fry for me Argentina

a semester-long adventure through food

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Chinese food in Argentina?

So, there’s a whole little neighborhood called Barrio Chino in the Belgrano district of Buenos Aires. I had been there a couple of times, but I hadn’t eaten there until Thursday, when I spontaneously decided to go eat at Restaurant Chinatown with my friend Kevin. We ordered fried rice and “kongpau” chicken, and it was a delicious change of pace food-wise. The rice isn’t pictured because we scarfed it down and I forgot to take a photo. 

After this, we went and got filtered coffee at All Saints Cafe, and just hung out and talked for a couple of hours in the cafe. It was great and such a nice afternoon. It also doesn’t hurt that the weather is so much better now and it’s super nice to walk in the city in between all of these locations.

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One of the best days I have had in BA was last Monday!

It was the first day I got to meet with my “language partner,” who is a person that lives in Buenos Aires that practices Spanish and English with me. She was so incredibly nice and we became friends!

She suggested that the place we go to is this place called Crepas, which was a crepe place. I don’t usually love crepes, but I decided to get a “chococrepa” crepe that was like a chocotorta, but in crepe form. It had chocolate cream and chocolate sauce and bits of chocolate cookies and it was so good! I also had this mint lemonade with spices that was super good too. Overall, it was such a great outing. We were only supposed to talk for an hour, but we were there for almost 3!

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@ Decata

I treated myself to a weekend of food, because 

1. I deserve it

2. Most of my friends were out of town or busy

and, as a result, I had a great weekend!

This sandwich wasn’t the cheapest, but it was a smoked salmon and avocado sandwich on wheat bread, which was a collection of things that I love but haven’t eaten a lot here. It was SO GOOD and so filling and truly hit the spot. The cafe, Decata, was only a walking distance from my house and in a super pretty and sunny location. Apparently there’s an upstairs patio that’s supposed to be gorgeous, so I’ll have to come back soon and check that out.

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COFFEE LIFESTYLE UPDATE:

So during my time here in Buenos Aires, I have been very homesick and had a hard time finding “my place.” One of the best things I have done in the past month, though, is start frequenting coffee shops.

I have now reached this point where I go to Cafe Negro so often that they greet me by name and automatically bring me my order, which is a latte and two medialunas. I’m currently sitting in the cafe right now, and they brought me a latte with a bird, as shown in the left picture.

I love Cafe Negro, though. As of right now, this will be the thing I miss the most when I go home.

The other latte is one that I got from All Saints Cafe, which is the place I go when I leave from my house. They don’t know me by name there, but they like me enough to give me a bear on the latte! 

Latte artistry amazes me. I have not had anyone in the US put this much effort into their illustrations! I have no idea how they do it!

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This is Cafe Tortoni, which is the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires.

Given my affinity for coffee, I had to try this cafe with a group of friends because it would have been a shame to miss such a historical place. It’s on Avenida de Mayo and was only a couple minute walk away from the university.

Unfortunately, it was really expensive and the coffee and medialunas weren’t even that good. It was really pretty inside but... I love my other cafes 10x more.

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FINALLY! WE FOUND MEXICAN FOOD THAT WASN’T THE WORST!

Before my spring break, my friends and I went to San Telmo to go to the Feria there (yes, I spent some time finally going to all of the Ferias around town). It was pretty cool, but it started pouring rain and, unsurprisingly, I was pretty hungry. So we decided to take shelter in a local Mexican restaurant called Che Taco.

Che Taco is probably also a touristy location, which I judged from the American Football on TV. I reluctantly ordered a burrito, hoping it wouldn’t be *that terrible*. And it wasn’t!

As you can see, the beans were runny and on top of the burrito, which was a little strange, but inside the meat and cheese and rice was a delicious combination. Also, the green salsa at this restaurant was actually VERY SPICY, and I cried from happiness! I was dumping the salsa on my burrito and so excited that I was able to find another spicy food in this county. I ended up going back here later in the week.

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Last weekend, I went with my friends to the Recoleta Feria, which was an amazing experience. There were so many cool handmade things that were being sold and ended up buying a beautiful handmade ring! I know where I am going to go now to get gifts for my friends and family before I leave. 

After we went to the fair, I was so starving, so my friends and I decided to go to a nearby American-themed brewery. It was obviously a slightly touristy location, but they had pretty good IPA and 6 different beers. 

We got these cheese bacon fries and I haven’t stopped dreaming about them since. I enjoyed the quesadilla too, but those fries were superior and I am going to go back solely for those.

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Parilla con mis amigas!

My two friends FINALLY came back from going on a bunch of trips so we celebrated a couple of weeks ago by going out to a lunch of strictly meat (sorry vegan friends, I’ve let you down).

This was at Secretito, or Secret Parilla, or Tito’s. I’m not sure which one is the exact name because there isn’t a sign on the building. This parilla is kind of like a speakeasy, where it says “cerrado” on the door and you have to ring a bell to get in. I’ve never been to restaurant this style, so it was a new experience.

The meat, to say the least, was amazing. Very Argentinian, very delicious.

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Some AMAZING ramen!

This past weekend, my friend texted me while I was still in bed asking whether I would get lunch with him. I agreed, and quickly got ready and headed to (my new favorite part of town) Belgrano!

