Posted in Film on 02. Mar, 2010
The following is a guest post by Christi Hedke from BananaWho.com, a wonderful film blog.
When it comes to South American cinema, don’t let Brazil steal all the thunder! Here are 5 films to watch that represent a wide cross-section of Argentine viewpoints. The following films are not necessarily made by Argentines, but rather movies that focus on Buenos Aires. Ranging from foreign films to documentary, each of these films focuses uniquely on Buenos Aires, showing her many faces, both unpleasant and pristine.
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Posted in Tango on 23. Feb, 2010
Like sushi and Japan, samba and Brazil, and beer and Germany, tango is a cultural artifact that both defines and is defined by a country. Tango was born and grew up here, and given its huge cultural significance, it behooves all of us expats or tourists to give it the ole college try! This guide will help you to do just that.
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Every expat in Buenos Aires needs a checklist for entertaining guests when they’re in town – say perhaps a bottle of Malbec at El Federal, dinner at Desnivel, next day a stroll along Avenida de Mayo stopping for a coffee at Café Tortoni. Do you have yours yet? If not, here are some things that you might want to consider including:
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While Buenos Aires is not as cheap for Gringos as it used to be, hacking your budget can still be achieved with relative ease. Does this mean you are going to be living like a king? No, but if you are on a tight budget and want to see how long you can push it, you can still enjoy Buenos Aires. So lets talk about how you can live in Buenos Aires on only 5 dollars per day.
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Posted in Food on 18. Feb, 2010
Empanadas are a funny thing. I had eaten my fair share of hand-holdable meat pies and pasties before setting foot on the southern part of this fair continent. So the first time someone explained them to me, my reaction was something like “so they’re essentially mincemeat in a bit of pastry…and that’s a national dish? Is this some kind of joke?”
But of course, it’s impossible to live or even travel in Argentina without resorting to the occasional four-or-five-empanada lunch, or two-or-three-empanada snack (not embracing them would seriously limit your convenience food options), and little by little I’ve developed such an affection for them that I can’t go more than two days without one. I’m a convert.
Let’s go back to the start though. What is an empanada?
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If there’s one thing that Buenos Aires does really well in terms of accommodation, it’s boutique hotels. Maybe it’s because the hotspots like San Telmo, Palermo and Recoleta don’t have acres of space for big international hotel chains to open up, but whatever the reason, boutiques always top the rankings when it comes to the best places to stay.
Of course there is a dark side to Buenos Aires boutique hotel-dom, and it’s that sometimes, or even often, boutique hotels choose form over function in order to seem trendy and avant-garde. This quote from the New York Times contributor Ian Mount sums the situation up perfectly:
A high proportion of BA boutique hotels look like they were designed by Philippe Starck’s younger, dull-normal, less-talented brother.
But never fear! This guide to five of Buenos Aires’ best boutiques will help you to steer clear of the pretenders. All five attract rave reviews from guests and some are so popular they must be booked months in advance.
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Given its status as a top tourist destination, it comes as no surprise that Buenos Aires has well over 1 trillion (I made that number up) hotel beds. That’s a lot of beds, and so having to select just one can quickly lead to choice paralysis, and subsequently the decision to go somewhere lamer, like Santiago, just to have a more straight-forward choice of accommodation. That would be a huge mistake.
Instead, refer to this handy guide. Four categories, five places to stay per category, and all of them winners. What could be simpler than that?
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Posted in Food on 10. Feb, 2010
One thing that could be difficult when you are in Buenos Aires is trying to get some food delivered to your home when your Spanish isn’t quite up to par yet. Its one thing to try and communicate with your limited Spanish face to face; its a whole other animal trying to speak Spanish on the phone. All you want is a dozen Empanadas delivered to your door but you don’t understand anything the guy is saying on the other end of the phone!!
While the only way you are going to get better at your Spanish is to practice as much as you can and that includes speaking on the phone, some days it just isn’t in you. Thankfully, Empanadas companies like Gourmet have started to include online ordering on their websites.
While only available at a few select locations, online ordering is destined to be the norm at all of Gourmet’s locations. Give it a try!!
While Brazil is the most well known for its Carnival celebrations, a lighter form of Carnival still exists in Buenos Aires.
This past Saturday night my Porteña friend called me up and asked, “hey, do you want to go to a Corso?” “Whats a Corso?” I asked. “You will see. Its Carnival! You might want to wear clothes that you don’t mind getting wet.”
After having some hamburguesas on the asado at my Porteña friend’s house in the barrio of Flores, we headed to the Corso around midnight 3 blocks away. Since my Porteño friends had told me that there was going to be lots of espuma (foam) at this fiesta , the first thing that crossed my mind was some type of techno fueled foam party at a nightclub. “Hey, it is Carnival right? Its not Brazil, but we are still in South America. A crazy foam party could be on the horizon, no?” Well, a crazy foam party was on the horizon, but not the kind you would expect….
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Posted in Drink on 04. Feb, 2010
Everyone knows that Buenos Aires is a city of tango dancers, steak eaters and red wine drinkers, but its grand obsession with the infused drink ‘mate’ doesn’t rate much of a mention internationally. Many an expat fresh off the plane has been initially puzzled at the sight of so many people walking around with a thermos tucked under one arm, sucking on a metal pipe stuck into a gourd with a silver rim. ¡Qué raro!
Well you don’t have to be puzzled any longer. Echemos un vistazo (let’s take a quick look) at this dearly beloved drink.
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