Back when I was a travel agent, I hated discussing my clients' budgets. One reason I liked to avoid the topic was that many of them wouldn't tell me how much they were willing to spend for fear that I would try to fleece them. Honestly, that hurt my feelings as I only fleeced the ones who were mean to me. ;) The other reason I hated this topic was that many of my clients had unrealistic expectations of the cost of spending a week in New York, Paris or Tokyo. See my clients preferred expensive destinations, and I didn't really want to be the one to break the bad news. However, if you're reading this post, then you are quite possibly interested in a trip to Buenos Aires, and I am happy to give you the (mostly) good monetary news!
Let's start with the airfare. If you don't plan a bit in advance (or unless you are as lucky as a four leaf clover) you can easily get taken to the cleaners. Look, I only promised mostly good news... Now, if you are staying less than a month (and definitely not more than four months), there are some really good deals out there. The lowest rate I ever saw between Los Angeles and Buenos Aires was about $500 US. Sounds pretty good for a fourteen hour flight, right? Well, so does that elusive $99 LAX-NYC fare, or the $29 LAX-Vegas ticket on Southwest (prices are one-way, before all the "take it in your rear" government taxes and greedy airline fees). Yep, you know as well as I do that you have to buy these fares before they disappear and you start believing that they're as fictitious as the Tooth Fairy. Honestly, the average fare that I sold from LA to BsAs fell between $700-$1000 US. If you see something under that range, snap it up before someone else does. Of course, I'm only talking about stays of less than 30 days (and definitely stays of less than four months). If you're going to be down here for longer than that, you'll have to wait for a detailed airfare post.
Okay, so now that we've swallowed that bitter budgetary pill, let's get on to the good stuff, the value of the peso. One US dollar is equal to about three Argentine pesos, but as far as I'm concerned, that means nothing to those of you who haven't been here post-economic crash. What you need to know is the peso's buying power, so let's see what you can get for three pesos...
café con leche and two medialunas (croissants). (Some cafes will also include a glass of mineral water and a glass on Tang for the same price.)
a sandwich/hamburger/hot dog/choripan and a soda at a "fast food" place
three alfajores (see “fed and watered in BsAs” post)
two newspapers
a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice (approx. one pint) and an alfajor
a wash cycle at a laundromat (Don't forget, they do it for you...wash and dry is six pesos.)
a 30 minute phone call to the US
three rides on the bus or Subte and a chocolate
a ten block cab ride (base fare is about $1.60 AR)
three hours at a locutorio (internet cafe)
a basic bunch of flowers
two empanadas
two ice cream cones at McDonald's (hey, don't knock it till you've tried 'em here!)
a liter of sparkling mineral water in a sit down restaurant (two if you go to the store)
And at your local corner store (most of which are run by Chinese families), you can get the following for three pesos: a liter of beer (it's less if you return your bottle), a bottle of wine (not the cheapest of the barrel either), a package of pasta and tomato sauce, three milanesas, or a grocery bag full of veggies.
Hopefully you've got some idea of what a dollar will buy you in Buenos Aires now. (A quick side note before I go on. In Argentina, they use the $ for prices in pesos. To get you used to it now, when I say $AR, I mean pesos, when I say $US, I mean dollars.) To illustrate my point a little further...the other day I treated myself to a movie at a theater I hadn't been to before. Now, normally I frequent the cheap theaters on Lavalle street where a movie is $5.50 AR Monday through Wednesday. So when I bought my ticket at this new theater on Saturday, I was a bit miffed at the $10 AR ticket price. I had to give myself a reality check as I stood in line waiting to get into the theater. At home at the ArcLight Theater on a Saturday, I've been known to pay $14 US, and that's just for one ticket! God, I'm turning into a cheapskate! One more example before I go...Last night I went with some friends to an "all you can eat" parrilla joint to fill up on some of the local beef. For 15 pesos each, we feasted on grilled provolone, two kinds of sausage, achuras, two kinds of steak, pork chops, and endless fries and salad. When we left, we didn't walk home, we clutched our fat bellies and rolled ourselves home. Between the five of us, we split three bottles of wine in addition to the endless meaty goodness...total per person: 20 pesos ($6.60 US). And that's not even a cheap parrilla place! Yep, last time I checked $6.60 in LA bought me a turkey sandwich and a coke. Like I've said before, I'm not coming home anytime soon.
Saturday, March 25
Sunday, March 19
fed and watered in BsAs
So let’s face it, one of the best reasons to come to Buenos Aires is the food. Before we dive into the culinary delights of this city, a warning to my non-red meat eating friends: the pickin’s can be slim here especially if you’re a vegetarian, and nearly completely hopless if you’re a vegan. See, Argentines are exceedinly proud of their beef (and their Italian heritage) and most of the menus in this city stand as a testament to that.
