Buenos Aires 4/5
[Sat 4/5]
Theme: Gardens, Art and Food Discoveries
The lovely day in Colonia left me hankering for parks and nature. I looked at the map and realized that the historical botanical garden, Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires is just 4 blocks away, past the Evita Museum. So K and I got up a bit earlier to spend some time in the garden. The night before we had gone but they’d just closed.
I’m glad we went. In the middle of this bustling city, there are some remarkable green spaces and this is one of them. Sr. Thays former mansion is now a community space. You can see his architectural plans, from the 19th century, of the various parks in town there. Very cool.
The park doesn't allow dogs in - which means this is one of the few places in Bs.As. that seems to be free of canine landmines. It was nice to be able to stroll looking up, not down all the time. LOL. The place is also a haven for cats. If you are a cat lover, this is the place to get your cat fix. Someone feeds them and cares for them, as they do look in good condition. We saw some cats healing from obvious professional veterinary surgery. I hope they’re also doing a neutering program. At first I was walking around with a plastic bag from the grocery store with a bottle of water in it. That attracted the cats. I figured out that plastic bags marks one as the “cat lady - food source” so I put the bag away. I hate to get their hopes up.
One Loney Planet BA guidebook mistakenly said that the place reeks of cat poo because it’s full of feral cats. WRONG! It was one of the few places that didn’t smell of poo… and when it did, it was near the adjacent park where dogs were allowed and you could really smell the dog shit. Obviously this was written by someone who hates cats and don’t understand them. Actually the cats here looked far healthier than the ones in the Recoleta cemetery. The cat population also keeps the rodents and pigeons controlled. We didn’t see but one pigeon there. Actually that was like watching a mini version of Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom. The previous evening, as we walked the parameter of the closed parks, we observed that the cats were coming out to hunt and socialize in their colony groups. One large young male had something under its paw. Other cats approached it slowly with their heads down. The tension and feline drama mounted slowly. The young male grabbed its catch in it’s mouth and stalked off to a secluded area on it’s own. He had a very fat pigeon and was having a righteous dinner. Cats lower of lower status hovered for leftovers. Ah a bit of the wild in the urban jungle!
So needless to say the park was free of dog shit, pigeon shit and rats. The areas were divided into themes, French garden, Roman garden, Oriental garden, water garden, cactus and succulents, woodlands, modern and classical sculptures, even an Art Nuevo glass conservatory…
We then strolled, along the other parks, Parque 3 de Febrero, and the Japanese garden and arrived at the Malba , the wonderful museum of Latin American art with an emphasis on contemporary works. We joined up with Gary, Dart and the handsome porteno, Hugo there for an afternoon of art. As a lover of contemporary art, I found the museum delightful! Some people think of it as small, but I think it’s just the right size to allow in-depth appreciation of the work without being over whelmed or feel rushed. A friend had advised that an hour would suffice to see the collection, but I didn’t find that to be true. The museum kindly had reading material in English as well as Portuguese. I think it would be easy to spend 2 to 3 hours just between the art and the lovely little shop. The store carries works from local designers. We later found many of the objects sold at hip twin BA design and garment store called Materia Urbana in the San Telmo district. All very worth visiting if you have a thing for beautiful contemporary design objects, gifts and clothing. The museum is closed on Tuesday, so please keep that in mind. No photos were allowed in the museum, so unfortunately I can’t share the wonderful interior views.
Exteriors of the museum
The café attached to the museum is fantastic! They’re open even when the museum is closed, serving lunch and dinner, I believe, and maybe even breakfast. The menu is lighter than the other fares we’ve been eating - a bit of a relief with our beef baby bellies now. I had a Moroccan lamb sandwich where the pita was baked with whole cumin seeds imbedded. Very yummy. The presentations were artful and playful as well. The desserts are not to be missed. I had a rice pudding with passion fruit sauce. OMG! Hugo had something that looked like the Acropolis made of strawberries with sabayon. The strawberries actually had flavour, unlike the red giant obscenities called strawberries we get in the grocers in the States. We ended up sitting at the long table, down from the where the Argentinean owner and the French chef were having a very animated lunch of their own work. That’s always a good sign.
