My Very First Asado Was A....

You like my dangling headline to entice you to open the entry? I feel like I'm writing marketing copy for a hedge fund conference all over again. Wait, no I don't.

Well, anyway, by my standards (which was basically an all-out panic) and by the several Argentines who came to my asado last night, it was a solid success! I am beside myself with happiness/relief/exhaustion/insert other emotion here. As I sit on my porch recapping the night for this post, I am more than satisfied with the evening.

For all ya'll who are unfamiliar with the term, 'asado' refers to a specific cut of beef, yes, but it also refers to the BBQ an Argentine (or me, in this case) puts on for a group of friends or family, and features all the cuts of beef, including the innards (sweet breads, blood sausage, etc etc). It typically takes a few hours to do, and by the time it's ready to eat the bulk of it, everyone is good and drunk. Argentines are a very communal, 'there's always room for one more' kind of people, and I like to think we embodied that last night. Here's our fabulous group!

I took the liberty of compiling your very own step by step  How-To-Guide when preparing and executing an asado:

-1. Find an parrilla (actual apparatus/grill for an asado). I am lucky enough to have one in the backyard area of my apartment complex.
1. Go to the grocery store.
1a. Go to the grocery store
1b. Go to the grocery store
1c. Repeat steps 1, 1a and 1b 3 times.
2. OR Go to the JUMBO grocery store near your house and take care of 1, 1a, 1b and 1c in one shot. We had quite the adventure at the JUMBO yesterday morning (it felt like Wegman's! I am in love! My very basic diet here has officially been cured!). Lorena advised me to buy 500g of beef per person. The night before, the number of people swelled to 20, but we weren't quite sure if that was an official figure.  So, we did what any responsible meat eater would do- we bought 10kg of beef. (22lbs)

2a. Accidentally make off with a lady's cart without realizing it, only to have her chase you down an aisle to reclaim it 5 minutes later. Look down, and realize you have about 10kg of bananas in your cart. Yea, lady, this is NOT mine. Sorry. Gross.

3.  Take a taxi home the 5 blocks you need to walk, mainly because you are carrying 10kg of beef, which doesn't include the misc other things purchased, including carbon (coal), veggies for 3 different salads, giant loafs of bread, butter (Argentines don't use butter- oops), proveleta (OMG- provolone cheese patty topped with oregano and tossed on the grill to melt to perfection)

4. Sing Whitney Houston's "I want to dance with Somebody" with the mas o menos 70 year old cab driver and tell him your childhood story of dancing to said song with a hairbrush in the mirror.  Commiserate when he tells you he loves her too, before blasting the volume and breaking it down together.

5. Arrive home and realize that you forgot about 5 items.

5a. Go back to the grocery store.

6. Go the gym to avoid thinking about how you are going to cook 10 kg of beef for 20 people. You are still unsure of how many people are going to show up.

7. Ferry about 8 trips of food down from your apartment on the 10th floor with all of the food. There is a kitchen right near the grill for preparation work and salad composing. It really worked out perfectly.

8. Find an AMAZING parrilla person- official name asador (hmm maybe I should have thought about that earlier.) My new friend Yuriel, amigo de Lorena, was INCREDIBLE!

9. Run around, make sure everyone is OK, help Yuriel (ie fill his wine glass continuously), make salads with Lorena, drink wine.

10. Repeat step nine 39 times.

10b. Cut the vegetables up for the grill in big pieces to 'help'. Then have someone tell you you're actually supposed to keep them whole, wrap them in foil and throw them on the grill to cook.  Ugh- Americans. Can't wait for proper direction!

11. As the cuts of beef become available, play host and bring them around on a platter for consumption as seen below:

Fran 'prepping' Lorenas' egg and potato and parsley salad. Delish!

                            My saviors. This would not have been possible without these two!!


12.  Relax and enjoy. Hang out with your friends. Eat 500g of beef and 1 liter of wine. Throw in 1/2 lb of salad to 'be healthy.'

13. Have an AMAZING breakthrough in your Spanish career! For the first time, I was able to switch languages to Spanish to have a conversation I didn't want non Spanish speakers to hear. Amazing!

