ever had…
Salsa Picante – In Search of Burning Bliss
Most of the difficulty involves acquiring chili peppers with sufficient hotness to excite my severely desensitized spice/pain receptors in my mouth.
“Im sure they must have something spicy here…” When that statement was first uttered during the first visit to Argentina by a naive Dominick, little did he know how it would take 2 years of hard work to find sought after spice.
In the End…Culinary Bliss of the Finest Order
Read MoreHow a BsAs Pickpocket Made my Day
Usually when bad things happen to you, and you go through the normal progression of emotions. In the case of something stealing something from you, I usually notice that I follow a pretty standard pattern. Shock, disbelief, anger, etc… However the other day I noticed that in addition to experiencing the normal emotional trip that comes along with someone stealing a piece of your property, I in fact found myself feeling something completely different.
I had taken the Teschs and Janelle (Batavia Congregation) out for lunch at one of my favorite Pizza places (Kentucky Pizza in case your wondering). Afterward, we all got on the subway together to head back to our respective dwellings.
Now normally I try to not stick out too much as a foreigner for safety/not wanting to get jacked reasons. However being with some quite “Gringo-y looking people” from back home (sorry Mike) and being quite excited by their presence, I was not my normal on-guard self.
As we walked onto the subway, I noticed some people trying to make fun of us in their poor English (Dont make fun of me speaking English if you cant yourself) as I turned around to say something to them, I noticed that someone had hit my back pocket (where my wallet was). Immediately I reached back to make sure it was still there. After confirming that it was, I began to check rest of the “Holy Trinity of personal effects”: Phone, Wallet, Keys. When I got to my phone however, I noticed that my phone was gone!
As I tried to figure out what was going on, I saw right in front of me this suspicious looking “Chabon” that with a nervous look on his face was putting something into his messenger bag. At that moment the train started moving and I had about 90 seconds to decide what to do before we got to the next stop. As I started contemplating how I was going to explain in my poor Spanish to the Police after I punched this guy and took my phone back why I did so, it suddenly hit me…I was actually happy this guy had liberated my phone from me.
Pleased to be Liberated From my Phone
The phone i had been using here was my old phone from a few years ago. I had kept it because I liked the idea of having a junkie phone to use while in Argentina on my first trips here. Recently before I left the States, I broke down and jumped on the bandwagon and got an iPhone.
After being here for a while i started to remember why I hated this phone…because it worked downright terribly. This dumb thing would randomly turn off in the middle of a call, fail to receive or send texts, along with a host of other annoying activities.
I would have switched over to the iPhone sooner, but Apple despite having completly won over my favor with its stellar technological engineering, is still an evil empire that resolves to restrict every intended use of its devises…including what carrier you use their phones on.
But as always…there is an army of dedicated, lifeless nerds out there that work night and day to help people like me, who need to “jailbreak” their phones, and “unlock” them for use on other carriers. The process is however quite complicated, and required a great deal of research to figure out exactly
how to complete the process.
Where I Realize That I am Rambling on About Something Stupid….
Anyways I am feeling like I am getting off point here a bit (lay off me its my first post in nearly 2 months). Basically what the thieving little hooligan did, is force me to go home, and figure out what went wrong with my initial efforts to get my iPhone working.
And to my great pleasure, it worked perfectly! I figured out what was wrong with my phone, and within 2 hours I had a new number, and was using my phone. Now I walk around the city, with my trendy iPhone in hand, and feel like i truly fit in with the rest of the skinny jeans wearing, scarf tying, Zara style embracing “Chetos” where I live. (well maybe with out
So in the end what does that incident teach me? That sometimes instead of letting a terrible event sap all of your joy, sometimes its possible for you to find a positive even among the bad…
P.S. One of the greatest uses for an iPhone, is finding ways to waste time…here I present the greatest of my work…ever completed in the subway.
Random Pictures From BA Life…
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| Sometimes you got to get some rest wherever you can…Such as here, while I was waiting for Abby to
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come and meet me for some calls. |
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| Getting caught in the rain has never been so fun. I was going for the Heavy Hitter look here. I swapped the Cigar for a churro…which I think it better. |
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| Our Pioneers (save for the 2 who went to the bathroom during the photoshoot) after our annual Pioneer Meeting. Since then we have gained another 4 pioneers. |
My latest News Story On BuenosAiresEnglish.com
So I wrote this piece about the conviction of the former military dictator of Argentina, on charges of crimes against humanity committed during Argentina’s so
called “Dirty War” from 1976 -1983. The Military sought to eliminate leftist (Socialism and Communist) movements and those who supported them. While these two factions fought it out, eventually the Military became to target not just active leftist militants, but also any and all that were deemed “subversive”. Over the course of only years, nearly 30,000 people “Disappeared” never to be seen again.
