When in Buenos Aires…

If I had to put a theme to our second day, it would be eating! And eat we did.

We started our day with our first breakfast in Argentina and it was self-serve in our hotel, with typical Argentine breakfast foods – croissants, jams, cheese and meats.

For lunch we received a recommendation in Puerto Madero by a guide on our city walking tour. We walked to a restaurant called Happenings. Puerto Madero is the up and coming barrio (neighborhood) in BsAs. The area was a shipping area but recently transformed into a modern hotspot with lots of restaurants, high-rise apartment buildings and very trendy, and beautiful, people.

Our table was right on the water, and the place was full of businessmen so we assumed it would be good. Portions were huge, the steak was juicy…

The gnocci were the biggest we had ever seen…

Needless to say the flavors of lunch did not disappoint.

After lunch, we took part in an Argentine tradition. Ice cream! The hot weather and strength of the sun did not allow for photos to be taken as we had to eat it before it started to melt!

Dinner, many hours later, was at restaurant de puertas cerradas – closed door restaurant – with no published address, and attendance by reservation only.

Basically, we pay to eat dinner at someone’s home, where they do all the cooking, and our dining companions are perfect strangers. To some, not an ideal situation…for us, it was a blast! We got to meet people from all over the world and eat fantastic food! Attendees represented the US – two of us and our chef. Our host was from Peru and the rest of the dinner party included travelers from Australia, London and Holland. By the time we finished our welcome cocktails, we had already learned so much about the travels of our companions for the evening.

Dinner is a five course meal. Dan, the chef, gets his inspiration from significant dates in history.  Our dinner happened to fall on the weekend of the founding of Georgia (the US state) and the day that Chile was proclaimed an independent republic. The menu was a combination of the two cultures, and very tasty! Here’s the link to the menu: http://casasaltshaker.com/20110211.htm

Here, you can see Dan’s write-up on how he decided to mix the food of two places in order to create a five course meal.
http://www.saltshaker.net/20110216/from-savannah-to-santiago-and-back-again

Here’s a photo of the pappardelle — a tie in from southern style mac and cheese, with a Chilean tilt of a cheddar salsa!

And the dessert, a Georgia peach inside an empanada with a South American favorite, dulce de leche, a caramel sauce. 

We only had a chance to take two photos of dinner but you will see photos from the rest of our meal in the link above. Buen apetito!