14. It is the duty of the host (me) to call for everyone's attention and say: "Permiso, una aplausa para el asador!" (Yuriel) and everyone cheers. Exciting!

15. Yell "NECESITO LAVAR TODOS LOS PLATOS" to your friends, clean up and go out to a bar/club. Seriously. Consume more wine.

16. Come home at 4am and have leftover beef from fridge.

A Series of "Firsts": Live from Salta Province, Argentina!

Hola Friends!

I took a very exciting trip up to NW Argentina with my friend Sara who was visiting last week, and gosh did we have a blast up there! I posted a ton of pictures on Facebook with descriptions, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to wrap it up into a "Series of Firsts" Post, since there were a lot of them on this trip, and it was only 3 days long!

1. First lomito sandwich (and hopefully not the last!): This thing is mega-big, and the thing is, I've seen them be twice as big as the one below.  I put it next to the coffee cup to give you some perspective on this beast.

It's essentially 500 grams of beef, 3-4 slices of ham, 2 fried eggs, lettuce, tomato and 3-4 slices of cheese. Bronto-burger, as Jer would say. It was not a problem consuming said lomito, but I did NOT need dinner that night, EXCEPT...

2. Let's get serious (LGS from henceforth), friends, I did eat dinner that night. I had my very first bowl of locro. It's one of the local delicacies up north and I couldn't bear the thought of leaving without trying it.  A brief description of locro can be found below. My locro had all of the below ingredients as well as goat (cabrito). 

Locro is a traditional South American food popular in the countries that lie along the Cordilleraof the Andes Mountains. Locro can be compared to a thick stew or chili. The name comes from the Incan language, Quecha. Locro is a particularly popular dish in Ecuador and Argentina. In these countries, locro is not only a food, but also a custom. Locro was eaten by native peoples of South America previous to the time of Spanish colonization, and continues to be a popular customary dish as of the 21st century.

The typical Argentine locro is based with corn and white beans. Some kind of meat is almost always present in an Argentine locro, and usually the cut used includes the bones, which one must eat around when the locro is served. Other common ingredients include sausage and other vegetables, and the liquid part of the locro is usually made from a thinned puree of squash.

3.  I went to my first goat farm. 
Leonardo, our amazing cabbie who saved the day after realizing all rental cars in Salta are manual (read: Life Skill Failure), took us to Cafayate, a sweet 4 hour drive with many sights to stop at along the way. Apparently one of those was to include his uncle's goat farm. We stopped, saw goats, hung out and went on our merry way.

4. I saw Amazing scenery. Ok that's a stretch, but I couldn't not include a note about the ridiculous scenery here. I include two pics- one from the vineyards and one on the drive from Salta. Both are distinct from one another, and equally gratifying to look at.

5. First wine gelato and first boozy wine lunch (of 2012, let's be real here):

Torrontes (white grape indigenous to Argentina) and Cabernet gelato (above) & me, post boozy wine lunch & purchases.

This trip was a true delight, but it was much too short. I need to go back!

With that said, I am looking forward to the next trip- 7 days in Patagonia from March 2-10 (Ushuaia and El Calafate)..stay tuned!

"Don't Lie To Me, Argentina"

Yikes. Sometimes it takes immersing yourself in another country and its politics, economics, etc to put your own country's problems into perspective.

Clarin published an article today (if you like reading in Spanish it's here: http://www.ieco.clarin.com/economia/revista-The-Economist-publicar-INDEC_0_652134864.html) that relayed a report from the Economist that they (The Economist) are from now on, not going to use the government's published economic figures and that  "Desde 2007, el gobierno de Argentina publica cifras de inflación en las que prácticamente nadie cree" Since 2007, the Argentine government has published inflation figures that practically no one believes.


Essentially inflation for 2011 was a whopping 22% for the year in 2011, and they're expecting it to be similar this year, so come while it's still affordable friends! (Seriously, Americans and Brits are only saved by the exchange rate. It is wholly unaffordable here for people making the peso.) However, that 22% figure is based on private associations. The government here claims there is little, if any, inflation. People are starting to get fed up, from my conversations. I've noticed a change myself since I came here on vacation last year. A 16 oz bottle of water was 3 pesos; now it's 5, less than a year later. 