We found a Japanese restaurant on the app Foursquare that was ranked #2 in the city for “soup,” which we knew meant ramen. It was called Nobiru. After sitting down outside in a really pretty ambiance of bamboo plants, we parsed through the menu, pondered whether we should get sushi, and eventually both ordered ramen. I ordered the one that had flames and a warning that said “¡PICANTE!” fully knowing that it wouldn’t actually be very spicy. (Argentinans, for those who don’t know, aren’t very into spicy foods and their idea of “picante” is about the same or lower than an American mild standard.)

About 20 minutes later, a man came out with the most beautiful bowl of soup I have ever laid my eyes on. It was bursting with colors and I hoped that it would be just as delicious as it looked.

And WOW. It was some of the best ramen I had ever had. The broth was spicy, but not so spicy that it was hard to eat. The noodles and pork were fresh. It was obviously crafted with love and I was throughly impressed. I will definitely go back there again!

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New parts of the city = new cafes

I found a new favorite cafe this weekend when I ventured with my friend into the Belgrano district of Buenos Aires.

We were over there to explore Barrio Chino, aka Chinatown, and needed some caffeine after a couple of hours, leading us to go on Foursquare and find the highest rated coffee shop nearby.

We ended up at All Saints Cafe, which ended up being my favorite cafe so far in Buenos Aires!

It was also definitely the most American, with many things being in English (except the people that worked there).

The croissant was amazing and the latte was nice and actually large, compared to what cafes usually think a large is here. Also, as usual, the guy couldn’t understand my name, but listened patiently for me to spell it and then put a smiley face :)

They also played a bunch of my favorite songs and bands! I will definitely be returning!!

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This weekend it was pouring rain, to the point where I debated whether it was even a good idea to leave my house. I slept in until 2pm, unable to motivate to get myself to get out of bed because the sound of the rain was so calming. After finally arising, I decided that it would be a good idea to try a new cafe that was closer to my house than the ones I have gone to before.

I walked about 10 minutes into Palermo from my house to get to Cafe Registrado. I sat down, looked at the menu, and saw that they had a breakfast for $135 (pesos) that included a latte, orange juice, pancakes, and scrambled eggs with ham. Because scrambled eggs are such a rarity in this city, I had to take a chance on them. And I was pleasantly surprised. They were pretty darn good scrambled eggs. 

The meal was super filling too. I almost didn’t eat dinner later in the day. And I enjoyed doing work in the cafe, which had a cool industrial-like building turned into a coffee shop feel. I went back the next day and got the exact same meal (you probably can tell, I like going back to places that I like).

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This is Las Cholas, aka my favorite restaurant so far in BA.

This is the Gran Bife Las Cholas, which is a great meal to split with someone else and have leftovers. The first night being in Buenos Aires, my host mom said “you’re on your own for dinner” and directed me and the other girl in my homestay how to walk there. And we became forever obsessed.

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For an entire month people have been raving about the ice cream in Buenos Aires, and I never had gotten around to actually getting it. Until yesterday, when my friends that I went on a run with insisted that we get ice cream after (effectively canceling out my workout).

But it was so worth it. This ice cream was INSANE. I got half 80% cocoa chocolate and half Gianduia di Torino which was hazelnut flavored with actual hazelnuts. Apparently you can also get something called “rapanui”(which is the name of the store) with it but I’m still not sure what that is...

@ Rapanui https://goo.gl/maps/j9hc3PobpoR2

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MEDIALUNAAASSSS aka argentine croissants

These medialunas were the best I’ve had in BA. Also that latte was so good, you can even see how thick the foam was. NEGRO is an awesome cafe, and I’m still in awe that a place with literal BLACK walls still has a warm, inviting atmosphere and a cozy ambiance. I’ll probably come back here again tomorrow.

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New favorite cafe. @ NEGRO Cueva de café

https://goo.gl/maps/aA4D27PqJQ82

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I made friends at a bar last week, so I actually had someone to take a photo of me eating my food!

This place that I went to with my friends is called Pani. We ended up going here after a miscommunication moved our lunch plans to being at 3:30pm. We were dying of hunger and couldn’t wait to devour everything on the menu.

Photos don’t do this sandwich justice. It was a waffle sandwich with ham, a fried egg, cheese, tomato and lettuce, sauce, and bacon. It was magical. 

I didn’t love the potatoes that came with it because they weren’t crispy and I prefer crispy potatoes. I also had gotten a latte, which was so weak that I’m not even sure that it had espresso in it.

Those faults were made up for by this cookie. This is one of the best cookies I’ve ever had in my life. It was a butter nutella cookie. My friend tried it and started making noises it was so good. 10/10 would recommend.

I spent way too much money here, though. It’s not cheap. For that reason, I’m not sure I would suggest that people go there, and I’m not sure I’m going to go back.

Maybe for the cookie though.

https://goo.gl/maps/wsyEJmaToJq

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“Wow, something with vegetables on it!”

They don’t eat vegetables here. Not sure why, considering there are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere. This was literally the first salad I’ve been served outside of my homestay.

Went to San Isidro for a day trip with my program one weekend and got this for lunch. The tarta (quichelike Argentine food) was jamón y queso and absolute fuego. Like so good. Best tarta I’ve ever had.

I forgot while eating this meal that I don’t like carrots and shoved a whole bite of them in my mouth. Not sure how that happened but quickly removed them from my plate. 

Edit: I was originally writing “torta,” but after thinking about it I’m pretty sure that it’s actually “tarta.” I think that torta refers to basically the same thing, but in dessert form.