Read the article I wrote here and you will get some more information about this terrible chapter in Argentine history: http://www.buenosairesenglish.com/2010/12/former-argentine-dictator-videla-sentenced-to-life-by-court/
Here is another article that briefly covers the topic of the “Dirty War”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4173895.stm
For
an extensive history you read here at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War
Read MoreTango At La Catedral…
Buenos Aires is the birthplace of Tango. And it has been said that Tango is the soul of the city, like the blues is to Chicago, and Jazz to New Orleans. But here the connection between the music, and the very substance of the city runs deeper than I believe any other place on Earth. Only here do you find pictures of long dead Tango singers still plastered on alley walls. Only here do you see Tee shirts, key-chains, and every sort of touristic good, covered in a line from a 90 year old song…(See above Quote)
It only fitting then, that as part of my life here, that I should try my hand at Tango. And given that my friend Max was here, and I wanted to do something a little out of the normal drudgery of daily life, we decided that this would be a good time to return to a cherished little stop that all holds a fond place in our collective memory; La Catedral.
This is not my first visit to this lovely hole in the wall. Way back when our dearly departed friend James (Departed from BA, not from the world of the living…) was the master of all things late night in BsAs, he had taken us to this hidden sanctuary after the meeting one night. James if nothing else, had a one of a kind ability, a gift rather, to talk with the locals, and learn from them about where to find the best hole in the wall bars, the little nooks that held the best restaurants in town. The knowledge of this site’s existence, I believe to be among the finest of his many his finest acquisitions.
This was just such a place, that would require you to defeat that classic Catch-22 to find it; you will only find it if you already have been there, and you will never be there if you cant find it…Located on an obscure street in the middle of the city, away from the hustle and bustle of down town, and far from the glitz and glamor of Palermo Hollywood/SoHo, this is not where you would expect to find such a gem as this. When you walk up to the door, all you are greeted with is a normal inconspicuous looking door, and then upon entry, you are similarly unsurprised when you see a simple folding table with a equally inconspicuous looking man sitting there. You give him the 20 Pesos for the lesson ($5 US), you then receive a ticket and off you go…to a yet again simple staircase that leads up to the unknown. After passing through what seems like a labyrinth of hallways filled with unassuming discarded pieces of everyday existence…you finally enter through a door to find yourself underneath what at first appears to be a enclosure…only after you walk around it do you realize that it is a enormous stage, nearly 50 feet by 20 feet.
Then raising your eye upwards, you begin examine your new surroundings and you start piecing things together. You ave found yourself in what appears to be an abandoned warehouse/factory, that has been converted into a dance hall(if you thought this, you would be correct). With a large bar at one end, a large dance floor area in the center, that is flanked on all sides by random couches, tables, chairs, and other assorted furniture sourced from what one would imagine was some kind of Argentine garage sale. The rustic, and almost down and dirty poor surface here, fits perfectly with the roots of Tango, which emerged from the slums, and working classes in late 19th century BA…When you are in La Catedral you almost get the feeling what it must have been like for these poor beaten, battered and bruised souls, who only found refuge in dance.
Our Experience
Me and Max arrived early (very Taboo in Argentina…oh well) and took in the scenery while we waited for the girls. Like any forward thinking, intellectual guy, I made sure we had 4 girls to me and Max…(always have more girls than guys…Duh)
After talking with the young lady who would be our instructor for the evening, we were pleasantly rewarded for our wait, when our lady friends arrived. As the class began, we were given a brief into to Tango 101 by our teacher. After explaining the origins, and the moody, “wine flavored” nature of the dance, we were giving our first, and according to our teacher, most important lesson in Tango…How to walk with style. After walking around in circles for a while, learning to drag our feet with class, and eloquence, we finally were allowed to couple up, and try the moves for ourselves.
Now when it comes to Tango coupling, there is one thing that is quite important to remember. (I got so much flack for this statement before from my Argentine friends, I felt so vindicated when I hear our teacher say these words…) Our teacher explained to us, that this dance is all about improvisation. The Tango has a deep connection with its accompanying music, more than any other dance that I have learned, As such, each individual Tango (Dance) must be crafted to suit the specific song that is being played at that very moment. From the abrupt twists and turns of the flowing emotion carried forth by the Banoneón, to the strikingly personal lyrics that often cut to the very soul, the dance mirrors the music in every way.