The article goes on to state that the Economist, instead of using government figures, which it uses for essentially every other country, is going to begin using figures from a company that is a subsidiary of State Street.  This company uses, as many I-banks do, the price of a Big Mac at McDonalds to assess the level of inflation. So now the government here is pressuring McDonalds to lower the prices of their Big Macs.  


Anyway, I relay this piece of news to you, faithful readers, not to bore you with economic news, but because it really affected me as it relates to the goings on in my country. There was a time during the financial crisis that I can remember reports of purported inflation and worries that it would top out at 2%. Well, that never actualized for several reasons, including our central bank's policies. And although governments everywhere are corrupt, and I'm not saying the United States is immune, it's a whole different ballgame down here. 


Living down here, talking to the locals and reading the paper each day has taught me an important lesson firsthand, and although it is a negative for the hard working people here, I am grateful for this lesson. 


Coming up Next: My Trip to Salta and Asado Ordeal! (Felt I had to write that so you'd be enticed to come back after the Econ 101 post!)

Exploring Folklore

Folklore is a national pastime here. My professors at school had mentioned it a few times, and I had long since decided it was something I wanted to check out. So, I was reading Clarin, my newspaper of choice, and a review of a Folklore show not far from Palermo (technically in Almagro) jumped out at me.

Folklore refers to popular stories told in the small towns. Much like our folklore at home (Pecos Bill, anyone?)...or so it seemed at first.

I got there first and got us a table front and center and boy am I glad. You can see from the pictures below how very close we were to the action.

This was of the one man show variety, but he had his friend come out and accompany him on guitar at the end. Basically, he can play a lot of different instruments and make a lot of different sounds.  Then he has a machine where he can make the first, then the second, etc instrument repeat on loop while he adds another instrument in real time.  He wove a short story throughout (in Spanish). The story he told was more of a description of walking through a forest and feeling alone. He described the nature around him as well, and a lot of the sounds he produced mirrored that (frogs, dripping water, cascading water, etc). Sometimes these sounds were produced with the 18 instruments he had; other times, with his mouth.

This was truly a unique experience. The crowd, all Argentine, loved it. I felt like we were truly doing something the locals did, and you could tell the staff was interested in having non Argentines in the crowd...they seemed eager to share this part of their culture. Before my friends arrived, I was talking with the staff who simply love shows like this. It was cool to see such enthusiasm.

In addition to shows, there are penas (with a tilde over the n), which are like milongas are to tango- big halls where the general public can dance folklore. I think I'll make that my next stop!

Shout Out to Swayz

What would this trip be without a slight medical snafu? Also, what else would this trip me freaking out about said medical snafu?  And as usual, who is the best person in the world (not only in my self-imagined crisis but in general life terms)?

This lady.

Swayz spends her life taking care of people much sicker than I was this week,  in a way I simply cannot fathom. Throughout my whole life, people have been telling me that there's no one else they'd rather have by their side as they deal with the worst crisis of their lives.

I say that because a) she's awesome and b) it puts into perspective what I'm about to say. (Ie. I know I'm a jerk when it comes to dealing with illness).

She's my pal. She (and my sister Neek, also pictured) are my best friends. And she came home from a 14 hour day taking care of people sick with cancer to hop on Skype (thank god it's 2012) and translate the meds I got at the hospital that day. They have an additional ingredient in amoxicillin in Argentina and 4 other countries that makes people incredibly nauseous (thanks, guys. Also, I ask you..WHY?!). So Swayz gave me some good nursing tips on how exactly to combat that for the next week, while giving me advice and comfort from 5000 miles away.  I guess you can never get too old to hang out with your mom on Skype at 1am and be scared.

That's just the tip of the iceberg with this muchacha, but I'll spare you more for now. The other amazing thing is the Argentine public health system. It.is.ridiculous. In a good way. If you speak Spanish (which I more or less do at this point) you can be in and out in less than 30 minutes with a definite diagnosis (and some nauseating meds, yay!). And if you don't have insurance, it's $40 USD.  But, I highly recommend Nomad's Traveler's Insurance (http://www.worldnomads.com/) if you're coming down here for any time at all, because it's affordable and pretty much anything that could possibly happen down here is free.