First let’s start with the mother of them all: parrillada. The word parrilla means ‘grill’, so parrillada is usually translated as ‘mixed grill’, but I prefer to tell folks that it’s the Argentine version of barbecue. If you’re looking for beef in Buenos Aires, then you are well served by almost any place that has the words parrilla or parrillada associated with it. However, if you are lucky enough to get invited to an asado (the home version of parrilla), then by no means pass it up. The best beef you’ll ever eat is when you gather around a parrilla (grill) at a porteño’s house. Not to mention, an asado is a great opportunity to brush up on your castellano (Spanish). The typical parrillada is a three course affair, so let me give you an idea of what to expect.
The first course is usually comprised of grilled provoleta (provolone), chorizo (mildly spicy pork sausage), and morcilla (blood sausage). I could get my fill on this course alone, but that’s not the point here. If you are sitting down to parrillada, your mission is to eat as much beef as humanly possible.
Now, if the first course is a crowd-pleaser, the second course is a “love it or hate it” ordeal: achuras. I’m not going to go into detail on achuras because while every kind of achura is a part of the cow, it’s not the meat and muscle part, if you catch my drift. My advice is to try everything before you ask what it is (or better yet, don’t ask at all), but I will give you the names in Spanish. You can expect to sit down to chinchulines, riñones, mollejas, and maybe higado and ubre as well. If you’re not so adventurous, ask which ones are the mollejas, they’re my personal favorite and don’t taste so “insidely” for lack of a better euphemism.
Okay, if you’ve survived so far, this is where all the meat comes. If you’re eating at a restaurant and doing the full parrillada, then you can always expect vacío (flank steak) and (tira de) asado (crosscut ribs), as well as matambre (stuffed, rolled veal flank), pollo (chicken), or some variety of cerdo (pork). Now, I have to confess that the beef cuts listed above are not the best beef cuts in this country, so at some point you should also look into bife de chorizo (porterhouse), bife de lomo (loin steak), filet (filet mignon), ojo de bife (rib eye), and bife de costilla (T-bone).
When you sit down to parrilla, you can usually expect some sort of potatoes and salad on the side. However, you are guaranteed a basket of bread (they can’t eat anything without bread down here), and of course, chimichurri sauce, (oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano, and parsley). Know in advance that because the Argentines are proud of their Italian heritage, they are staunch purists. The only things that season your beef before it hits the table are salt and fire. While Argentine beef is tasty in this natural state, slap a little chimichurri sauce on there too!
One last word on the whole parrilla thing...you will notice restaurants here called tenedor libre. These places are all-you-can-eat buffets that also serve a limited parrillada. While a tenedor libre is cheap and has a ton of variety, it usually doesn’t have the best meat and it’s a little heavy on crappy Chinese food for my tastes. Instead, try a place that has parrilla libre...that’s the real parrillada that I’ve talked about here.
When you’ve had your fill of beef, head on over to one of the many Italian restaurants in Buenos Aires. Now, I understand that pasta is quite possibly one of the most straight forward foods in the world, but let me give you a bit of insight as to pasta in Buenos Aires. First, don’t be surprised if you see a fideos section in your menu. Those are pastas! (Why do Argentines have a different word for everything? I stopped asking myself that a long time ago.) Second, a lot of restaurants will list the pastas and the sauces separately, so that giant plate of pasta that you think is so cheap will come out to your table as naked as the day you were born unless you specify a sauce. Third, if you’re going to be here for some time or have access to a kitchen, check out the pasta shops that you’ll find around town. You can get fresh pastas and sauces to take home and make your own. Lastly, if you’re here on the 29th of any given month, don’t forget to eat ñoquis (gnocchis) for good luck!
While we’re on the subject of Italian food, let’s not forget about pizza. The pizza here, for the most part, is not of the thin crust authentic Italian variety. Here the crust tends to be thick and bread-like, but don’t let that deter you. It’s just a different animal here. Usual toppings in Argentina include mozzarella, green olives, jamón (ham), and morrones (bell peppers). While these are common, I prefer Napolitana (cheese, tomato slices, and oregano) or Calabresa (a Napolitana with chunks of salami). Normal so far, right? Well, before you go you have to try a couple of things. First there’s fugazza (focaccia bread) and fugazzeta (fugazza with cheese and onion slices on top). The second thing to try is faina (a flat chickpea bread), which you can put on top of a slice of pizza to bulk it up. I can’t say that it tastes like much on its own though. Oh, and before we close this chapter, the place to go in Buenos Aires for pizza is Las Cuartetas on Avenida Corrientes. This place is often confused with El Cuartito on Talcahuano, which I also like a great deal, but I know that there are many who disagree with me on that one.
