Recently in Lima/Buenos Aires Category

A lunch. I ordered this because I was intrigued by its name, TacuTacu, which is for the big heap of rice. It was a bit too much for me, but interesting...Next is the entrance hall atrium at Gran Hotel Bolivar in Plaza San Martin. Gran Hotel Bolivar (Jiron de la Union) is known for its Pisco Sours (yummy indeed) as well as its maintained 1920s retro atmosphere. I know a beautiful old hotel in Yokohama that has not changed much since the 20s as well, and represents turn of the century Western grandness. Hotel Bolivar reminded me of it, and although old, Tesla and I dug it. We went to see the Monasterio de San Francisco (or rather we stumbled across it and decided to go) that houses underground catacombs of 70,000 burials. Perhaps our tour showed us only a corner, but frankly, I wasn't impressed. I've been to the ones in Paris and that was memorable. However, the Monastery was amazing. Beautiful wall and ceiling art with heavy Moorish influcence, and rooms where you could almost feel old monk souls still gathering to make important decisions. There was a library full of old books, some giant ones that the monks used to read sermons as a group and needed to see the words from many feet away. The books were so old that I worried about their condition since they were just sitting on shelves unprotected although visitors couldn't touch them. Dav fell in love with the library. It had such character - long walls filled with books, dusty light shining through a roof window, old wooden desks - too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures. I did mange to get just 3 pictures secretly when I detached from our tour group when Tesla started fussing. These are shots from Plaza de Armas in Central Lima where the president resides. There is a statue of Francisco Pizarro on horseback which used to be in the center of the plaza, but the clergy too offense to the horse's butt facing the cathedral, so had it moved to a corner. This last pic is from a restaurant (La Muralla in Parque de la Muralla) that I wanted to go to but it wasn't open. Instead, we got to see that it was built right next to ruins; here is an old courtyard.

Here is our view from our apartment in Lima on our way back (different apartment from the stay at the beginning of the month). It was a 3 story apartment and more than sufficient room, and quite nice, but we were so spoiled by the gorgeous Buenos Aires apartment. Still, we had great views and great sunsets, and were located centrally. Since we already knew the neighborhood, we settled right in.

Before I move to Lima posts, I want to share pictures of our San Telmo apartment. As hinted before, the Carlos Calvo apartment we stayed in for the 2nd week in BA was gorgeous. It really made the stay pleasurable because we could go out and do stuff, but also be completely happy staying at home. With a toddler, it was good to spend relaxed time at home so she could wind-down and nap. I could also cook food and feed Tesla at home to ensure she was eating a somewhat balanced diet. I think renting apartments vs. hotels is the way to go for sure.

Here is the iving room with a fireplace. It has a flat screen tv hidden in an antique cupboard (not shown) that matched the entrance piece (2nd picture). The owners have a great sense of style, and respected the old aspects of the original apartment while modernizing it too.
There were beautiful old French style windows that opened onto small balconies with decorated iron railings, and provided the living room with lots of light. 2nd pic is the loft space the owners created above the entrance and kitchen area to have an office and bedroom area.
Iron deco doors divided the main living area and the back bedrooms. There was a nice atrium area and hallway too. It was such a pleasure to walk between the living room and the bedroom. There was colored glass and a glass ceiling. When it rained we could hear it loud and clear (which we liked).
Guest bathroom with nice tile work. Kitchen area with modern stoves.
One of the guest bedrooms where we set up a crib the owners arranged for us. The master bathroom with dual showers - we loved that : )
What you see as you enter the master bedroom. To the left is a sliding door to a walk-in closet, then another sliding door to the bathroom. Another view of the hallway/atrium area as you walk towards the living room.

The apartment in general was super well-equipped from nice towels, soaps, spices in the kitchen, all pots and pans you would ever need, tin foil & saran wrap (stuff you wouldn't think of but in a pinch you are glad to find), and even nice coffee table books. There was a washer and dryer that made my life easier. Downstairs lived Hector and Maria, and elderly, very loving couple who helped us out when our lock broke. Maria became Tesla's instant grandmother, and she kept telling us we were all angels who had fallen from the sky....

I'd give this place 5 stars!

We left Buenos Aires (sadly) and just arrived in Lima again. I can't believe this is our last week already! It's nice to come back to Lima. The area feels smaller than where we were in BA, so I feel it's good for the transition back home. It's also nice to have a psychological transition; we're heading back soon, but still have a week. On the other hand, I am looking forward to home just because, well it is home. And my kitties are there.