Anyway, this should be the last day of Operation Lame In South America.
I hope to be back to hosting shirtless Australians in no time.

What Does Argentina Think Of the Super Bowl?

So Day 2 of this ridiculous fever (I don't think I've had a fever since 1987 so not sure what's up), and I decided to go out and get a paper to see what (if anything), they had to say about the Super Bowl. I thought they might, since it is televised here, and sure enough, I was right. Here's the headline:

Madonna impactó en el Super Bowl

Hizo vibrar a 70 mil personas en Indiana con un potente set de doce minutos.

(Full article from my newspaper here: http://www.clarin.com/sociedad/Madonna-impacto-Super-Bowl_0_641335937.html)

Basically the article incredulously asks how Madonna could have only played for 12 minutes. They make a comparison in the article to a River Plate/Boca game (The two major futbol teams here) having a game, and at half-time, having Madonna come out for 12 minutes, only to have the two teams back on the field immediately thereafter. They find it funny that we do this every year with various artists. And they love Madonna. Love. (Who doesn't?)

Random Observation of the Day:

Back to my never ceasing wonderment of the trash collection system here, as I was out getting aforementioned paper, I saw a garbage truck stop on the corner overflowing with a giant pile of trash (20 or so bags, mas o menos), a guy got out, picked one small one up, threw it in the truck and drove away. In 90 degree heat, I question that.

Goal of the Month:

Before I got first fever since '87, I took a bike ride on Saturday and passed the Hippodrome, where horse races and polo matches take place. I gotta get me to a polo match, stat. 

You Can't Make This Ish Up

Last night, I had a lovely evening planned with my friend Lorena to have wine, cheese and empanadas at her place. (That's probably my favorite thing to do here, btw).

Anyway, I get there and she says, "A proposito, hay tres chicos de Australia de CouchSurfing se quedando aca esta noche." (Oh by the way, there are 3 guys from Australia from CouchSurfing who are staying here tonight.) She has a lovely studio apartment, but in no way is it big enough for 3 guests. Hilarious. She said she thought they said 1 or maybe 2, but 3? No.  Here's how the scene of events went down:

-They showed up at 12:30 yesterday afternoon to her apartment shirtless.
-They came back at midnight...shirtless.
-They almost got beaten down by the police in Centro because they were...shirtless.
-They went to the Palermo Farewell Event at Boca Juniors...shirtless.
-The hung out with us til 5 in the morning, drinking Malbec, Quilmes and eating a delicious meal prepared at 2am by Lorena...shirtless.
-They regaled (there's that word again) us with stories of losing...their shirts (and passports, wallets, etc) in Ibiza.
-There are surfers from Australia who are a trio of guys that call themselves...The Naked Traveller. Since I didn't happen to have my camera on me (was a shame, ladies), you can get your fill here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Naked-Traveller/272388519439405

Photo Collage: El Bistro/Faenas Hotel...And Biking!

Ok, so we went to this super fabulous restaurant at the Faena Hotel last night in Puerto Madero. It was so fabulous, it deserves 3/4s of a post. My Vancouver friends were right- this hotel and this restaurant specifically were to die for. I have never seen design (both architecture and food design) like this in my life. It.was.amazing. A lot of the food is molecular gastronomy, which my friend Kate explained to me very well last night. After 3 glasses of wine, I forget that beautiful explanation, so here's some info from our good pal Wikipedia. I had heard of it before, but had never tried. GOOD!


Molecular gastronomy is a subdiscipline of food science that seeks to investigate, explain and make practical use of the physical and chemicaltransformations of ingredients that occur while cooking, as well as the social, artistic and technical components of culinary and gastronomic phenomena in general.^[4] Molecular gastronomy is a modern style of cooking, which is practiced by both scientists and food professionals in many professional kitchens and labs and takes advantage of many technical innovations from the scientific disciplines.

My pics here:

1st course: Gazpacho with tuna. I never wanted it to end and think I said that about times.
2nd course: Rabbit with a carrot reduction sauce. Never had that before. Um. Wow.
Desserts: Tiramisu & a Watermelon/Tomato/Sorbet concoction.

I wish I took a picture of the menu so you could see the detail of each of these dishes. I'm just not doing it justice!

