A green city...

Everywhere you go in Buenos Aires you are aware of nature all around you because of the many tree lined streets, and the beautifully landscaped plazas and parks that have been here for over 100 years. Buenos Aires developed into the city it is today in the early twentieth century when Argentina experienced a period of tremendous wealth. Argentines were traveling to Europe and spending time in cities like Paris. They wanted to copy what they saw and bring it back to Buenos Aires, which they did.

Visiting the Jardin Botanico Carlos Hays which are the botanical gardens in Palermo, a large upscale suburb to the north of the city center, feels like an extension of many of the parks and plazas we already walked through in the city. The botanical gardens were planned in 1898 by Carlos Hays which makes most of the plants and especially the many species of Argentine trees, that tower above you and provide huge areas of shade, about 112 years old. The gardens are open to the public at no charge and there are new looking, well maintained benches to sit on to simply get away from the city.

Restaurants, food, and memories....

Foods, like particular smells, and certain songs can trigger long forgotten memories. Reliving tastes of favorite foods I remember from childhood has been a highlight of a month in Buenos Aires. I don't remember  having the adventure of trying a different restaurant every day for a month. Arriving in Buenos Aires our routine has become breakfasts and light evening snacks in the apartment and a three course lunch in a restaurant at the customary 2 to 3 p.m.  - Argentine lunch hour.

I wanted to remember the names and highlights of lunches in about 30 different restaurants not to mention midmorning cafes which I have already blogged about. There was Bar Rodi, El Callao, Palacio de las Papas Fritas, La Estancia, Cafe Moliere, Sirop, Los Caballeros, Rosa Negra, La Madeleine, Cumana, and La Estacion in Tigre. The traditional Argentine menu, is grilled beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or merluza fish (an ocean fish that comes from Mar del Plata). You are offered a choice of either a lettuce and tomato salad (with oil and vinegar on the side) or potatoes such as French fries( papas fritas, crisper than any others in the world), mashed, boiled, or baked. Veggies other than squash and an occasional red or green pepper for garnish are not served often. There are no varieties of salad dressings, steak sauce, ketchup or other sauces to change the flavor of food and it would be unheard of to ask for that. This is a "meat and potato" culture which may sound boring but it's not because it's delicious. If you happen to be vegetarian there is always pasta which is as good anything eaten in Italy. Buenos Aires is famous for its varieties of delicious, light crusted pizzas. Drinks at lunch can be a glass of Malbec red wine, a Quilmes beer or agua con gas(sparkling water). For dessert the choice is flan (caramelized custard), budin de pan (bread pudding), helados (ice cream in exotic flavors such as maracuya or passion fruit), or ensalada de frutas (fruit salad of fresh apples, oranges, bananas and pears). I haven't even mentioned the European style confiterias or bakeries that make outstanding pastries and fancy cakes.

The menu ejecutivo which most all restaurants offer during the work week is a menu with choice of entree, main course, dessert, and drink for a set price that is as low as $10 per person in many places. Ordering off the regular menu will cost you more. Lunches are served with a basket of fresh crusty bread and bread sticks on a immaculately ironed white table cloth with a large cloth napkins. No skimpy paper napkins or formica table tops in this country! There is care given to the serving of the food and the presentation on the plate even if it's just a $10 meal. You can sit for as long as you like long after you've finished and dishes have been removed. The waiter never brings the check until you ask for it!

What makes dining in Buenos Aires such a special experience is the presentation of the food as well as the freshness of everything. Meats, vegetables, salads and desserts come straight from their source every day. No canned, frozen, or made in advance food in this country because preservatives are unheard of. Much of it is cooked on the parilla or the grill. My taste buds have come to life after a month of simple Argentine dining. The memories, too, have come alive as I savor the flan which was my favorite dessert as a child, or treat myself to an alfajor (a cookie sandwich with dulce de leche in the middle), or marvel at the papas fritas that I never eat at home because they are always soggy. Somehow the papas fritas in Argentina go down so easily you can't imagine they would have any calories at all!

The final culinary celebration in Buenos Aires was "high tea" at the Alvear Palace Hotel. Built in the 1930's and renovated in the 1990's, the Alvear Palace is still the most elegant, colonial hotel in Buenos Aires.  It was here when I was a child in the 1950's. The tea experience is one to add to my collection of unforgettable teas in elegant cities around the world. Waiters in red jackets and waitresses in gold vests wearing white gloves served tea from silver teapot. Pastries, tea sandwiches and scones were brought to the table on three tiered platters to be eaten on Vileroy & Boch pale green china. Soft live piano music in the background set the tone for the finest dining Buenos Aires can offer. We sipped tea and ate for two and a half hours. By the time we left, the tea room was full of well dressed Argentines doing the same as their dinner hour doesn't start till 9 or 10 p.m. at night.