I have a few random pics to post from BA:

I happened to come across a stuffed crocodile in a kiosk and bought it for Tesla as she is addicted to Schnappi; specifically, this. When I pointed in the window and asked, "Schnappi??" Tesla grinned.

The 2nd picture is of these funny cap covers most buses had in BA. At first I found buses charming with their polished decor; they had a certain attention to design. However, after learning how cars and buses have priority over pedestrians and feeling terrified of the buses, the charm wore off. Buses make a hissing sound from something too, so you can hear the monsters coming towards you from a block away. They barreled down narrow streets, high-speed even at night, sometimes with their lights off that they would flash on when passing...I'm sorry, that's just scary...

Emily, one of our babysitters in BA. Michaela was the last who stayed for dinner with us. It was definitely great to have babysitters, and fun to get to know them and their lives in BA. [notice my new haircut?]

Keys. I LOVE the keys in BA. They are beautiful...although we had such bad luck with keys and locks (first losing keys, and then having to replace the entire lock when it later broke).

Ancient match boxes I found at a store. Each from a different country with nice design. Even erotic ones!!

And the lovely old trees...I admired the trees constantly in BA which definitely made the dense city look nicer.

Other things to note both good and bad:

* Too much diesel and traffic. BA is not a walk-friendly city at all in my mind.
* Everyone really does love babies, and goes out of their way to wave or smile. On the other hand, although we found kiddie parks, they weren't toddler friendly. All were basic swings, one metal slide, and maybe something to climb on that was too dangerous for T to go wild on.
* No flashing neon signs. Makes the city more tasteful.
* Sidewalks suck - they are narrow which is not that big of a deal, but a lot were broken. Apparently, it's a lot better than before and will continue to get repaired, but for strollers and wheelchairs, it's a nightmare. They use tiles vs. paving over the thing. The tiles wobble, then break. I'm sure it's harder to replace the tiles. I'd go for practical paving in this case. The tiles weren't even that pretty...
* I dig the cafe culture. If you get coffee, it always comes with a little side cookie and a tiny glass of bubbly water. And they will not bring you the check until you ask, meaning you can stay for hours with one coffee (not that I had hours).
* People are very friendly. I couldn't help being the stupid American with no Spanish, but folks were patient and helpful. The only time I felt "corrected" for what I was doing was on the first day when I went to a store to get water. Being shy about my dismal verbal skills, I didn't say much other than pick out water and smile. The store person smiled back, but explained that one should always say, "Hola" and "Ciao." I was very appreciative of that, and he did it in a friendly way to introduce me to the basic courtesy that I could do even though I didn't speak Spanish. It is one of my warm memories from BA. [I could understand because of my French and picking up on body-language]
* Trees. I've said this, but it's worth another mention. They are so old and big that there are cafes under them.

We hosted a dinner for 7 at our apartment last night, and I had fun cooking! First, the kitchen here is very nice and fully equipped so it was a pleasure to cook. Second, I liked the challenge figuring out what to cook, where to shop, and how to compensate for things I couldn't find.

Initially I was nervous. Our neighborhood markets here are good but basic, and I am not familiar with a lot of things. I initially thought of a simple fish/vege dish based on what I could find. But Pablo told us about a Chinatown that had good fish and some Japanese ingredients, so I decided to try a few Japanese dishes to make the dinner special. A great decision by Dav was to hire a babysitter to care for and entertain Tesla while he worked and while I shopped and cooked so I could concentrate. That made things so easy, and thus I had a great time cooking.

Chinatown was about a 40 minute taxi ride away, but worth it. I got a tonkatsu sauce, panko, hijiki, dashi, sake, mirin, and agedofu. I found a great fish market with 100s of fishes, but the salmon was to be delivered an hour after I got there. So I had coffee in a cafe and waited. When I got back, I was able to get a whole half of one salmon, freshly cut in front of me. It was beautiful...and cost 66 pesos!! I gleefully went home, and finished shopping for veges locally.

Dinner started with melted parmesan and roasted pears on toasties, and spicy deviled eggs. Both turned out a little weird as I didn't have the perfect pepper for the eggs, and the pears didn't caramelize. For the main courses, we had salmon marinated and baked in shoyu, ginger, sake, and pepper, croquettes (with a salmon paste that I had hoped was flaked salmon, and canned veges that were pretty awful - all hidden in mashed potatoes), hijiki salad that came out surprisingly well, and a salad with homemade dressing.