Across the street to the big new mall. The guys had parked Hugo’s car there so we went through the mall to get to the car. A mall’s a mall. There are a lot of stores that are South American or Argentinean fashion labels that offer tax-free shopping, so for concentrated shopping to update your wardrobe this might be efficient. But it’s still a mall and thus boring to me.
Off to Hugo’s new acquisition - an airy, well lit, charmingly designed two-unit apartment, centrally located for rent to visitors. He’s just acquired it and it’s in the process of kitchen updating, refurbishment, and prettifying. Hugo’s an architect and very design conscious. This is going to be a beautiful pair of apartments. What’s neat is that they can be rented separate or as a large flat. He said he’d let me know when the places are available for rent. I know his rates will be good, so I’ll make sure to pass the info on to anyone who’s interested. I know that we’ll be renting from him when we return. We liked his place much more than the flat we got.
A detail from the stairwell in his building
The tea I had at the museum café was brilliantly delicious. We discovered that a local tea maker that Hugo knows personally blended the tea. I had no idea that Argentina was a big tea producer and consumer. Since the museum didn’t sell that unique blend, we went to the shop, Chez Pauline Maison de The. Yummy! Not only can you buy the leaves and tea paraphernalia, you can sit and have the tea with delicious sweets made by the French chef mentioned earlier.
Here’s the tea I bought. So delightfully fragrant and well balanced.. no sweetening or alterations needed. (will someone translate the Spanish?)
SAINT GERMAIN DES PRES
Té verde Gunpowder y chino tipo congou con menta, durazno, melocotón, uva blanca y flor de girasol
Infusión : 3 a 4 minutos.
Té refrescante gracias a su menta, muy utilizada en Francia para condimentar platos, tanto dulces como salados. Tonos de primavera parisina en su taza de té que se puede disfrutar todo el día.
Off to cocktails at Hugo’s apartment. What a beautiful place! It was like being in a Parisian loft as we looked down the streets and building, gold and pink from the sunset.
Back to the flat - change and meet up with Hugo again to head out to dinner. A restaurant called El Central had gotten rave reviews the last time the guys were here so we called, made a reservation and headed out.
We get there and it’s not there. Instead there’s a restaurant called Ceviche, a modern Peruvian restaurant. We decided to give it a try. I don’t know anything about Peruvian foods. The menu items were so different from Argentinean fare that Hugo had a hard time helping us. What we discovered was that Peruvian food appreciates spice. We also realized that the glorious Argentinean foods, both modern and traditional, are excellently flavoured with herbs and top-notch grass fed meats, they don’t use hot spices at all. In fact the tables don’t usually have peppershakers on them. Hugo told us that many Argentineans think North American foods are too spicy and that black pepper is too strong. Interesting. We realized that all of us, except Hugo, were totally craving for spicy foods. We informed the guy helping us, I think he was the owner, and he lit up with a big grin and brought out a fantastic salsa that was totally well balanced in heat, flavour and texture. Then the vinegar based hot sauce, obviously made in the kitchen, and gave our foods a fab kick. I had a seafood grill dish with a small mound of uniquely flavoured sticky rice. We noticed a lot of Asian influence in the cuisine… Not sure if that was from the Peruvian indigenous influence or the massive Asian immigration influence to South America. We loved the food there. The only thing that didn’t work was the puff pastry with soy sauce dip. We ate out in the back patio, which was also their herb garden. Pots after planer after pots of thyme, rosemary, oregano, chili peppers, mints of many varieties, sage and more. The chef would come out one in a while and pick herbs for cooking, which was really cool to watch. A large cactus was in its full evening bloom with a blossom the size of a softball…
My stomach missed the spice. After showing down on hot, hot food, all my stomach upset went away!