My foreign friends and I often joke when trying to settle on a place for dinner that our options consist of pizza, pasta, parrillada, or empanadas. While that’s not far from the truth, here’s an idea of what else is out there. First, I haven’t mentioned empanadas yet. Empanadas are basically little turnovers that are filled with any of the following: carne (beef), carne picada (ground beef), pollo (chicken), jamón y queso (ham and cheese), queso (cheese), or humita (mashed corn with cheese, onions, and spices). Many times you will also find bits of egg or olive along with the meat empanadas. Empanadas are often found in a menu section called Minutas. These are foods that are easy for the kitchen to whip up for you. Other minutas include milanesa (breaded and fried meat, can be beef or chicken), potato dishes, and tartas (quiches). If you’re on the run, I recommend grabbing these before resorting to the real fast food that I’ll tell you about now. The ultimate in Argentine fast food is the choripan (a chorizo sausage served on a french roll). If you’re not eating a choripan it’s because you couldn’t find one. In the absence of a choripan, I will hit up one of the many pancho (hot dog) stands in the city. Most of them are open 24 hours a day, are the cheapest meal you can get, and also have things like hamburgers. One note about hamburgers...be sure to order a hamburguesa completa, because a hamburguesa sola is just the patty, no bun, no accoutrements. If you’re in the mood for a sandwich, try a pebete (pebete bread, and usually something like ham and cheese inside).
Okay, enough of the solid stuff...let’s get on with the beverages! The most popular beer in Argentina is Quilmes, but I will tell you from personal experience that Quilmes gets old pretty quickly. Instead, try to hunt out Isenbeck, Iguana, or Brahma. (Of course I don’t know why I’m telling you this...I know that y’all will just defect to Heineken, Warteiner, or Stella Artois once you figure out the conversion from pesos to dollars.) But you didn’t come here for beer, did you?
Nope, if you drink, you can’t leave without doing your fair share of wine sampling. Argentines guzzle about 76 liters per person per year (while Canadians only nurse an average of 9 liters per person per year). This is serious business. Now to keep you from getting all overwhelmed when you’re standing in the wine aisle at the supermarket, here’s some general tips. If you like red wine, then you’ll be looking at Malbec (what Argentina does best), Cabernet Sauvignon (they’re nice and hearty here), Tempranillo (a toast to Argentina’s Spanish roots), and Syrah (the future of Argentina). If you prefer white, then your options include Torrontés (a national varietal like malbec), Semillon (It’s a little pricey though. This fickle grape is found in its best form in only two places here in Argentina), Chardonnay (they’re getting better here all the time), and Sauvignon Blanc (why not?). Now, I’m sure you want to ask me some labels that you should check out, but I’d rather give you this general rule. Unless you are serious enough about wine to drop some real money down here, don’t ever spend more than 10 pesos (about $3.30 US) on a bottle of wine at the supermarket. There’s just no need. Now, if you really want to learn something, then go to Mendoza for some wine tasting and then you’ll know more than me. I’ll be happy to learn all I need to know about Argentine wine from you...as long as you’re buying!
Of course, there’s more than just the booze down here. In case you haven’t heard, Buenos Aires has a healthy cafe culture. Be sure to spend some time in the cafe of your choice sipping café con leche/café cortado/café doble and nibbling on medialunas (croissants) or some other factura (pastry). I’m not going to go into too much detail here because if you’re in Buenos Aires and you’re looking to hang out in a cafe, you should really call me. I waste time in cafes like they’re paying me to be there. Oh, and it’d be sweet if it was your treat on this one too!
If you need a stimulant, but you don’t want coffee and cocaine sounds like overkill, then try some mate. Mate, or yerba mate, is like a loose leaf tea (yerba) that you drink out of a hollowed out gourd (mate) through a metal straw with a filter on it (bombilla). It’s a communal thing, so if you have a flavor preference, you might want to ask if it’s amargo (bitter, a.k.a. natural) or dulce (sweet). Mate is purported to have mateine in it (just like Red Bull’s wing supposedly come from taurine), but who cares? It will give you a small buzz, kill your appetite (and thereby help keep your weight down from all the parrilla and pasta you’ve been eating), and if you’re a touch constipated, it can help in that department too! What a wonder drink! Last beverage, before I go...you should really try a licuado. In its simplest form it’s milk, banana and sugar blended together. At its most frou-frou, it’s akin to something you get at Jamba Juice. Just give it a shot...or better yet, buy me one!
