AMO the ARG: cabaña, round 2 (day 5, parte 4)

z and i decided to hit the town for our one and only saturday night in BA. destination: puerto madero. she got dolled up. i threw on some heels. it was a balmy, beautiful night.

the only thing missing? everyone else.
where the heck do they all go on the weekends? not that i really cared. ghost town, BA meant we didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes for a table at cabaña las lilas.

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this is where the real action is:




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the folks at cabaña really outdid themselves--they greeted us as friends and were even more generous than before (free champagne cocktails! free sides!). the american girl sitting at the next table was seeing green (we know--she was a loud-talker).

i didn't want to have the same exact dinner i'd had before. so instead of the rib-eye, i (innocently) ordered the steak of the house.

i thought it would be a dainty little filet.
we all had a good laugh when they set this down. but...did they doubt me?

done. and done (almost).

for my encore: hojaldre las lilas con crema y dulce de leche, their version of a "napoleon," which has pastry cream and dulce de leche.
the contrasts here really work: thick, sweet cream set off by crunchy, airy pastry.

they gave us the bonus cookie tray (to go with the coffees, i imagine).

ha! i look spent. but...i won...
(z and i both did. it was, once again, totalmente perfecto.)

mil gracias a cabaña...

all photos © anita aguilar

AMO the ARG: the "i am very juicy" edition (cabaña las lilas, puerto madero, day 3)

so day 3 didn't unfold smoothly. but it sure ended that way, with a perfect dinner at cabaña las lilas.

z had read about the restaurant in travel & leisure magazine and it was high on our list of places to dine. though it required going all the way "home" to recoleta (to change, because we were feeling less than lovely) and back on the subway to puerto madero, we liked the area so much (and felt so sure of diego's endorsement of the neighborhood) that we didn't hesitate.

cabaña was hopping that night. the 45 minute wait at the bar was mitigated by this delicious malbec (also the flaky, rich beef empanaditas they offer to tide you over).


like a loving mom greeting her child home for the long weekend, at cabaña they throw tons of food at you. even before we placed our order, they served up this pretty platter: grilled tomatoes, slices of rare roast beef with hollandaise, an egg cake...

for dinner, z opted for octopus; i chose the ribeye. we decided to share a side of farofa--a brazilian dish made of toasted manioc (cassava) flour.

we were giddy--there was a such nice buzz in the full room, the servers so warm and friendly. we were relishing the treats (and the treatment). this was the perfect place, the best idea, so happy we came here tonight. (we repeated those lines all night.)

when the food showed up we went a little bit bananas. our waiter didn't quite know what to do.

check out the ribeye...

"i am very juicy"

(he was very juicy. not bloody. juicy.)
all the hype about argentinian beef? believe it.

and...with room (made) for dessert: the finest rice pudding i've ever had.

happy girl.

all photos ©anita aguilar

AMO the ARG: dock 3 and the faena hotel in puerto madero este (day 3)

cab shot.

shiny

and new...

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on the docks

the biggest attraction on "dock three" is "puente de la mujer" (woman's bridge) -- designed by santiago calatrava.
the curve in the design is meant to evoke the outstretched leg of a tango dancer...
the center, suspended section can be rotated to let ships pass...

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the faena hotel...

i was asked by the doorman not to take pictures (he'd seen me outside with my big zoom lens). but the folks inside didn't mind a few shots here and there. so we cheesed it up for our waiter--he literally said, cheese-- if only to document the hilarious phillippe starck ostentatiousness all around us.

these are the most uncomfortable chairs in the hotel, i'm sure. but they make a statement.

i know-- a bathroom shot is wrong. but these were screaming to be shared, especially with my mom.

all photos © anita aguilar

AMO the ARG: amigos to the rescue (san nicholas)

one word that comes to mind when i think of day 3, and our walk to san nicholas is: rough.

it marks the first time that trusty guide book (the perhaps too-aptly titled "rough guide to buenos aires") let us down.

allow me to back up.

on the evening of day 2, z and i weathered a rainstorm with a quiet dinner at the pizza joint down the street. back at the apt, we consulted "tgb" to decide which neighborhood to attack next. we didn't want to shop. we wanted to see.

hey--how about san nicholas. there's an obelisk.
an obelisk?!
awesome...

that's basically how it went. could we get more touristy than that?

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i think i got things off on the wrong foot the next day by ordering yogurt with cereal for breakfast instead of tostadas and dulce de leche. it was good, but...i can eat yogurt all the time at home. and i don't.

then, z had to double back to the apt for something. i waited on the corner and took this photo, which i like a lot. in a remarkable way it reflects how the day would unfold.


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to my eyes (and i think z would agree) every neighborhood in buenos aires shares qualities with another city in the world. palermo soho: venice, california...recoleta: paris, new york, madrid, barcelona, depending on where you are in the city. puerto madero would come to remind us of miami, and even battery park city.

san nicholas reminded us of times square (only about 8 blocks longer).

imagine cramped, not so clean, sidewalks, a flurry of activity around theatres and big candy shops, lots of bright lights and noise. air quality--the worst in town. z asked me if they used diesel down there and i have no idea about such things, but if diesel is the stuff that leaves a trail of charcoal smoke? then that's what they use.

we eventually found the obelisk, and it was underwhelming. a fella that we met later, federico, would describe it as the argentinian george washington monument, only smaller. it was an interesting scene, with protests and police in riot gear. but we didn't linger.

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things got truly frustrating when we tried to figure out the lunch situation.

tgb offered the promise of great food and value at typical parilla that seemed to be in the vicinity. but what looked nearby on the map, felt like forever away...when we finally arrived where we thought we should be, we discovered that parilla pena is not at rodriguez pena 682. in fact, rodriguez pena 682 does not exist.

by this point we were tired, sweaty, and hungry--2 cranky, cranky girls. if one of us had the energy to cry or scream we might have.

but instead, a final effort. i approached a nice-looking fella who was standing around having a ciggie.

diego.

DIEGO!




diego to the rescue: first, he told us that the restaurant we wanted was on a different street, blocks away. he couldn't offer a recommendation nearby (it's a business district) but suggested we take a short cab ride to puerto madero, his favorite place in BA...

puerto madero was practically an alternate universe to san telmo: long views of sea and sky, new shiny buildings, and wide, lightly trafficked streets. artsy and rich--sort of SOBE. not my regular scene for sure, but a good way to round out the day.

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we had one other hitch in puerto madero though, courtesy of tgb. the cafe we picked for lunch was one of the prettiest places we saw. i took maaaany pictures. but i hesitate to post them here as it might seem an endorsement of a place that seemed to willfully, unabashedly ignore all of its patrons...i can't recall seeing or experiencing anything like it.

"i" fresh market: don't go. and if you find yourself there out of desperation, buy from the market. don't sit at a table.


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the upside of "i" fresh market: while we waited for any sort of attention from our server, we chatted it up with the wonderfully friendly young couple seated across from us. we covered a lot of ground: photography, their recent visit to new york (they've seen more broadway shows than me), living and working in argentina, travel elsewhere in the country, and importantly: where to go in puerto madero for coffee (the faena hotel). they were a true pleasure. melanie didn't want to be photographed, but federico was all about it:


thank you, amigos...

all photos © anita aguilar