Dining out in Buenos Aires has been fun but it's time to get back to my own cooking which isn't all that bad. What I shall miss is the freshness of natural foods which are harder to find and the memories I've enjoyed reliving my childhood through food.

Four seasons in a month....

When I get home to Vermont this week it will feel strange to think that I've experienced all four seasons in one month. My recent musings remind me that a month ago I left winter to land in Buenos Aires in summer. Now summer is past and there are signs everywhere that fall is here. Yet I am getting ready to head home this week to spring, which will most likely be more like winter in Vermont. It's a bit like "if it's Tuesday, it must be fall but on Friday it will be spring."

Living in places that have four seasons always brings the sense of anticipation of something new to look forward to. Argentina has four seasons. I think about how different it is walking the streets of Recoleta than it was just a few weeks ago when we arrived. The hot and humid days that I loved after winter have disappeared and I am welcoming cooler, fresh mornings and warm sunny days. There is now a blanket on the bed. When I look down from the third floor French windows onto the street I see school children wearing sweaters and pedestrians in light jackets. The women's "fashion show" , as I describe it, in this upscale Recoleta barrio, has changed. I see women have traded their glittery high heeled sandals for expensive leather flats or tall leather boots. Sleeveless tops have been replaced by long sleeved shirts, tailored jackets, and long sweater jackets, in darker colors. Shawls and ponchos are worn draped casually in the most stylish way.

Store window displays now have winter coats, ponchos, and boots and there are fewer LIQUIDACION or SALE signs because most summer things are gone. Beach tans are fading, and the carefree atmosphere of summer holidays has dissipated. The Arts section of the newspaper has the fall and winter theater and concert schedules. Travel agencies post winter beach getaways to far away places in the Caribbean or Club Med in Brazil. The futbol (soccer) season has begun with arch rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate, playing in Sunday games until the end of the year.

The pink blossoms on the palo borracho trees that looked so fresh a month ago have faded and are dropping. Argentina's ceibo trees with their picturesque red blossoms are less visible as they don't flower in late fall and winter. Soon the abundance of summertime green and shade from the trees will begin to change color and fall to the ground. These images are with me as I head into spring in the Northern Hemisphere this week.  

Reflecting on reunions...

"Is this Vicente Lopez? That's where we used to live...."

"I'm so curious if our house even exists anymore..."

"I lived up a hill, I think...."

"Look at all the new buildings...they weren't here when we were in school."

"Do you remember Paco's? " "Yeah...we used to go for ice cream after school."

"Are we at the school? Is this it? I remember when we went to the building in Belgrano. Were you there then? "

Conversations swirled around me on the charter bus from downtown Buenos Aires to the northern suburb of La Lucila and the American Community School. We were headed to the 75th reunion celebration of the founding of Lincoln School, now known as the American Community School. 

Having moved often and changed schools several times, I never wanted to attend a class reunion perhaps for fear I wouldn't know anyone. I did go to my 30th college reunion but remember having difficulty finding things in common with classmates I hadn't seen in years. I came away with the realization that the few friends I cared about in college, I was still friends with years later. The same thoughts came back to me at the ACS Open House event yesterday.

What makes the American Community School celebration different is that it is an international school with 75 years of graduates of many nationalities. There were at least 600 people who came to the Open House and reception and more than half had traveled from abroad (mostly the United States) to attend. There were graduates and teachers from 1936 to the present. A panel of alumni from different decades, spoke about their experiences and memories of ACS. The resounding theme for all was that the school was a safe haven regardless of race, religion, or nationality in spite of what was going on in the world. I heard people saying, 'there was no prejudice and no discrimination", over and over again. My Hungarian Argentine classmate who went 12 years to ACS said her parents sent her there because it was the only place in Buenos Aires where she would not encounter anti-Semitism. I had never realized this but maybe my liberal views of the world grew from my experiences right here.

The most frequently asked questions were "how long has it been since you've been back to Argentina?" or "is this the first time you've been back?" Suddenly I realized that returning to Argentina after 35 years, or even the 54 years since I was in elementary school, did not set me apart from anyone. Most of us were experiencing the same thing. Another prevalent question was "how long were you here for?" For some like me, it was only elementary school years, and for others it was till graduation from high school and every combination in between. The reunion prompted many siblings to get together to make the trip back to Argentina. I found myself talking with so many who said "have you met my sister or my brother? or "my sister said she was coming so I decided to come to."