Real pics here:
http://www.faenahotelanduniverse.com/universe/el-bistro


A cheap, amazing thing to do in BsAs is to rent bikes for the afternoon. There's a place right near my apartment, and you can rent them for any amounts of time. I did it for 2 hours and it cost $6. At first, I was slightly terrified because people drive with reckless abandon here (you will NEVER hear me say "God Jersey people can't drive ever again. Seriously.)

The bike paths are great here, and we essentially biked a major part of the city, from past Belgrano to Recoleta. If any ya'll want to do this when you come, let's DO IT. Oh, flipflops are not recommended. Learned that the hard way.

When I wasn't busy losing my body weight in sweat (seriously, it's a problem- you lose so much water weight here, it's not even funny), I took a couple pics:

BsAs FAQs

Hola! Happy first day of spring, NE Corridor Friends! It's gorgeous here as well, and I am heading out tonight to a happy hour on the river. Life is good :)

I thought I'd take this opportunity to provide you with my first installation of BsAs FAQs, accompanied by some photos.

Q: What is affordable/cheap in BA and what is not?
A 1.25 liters of beer at the grocery store (roughly a 40 for all you Olde E fans out there) costs approximately $1.37USD . Mmmm Quilmes. The Budweiser of Argentina.  A bottle of really fantastic wine that might cost $40 in the US in a store, and more in a restaurant, might set you back $8 USD here.

A. Coffee in a cafe. $12-$25ARS, which is $2.75- $5.75. Not that great.
A. Steak dinners at una parrilla (restaurant known for steak and other cow parts/sweetbreads). I had the best steak of my life the other night, and a bottle of wine, and a starter, and a dessert and tip for $27. Amazing.
A. The subway and bus. Even though the price of the subte went from $1.10ARS (25 cents US) to $2.50 ARS (.57 cents USD) per ride on Jan 6, it is still a great deal for us gringos. However, it's important to remember that inflation is a huge problem here and that equates to a 115% increase for Argentines. It's the same thing if the MTA in NYC raised the price from $108 for a monthly pass to $232! (Can someone from the IIR marketing department please check my percent change formula :)) On top of the inflation problem, salaries here are VERY low, so this 115% increase in the subte (and everything else, for that matter) is a real hardship for people here.
A. Reformer pilates. $20 USD a class in NYC, $38 for the month in BsAs. A-mazing workout too.
A. Beauty procedures (is that the right phrase?). Pedicures for $8-12, Pro-stylist haircuts for $30, etc. The list goes on. Good quality too. These are a people who take pride in their appearance ;) (Next up: Pics of People At Gym. I kid...kind of).


Q: How many dogs do people tend to bring around with them?
A: I have seen upwards of 18 at one time, but didn't have my camera. Here is a guy being dragged along the street by quite a few dogs nonetheless. Crazy!

Q: What are some of the popular songs?
Well, besides Adele dance remixes, David Guetta, anything Pitbull and the like, here's what I've been hearing in stores/restaurants/bars/etc:
-Ai Se Eu Te Pego from Brazilian Michel Telo. It's been out awhile but I am Digging it.
-La Gente Esta Muy Loca. Do yourself a favor and download it
-Shakira: Rabiosa
-Phil Collins:

Q: Jill, in your esteemed opinion, what are the biggest differences/things to get used to in BsAs?
A: In no particular order:
      -Tiny Garbage cans. I literally take out the trash 3 times a day. Not.even.joking.
      -Garbage on the street: Let's just say their trash service isn't the same.
      -Service at restaurants: To thoroughly enjoy your visit here, you need to 100% let go of your US sense of service. It doesn't happen here, and that doesn't mean it's bad service. They are not on a timeframe here, and will not rush you for your bill. However, that means that if you need something, you might be waiting quite awhile. As soon as you give up your NYC/American sense of time/rushing, you will be fully liberated :)
       -Nightlife: WOW. It's insane, in a good way, but it's hard for this 29 yo cuerpo to adjust to GOING OUT at 1am. PHEW. But it's probably the best nightlife in the world, along with places like Ibiza, etc.
      -ALERT: Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. Learned that the hard way. Good thing I got a travel insurance policy!