Buenos Aires - Day 2 - Beef, beef and more beef...

Day 2

I did not have to be anywhere in the morning, and I took full advantage.  I left the hotel on foot around 9:00 looking for a Starbucks I had seen the night before on the way back to the hotel.  I did not find it.  I have, I think a better than average sense of direction and between dead reckoning and memorizing landmarks I can pretty much always tell where north is and using that, I always know how to get back to where I started.  I knew from the taxi ride in from the airport yesterday that the hotel was on a one way street which runs east.  I knew I wanted to go west in search of coffee so I took a left out of the hotel and started walking the winding streets of Recoleta.  Quickly though, something was nagging at me.  Something was not right.  I had not gone far but it seemed like I was no longer headed west.  What was going on?  The address numbers were getting higher, that was right.  I checked the shadows - there it is, the sun is to my right - I must be heading east, but I know I left going the proper direction.  Then it hit me - southern hemisphere, well south I'd the equator, the sun arcs across the northern sky, not the southern sky.  Oops.  I must be getting old.  Should have caught that one sooner.

Street in Recoleta



Graffiti is everywhere



Alberto picked me up at the hotel around 11:30 and we headed downtown near all of the government buildings to, what else, a steak place for lunch.  Actually, for me it was going to be breakfast.  It was a beautiful spot, an old converted warehouse along the river with old sailing vessels docked just outside and a beautiful blue sky overhead.  It is spring here,  so we ate outdoors.  Now I am a firm believer that beef brisket is by far the must flavorful, but also the most difficult to properly cook cut from the cow.  I also think I have gotten pretty good at cooking brisket myself.  I now know I have much room to improve.  I ordered brisket and what came out was, to use an overused word, amazing.  Perfectly tender but still able to cut it with a knife without the muscle fibers shredding, moist, a hint of charcoal smoke, and enough fat left on top to give an extra boost of favor. I need to go back to the drawing board I think.

Following customer meetings in the afternoon, Alberto dropped me off at the hotel with a plan to pick me up at 8: 30 for dinner.  Dinner, steak of course, was also great, in an open air restaurant in the Palermo neighborhood.  Argentina was settled by primarily Italian and Spanish immigrants and the neighborhoods and the people bear these trademarks.  Following dinner Alberto took me to one of his favorite spots, a tree lined square bordered on all sides by bars and dance clubs where we drank beer until around 2:00 am.  Our waitress, an absolutely beautiful Columbian girl was great fun to chat with.  Alberto got her phone number.  Oh to be 26 and single....and thinner....and better looking... I guess I had best forget about that...

Day three preview - possibly the most bizarre thing I have ever seen!