Well, it now occurs to me that I’ve made it this far in my discussion of Argentine food without once mentioning that Argentines have a shameless sweet tooth. Well, just because I haven’t said it until now doesn’t mean that it’s any less true. Before you leave Buenos Aires, you will most likely, at some point, overdo it on the dessert. Here’s what to look for. Helado artesanal, and don’t forget the artesanal! This city has some great gelato, but you won’t find it if you go to a regular helado (ice cream) joint. If you need me to simplify things, just find your closest Freddo (it’s a chain) and go back as often as you can to sample all their flavors. As I mentioned briefly before, be sure to check out facturas (little pastries) at either cafes or bakeries. Most cafes will also have some mean tortas (cakes). However, all of this pales in comparison to dulce de leche and the mightly alfajor. Dulce de leche is caramelized sweet condensed milk, so is therefore much more superior in every way to the rinky dink caramel you’ve had at home. Dulce de leche is so good, in fact, I’m sure that the alfajor came into being just to give people a portable way to eat dulce de leche. An alfajor is a little layered cake (with dulce de leche between the layers) and it’s classically dipped in chocolate, or rolled in sugar (or coconut). The other way to define an alfajor is heaven. I’m not alone on this one. I’ve heard that as many as 6 million alfajores are consumed on an average day in Argentina. If you want to know the place to go, check out any Havanna coffee shop in the city...they’re the best for alfajores artesanales!
So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little preview of culinary delights in Argentina. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m a bit hungry. I think I’m going to grab a choripan or two!
First let’s start with the mother of them all: parrillada. The word parrilla means ‘grill’, so parrillada is usually translated as ‘mixed grill’, but I prefer to tell folks that it’s the Argentine version of barbecue. If you’re looking for beef in Buenos Aires, then you are well served by almost any place that has the words parrilla or parrillada associated with it. However, if you are lucky enough to get invited to an asado (the home version of parrilla), then by no means pass it up. The best beef you’ll ever eat is when you gather around a parrilla (grill) at a porteño’s house. Not to mention, an asado is a great opportunity to brush up on your castellano (Spanish). The typical parrillada is a three course affair, so let me give you an idea of what to expect.
The first course is usually comprised of grilled provoleta (provolone), chorizo (mildly spicy pork sausage), and morcilla (blood sausage). I could get my fill on this course alone, but that’s not the point here. If you are sitting down to parrillada, your mission is to eat as much beef as humanly possible.
Now, if the first course is a crowd-pleaser, the second course is a “love it or hate it” ordeal: achuras. I’m not going to go into detail on achuras because while every kind of achura is a part of the cow, it’s not the meat and muscle part, if you catch my drift. My advice is to try everything before you ask what it is (or better yet, don’t ask at all), but I will give you the names in Spanish. You can expect to sit down to chinchulines, riñones, mollejas, and maybe higado and ubre as well. If you’re not so adventurous, ask which ones are the mollejas, they’re my personal favorite and don’t taste so “insidely” for lack of a better euphemism.
Okay, if you’ve survived so far, this is where all the meat comes. If you’re eating at a restaurant and doing the full parrillada, then you can always expect vacío (flank steak) and (tira de) asado (crosscut ribs), as well as matambre (stuffed, rolled veal flank), pollo (chicken), or some variety of cerdo (pork). Now, I have to confess that the beef cuts listed above are not the best beef cuts in this country, so at some point you should also look into bife de chorizo (porterhouse), bife de lomo (loin steak), filet (filet mignon), ojo de bife (rib eye), and bife de costilla (T-bone).
When you sit down to parrilla, you can usually expect some sort of potatoes and salad on the side. However, you are guaranteed a basket of bread (they can’t eat anything without bread down here), and of course, chimichurri sauce, (oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano, and parsley). Know in advance that because the Argentines are proud of their Italian heritage, they are staunch purists. The only things that season your beef before it hits the table are salt and fire. While Argentine beef is tasty in this natural state, slap a little chimichurri sauce on there too!
One last word on the whole parrilla thing...you will notice restaurants here called tenedor libre. These places are all-you-can-eat buffets that also serve a limited parrillada. While a tenedor libre is cheap and has a ton of variety, it usually doesn’t have the best meat and it’s a little heavy on crappy Chinese food for my tastes. Instead, try a place that has parrilla libre...that’s the real parrillada that I’ve talked about here.
