Kevin & Trel come to visit!

On my third weekend in Buenos Aires, Kevin came to BA to visit. Since he works for American Airlines he has awesome flying perks. We started his visit out by going to the Grand Cafe for brunch. Then from the recommendation of one of my Argentine friends, we decided to go to the Nestor Kirchner Cultural Centre (CCK). CCK is a cultural center located in downtown that showcases a variety of musical performances and art exhibits. It's free and is open to the public.

Front of CCK building

The CCK building used to be the city's central Post Office, but later turned into a cultural center in 2015. The center has about 8 or 9 floors of a variety of different art exhibits that change over time. So we checked out all of the exhibits.

                          

A room full of balloons. We got to go in the room and I felt like a big kid! 

 

They had these amazing bean bags on the floor in one of the rooms where you could lay on them and watch a video on the screen. I want to buy one of these bean bags for myself! 

This looks like it was floating and was held up by strings. 

This lady got really excited when she heard Kevin and I speaking English in the hallway. So she stopped to chat with us for a little bit. 

Huge hat for kids to walk in

 

Alot of the art was really cool, but some of it was really weird too! Here are a few videos I was able to get.

After CCK, we decided to check out the Walmart Supercenter. I had actually been intrigued about visiting Walmart here to see what it was like. It was more like a local grocery store and was definitely different than any other Walmart I have seen. 

I found this place online called "Steaks by Luis" that we decided to check out for dinner. The reviews on trip advisor were really good. It's a 5 course authentic argentine asado dinner. https://www.steakbuenosaires.net/

The building we arrived at didn't have the name of the place on it as they want to give us tourists the feel of being at someone's home. We pressed the intercom button on the door and a guy answered. I told him my name and he came downstairs to greet us at the door.

The dinner was hosted for about 15 of us this night and we all had dinner at one big table together. There were people from Brazil, USA, and Jamaica. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, we were given a glass of champagne. The first thing on the 5 course menus was piccada. Piccada is what I consider "finger foods". There were meats, cheeses, empanadas, bread, olives, and this really yummy sundried tomato spread.

The next course was a salad, which was actually very good. It had tomatoes, apple slices, cheese and a really good vinaigrette dressing.

The third course is what the Argentine call "achuras". These are grilled starters. There were beef ribs, pork, lots of sausages including blood sausages, which I didn't try because they didn't look that appetizing to me. There were also some "surprises" like grilled intestines, which I was not adventurous enough to try either. There was also "Provoleta" which was this cheese that was grilled on the grill with a sauce called "chimichurri". Chimichurri is a green sauce that consists of different herbs and spices and is mixed with olive oil. Our host told us provoleta was his favorite and I could definitely see why. It was really delicious and was definitely my favorite of the evening too.

Provoleto! Sooo good!

Chimichurri sauce that is eaten with grilled items at an asado

Then we had the main course, which was steak with some sauces to dip our steak in (one was cream cheese based and the other was a berry based sauce) and roasted vegetables. I decided to be adventurous and ordered my steak medium since I normally do well done; however, it ended up being cooked more on the well side since I didn't see very much pink. The steak was probably the best steak I have ever had. Mind you, I'm not a big steak person so I rarely eat steak, but it was very good. Considering it was pretty much well done, it also was extremely juicy. The sauces were really good too.

Then for dessert, we had a dulce de leche cheesecake with an orange whipped cream served on the side. It was to die for, so yummy.

We also got to take a picture with chef Luis! He grilled our steaks out on the patio while we ate and mingled during the first courses. He is a really nice and humble man.

After that we went to a birthday party I was invited to for one of the Argentine ladies that came to our Dallas office for a year. I warned Kevin beforehand that he may get kissed on the cheek (since that is how the Argentine people greet each other vs our handshake that we do in the states). He was glad I warned him because he was kissed by most of the ladies and a few of the guys. Kevin also got to try fernet with coca cola, which is a popular drink the Argentine adopted from the Italians. I tasted a sip of it and thought it was pretty strong and bitter. I was definitely not a fan, but Kevin seemed to tolerate it. We arrived at the party at almost midnight and left at almost 2 am. The party seemed to be just getting started when we left. I heard the party lasted until around 5am. I have even heard of some parties lasting until 7 and 8am. The Argentine definitely know how to party!

Kevin and I with the gorgeous birthday girl. 

The next day we went on a "Hop On Hop Off" bus tour throughout the city. We stopped at a couple of markets and also decided to stop at the Recoletta cemetery to see the famous grave site of Eva Peron. Eva was a very popular first lady of one of the past presidents. She is a sensitive subject here in BA since she had tons of people who loved her while others despised her. She poured her time and gave money to helping the sick and poor, but used the money that she pressured or forced from businesses and wealthy people to aid her foundation. Sadly, she passed away at the tender age of 33 from cancer. The people in this cemetery are buried with their families. So there can be several caskets at each grave site.

A fresh lemonade I got during one of our market stops. 

The map of the various grave sites at the Recoletta cemetery 

Evita's grave location is highlighted, likely from it being so popular to visit

 

This grave yard was definitely unlike anything I've ever seen

 

You can actually see the coffin's through the glass, they don't bury the caskets underground at this cemetery. 

Evita's grave site

Evita's grave site

We ate so much from the night before that we actually didn't get hungry again until about 2 or 3p on Sunday. Ironically, we both ate a steak sandwich from a fast-food place in the mall by the apartment since it was quick and Kevin had to catch his flight that night back to D-town.

