Steak-away and home delivered ice cream

At least once a week I head down to this little parilla (barbecue house) for some cheap takeaway steak, or steak-away as I’ve affectionately called it.

It’s the equivalent of the ‘corner store takeaway joint’ back home which offers not only hamburgers, barbecued chicken, fish and chips, but also any cut of beef cooked over hot coals, all sorts of sausages (including blood sausage), pastas and pastries. This particular parilla is cheap, fast, good and provides huge servings, therefore is very popular with the locals – especially the blue-collar workers at lunchtime. I’m yet to see another gringo like me in there, struggling to get the right item on the menu... (maybe its just because I’m the only one they can’t understand properly).

Ordering here is like ordering a soup from the Soup Nazi (for Sienfeld fans). You line up for ages and get one chance to tell your order to the fat man behind the cash register before he gets terribly agitated and yells at his horde of cooks, waiters, cleaners, waitresses etc. He can also take orders on the phone or from one of his employees at the same time as you are ordering too (no wonder he is the boss).

If you get it right, he takes your money and gives you a docket that never seems to resemble what you ordered, which you then take to the parilla and struggle to tell the cook what you want for a second time, this time with a docket to prove your payment. I thought I was progressing with my Spanish when for the last couple of times both the nazi and the cook understood my order without the need for me to repeat it, but unfortunately today I had to resort to pointing to the blackboard to get my desired dish of crumbed steak with ham, cheese and tomato sauce.

The cook has all the meat slow cooking on the grills at various heights from the hot coals which he continuously plays with. If you look at the pics, you can kind of see in the middle of the grills is a super-hot grill where he puts the meat once ordered and cooks it to your liking. So a roast beef will only have you waiting for about 5 minutes or so.

Anyway, here is a typical serving (left). In this case it is my favourite, the bife de chorizo (sirloin steak), the most expensive cut of meat on the menu at a whopping AU$3 for a plate-sized, beautiful, juicy steak. I usually don't bother ordering anything on the side with this as the steak and bread is more than enough for a hearty lunch. Other items I’ve indulged in here are a super completa hamburguesa ($1.80), the above mentioned napolitana milanesa ($2.40). And for eating in, you can get a 1L cerveza for $2.50 or a glass tumbler of vino tinto for $0.40!!

The other luxury I often succumb to here is the ease of getting any type of food home-delivered sin cargo (without charge), at any time of the day or night. The combination of the abundance of restaurants/food joints, the density of population and the scarcity of jobs has produced the occupation which I’m not envious of at all: the home-deliverer. Whether it be on foot, bicycle or moped they are always crazily zipping in and out of the traffic and causing havoc. You can get anything from a coffee, sandwiches, even Burger King home delivered – now that is the meaning of fat and lazy! A plate of a dozen facturas (sweet baked croissant type things) home delivered is about $1.60. My favourite is helado (ice cream) home delivered after a nice dinner. The flavours of argentine ice creams are unbelievable – so many to choose from and all soooo delicious. This 1kg tub with 4 exquisite flavours from the very good "Volta" chain of helado stores was a bit of a splurge at $12 delivered.

To ensure its safe, frozen delivery, it arrives at your door in a little foam esky-type tub, with a little cube of dry ice wrapped in plastic in the top of the tub – genius!

Settling into a Buenos Aires life of leisure

Well it wasn´t too hard settling into the lifestyle during the first week here, because after a mammoth 46hr journey from Brisbane (via NZ, USA and Chile) my body clock was well and truly upside down and partying all night and sleeping all day was easy! Throw in a bout of the flu and some rainy weather and i hardly saw much daylight for the first week. But now i´m acclimatised, flu-less (for now) and in a somewhat normal routine of sleeping at night and keeping busy during the day. Come weekends it´s still astounding to me how late everyone eats dinner (you can´t get a table after 10pm), meets for drinks at friends´ houses (between 10 and 12), goes out (between 12 and 3) and comes home (anytime in the morning!!!), so it takes a while to adjust back during the week (thank god i´m not working a full time job - i don´t know how they do it here!).