When you’ve had your fill of beef, head on over to one of the many Italian restaurants in Buenos Aires. Now, I understand that pasta is quite possibly one of the most straight forward foods in the world, but let me give you a bit of insight as to pasta in Buenos Aires. First, don’t be surprised if you see a fideos section in your menu. Those are pastas! (Why do Argentines have a different word for everything? I stopped asking myself that a long time ago.) Second, a lot of restaurants will list the pastas and the sauces separately, so that giant plate of pasta that you think is so cheap will come out to your table as naked as the day you were born unless you specify a sauce. Third, if you’re going to be here for some time or have access to a kitchen, check out the pasta shops that you’ll find around town. You can get fresh pastas and sauces to take home and make your own. Lastly, if you’re here on the 29th of any given month, don’t forget to eat ñoquis (gnocchis) for good luck!
While we’re on the subject of Italian food, let’s not forget about pizza. The pizza here, for the most part, is not of the thin crust authentic Italian variety. Here the crust tends to be thick and bread-like, but don’t let that deter you. It’s just a different animal here. Usual toppings in Argentina include mozzarella, green olives, jamón (ham), and morrones (bell peppers). While these are common, I prefer Napolitana (cheese, tomato slices, and oregano) or Calabresa (a Napolitana with chunks of salami). Normal so far, right? Well, before you go you have to try a couple of things. First there’s fugazza (focaccia bread) and fugazzeta (fugazza with cheese and onion slices on top). The second thing to try is faina (a flat chickpea bread), which you can put on top of a slice of pizza to bulk it up. I can’t say that it tastes like much on its own though. Oh, and before we close this chapter, the place to go in Buenos Aires for pizza is Las Cuartetas on Avenida Corrientes. This place is often confused with El Cuartito on Talcahuano, which I also like a great deal, but I know that there are many who disagree with me on that one.
My foreign friends and I often joke when trying to settle on a place for dinner that our options consist of pizza, pasta, parrillada, or empanadas. While that’s not far from the truth, here’s an idea of what else is out there. First, I haven’t mentioned empanadas yet. Empanadas are basically little turnovers that are filled with any of the following: carne (beef), carne picada (ground beef), pollo (chicken), jamón y queso (ham and cheese), queso (cheese), or humita (mashed corn with cheese, onions, and spices). Many times you will also find bits of egg or olive along with the meat empanadas. Empanadas are often found in a menu section called Minutas. These are foods that are easy for the kitchen to whip up for you. Other minutas include milanesa (breaded and fried meat, can be beef or chicken), potato dishes, and tartas (quiches). If you’re on the run, I recommend grabbing these before resorting to the real fast food that I’ll tell you about now. The ultimate in Argentine fast food is the choripan (a chorizo sausage served on a french roll). If you’re not eating a choripan it’s because you couldn’t find one. In the absence of a choripan, I will hit up one of the many pancho (hot dog) stands in the city. Most of them are open 24 hours a day, are the cheapest meal you can get, and also have things like hamburgers. One note about hamburgers...be sure to order a hamburguesa completa, because a hamburguesa sola is just the patty, no bun, no accoutrements. If you’re in the mood for a sandwich, try a pebete (pebete bread, and usually something like ham and cheese inside).
Okay, enough of the solid stuff...let’s get on with the beverages! The most popular beer in Argentina is Quilmes, but I will tell you from personal experience that Quilmes gets old pretty quickly. Instead, try to hunt out Isenbeck, Iguana, or Brahma. (Of course I don’t know why I’m telling you this...I know that y’all will just defect to Heineken, Warteiner, or Stella Artois once you figure out the conversion from pesos to dollars.) But you didn’t come here for beer, did you?
Nope, if you drink, you can’t leave without doing your fair share of wine sampling. Argentines guzzle about 76 liters per person per year (while Canadians only nurse an average of 9 liters per person per year). This is serious business. Now to keep you from getting all overwhelmed when you’re standing in the wine aisle at the supermarket, here’s some general tips. If you like red wine, then you’ll be looking at Malbec (what Argentina does best), Cabernet Sauvignon (they’re nice and hearty here), Tempranillo (a toast to Argentina’s Spanish roots), and Syrah (the future of Argentina). If you prefer white, then your options include Torrontés (a national varietal like malbec), Semillon (It’s a little pricey though. This fickle grape is found in its best form in only two places here in Argentina), Chardonnay (they’re getting better here all the time), and Sauvignon Blanc (why not?). Now, I’m sure you want to ask me some labels that you should check out, but I’d rather give you this general rule. Unless you are serious enough about wine to drop some real money down here, don’t ever spend more than 10 pesos (about $3.30 US) on a bottle of wine at the supermarket. There’s just no need. Now, if you really want to learn something, then go to Mendoza for some wine tasting and then you’ll know more than me. I’ll be happy to learn all I need to know about Argentine wine from you...as long as you’re buying!