When I started first grade in 1950, the Lincoln School was in a colonial style building in Belgrano. In 1954, the school moved to an estate along the Rio de la Plata with a large mansion (which is still called The Mansion and is the administrative building) and lots of land for athletic fields and playgrounds in a picturesque setting by the river. Lincoln merged with the American Community School and is now the American Community School. In my day, the Mansion housed classrooms, a lunch room and everything we needed during the course of the school day. Today ACS has a modern campus which includes a new gymnasium, an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, an elementary wing, a big Media Center, a Theater and everything else an elite private school offers. The campus still retains the sweeping views across the river and in the distance there is the skyline of Buenos Aires.

A reunion of American Community School alumni is more than just reconnecting with classmates. For extranjeros (foreigners) like me, coming back after many years triggers memories of a unique childhood in a far away country. Just being back in Argentina we find ourselves needing to search for the house or houses we lived in, the neighborhood we called "home" and the children outside of school we played with. We remember the maid or nanny who helped raise us, and the foods we loved like empanadas, alfajores, and dulce de leche. 

The blue and white Argentine flag with the sun in the middle seems as familiar as the stars and stripes we salute in the U.S. The tango music and Argentine folklore brings sudden tears to our eyes. My best friend from elementary school said to me, "I am reminded of, and see my mother here in Buenos Aires more than anywhere else." Her mother passed away two years ago. Certain Argentine expressions like hola pibes (hi, guys) or macanudo (great) remind me of my father who died recently. He spoke Spanish with such enthusiasm because he loved learning languages. He liked to communicate in Argentine slang just as the locals do and I hear him in my head as I walk the streets of Buenos Aires.

Because my family left Buenos Aires when I finished fifth grade, I did not remember specific classmates, teachers, or even classrooms at the school. However, for most of us who have come back to Argentina after many years, the experience of being together at this anniversary celebration is a validation that we really lived here. It suddenly doesn't seem so remote and distant. I sense that people are embracing the opportunity to let down and talk about their childhood in a way that they haven't been able to during their adult lives. This is what I'll remember for years to come.

Grocery shopping...fun?

One of the necessities of life that becomes routine is food shopping. Not so, when you leave home and exchange a 45 minute drive to the nearest large supermarket in Vermont, for a half block walk to the corner shops to buy what you need for your next meal in Buenos Aires. The novelty of carrying a shopping bag, money, and a key to the apartment to venture out on Calle Vicente Lopez to the shops is great fun.

A half block down is a colonial market building that dates back to 1900. Today there are small individual shops along the road in part of what used to be this large mercado. I have become a regular customer here. I love the bakery, Hausbrot, that sells nothing but whole wheat healthy breads and delicious fresh quiches made daily.

Next door, is the pasta shop which I now frequent. The first time there I had no idea how to buy  fresh pasta and sauce. I must have looked lost because a friendly customer came to my rescue. I told her I had no idea how much to buy for two people for one meal, and how long to cook it. Her instructions to buy 400 grams of tomato sauce (made fresh with real tomatoes, of course), and 400 grams of noodles and 100 grams of parmesan cheese were perfect. Just boil the pasta 4 minutes. Of course, I had to decide between about 12 different sizes and shapes of pasta and whether it should be white or spinach or made with egg. Then I saw the ravioles, cannelones, and the other choices of toppings from cream sauces to pesto to meat sauces. My first visit, I stuck to wide noodles and tomato sauce but I probably could chose something different every day for a month! We had one of the more delicious meals at home for 38 pesos or about 9 US dollars.

Beyond the pasta shop is a fiambreria, or delicatessen, with many varieties of expensive cheeses, cold cuts, olives, pickles, pimentos, and other condiments. If you are a meat eater, there is a butcher who will give you any cut of beef you like. Next door is the chicken and egg store which also sells duck. There are two fresh fruit and vegetable places. Everything in these shops is sold by the kilo so if you think in pounds you just have to guess. Across the street from these mercado shops there is the mouth watering Confiteria del Norte, a bakery with more fancy, cream filled cakes, cookies, pastries, breads, and ready made tea sandwiches than I have ever seen in one store. Every time I go in to browse, the stock never seems to lessen despite all the people that buy there all day long and late into the evening. I want to know who is eating all those pastries and goodies when I don't see a single overweight Argentine anywhere! Directly across the street from our building is a liquor store filled with Argentine wines.