Theme: Gardens, Art and Food Discoveries
The lovely day in Colonia left me hankering for parks and nature. I looked at the map and realized that the historical botanical garden, Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires is just 4 blocks away, past the Evita Museum. So K and I got up a bit earlier to spend some time in the garden. The night before we had gone but they’d just closed.
I’m glad we went. In the middle of this bustling city, there are some remarkable green spaces and this is one of them. Sr. Thays former mansion is now a community space. You can see his architectural plans, from the 19th century, of the various parks in town there. Very cool.
The park doesn't allow dogs in - which means this is one of the few places in Bs.As. that seems to be free of canine landmines. It was nice to be able to stroll looking up, not down all the time. LOL. The place is also a haven for cats. If you are a cat lover, this is the place to get your cat fix. Someone feeds them and cares for them, as they do look in good condition. We saw some cats healing from obvious professional veterinary surgery. I hope they’re also doing a neutering program. At first I was walking around with a plastic bag from the grocery store with a bottle of water in it. That attracted the cats. I figured out that plastic bags marks one as the “cat lady - food source” so I put the bag away. I hate to get their hopes up.
One Loney Planet BA guidebook mistakenly said that the place reeks of cat poo because it’s full of feral cats. WRONG! It was one of the few places that didn’t smell of poo… and when it did, it was near the adjacent park where dogs were allowed and you could really smell the dog shit. Obviously this was written by someone who hates cats and don’t understand them. Actually the cats here looked far healthier than the ones in the Recoleta cemetery. The cat population also keeps the rodents and pigeons controlled. We didn’t see but one pigeon there. Actually that was like watching a mini version of Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom. The previous evening, as we walked the parameter of the closed parks, we observed that the cats were coming out to hunt and socialize in their colony groups. One large young male had something under its paw. Other cats approached it slowly with their heads down. The tension and feline drama mounted slowly. The young male grabbed its catch in it’s mouth and stalked off to a secluded area on it’s own. He had a very fat pigeon and was having a righteous dinner. Cats lower of lower status hovered for leftovers. Ah a bit of the wild in the urban jungle!
So needless to say the park was free of dog shit, pigeon shit and rats. The areas were divided into themes, French garden, Roman garden, Oriental garden, water garden, cactus and succulents, woodlands, modern and classical sculptures, even an Art Nuevo glass conservatory…
We then strolled, along the other parks, Parque 3 de Febrero, and the Japanese garden and arrived at the Malba , the wonderful museum of Latin American art with an emphasis on contemporary works. We joined up with Gary, Dart and the handsome porteno, Hugo there for an afternoon of art. As a lover of contemporary art, I found the museum delightful! Some people think of it as small, but I think it’s just the right size to allow in-depth appreciation of the work without being over whelmed or feel rushed. A friend had advised that an hour would suffice to see the collection, but I didn’t find that to be true. The museum kindly had reading material in English as well as Portuguese. I think it would be easy to spend 2 to 3 hours just between the art and the lovely little shop. The store carries works from local designers. We later found many of the objects sold at hip twin BA design and garment store called Materia Urbana in the San Telmo district. All very worth visiting if you have a thing for beautiful contemporary design objects, gifts and clothing. The museum is closed on Tuesday, so please keep that in mind. No photos were allowed in the museum, so unfortunately I can’t share the wonderful interior views.
Exteriors of the museum
The café attached to the museum is fantastic! They’re open even when the museum is closed, serving lunch and dinner, I believe, and maybe even breakfast. The menu is lighter than the other fares we’ve been eating - a bit of a relief with our beef baby bellies now. I had a Moroccan lamb sandwich where the pita was baked with whole cumin seeds imbedded. Very yummy. The presentations were artful and playful as well. The desserts are not to be missed. I had a rice pudding with passion fruit sauce. OMG! Hugo had something that looked like the Acropolis made of strawberries with sabayon. The strawberries actually had flavour, unlike the red giant obscenities called strawberries we get in the grocers in the States. We ended up sitting at the long table, down from the where the Argentinean owner and the French chef were having a very animated lunch of their own work. That’s always a good sign.