Of course, there’s more than just the booze down here. In case you haven’t heard, Buenos Aires has a healthy cafe culture. Be sure to spend some time in the cafe of your choice sipping café con leche/café cortado/café doble and nibbling on medialunas (croissants) or some other factura (pastry). I’m not going to go into too much detail here because if you’re in Buenos Aires and you’re looking to hang out in a cafe, you should really call me. I waste time in cafes like they’re paying me to be there. Oh, and it’d be sweet if it was your treat on this one too!
If you need a stimulant, but you don’t want coffee and cocaine sounds like overkill, then try some mate. Mate, or yerba mate, is like a loose leaf tea (yerba) that you drink out of a hollowed out gourd (mate) through a metal straw with a filter on it (bombilla). It’s a communal thing, so if you have a flavor preference, you might want to ask if it’s amargo (bitter, a.k.a. natural) or dulce (sweet). Mate is purported to have mateine in it (just like Red Bull’s wing supposedly come from taurine), but who cares? It will give you a small buzz, kill your appetite (and thereby help keep your weight down from all the parrilla and pasta you’ve been eating), and if you’re a touch constipated, it can help in that department too! What a wonder drink! Last beverage, before I go...you should really try a licuado. In its simplest form it’s milk, banana and sugar blended together. At its most frou-frou, it’s akin to something you get at Jamba Juice. Just give it a shot...or better yet, buy me one!
Well, it now occurs to me that I’ve made it this far in my discussion of Argentine food without once mentioning that Argentines have a shameless sweet tooth. Well, just because I haven’t said it until now doesn’t mean that it’s any less true. Before you leave Buenos Aires, you will most likely, at some point, overdo it on the dessert. Here’s what to look for. Helado artesanal, and don’t forget the artesanal! This city has some great gelato, but you won’t find it if you go to a regular helado (ice cream) joint. If you need me to simplify things, just find your closest Freddo (it’s a chain) and go back as often as you can to sample all their flavors. As I mentioned briefly before, be sure to check out facturas (little pastries) at either cafes or bakeries. Most cafes will also have some mean tortas (cakes). However, all of this pales in comparison to dulce de leche and the mightly alfajor. Dulce de leche is caramelized sweet condensed milk, so is therefore much more superior in every way to the rinky dink caramel you’ve had at home. Dulce de leche is so good, in fact, I’m sure that the alfajor came into being just to give people a portable way to eat dulce de leche. An alfajor is a little layered cake (with dulce de leche between the layers) and it’s classically dipped in chocolate, or rolled in sugar (or coconut). The other way to define an alfajor is heaven. I’m not alone on this one. I’ve heard that as many as 6 million alfajores are consumed on an average day in Argentina. If you want to know the place to go, check out any Havanna coffee shop in the city...they’re the best for alfajores artesanales!
So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little preview of culinary delights in Argentina. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m a bit hungry. I think I’m going to grab a choripan or two!
Sunday, March 12
putting the “sha” in caste-sha-no
Okay, so you want to move to Latin America and learn Spanish? Great. Take some advice from me, (a humble, budding English teacher who lives in Buenos Aires and wonders if her degree in Linguistics is ever going to get her anywhere...) don’t come to Argentina if you want to learn “normal” Spanish. Yep, there is at least one reason not to join me in the craziness that is Buenos Aires. See, down here people don’t speak the español that you learned in high school, and they don’t sound like your cleaning lady Marta either. In fact, they don’t speak español at all in this country. If you ask any self-respecting Argentine what language they speak, they will answer you, “Yo hablo castellano”. Okay, boludos. Let’s roll!
The variety of Spanish spoken here in Buenos Aires is referred to as Rioplatense Spanish by people like me (read: language geeks), and you’ll find it spoken in the areas around the city, some other parts of Argentina (that haven’t been “corrupted” by Chilean Spanish), and across the river in Uruguay. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to hear.
Before I get into the vocabulary differences down here, I have to tell you about re-. Re- is a prefix that Argentines put on just about anything: nouns, adjectives, even verbs! The meaning of it can be something like “very”, “really”, or “such”. Actually I’m simplifying things a bit here, it’s really pretty hard to translate. Re- basically just emphasizes whatever word it’s attached to. To give you an example, when an Argentine friend saw me after I landed my first teaching job here, she said, “Estás re-contenta!” (You’re so happy!) To learn more, check out my link to Wally’s Argentine Dictionary.