I´m living in a great spot quite central to everything and best of all it´s a breeze to get to Uni via a short subway ride or a 20min walk downtown. Here is the street i live on - I´m right opposite this nice old church and school, and right next to a 24hr kiosk that sells great empanadas (tasty little pastry snacks filled with beef or chicken or ham/cheese or vegetables) and of course the 1L bottles of cervezas for about $AU1.50 ($AU1 at the supermarket!!). I´m living with Marcela who i met when i was here last time in a small 2brm apartment and have a few friends who live nearby as well.

Living on the cheap in the middle of a big city means you can´t have the best of everything though, so unfortunately this is the view from the tiny tiny balcony - at least there is some greenery courtesy of this massive palm tree that is somehow thriving amongst the peeling concrete.

I´ve had one week of the 8 week spanish course at the University of Buenos Aires - so far it´s been really basic stuff so i hope it picks up pace soon as i still can hardly understand a word of a standard conversation between Argentineans (although i can now say my name, age and where i come from!!). It is good that the teachers speak only in Spanish, and there is about 13 students from all over the world but i hope it gets more challenging soon. I guess I have to be patient and learn all the theory first I suppose...

The enrolment for the course was interesting, as paperwork/bureaucracy are not the south american´s specialty. It was enrolment day for the whole language department of the university - and with limited places on offer for all their courses (university education is free for native Argentines), it was extremely busy. After finding the building (it was the one with the line spilling out onto the road), I lined up for 1/2 hour only to be told to come back in 2 hours. Came back and finally found where to join the course (funnily enough even though it was a language department hardly anyone spoke English so I was using my Spanglish to varying effectiveness) - then joined it, lined up again to get a student number, then lined up to pay but had to find an ATM first to get the 832pesos in order to pay (cash only, no cards), as this was the only way to guarantee a place. Then with just one cashier accepting the money, the line to pay snaked its way all around the whole building - it was about 2 hours for that last line but i got it all done and am officially a student of la UBA.

Seems there´s always a lineup for anything here - at the supermarket, at the subway - yet nobody gets agitated at all. It´s like they can´t get enough of queues. It´s lucky i don´t have too many pressing engagements here because my patience wouldn´t last!!! Once I was standing on the edge of the road trying to work out where i was, and a queue starting forming behind me (admittedly i was at a bus stop)!!

Otherwise, i´ve had a couple of great asados (Argentinean bbq) where each cut of beef is simply superb (though i´ve refrained from eating anything that´s not a traditional cut, ie neck gland or blood sausage - the argies love to cook and eat the whole animal!!). Last night at a birthday party the host showed me his bbq where he had been roasting the beef since 4pm (it was 10pm) and there was literally half a cow on there - ribs and all!!! Come serving time you were given a rib about 40cm long that dangled over each end of your wooden chopping board plate. Tasted sensational! I´ve also been to see some local bands play at a bar not far from here, been backstage of Gran Hermano (Argentinean Big Brother) - Marcela is working a 2nd job as a psychologist on the show, and been to a few bars and saw some St Patrick´s day festivities in amongst the Irish pubs.

Since i have only 2 hrs a day of classes, I´ve bought an acoustic guitar and a football to keep myself busy and have plenty planned for my time outside class. Here are some snaps from around the town as i go about my daily stuff - I haven´t done too much "sightseeing" as I saw most of that stuff last time i was here.



Walking home from Uni I have to cross this avenue - the widest in the world at 140m - it takes about 3 changes of lights to make it across!




lucky there is about 3 median strips for pedestrians to stop at - here i´m about halfway across...














...and here i am on the other side looking back while traffic and pedestrians continue to fight.

Here´s a better view of Av 9 de Julio (named after their day of Independence) - I didn´t take this pic!! (I know i´m tall, but not that tall!)

Here is an example of the beauty and chaos of BsAs, just a few blocks from where i live - pedestrians, cyclists, cars and taxis all fight tooth and nail for their part of the asphalt often within inches of each other at top pace.



Another thing Argentineans love is a good monument in honor of some hero of a bygone era (there´s hundreds throughout the city). This one is sporting a fetching red bikini top.


All pics - click to enlarge.

Chau!