There are two supermarket choices within a block and a half of our apartment. One is Carrefour which I used to shop at in Dubai. However, this one is not nearly as elegant although handy for paper products, soap, milk, crackers, eggs, yogurt, cereal, bottled water and wines. A block in the other direction is the more upscale Disco, that seems slightly pricier. Both deliver your groceries for a small fee. This explains the dozens of white plastic crates that are stacked up high in the entrance to both supermarkets. Once you go through the checkout with your items, a grocery boy will put them in a numbered crate and stack it along with others going in the direction of where you live. You get a number and then leave. It is a bizarre to see groceries in stacked crates being pushed around on these busy city streets. However, it surely beats pushing a cart out to the parking lot and lifting grocery bags into the trunk of your car, when you can walk out empty handed knowing your groceries will come to your door later. Pretty nifty. Supermarkets are open long hours, seven days a week, but small food shops close at noon on Saturdays and do not open again till Monday mornings.

I have to remind myself that if I lived here all the time, food shopping would become a chore just like it is everywhere else in the world. However, right now I am savoring the fun of doing it in a totally different way...not to mention the fact that all I've just described is delicious.

Tourist or not?

Every guidebook and list of recommended sights for Buenos Aires includes the Cafe Tortoni on Avenida de Mayo 825 in the heart of the city. Sometimes I steer clear of such places because I don't want to just do "the tourist thing" when I'm abroad. I get carried away imagining that I'm not a tourist because I grew up in Argentina and lived in South American countries for many years, This surely entitles me to a different category than what the label "tourist" connotes. Of course, this is all in my own mind because when I open my mouth in fluent Spanish, but not yet having perfected the Argentine accent, most natives are not sure who I am or where I come from.

With ten days left in Buenos Aires we headed to Cafe Tortoni, for an 11:30 a.m. cafe con leche y sandwich de miga (ham and cheese on white crustless bread). Everywhere you look, from the sign over the front door to the specially engraved plates and cups you are reminded that this the cafe dates back to 1858. By the looks of the inside it hasn't changed much in the 20th nor the 21st centuries. There is no one surfing the Internet and no WiFi signs on the door. Instead, well worn, leather upholstered chairs with arms and small round marble-top tables are placed among sturdy columns that hold up a high ceiling decorated in vitraux (stained glass). The interior is wall papered and wood paneled covered from eye level to ceiling with photos, caricatures, paintings, cartoons of famous Argentines who have come here over centuries. In the center is a bar made of dark wood. An old fashioned elaborately carved metal cash register sits at one end along with a bright Tiffany lamp. The faded and slightly uneven tile floors look like they haven't been replaced since the nineteenth century. Waiters in short black jackets, bow ties, and long striped aprons bring you the menu of mostly drinks and snacks. The cafe is open from breakfast to 2 a.m.

At midday we watched the tourists start to arrive. Disappointing and yet not surprising that in such an historical place there should be more tourists than Argentines. The tourists are those that carry cameras, are overweight, dressed in shorts and running shoes - the outfit that screams comfort over style. When I'm going about in this city I can easily pick out the Argentines from everyone else as they are never overweight and stylishly attired - women with sparkly sandals or latest fashion flats, linen slacks and cool summer print top or perhaps a short skirt with an expensive t-shirt and all the right accessories including scarf and a leather bag thrown casually over a shoulder.

The Tortoni is a museum preserving photos, books and writings of famous politicians, writers, thinkers, educators who have spent time here. In the back of the main part of the Cafe are several other salons. One is where they have Tango Shows starting at 8:30 p.m. in the evening and where you must book a table. Another room we wandered into is literally stuffed with memorabilia in no particular order, but all saved from decades past. I came across a photo, letter and press coverage of Hilary Clinton's unannouced visit to Tortoni in 1997 when she wrote "what a treat to visit a place so full of history and enjoy the ambience and the delicious meal. Thank you..." Carlos Gardel, the most famous of all Tango singers is immortalized with a bust that sits apart from the many others. There are photos, letters and publications of dramatists Luigi Pirandello and Federico Garcia Lorca, pianist Arthur Rubinstein, writer Jorge Luis Borges. All names I know.

Knowing who all the other personalities are is an impossible task and reminds me that I am a foreigner. Of course, I learned much about Argentina's historical heroes in my school textbooks years ago. Fifty five years later I cannot identify many of the people memorialized at the Tortoni. I guess that places me back to being the tourist that I didn't really want to be...

Biking in Buenos Aires

Touring Buenos Aires on a double decker bus or walking is one thing. Traversing a big city on a bike? That took some thought before opting to give it a try. It was the lure of the cloudless skies and mid-seventies temperatures, the adventure of trying something new, and our love for biking that pushed us to do it.

