We’re finally here! Our plane landed at the Ezeiza airport around 7:30 am after a ten hour redeye from Atlanta. We flew to Atlanta from Seattle the morning before (about 5 hour flight time) so, needless to say, we were pretty gassed when we arrived. We both tried to sleep the entire flight but even with the help of some melatonin and Advil PM, we combined for about two hours of sleep. The plan for day 1 was to lay low which is more or less what we did.
We cabbed to our apartment on the famous Avenida de Santa Fe and arrived around 9:00. There we met our agent, Emmy. Emmy is from the company enjoyingba.com. We booked the apartment through them a few months ago and were very satisfied with the results and the service. The apartment was just as described and in a centralized area of town. The only thing we would have done differently is that we would have waited until we got here to book an apartment as the prices would be much lower. Still, at $38 per night for a fully furnished apartment, we can’t complain.
After check in, we walked down the street to Cafe Anchorena. Cafe’s are an integral part of the Buenos Aires culture, so we intend to try as many as possible while we’re here. We both ordered pizza and a cafe. The cafe (coffee) here is more like an espresso and is a part of most meals in Buenos Aires. Angela had a blue cheese pizza and I had a mozzarella, which is one of the specialties in town.
After a nap we felt somewhat reenergized. Our local grocery store, the Disco, is right across the street, so we went there for a few essentials - toilet paper, deodorant, shampoo, laundry detergent and three bottles of local malbec. I was delighted to see that the most expensive bottle of Malbec was about $20 and there were actually 2009 bottles on the rack for about 99 cents. Probably want to stay away from those...
After the grocery store, we decided on an early dinner. Dinner in Buenos Aires is late, usually somewhere between 10:00 and midnight. We went around 8:30 and as expected we were basically the only people in the restaurant (this is also on a Monday at a restaurant that was fairly mediocre). The restaurant of choice was La Payuca, which is right down the street from our apartment. Our expectation was that the meal itself would be pretty average, which is what it was. It did, however, provide a few memorable experiences.
First off, its worth mentioning that La Payuca is a “parilla” style restaurant. A parilla is essentially an Argentine barbecue, and these restaurants are on pretty much every street of Buenos Aires. Argentina’s meat is some of the best in the world, and cooked this way - over a charcoal or wood fired grill - the flavor is very simple and natural. Angela went with the bife de lomo, which is like a tenderloin, and I had the bife de chorizo which is like a sirloin. The steak was delicious, but not the best we’d ever had. Based on what we’ve read about the steaks here, we intend to eat the best steak we’ve ever had during this trip. The meat was good enough, however, that we immediately decided we needed to eat at as many parilla’s as possible. Our appetizer for this meal was “provoleta.” This was the first time either of us had provoleta and we were both instant fans. It is basically barbecued provolone cheese and can be made in a variety of ways (olive oil, basil, tomato sauce, other herbs and spices, red pepper flakes, etc.). I immediately proclaimed it to be my new favorite food. I was posed with the age-old question a few weeks ago, “If you were in a situation where you could only have one more meal in your lifetime, what would it be?” I didn’t have a great answer. I went with pizza by default. That answer is now provoleta. All in all, the dinner was solid by any standards but not great. The service was average and the food was good but we know we’ll have better. Provoleta was the standout. For provoleta, two giant steaks, fries and a bottle of "La Linda" Malbec, the total price was about $40. Time for bed so we can have a full Buenos Aires day tomorrow!
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