Dear Friends,
You would think that Argentine children would be banging their fists on tables demanding their vegetables rather than suckling on an "empanada" (meat pie) or teething with a slab of grass fed "bife" (steak). I am really very shocked, of course. With delightfully named vegetable dishes like "tarta de zapallitos" (sap-a-yee-toes) and "pure de calabaza" (call-a-bass-a) attempting to disguise my weak meat tolerance is becoming increasingly more difficult.
What are zapallitos? First of all... they are laughably close to the word "zapato" which in other Spanish speaking countries means "shoe". But a shoe a zapallito is not. Interestingly enough it is a zuchinni - a fat little round-bellied zuchinni. Pura de calabaza? Very literally squash puree. For those of you who know me well you realize that any time a vegetable is pureed and eaten with a spoon is a time for me to "ooh" and "ahh" and exclaim that culinary greatness has been achieved. But do not misunderstand me - pura de calabaza is nothing like the mushy, "soso" (tasteless) mess that comes out of the Gerber baby jars that I may or may not have gone through a stage of consuming out of curiosity, and possibly as a foray into a wicked sort of dieting, during my final years of college. Fear not - the project quickly failed. No, there is definitely a little seasoning and some borrowed creaminess from a bit of "manteca" (butter) in pura de calabaza that, thankfully, fails to entirely masque the delightfully plain and earthy quality of whatever member of the butternut squash family I enjoyed the other night.
But don't think think I am not eating well in Buenos Aires.
To date my diet has consisted largely of "picadas" - shared plates similar to what the Spanish call tapas - with some assortment of cheese, cold cut (like salami), green or black olives and deliciously dense little rounds of house baked bread. But, after swelling up like a small, happy little tick after two days I have decided to step away from the picadas. That is, until I have someone to share one with in which case another currently forbidden fruit will be imbued in celebration: beer.
Breakfast is - as is the case in most Hispanic countries - nothing special. Susana kindly sets the table for me with toast, two types of jam, a little patty of butter, juice, water and the ever more popular "dulce de leche" (I-need-an-entire-post-to-even-begin-to-tell-you-what-this-really-truly-is). The other students in the house - a Colombian, a German and a Frenchwoman - slept right through the meal or elected to not to even pretend they had some predisposition for eating before 11:00.
The bagged lunch phenomenon has no power here, either. Lunches are long, between one and two hours, and always taken outside of the office. So, today I decided to walk down to the famously beautiful cafe "Las Violetas" on Rivadavia Street and have my way with the place. It was a very stylish 2:15 and although there was quite a crowd there were a number of empty tables in the center and a smattering of singles sitting around the edges. Right about the time I attempted to go through the locked side entrance - rather than the grandiose entrance off Rivadavia - I nearly died of shame and turned right around. I didn't stop walking until I found this delicious little tarta de zapallitos. Considering I couldn't understand a damn word my waitress was saying I smiled and nodded and took a few seconds to contemplate which tarta I would like before asking her which she preferred. She smiled and confidently asserted her favorite.
Forgive me. This photo is not mine - I am absolutely too petrified to take my camera out on the street, much less my iPod; which, could become my only link to the rest of the world when this US30 power converter - that pops and sparks - fries Myrta (my beast of a green laptop). I unceremoniously stole this photo from a website: adorable site. It is a great place to practice your Spanish when you're done here... or just finagle some delightful recipes. I'm off to do just that!
I promise not to write about everything I eat, just maybe almost everything.
Useful vocabulary from this post / El vocabulario útil de la bitácora:
- El bife - steak (in this case of beef)
- La calabaza - (n.) pumpkin or any sort of squash
- Comer - (v.) to eat
- Dulce de leche - (n.) a delicious caramelized sweetened condensed milk sauce or "manjar" in Chile.
- Una empanada - (n.) a savory pastry that is filled with anything from meat to cheese to sweets.
- La manteca - (n.) butter or "mantequilla" in Spain.
- Una picada - (n.) a light dish, often shared, eaten in the late afternoon as a hold-me-over.
- La pura - (n.) puree - anything from mashed potatoes to apple sauce.
- Soso - (adj.) bland or tasteless.
- La tarta - (n.) anything from a pastry, tart (sweet or savory) or cake.
- Un zapallito - (n.) zuchinni
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