A Day at the Zoo in Buenos Aires

As I mentioned previously, we planned our itinerary all wrong.  We only had a couple of days in Montevideo, Uruguay, and then we moved on to Buenos Aires.  For six days.  I had actually done some research on Argentina's largest city and thought we could easily roam around for at LEAST six days.  The city was huge!  It was the "Paris of South America"!  Not so much.
Maybe it was where we stayed, in the microcenter of the business district.  Maybe it was the time of year - early spring, and the trees were bare and nothing was blooming.  Maybe it was just a bad week to be there.  Whatever the reason, it just was not appealing.  It was drab and dirty and we never felt safe out on the streets.  I had heard that the areas to the north of the business district were more residential and a lot nicer, so we headed up there one day to check it out.  We took the Subte (subway) and when we went up to street level we realized we were at the entrance to the zoo.  Let's go!  It was unlike any zoo I had ever seen.  Some of the big cages right inside the gate were empty, except for the stray house cats that seemed to roam everywhere.  They had taken up residence in them to get out of the rain.

 They were, however, outnumbered by the Mara running all over the place.  These large rodents look like a cross between a rabbit and a guinea pig, and were actually cute.  They were also fairly tame, and knew the sight of the bags containing the "zoo food" pellets meant treats for them.  We saw children feeding lots of them almost everywhere in the zoo.

There were also other cats here.  Big cats.  White Lions (which I had never seen before) and a White Tiger, with 3 adorable cubs.  We spent a lot of time watching them play, as their enclosure was big and gave them plenty of room to chase each other around  Aren't they cuuute?

MEAT - it is what's for dinner!

Meat, with a side or two of meat.  That is what we had for dinner - and lunch - in Montevideo, Uruguay.  An obscene amount of meat. And did I mention that it was grilled?  At the Paradillas we saw, they had massive racks covered in different types of meat, all grilling over different levels of wood coals.  Long coils of sausages sizzling over low coals, gently cooking through... flank steaks searing over the hotter coals... steaks of all sizes... chorizo and morcilla and kidneys and sweetbreads were all wedged onto the grill.
















And a token vegetable, something that could double as starch like squash or yam. Bigger than my hand, and heaped on top of all the meat.  My Aussie husband decided it was his duty to consume all that was put in front of him, but even he had to give up on this platter!

Alternative Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving, and we will be at a friend's house eating wonderfully standard T-day fare.  Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes.  We will eat it all and love it.
But I am also loving a new tradition started with our TFS group - the "alternative" Thanksgiving.  We start with all the standard ingredients, but prepare them in a vastly different manner.  This year we went with the theme of Indian food, and had some amazingly tasty dishes.  The host marinated turkey in a tandoori spice mix, then confited it in ghee.  It was unbelievably moist and tender.  Someone else made a curry-spiced pumpkin soup.  We had green beans with coconut, mustard seeds and curry leaves.  Savory cranberry chutney with fennel seeds and garam masala.  Chai-spiced pumpkin pie for dessert.  I am already looking forward to next year's menu!

Fancy Coffee in Montevideo

Part of our South America trip was spent in Uruguay - Montevideo, to be exact.  This was another place we knew absolutely nothing about, so thought that since we were going to be "in the neighborhood" we would arrange to stay there a couple of nights.  If I had it all to do over, I would have spent more time here, and less in Buenos Aires.  More on that later.
Montevideo has very distinct districts - the Old Town, the Business District, and the more upscale "resort" area on the eastern shore.  We stayed in the Old Town, in a unique loft apartment across from the beautiful Teatro Solis.  We were warned to be careful in that neighborhood by the taxi dispatcher at the airport when we arrived, but had absolutely no issues while there.  The buildings were quite old and a little run down, but they had beautiful architectural details and were set around lovely little parks.  We walked everywhere and were not bothered by anyone. 
As it was early spring, it was a little chilly so I was looking for a cup of coffee to warm me up.  We stopped into a corner cafe and I ordered the equivalent of a latte'.  This is what came out to the table:

We thought maybe that was a specialty of that particular cafe, and were pleased with our selection.
That evening, we ate at what turned out to be a German-themed restaurant and I ordered a coffee after dinner.  And this is what was served:

Apparently this is just the way you get your coffee in Montevideo, with your choice of sweet cream, cocoa, raw sugar or refined sugar.  Or all of the above!  Take that, Seattle!

