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My blogging must be really lagging this trip, or no one is interested in Argentina. It does seem that it is a country not traveled much by North Americans. The vast majority of fellow travelers seem to be from 1) other South American Countries 2) Chinese 3) a few from the UK and Australia 4) everywhere else. Nonetheless, it is worth the trip despite the difficulties that can be encountered because of the “That’s Argentina” affect.
This time of year, end of Spring at home, end of Fall here, does seem to be the ideal time to visit. It is not tourist season and the weather is very mild. There is always a constant level of humidity, so it either feels hotter or colder than it really is depending on the day. It also means that if you are humidity adverse like me, you will likely sweat all the time. As for the food, I have previously blogged that this is not a foodie paradise. The food is simple and mainly comfort food. If you don’t like beef or are a vegan, this is probably not going to be an easy trip for you. That being said, Buenos Aires being
a very international city there are many other types of food available to eat.
With that introduction, I begin the day’s blog entry. We had a fairly light day planned two different types of museum’s in two different sections of the city. We choose to sleep in a bit and skipped breakfast, besides I can only eat so much of watery scrambled eggs.
The first museum was a 14 minute walk (Jerry likes to say it was only 8 blocks, yeah but they were New York Avenues not Streets). It is very easy to get turned around here. The city is laid out on a grid, but then there are all of these streets that run diagonally to every other street. If your crossing over one of these diagonal street you can easily make the wrong turn. This happened to us on the way to our first stop. Fortunately, the street we were on was Belgrano a major east west running street, so Jerry easily got his bearings and put us back on the right path.
At the corner of the block where El Zanjon de Granados (our first museum) is located, is the start of what
they call the comic strip walk. The first stop is Estatua de Mafalda. From there the walk goes through three neighborhoods, we might be doing part of this next week.
El Zanon de Granados This museum is in the area where the first attempt to found Buenos Aires occurred. It was in 1536 and it was unsuccessful. The Spaniards forgot to bring sufficient food and ended up starving to death, not after eating a horse, and ultimately each other. The second attempt in 1580 was successful and the site was owned by Juan Gonazlez. He built just a small adobe house here. It was not until his grandson later sold part of the property to the Mendes that the current structure was built.
The current structure is a mix of the original but mostly has be restored and renovated to bring it to its current structure. During the time that the Mendes lived in the house it was quite grand. They were very rich, and like many one-percenters they needed to show it off. In their house they had three of the five cisterns in the city. They also had a private watch tour. The house, like
most of the houses in this area, sat atop a series of tunnels. The purpose of these tunnels was to cover the smell that came from the river that ran below. This river was basically used as a garbage dump and when it rained the trash was washed to the nearby La Palta river.
There are English tours twice a day, best to book in advance, that last about 1 hour. It is a very good tour and you get a good taste of life in Buenos Aires in the early 19
th Century. The most fascinating thing for me was the slave history. Argentina had a very large slave population, not for working in the fields but working in the homes. Typically, there was one slave for each member of the household. The Mendes family totaled 6, so they had 6 slaves. Slavery is not what was interesting to me, other than the fact I really didn’t realize the slave trade reached this far South. What was interesting is how they tried to erase it from their history. During the great migrations to Argentina, the purpose of which was to create a white nation, they also systematically erased slaves
from the records. Most of them were killed off by being offered their freedom for 5 years of military service, they of course sent them to the front lines of every with a neighboring country. The women and children died of various causes, women in childbirth, the rest from cholera or yellow fever. For this reason, there are not a great deal of descendants from these slaves and the Country is very white.
If the above sounds familiar, it is. Isn’t this exactly what certain Southern governor’s are trying to do with their laws banning “Critical race theory” and ignoring the existence of slavery in our own country.
Aside, this is how bad a reputation the US has, our tour guide in Chile for the Bodega, literally referred to Utah as the Mormon state, and the south as the bible belt. He made this reference when speaking of places where they were not allowed to ship wine too.
El Zanjon is in the Sam Telmo neighborhood, our next stop was in Recoleta. We walked another mere 8 blocks (avenues) to the Subte stop. When I swiped my card, it went to a negative value, I am now evidently
in my emergency fund. To get to the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo, we took the E to the H, then walked about 7 blocks (streets)
So, we are 10 paragraphs in to this blog and you’re asking what does any of this have to do with Paris in Buenos Aires, well that will now be answered. In the former guard house of the museum is a restaurant called Croque Madame. The museum itself is in French Neoclassical Mansion. The French influence in the architecture is found throughout the city, part of the reason it is referred to as the Paris of South America.