Okay, we’re in the home stretch! The last thing to throw out at you is Lunfardo, the slang of Buenos Aires. That’s right, they have enough slang for there to be a word for it, and this will be your final hurdle in adjusting to Spanish in Argentina. Lunfardo came about in the beginning of last century in the lower classes of the city. Because there were a ton of European immigrants arriving at that time, Lunfardo uses Italian and French words as well as words from some of the indigenous people here. Now if that weren’t enough, there’s also something in Lunfardo called vesre which is when they mix up their syllables. The best example of vesre is the word itself, which is the word revés (reverse) all mixed up. Another example is gotán (tango). Other features of Lunfardo include word play and the use of metaphor. If you want to get a jump start on learning Lunfardo, go pick up some tango albums. It’s the easiest way for you to start hearing the language from abroad. Outside of that, check out Wikipedia’s entry on Lunfardo. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunfardo] There are some great links listed at the bottom!
Happy language learning!
The variety of Spanish spoken here in Buenos Aires is referred to as Rioplatense Spanish by people like me (read: language geeks), and you’ll find it spoken in the areas around the city, some other parts of Argentina (that haven’t been “corrupted” by Chilean Spanish), and across the river in Uruguay. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to hear.
First, let’s talk about phonology (sounds). The most distinctive sound difference in this dialect is that they say sh (like in mission), or zh (like in measure) when “y” and “ll” are written. What does that mean? Well, you didn’t see a protest in the Plaza de Mayo, you saw it in the Plaza de Ma-sho. Last night, you didn’t eat arroz con pollo (chicken), you had arroz con po-sho. (I generally try to use the “sh” sound when I speak here, but I do make an exception at Mexican restaurants. It just feels unholy to me to order po-sho con mole. Call me a purist.)
The second thing that you’ll notice is that you won’t hear many “s” sounds on the ends of words when the locals speak. Most of the time, porteños will make an “h” sound instead, or they’ll drop the sound all together. For example, los vasos son sucios (the glasses are dirty) might sound like loh vasoh son sucioh. Don’t freak out. Other dialects of Spanish are doing this too, and it’s one of the most natural sound changes in the history of human language. Just ask your local linguist.
One thing that everyone notices here is that the locals sound like they’re speaking Italian (read: intonation). It’s actually quite nice to my ear, but I recently found out that Argentines haven’t always spoken like this. Before a wave of Italian immigrants showed up here about a century ago, everyone sounded like people in Andalucia, Spain. It’s just one more thing that proves that Italy rules!
Okay, if you’re a real language geek, you might notice that some locals will drop the “r” sound at the end of their infinitives. If you can hear this, congratulations! You might be a closeted linguist! Let’s go grab a beer some time and I’ll tell you all about this phonological feature of Rioplatense Spanish, because the rest of my readers don’t really care.
Now for the good stuff. For all you language geeks out there, Rioplatense Spanish employs the use of voseo. For all the rest of you, porteños don’t use tú, they use vos. Yep, remember vos? That verb conjugation that your Spanish teacher never made you learn? Well, get crackin’ because it’s all they use down here. Don’t worry, I’m here to help as always! Here’s the deal with vos...vos works as a nominative and an objective pronoun. Or in layman’s terms...
It can be a subject as in...
vos estás escuchando un CD de Jorge Drexler
(you’re listening to a Jorge Drexler CD)
Or it can be an object as in...
“Muchas gracias!" “No, gracias a vos!”
(Thanks a lot! No, thank you!)
hablar (to speak) --> vos hablás (you speak) hablá! (Speak!)
comer (to eat) --> vos comés (you eat) comé! (Eat!)
vivir (to live) --> vos vivís(you live) viví! (Live!)
Ir (to go) --> vos vas (you go) andá! (go!)
Ser (to be) --> vos sos (you are) sé! (be!)
Before I get into the vocabulary differences down here, I have to tell you about re-. Re- is a prefix that Argentines put on just about anything: nouns, adjectives, even verbs! The meaning of it can be something like “very”, “really”, or “such”. Actually I’m simplifying things a bit here, it’s really pretty hard to translate. Re- basically just emphasizes whatever word it’s attached to. To give you an example, when an Argentine friend saw me after I landed my first teaching job here, she said, “Estás re-contenta!” (You’re so happy!) To learn more, check out my link to Wally’s Argentine Dictionary.