Santiago's smart dogs

After we dumped our luggage at our Airbnb apartment in Santiago we headed out onto the streets.  We were walking through a business district, and I couldn't help but notice that a lot of people were accompanied by a dog as they were out and about.  Coming from a place where dogs are pampered and are regarded as children, I naturally thought "Wow - they bring their dogs to work here too!"  Only after I noticed a particular dog trading "owners" did I realize that these were stray dogs.  They are not your average mangy, flighty stray dogs, however - oh no - they are sociable and quite smart.
They have figured out that to cross a street, they need to go to the corner and cross with a crowd of people when the light changes. They also will attach themselves to a person or group of people and become part of the"pack" for a few blocks.  We joined a walking tour halfway through one day, and the dog that was with them had joined them at the beginning of the walk 2 hours earlier, and had waited for them to come out of the points of interest they had gone into.  The dogs seem to be at least partially looked-after, as none looked like they were starving and some even had old shirts on to keep them warm.  Most of them would let you pet them, then they would just go on about their business.
This is my favorite picture of one of the dogs, taken in the Mercado Vega.

Wine tasting in Chile

On our recent trip to Chile, we managed to tear ourselves away from eating our way through the Markets for a day to go wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley.  I had no idea how to even start to research what was offered for tours, so before we left home I went straight to TripAdvisor and searched for wine tours.  There are an amazing amount of tour operators working out of Santiago!  One guy kept getting rave reviews, so I sent an email and just like that we were signed up with Chilean Wine Lovers tours.  Here's the link, in case you are inspired  - http://www.chileanwinelovers.com/
True to the reviews, we had a wonderful, personalized tour of some very interesting and boutique-ish wineries.  The best part?  Lunch was a tasting menu devised by our guide Mauricio and the chef at one of the wineries.  The food was amazing at Viña Morandé, and the wine pairings perfect.

Besides tasting lovely wines, we learned a lot about the different wine regions, the different grape varietals and the growing organic movement.  We feel like we now have some clue about what to look for at the wine shops!

I'm Still Traveling, and Certainly Still Eating!

It has been an embarrassingly long time since I have last posted anything...  I must make up for that!  I was distracted by one of the most beautiful summers we have seen in Seattle in years.  My time was spent tending a small garden and sipping rose' on the patio.    
We did not however spend all the summer lolly-gagging around the house - there were some trips taken and some excellent food consumed.  I shall be sharing those experiences, as they are way more interesting then me talking about my tomatoes.
We decided to travel to South America as neither one of us had ever set foot on that continent.  Something new!  Something different!  It turned out to be something unexpected for sure.  We started out in Santiago, Chile, a place we really knew nothing about.  Our Airbnb apartment had an awesome view of the Andes, and we were lucky that the early springtime weather was clear for most of our stay so that we could actually see them.

We found Santiago to be quite a walkable city, and spent a lot of time just exploring different neighborhoods on foot.  The main market Mercado la Vega and the fish market Mercado Central were our favorite destinations.  We saw - and ate - seafood we had never seen or heard of before.  We chose Tio Willy's restaurant in the Central market, as it was just across from a fish stand that had something we wanted to try but didn't know what it was.  We brought the server out and pointed to the piure.  They looked at us like we were crazy, but said they would bring out a taste for us.  Apparently it is an acquired taste, as it is very briny and somewhat gritty.  We polished off the plate they brought out, to prove we were not wimps, and felt pretty proud of ourselves for trying what we later learned is a type of sea squirt.

Other than our seafood feasts in the market, we found ourselves really searching for "native" Chilean dishes to try.  Strangely, what we wound-up eating most often was billed as Peruvian cuisine.  We did finally find a place that specialized in traditional Chilean food at Galindo, and I found my new favorite soup - Caldillo de Congrio.  I probably won't be replicating that at home, as conger eel is just not an ingredient you see in your local US supermarket...


We also dined on some other Chilean favorites which I WOULD try at home - Santiago's version of a hot dog, called an Italian, and their version of poutine, with 3 different kinds of meat and onions grilled with egg.  Delicious!