While the restaurant might have the name of the most famous French sandwich in the world, they failed miserably at the execution. They had several creative versions of the classic sandwich, an A for effort, an F for everything else. Service was good, the onion soup was decent but to salty and zero gruyere cheese on it. The croques them self were cold, bechamel like paste, it was literally the worst Croque I have ever had. Definitely not dish of the day, but worst dish of the trip.
The museum itself was interesting,
and you can do it in less than an hour. The museum is housed in the former residence of Errazuriz-Alvear family, the hotel we had tea in is named after them. It is a larger home, but not quite The Elms in Newport. Throughout are furnishings of the period. Later Jerry would comment that he thinks he is not only maxed out on Cathedrals, but he might just be maxed out on Neoclassical architecture, they all start to look alike.
That concluded the sightseeing for the day. We now needed to go pick up our dry cleaning we left before going to Chile. The plan was to take an uber there and continue on to the hotel. I managed to figure out how to actually request that, but then cancelled the Uber. Travel tip: Uber is extremely unreliable. First, they cancelled two drivers then the third one, just never showed up. We just ended up hailing a taxi, same price less hassle. Just make sure when you get in a taxi, they turn the meter on.
Back at the hotel, we checked in with our concierge and got some details on how we would get to the ferry
tomorrow for our trip to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay and how to take advantage of the dinner shuttle service. The nights restaurant was 8 blocks away (yes Avenues) and my feet and back were telling me they were done for the day.
The shuttle is a nice service, but you need to make sure your on one at least 30 minutes before your reservation time. We were a bit late for our reservation because the shuttle was lait getting back from the earlier run. Didn’t matter that we were late, they were not totally booked at the restaurant that night.
Brasserie La Petanque Dinner was in the only French Bistro in the City, owned and operated by Pasqual (a Swiss Citizen, born in Basel, which is next to Alsace so he obviously speaks French). Pasqual opened the bistro 20 years ago, pre-covid he also had locations in Lima and Santiago, both closed permanently during covid. This is the place that the French come to eat when visiting, including the crew of AirFrance. Is connections with the AirFrance crew also gets him access to things he cannot get in Argentina, such as Calvados.
It is definitely a
Steak with bernaisae
Dish of the day upper left.French Bistro, not just because of the French food, but the design tables close together as they would be in any Bistro in Paris. Dinner started with a complimentary French liquor which you sip as you look over the menu. The style of service is also French, there is no rushing you here. If you want something you get the attention of your server. The only really negative thing I have to say, which for the French would be a big thing, is that the bread was horrible. It would not be allowed in any Bistro in France. The wine is of course not French is all from Argentina. Jerry choose a nice blend 80% malbec the rest cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. It got better as it opened up over dinner.
We skipped any first course, wasn’t in the mood for pate or escargot, although the poached egg Florentine did sound good. Poached egg in béchamel and spinach. Instead, we just had mains. Jerry had beef tenderloin with bearnaise (he can’t help himself.) I had Magret de Pato con pimentón. Duck breast with a pepper sauce. Jerry’s was ok, the bearnaise was not bearnaise but really a hollandaise.
There was no red wine vinegar, shallots or tarragon, all key ingredients for bearnaise. The steak was cooked well. The duck on the other hand was cooked perfectly and very tender, the sauce was also classic French au poivre. However, the star of both our dishes was the dauphinoise potatoes (yes dish of the day.)
We had a very nice conversation with the owner, his history, how he ended up in Buenos Aires, long story short, worked at the UN in New York, needed to get out after 9/11 and has been here for 20 ears.
We ended with dessert, Jerry had a three chocolate mousse, three different types of mousse, one close to as good as what your going to get in Paris or Lyon. I had crepes suzette made table side. They were very good, crepes flat yet fluffy and tasty, To accompany dessert we had a snifter of Calvados, direct from France via AirFrance crew.
When we got the check they also brought two flutes of sparkling wine. It was a nice meal to end a nice day. It was 10:30ish when we headed back to the hotel, and we had a very early
day the next day.
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Connie
non-member comment
I have never seen crepes suzette made
It sounds like you found a nice restaurant and enjoyed a relaxing dinner. I always enjoy when they make a dish tableside, but have neither seen crepes suzette made nor tried it. The mousse looked wonderful.