Okay, we’re in the home stretch! The last thing to throw out at you is Lunfardo, the slang of Buenos Aires. That’s right, they have enough slang for there to be a word for it, and this will be your final hurdle in adjusting to Spanish in Argentina. Lunfardo came about in the beginning of last century in the lower classes of the city. Because there were a ton of European immigrants arriving at that time, Lunfardo uses Italian and French words as well as words from some of the indigenous people here. Now if that weren’t enough, there’s also something in Lunfardo called vesre which is when they mix up their syllables. The best example of vesre is the word itself, which is the word revés (reverse) all mixed up. Another example is gotán (tango). Other features of Lunfardo include word play and the use of metaphor. If you want to get a jump start on learning Lunfardo, go pick up some tango albums. It’s the easiest way for you to start hearing the language from abroad. Outside of that, check out Wikipedia’s entry on Lunfardo. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunfardo] There are some great links listed at the bottom!
Well, you’ve gotten this far in my post and you might still be asking yourself, “If going to Argentina to learn Spanish is like going to Mississippi to learn English, where should I go to learn “real” Spanish?” Well, my friend, I would avoid most places in the Caribbean. If you’ve ever heard how they speak English in Jamaica that should make my point for me. If you decide to go to Spain, know that you will have to learn new words when you travel around Latin America. (Every cab driver in this city will tell you on your way in from the airport that you shouldn’t use coger while you’re here. In Spain, coger means “to take”, while here it means something more...um, carnal.) If you’re crazy enough to go to Chile, you’ll find out that it’s as difficult as Buenos Aires. By some accounts, it’s even worse in terms of accent and slang. To the best of my knowledge, and this is not my specialty, Mexico and Colombia are supposed to have the “cleanest” Spanish. Again, I’m crazy enough to go learn languages in places that have heavy dialects, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about. Feel free to challenge me on this one. In the end, I’m not sure that it matters all that much. I know Israelis that talk with Aussie accents, Arabs that speak with British ones, and one Chinese dude that had a Scottish brogue. I can’t say that I’ve had too much trouble understanding them. (Except for that Chinese dude. The Scots are nearly unintelligible!)
Happy language learning!
Saturday, March 11
allow me to introduce myself...
Well, if this blogging relationship is ever going to work out, then I suggest we get to know each other a bit better...
Hmmm. How to start? Five months ago, I was working as a travel agent in Los Angeles. I had just earned a promotion to assistant manager of my agency, and whenever I wasn’t selling plane tickets, I was watching CSI or catching up on my reading for my monthly book club. Sometimes I bought jazz albums for me and my little cat to enjoy (she’s a big fan of Theolonious Monk). I even made donations to my local NPR and PBS affliates, and I always paid my bills on the day they arrived in the mail. So how did a responsible, vanilla individual like myself end up in South America? Well, I can’t say that I did it alone. I also can’t say that this was an uncharacteristic move for me to make.
I try to make it a habit to go live in a foreign country every couple of years. It all started when I was 17 and took off to Germany for half a year. While that experience was a mixed bag, I did end up with an addiction to travel. Three years later, I spent my junior year of college abroad in Jerusalem. That’s a prickly pear to get into for introductions, so let’s just say that while I fell in love with that city, I knew that the next time I took the plunge, it needed to be somewhere a little bit less violent. I carried around my expat itch for four years after returning to California from the Middle East. To the surprise of my friends and family, I didn’t try to scratch my itch right off the bat. Things just kept popping up. First, I had to finish college. Then I convinced a friend to move out to Los Angeles, and I got sucked into an unsatisfying world of dead-end jobs, first as the manager of a boating supply store, and later as a travel consultant. I wasn’t happy to say the least, but at least I had some good people around me. After listening to one too many horror stories of the trials and tribulations of selling travel, my former boyfriend, and now good friend Joseph set me straight. I had to leave again. Forget all my excuses about having no money and feeling attached to people in LA, I needed to follow my little nomad heart to someplace new. (Not to mention, my little brother was getting ready to move to Italy for an internship in a highly rated restaurant, and I couldn’t help but think I wanted a little something like that for myself.) So over countless dinners of pasta bolognese, mushroom risotto, queso fundido, and tacos seasoned with homemade salsas, Joseph helped me settle on moving to Buenos Aires and teaching English. Why not? My Spanish could use some work, and my Linguistics degree wasn’t exactly being put to good use selling plane tickets. Funny thing was that once I made my decision, everything else happened so quickly. Before I knew it, I had quit my job, broken up with Joseph, moved out of my apartment, given my cat back to my parents, cut off all my hair, and boarded a plane to Argentina. Whew! Who knew that being a nomad would be so much work?
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