We walked to Plaza San Martin to meet Bike Tours Buenos Aires. With several "routes" to choose from which go twice a day in the morning and the afternoon, we opted for the "Recoleta and Palermo" one. It was Sunday morning which seemed like a quieter day to go biking on what are usually busy Buenos Aires streets and on the bike paths in Parque Palermo. Bikes are provided - no gears necessary as the terrain is totally flat. Helmets, water, and a guide are part of the package. We set out with Jaime in a bright yellow jacket as our guide. One other young couple, tourists from Sao Paulo Brazil joined us. Jaime spoke perfect English but after having to translate for the Brazilians we all settled on Spanish which Brazilians can function in and we can understand perfectly.

The route begins at the statue of Jose de San Martin, "the liberator" of Argentina, who is as important an historical figure as George Washington. I did not realize that in addition to exercise we'd get a complete history along the biking route stopping at all the well known monuments, buildings, and sights. We did set off on Avenida Libertador which is at least 10 lanes wide however, there is a small section designated as a bike path. Jaime told us that bike paths in the city are a very new phenomenon and only finished in the past several years. He also alluded to the fact that drivers and even pedestrians are still not that aware of their use being solely for bicyclers.

As a group of five cyclers we managed well with Jaime in the lead continually checking on us to make sure we crossed the wide avenues when necessary with no one left behind. Argentine drivers are not respectful of pedestrians much less bicyclers even at designated crossings at stop lights. It only seems to be when an Argentine is behind the wheel of a car, bus, or truck that he is in a hurry. All others in the city that are not driving live life at a very tranquil pace.

As we biked north and east of the port area and the Rio de la Plata we were in the largest and the greenest Buenos Aires suburb known as Palermo. It is also the most upscale area with million dollar homes built close together on shady quiet back streets, that date back to the early twentieth century. Many were bought years ago and are still used as foreign embassies and ambassador residences. We rode past the American Ambassador's residence which is in the exact location where it was in the 1950's when I lived here. I remember being taken to Christmas parties and 4th of July celebrations at the embassy residence over fifty years ago.

Palermo was so large that as it grew it was divided into Palermo Chico, Palermo Soho, Palermo Hollywood, Alto Palermo, and Palermo Viejo . Not only are there elegant homes but large avenues lined with expensive apartment buildings that are 20 stories high, very large well kept parks, the Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, as well as the Palermo Race Track built in the mid 1800's and an elegant Polo Club with a manicured grass polo field used for polo matches later on in the year.

Sunday morning the streets in the center of Palermo park district are closed to traffic during the day so that residents can enjoy the park for outdoor activities. From our bikes, we saw Argentines of all ages jogging, roller skating, bicycling, walking, picnicking, feeding the ducks in the big lake and simply enjoying the outdoors. We saw women of all ages walking around in bright melon colored T-shirts that said La carrera de las chicas (Women's race). Later we read in La Nacion newspaper that 5,000 women had participated in a 5 km. race through the park organized by Nike along with the Argentine Heart Association. I would have signed up just to get the classy T-shirt!

El Rosedal or El Jardin de las Rosas or the Rose Garden is the centerpiece and highlight of Bosques de Palermo or Palermo Woods area of the park. We stopped for a 15 min. break, parked the bikes, and walked the winding red gravel paths through more than 5,000 different rose bushes and 1200 species of roses in every imaginable color. To come upon this in the middle of Palermo is a complete surprise and reminiscent of the magnificent rose gardens in England. The rose garden was designed by the French landscaper Carlos Thays (who designed many of the major plazas, botanical gardens and zoo) in 1914. The garden is bordered on one side by a beautiful lake with geese and ducks and small boats. A large white Grecian style bridge goes across the lake and provides the entry way to the rose gardens. The garden is maintained by the municipality of Buenos Aires and is pristine with freshly painted benches, many waste receptacles and immaculate restrooms. It is like the gem in the center of the entire Palermo area which covers 7 square miles.

Jaime stopped at several more of the significant statues along the way including another San Martin, one of Evita Peron, Carlos Pellegrini, and Bartolome Mitre, a former president of Agentina. We headed back to Recoleta by the famous cemetery and church which we now consider our "home" neighborhood. Then along streets we walk daily, crossing the 20 lane widest Avenida 9 de julio to the plaza where we had started. The three and a half hour bike ride around Buenos Aires on a Sunday morning has become one of the highlights of our month long visit in Buenos Aires. How could we have even hesitated to think that a bike tour might not be the another way to be view a city?