We told our guests around 9pm - a compromise for our early habits, and Argentine late dinners. Normally, folks would come in at 10 or even 11, but out of respect for us "Americans," everyone arrived on time. I was rather proud that we started eating the main course around 11 :) And folks stayed until 3am. Yay! We weren't too lame...

Paula, a guide Dav met last time he was here, the babysitter, Michaela, 2 friends of friends, and Pablo and his girlfriend and friend came. It was good to hear stories about life here. Most importantly, I'm very happy to have been able to do my favorite thing (host dinners at home) in Buenos Aires.

We bought a CD of these folks, and got a free ticket to their weekly Tango lessons. We arrived to a crowded room that made it difficult to understand what was going on, but we tried. We discovered we've got some work to do in terms of getting the leader/follower down. I stepped on Dav's feet a lot :) At the end, they showed some actual steps that we could memorize, and after sorta nailing that, we felt inspired. We're hoping to continue a bit back home via a DVD lesson, and if we get past the very beginner stage, we may try out actual lessons in the neighborhood.

Afterwards, the group played live music to which locals of all ages came into dance. We sensed this was no longer a touristy thing, but a genuine weekly celebration of Tango. Dav and I basically sat there for a few hours admiring everyone's moves. There was one old guy, possibly 80, who kept inviting ladies to dance with him. He had a hat and kerchief in his pocket; so dandy! He still demanded attention with his slow but confident moves (last picture).

I'm really glad we got to see that scene. There is something special about tango...a very different way of enjoying male/female energy in an understood and fun way. I can only imagine how nice it must be to go on a tango date. You don't have to talk, but you share a lot.

We rented bikes the other day to ride around with T on the back in the ecological reserve south of Puerto Madero. It would have been a nice ride in the marsh lands with the cityscape as the backdrop, but Tesla wouldn't have it. At first she liked her helmet and being behind daddy-o, but soon got bored. After much hollering, I finally gave her blankie which I kept away in fear she'd throw it on the ground. Once she had blankie, she sulked but quieted down. It wasn't exactly the ride we thought it'd be, but we managed to enjoy it.

Later we found a Mexican restaurant and couldn't resist. I guess we're looking forward to returning to CA food :)

On Tuesday, we went to Osaka, a Peruvian-Japanese restaurant (Soler 5608 y Fitz Roy). I was very curious, and excited. This place came highly recommended, and was the type of place you had to get reservations days in advance. I read about it in Time Out:

After hitting it big in Lima, the chain established residence in BA in 2005, and the expert kitchen staff has been winning porteno admirers ever since, with a fusion menu featuring truly eclectic creations like duck confit-stuffed samosas and deep-fried Peruvian-style fish in Japanese mushroom sauce. Fresh salmon and shrimp are rolled into sushi or smoked and stuffed into cripsy spring rolls. Culinary adventurers shouldn't miss sampling a few of Osaka's unusual South America-meets-Far East starters...

The decor was lovely, and the menu long and tempting. We ordered three starters that were indeed a fusion of Peruvian and Japanese: ceviche using fish cut in Japanese style with a Peruvian sauce, a flaming causas of shell fish in a butter sauce, and a spoon of tuna on top of some sort of potato mound. All were delicious and new to me.

Thereafter though, I made some bad choices and unknowingly ended up with 2 deep-fried dishes that were not my style. One had cream cheese in it, and totally ruined the delicate shellfish aftertaste I was enjoying. I ordered a last dish of grilled fish with a Peruvian spice sauce, but was too full to have more than one bite.

If we lived here and needed a break from the mostly Italian or cafe menus, I'm sure I'd pine to eat here more often. However, I realized we are super spoiled coming from San Francisco where we are used to amazing food all the time, and somehow Osaka didn't wow me. The first 3 starters did, so I think it was my bad on menu choices. We skipped any kind of sushi because, well, we can eat that all the time at home.

So overall, it was worth it, but better menu choices would have helped as well as feeling like we hadn't had creative fish dishes in a long time.

It's a dense city here, for sure. There are mostly apartments, and mostly in tall apartment buildings. I took a 2 hour walk yesterday and no matter what road I tried, it was busy with cars. What I do appreciate is how folks make a nice effort to add greenery from their balconies, and since most everyone does it, buildings have a mini-vertical forest thing going on.

I will take pics of this gorgeous apartment we're in, but for now, here's one of the kitchen sinks that I designated as T's bathtub. I couldn't find the plug to the main bathtub, and T is not a big fan of showers although she'll tolerate it. The size of the sink is perfect for her, and the height is perfect for me. We like bath time now : )