After our brief, but helpful lesson, we were more or less left to our own devices as the rest of the evening unfolded. With a growing crowd for the for the second “intermediate” lesson at 10, we decided to hang out a bit and enjoy the scenery, and each others company. One of my favorite things about this place is that you get a feeling of being free to dance, or to simply lounge with your friends on the comfy sidelines. You feel no pressure at all to have to dance, but should you choose to do so, you will not in the slightest bit feel out of place, or that all of the attention is focused on you as if you were in the spot light. (even though there is a huge spot light in the middle of the dance floor…)
So after we had a few beers, and a couple of freshly made Empanadas…we had a few more turns at the dance floor before clocking out at a “reasonable Tango Hour”.
After reviewing my previous comments, all I can say about my experience here at La Catedral, is that words do it no justice, pictures only show half truths, and my ramblings of good times gone by, will only serve to create in you a desire to visit this enchanting place yourself. But I predict that you will go there with a certain unrealistic expectation, and find not something that is lower than you had imagined, but a place so charming and so engaging, that it exceeds the highest preconceived notice you could possibly entertain.
Notes To Readers:
La Catedral is located at Sarmiento 4006
10 Pesos just to dance, 20 Pesos for lesson and dancing
Beer is cheap about 15 Pesos for a liter, and Empanadas are about 3.50 Arg each.
Classes run every night at 8PM and 10PM, but Tuesday night is the standout night.
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| Jess and Gilda drowning in the blackness… |
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| Me and Abby “Tearing it up”…at least that how well we thought we danced… |
Getting To Play The Tourist…For Real
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| Walls, Windows, & Doors I |
On Thursday, Me and Max decided to jump on a boat and sail off into the unknown…Uruguay! Max having been here for about 10 days already, was looking to do something different, and I was looking to renew my visa for Argentina (Since I am not working for an Argentine company, I simply have a tourist visa that is good for 3 months at a time, at which point I need to exit the country and come back to get it renewed).
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| Max’s Classic Ford Ad |
So we bought two tickets on Buquebus to Colonia del Sacramento. This town which is listed as an UNESCO World Heritage Site has a long and complex history that has lead to it being among the most finely persevered 16th century colonial architecture in the world.
During our day trip I finally got the chance to try out my brand new SLR Camera (brand new to me anyways…thank you eBay). I took over 650 pictures, I edited them down to about 50 that I deem acceptable to show to the public. Please make sure to comment on them, as I am dying to hear feedback about them. I will embed a few here for a tasting. But if you want to view all of them (and I know you do…) you can view them on my Picasa account:
http://picasaweb.google.com/domthrgeat/ColoniaDec2010#
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| Classic Ford Ad I |
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| Wall & Flowers I |
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| Wall & Flowers II |
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| Walls, Windows, & Doors II |
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| Streetlight Serenader |
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| Lost In Thought |
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| Walls, Windows, & Doors III |
For those of you interested
in the detailed history of the city…
Colonia del Sacramento (formerly the Portuguese Colónia do Sacramento) is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the oldest town in Uruguay and capital of the departamento of Colonia. It had a population of 21,714 according to the 2004 census.
It is renowned for its historic quarter, a World Heritage Site. Modern Colonia del Sacramento produces textiles and has a free trade zone, in addition to a polytechnic center and various government buildings.
Founded in 1580 by Portugal as Colónia do Sacramento, the colony was later disputed by the Spanish who settled on the opposite bank of the river at Buenos Aires. The colony was conquered by José de Garro in 1680, but returned to Portugal the next year. It was conquered again by the Spanish in March 1705 after a siege of five months, but given back in the Treaty of Utrecht. Another attack during the Spanish-Portuguese War, 1735-1737, failed.
It kept changing hands from crown to crown due to treaties such as the Treaty of Madrid in 1750 and the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777, until it remained with the Spanish. It then transferred to Portuguese control again, being later incorporated in Brazil after 1816, when the entire Banda Oriental (Uruguay) was seized by the government of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and renamed the Cisplatina province.
Now part of the independent country of Uruguay, Colonia del Sacramento has expanded to the north and east, but the original Barrio Histórico (historic quarter) retains its irregular, terrain-fitting street plan built by the Portuguese, contrasting with the wider, orthogonal calles in the newer Spanish area.
Read MoreAbout Me & My Blog
My name is Dominick, and I started this site as an outlet to share my thoughts, feelings, and adventures with you.
I am from Chicago, Illinois, USA, but I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I have an amazing girlfriend, awesome friends across many countries, and several continents, and a meaningful existence preaching and working hard to help others here.
I hope you enjoy my stories, writings, pictures, music, and whatever other creative oddities you may find here. Thanks for stopping by...