Trel flew in on Tuesday. He also has the flight perks, but just through Delta.

Standing on the balcony of my hotel room

Since I had to work I was not able to explore with Trel. We were able to get dinner with some of my coworkers though. We ate at Floreria Atlantico. It is a flower and wine shop, but has a hidden restaurant in the basement. When we opened the front door we were greeted with a burst of fresh flower smell from all of the flowers there. It smelled sooo good. Then we told the person in the flower shop that we wanted to go to the restaurant and they led us through this huge door that had stairs that led to the restaurant in the basement. It was actually really neat.

 


We ordered several appetizers, including OCTOPUS!!! I was pressured encouraged to try the octopus, which I did (although it was a very very tiny piece lol). It actually wasn't as bad as what I imagined it would be. Just the thought of it made me quiver. I ordered a flatbread pepperoni pizza for dinner.

OCTOPUS!! 😣

The next day Trel toured BA while I was working and then he flew back to D-town that night. It was really fun having them come visit and I appreciated having people from back "home" to share this experience with!

Second Weekend in Buenos Aires!

My second weekend in Buenos Aires started off with brunch at a restaurant that is near my hotel/apartment with one of my coworkers and his wife. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, the idea of breakfast is not a big deal here in Buenos Aires. They typically will eat a small pastry and/or coffee for breakfast while eating a bigger lunch and dinner. It's been a bit of an adjustment for me being that breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and that I normally prefer a hot breakfast. I have been eating bread with peanut butter for breakfast☺ So I was excited when my coworker invited me to a place that serves brunch. The cafe is so quaint and charming. It also operates as a bakery, so it has bread and pastries as well. I have loved the bread and pastries here in BA. They definitely know how to do it right. 

On Saturdays, Grand Cafe has a brunch menu that they label as an American brunch. You get to choose two drinks and an entree. I ordered a water and a lemonade for drink. The lemonade was freshly squeezed. That's another thing I appreciate about being here in BA, most of the juices I have tried have all been freshly squeezed. For my entree I ordered the "Egg Grand Toast" that is a piece of toast with eggs, ham, and spinach. The most common meat choice for breakfast that I have seen (if served at all) is ham, I very rarely see bacon as an option and haven't seen sausage served at all.

On Sunday I went to "Barrio Chino" or Chinatown with another one of my coworkers. I decided to take a train there. It was my first time getting on the train and it was hysterical to say the least..lol. The train station by my apartment has two separate areas for the trains. I went into the first one and couldn't understand how to figure out which train I was supposed to get on so I asked one of the attendants. He didn't really speak English and I don't speak much Spanish, so in the limited words I was able to gather from him, he told me that I needed to go to the other location, so I walked to the other location. When I got there, I was still confused so I asked the attendant there. He spoke a little more English than the other attendant and told me I needed to go back to the other location. When I went back to the other location, I asked a couple for help. They spoke no English at all. So through the very very limited Spanish I know I tried to explain to them that I was trying to go to Barrio Chino. They told me which train to get on, which happened to be the same train they were getting on. I get on the train and sit down and wait to leave (the train leaves every 15- 20 minutes). While sitting, they motioned for me to come to them. I came over and then we looked at the map together. They were trying to tell me where to get off when we all realized that I was actually on the wrong train. At this point I was beginning to get really frustrated and could feel tears in my eyes starting to swell from being frustrated. What was supposed to be an easy train ride had turned pretty tricky for me. I was about 20 minutes into this and it was raining outside. I wanted to give up, but because I don't give up that easily I decide to try to figure it out again. So I go to another attendant and let him know where I was trying to go. He points me in the direction of another train. As I walk to the train, he says something to me, but of course I can't understand since I don't speak Spanish. I begin walking to the train and a sweet couple that saw me walking starts motioning to me and pointing that I needed to go to the other side to get on. They don't speak English either. I let them know that I was trying to get to Barrio Chino and they say "dos estaciones" and I understood that I needed to get off of the train at the second station. They were very confident, so that gave me a sigh of relief that I was finally going the right direction. So I darted to the other side and got on the train. As the couple noted, I got off at the second station which landed me right near the front entrance of Barrio Chino where my coworker asked me to meet her.

Entrance of Barrio Chino

Angela and I at the entrance of Barrio Chino

To my surprise Barrio Chino is actually really small. It is only about 2 blocks long. Angela and I walked past several souvenir shops. We ended up going to a grocery store since she had to pick up a few items. The grocery stores in Barrio Chino are an expat haven since they carry items that many expats cannot find in regular supermarkets, such as peanut butter. From all of my travels around the world I have learned that peanut butter is really only an American thing. The rest of the world is not as crazy about peanut butter as we are. I grabbed some peanut butter to eat with bread for breakfast and some ramen noodles to have on hand for convenience. (Note - the $ on the shelves are in Argentine pesos, which has a ratio of about 17-18 pesos for every $1 USD. I would be out of my mind to pay $84 for some peanut butter! lol )

I was pretty hungry so we decided to get some lunch while we were there. We decided on a random Chinese restaurant and hoped for the best. Thankfully it turned out to be really delicious. I got a dish with chicken, rice and vegetables. Angela got teriyaki salmon and rice and she was very happy with her choice too.

My chicken, rice and vegetable dish at Budda BA in Barrio Chino