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.
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| Entrance of Barrio Chino |
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| 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.
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| My chicken, rice and vegetable dish at Budda BA in Barrio Chino |
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