Anyways, I left off the last post as I was in the middle of writing about our wonderful weeks with Carolina and Jackie...SO before Jackie got in, I had taken Carolyn to see the Alvear Palace Hotel , yes Palace is included in the name of the hotel. We like taking guests here because it is number 8 on the leading hotels in the world list, it's fancy and elegant and lets us pretend that we are rich important tourists traveling through on holiday instead of the peso making ripped clothed wearing girls that we are who share a bathroom with 5 Colombianos.
The day we went there happened to be a bat mitzvah going on in the party room ( bat mitzvah crashing came to mind) so we weren't allowed to go and play in the bathroom like we had done before, BUT we got the brilliant idea to make reservations for a ritzy afternoon tea affair. Although it is a bit too pricey for Jill and I to ever do on our own, we were thrilled to have a good excuse to go. So,the day after Jackie got in, we put on our best fancy lady clothing ( which for me included both ripped stockings and boots with holes:), we put on our hotel faces (upturned noses) and went to tea.
Because we made reservations, we were escorted into a fancy room that resembled a green house with great big high ceilings, lots of mirrors and vases of flowers. We were sat at a big round table directly across from 4 Golden Girls who we fantasized about being in 50 plus years. Some girls play the who would we be out of the "Sex and the City" gals, but we choose who we would be from this table of white haired beauties. And then, we did the Sex and the City one.... We split 2 afternoon teas between the 4 of us and while we first thought that we would still be hungry when we saw the cute little platters with bite sized delicacies, we realized that this was NOT the case.
We were treated like princesses and were served platters of veggie filled finger sandwiches, little sweet crumpets with the most amazingly deliciously tart and sweet lemon curd,orange marmalade, raspberry jam with bits of raspberry, tiny delectable pieces of almond bread, cheesey bite sized tarts with tomato, beautiful desserts of mango creamy custard on a graham crackery base sprinkled with flecks of gold, a puff pastry filled with sweetened cream, a little sugar glazed fruit filled tart, a tiny moist bite of chocolate with a purple flower and of course the tea. You must look at pictures to do this spread of exquisitely delicious food justice. Here are a few of the hundreds Jill took.
Oh, and after we had stuffed our bellies with every single last bite of food, the waitress rolled out a "carton of sin" ( as Jill referred to it) piled with cakes and pies and sugar galore. It was torture and we were told to select two.
AND THEN we got little moist chocolate truffles filled with Baileys or Amaretto.
We looked around as we reclined back, hands on our bellies, on the verge of passing out from so much sugar and unimaginable yummminess and noticed that not everyone else had licked their plates clean quite like we had. And as piggish and stereotypically American as that may have been, we did not care in the slightest.
It was amazing, to say the least. look here.
http://www.alvearpalace.com/v3/index.php?secc=restaurantes&resto=tea
*anyone who now comes to visit will get to experience this heavenly adventure with us**wink wink
I don't even know how to continue on after that..
So, after Carolyn left :( with her belly full of tea, kosher McDonalds, steak and a bag full of Argentine leather purses, I took Jackie to all of the places that I had taken Carolyn to the week before AND a lot of delicious restaurants. Jackie, little Ms.Foodie, came with a list of restaurant recommendations from both friends and the New York Times and since Jill and I had cleverly stayed in for the past month in anticipation of the money we would be spending with guests, we were VERY excited to get out.
First, we went to a middle eastern, Greekish restaurant called Sarkis. It was a random night of the week and we still had to wait for 30 minutes to be seated, a good sign. But it was worth it, if for not anything else but the dessert- little honey sweetened baklavahish fingers with vanilla ice cream. Jackie got some meat covered with a white sauce that she drooled over and Jill and I got the only veggie things on the menu-veggie moosakah or however you spell that. The waiter was funny and flamboyant, asked for my number about "English classes" and it was a yummy night.
A few nights later, we went to a restaurant that was reviewed in the New York Times called "Miranda," which is a steaky parilla, but the pictures of their huge colorful salads were featured in the article. And big, colorful, flavorful salads are neither done well, nor are they really all that popular here. If you go to any other restaurante, you have the option to order a salad which is typically comprised of just lettuce, onion and tomato thrown on a plate- boring. And the one time we tried a salad where you can choose you own ingredients we thought, oh yay, make your own salad! But the ingredients you choose come by themselves, without lettuce beneath them, unless you specify that you want lettuce as well. And this then takes away from another veggie option to put on top. And then it gets too expensive and is still unsatisfying.
BUT the point of that little rant was to say that the salads at Miranda were especially AMAZING. They had thick, juicy, steamy pieces of grilled pumpkin, squash, zucchini, tomato and onion spread over multicolored pieces of lettuce, instead of wilty greenish brown. We were sitting right next to the steaming parilla (the grill) where the men were throwing giant slabs of red meat on the grill and as Jackie stopped to take a picture before we left, the cooks called us all back with them to get in a picture, right next to the meat...mmm.not.
AND on the night before Jackie left we went to La Cabrera-- a touristy , in the guide book parilla that also had a 45 minute wait on a Tuesday night. BUT this place is known for handing out champagne while you wait, but for whatever reason, we missed out on this little treat. We didn't sit down and start eating until 12ish BUT Jackie finally got some Argentine meat AND they surprisingly had the option of grilled vegetables without ANY meat, not even jamon (as many people think you eat jamon if say you are a vegetarian...?) for the silly vegetarians who live in Buenos Aires. The dishes came with a platter of a dozen or so random dipping sauces, garnishes and yummy deliciously spiced veggies. They brought out a piece of cake with a sparkler on top for my birthday and gave out lollypops at the end of the meal instead of mints. Twas a tab bit pricey, but very tasty and with a good onda. -- **Argentines describe the mood, vibe, the essence, atmosphere and the feel of a place or a person with the single powerful one worded, ONDA.
Oh, I would also like to note that even though the prices have been rising and that working for pesos is no picnic, I did buy 3 huge bunches of kale, 2 bunches of spinach, 1 red pepper, 2 tomatoes, 1 onion, 2 carrots, 1 squash and 2 bananas the other day for 20 pesos. And with the exchange rate at 3.9ish to the dollar, that is roughly $5.12. Right?
This is getting to be very long and I have yet to talk about our fabulous, beautiful mountainy trip to Mendoza aaaand my cumpleanos! That will come soon. But I have been in a cafe for 5 hours , my bottom half is falling asleep and I don't have any more money to order anything else and so I must leave.
BESOS
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