Across the street to the big new mall. The guys had parked Hugo’s car there so we went through the mall to get to the car. A mall’s a mall. There are a lot of stores that are South American or Argentinean fashion labels that offer tax-free shopping, so for concentrated shopping to update your wardrobe this might be efficient. But it’s still a mall and thus boring to me.
Off to Hugo’s new acquisition - an airy, well lit, charmingly designed two-unit apartment, centrally located for rent to visitors. He’s just acquired it and it’s in the process of kitchen updating, refurbishment, and prettifying. Hugo’s an architect and very design conscious. This is going to be a beautiful pair of apartments. What’s neat is that they can be rented separate or as a large flat. He said he’d let me know when the places are available for rent. I know his rates will be good, so I’ll make sure to pass the info on to anyone who’s interested. I know that we’ll be renting from him when we return. We liked his place much more than the flat we got.
A detail from the stairwell in his building
The tea I had at the museum café was brilliantly delicious. We discovered that a local tea maker that Hugo knows personally blended the tea. I had no idea that Argentina was a big tea producer and consumer. Since the museum didn’t sell that unique blend, we went to the shop, Chez Pauline Maison de The. Yummy! Not only can you buy the leaves and tea paraphernalia, you can sit and have the tea with delicious sweets made by the French chef mentioned earlier.
Here’s the tea I bought. So delightfully fragrant and well balanced.. no sweetening or alterations needed. (will someone translate the Spanish?)
SAINT GERMAIN DES PRES
Té verde Gunpowder y chino tipo congou con menta, durazno, melocotón, uva blanca y flor de girasol
Infusión : 3 a 4 minutos.
Té refrescante gracias a su menta, muy utilizada en Francia para condimentar platos, tanto dulces como salados. Tonos de primavera parisina en su taza de té que se puede disfrutar todo el día.
Off to cocktails at Hugo’s apartment. What a beautiful place! It was like being in a Parisian loft as we looked down the streets and building, gold and pink from the sunset.
Back to the flat - change and meet up with Hugo again to head out to dinner. A restaurant called El Central had gotten rave reviews the last time the guys were here so we called, made a reservation and headed out.
We get there and it’s not there. Instead there’s a restaurant called Ceviche, a modern Peruvian restaurant. We decided to give it a try. I don’t know anything about Peruvian foods. The menu items were so different from Argentinean fare that Hugo had a hard time helping us. What we discovered was that Peruvian food appreciates spice. We also realized that the glorious Argentinean foods, both modern and traditional, are excellently flavoured with herbs and top-notch grass fed meats, they don’t use hot spices at all. In fact the tables don’t usually have peppershakers on them. Hugo told us that many Argentineans think North American foods are too spicy and that black pepper is too strong. Interesting. We realized that all of us, except Hugo, were totally craving for spicy foods. We informed the guy helping us, I think he was the owner, and he lit up with a big grin and brought out a fantastic salsa that was totally well balanced in heat, flavour and texture. Then the vinegar based hot sauce, obviously made in the kitchen, and gave our foods a fab kick. I had a seafood grill dish with a small mound of uniquely flavoured sticky rice. We noticed a lot of Asian influence in the cuisine… Not sure if that was from the Peruvian indigenous influence or the massive Asian immigration influence to South America. We loved the food there. The only thing that didn’t work was the puff pastry with soy sauce dip. We ate out in the back patio, which was also their herb garden. Pots after planer after pots of thyme, rosemary, oregano, chili peppers, mints of many varieties, sage and more. The chef would come out one in a while and pick herbs for cooking, which was really cool to watch. A large cactus was in its full evening bloom with a blossom the size of a softball…
My stomach missed the spice. After showing down on hot, hot food, all my stomach upset went away!