I'm sure this list isn't all inclusive but it's what the guy who runs Casa SaltShaker has put together. Guess it's a bigger thing that I realized, wonder why I never heard about it before. If you try one in your area, let me know!
http://www.saltshaker.net/underground-dining-scene
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
One of the best meals ever
I just got back from my dinner at Casa Felix (http://www.diegofelix.com) and it was awesome! I thought dinner last Sunday at Casa Saltshaker was good, but this blew it out of the water.
One of my coworkers, Patty, decided to join me as she isn't leaving until Saturday night. We finished work around 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the hotel lobby, finishing up some last minute emails and seeing off the rest of our group who was heading home to the US. It was horrible, torrential downpours, with beautiful lightning and flooding everywhere. I got a text from Chris (coworker) who was on his way to the airport and they said "Still not at airpt. On back streets. Many flooded" and 30 minutes later followed by "On the move again. He drove thru h2o that went above wheels, made a turn onto hiway. Car almost hit us. On we also drove in2 oncoming traffic on div hiway" soon after followed by my asking have you made it yet and his response of "just now" almost 2 hours after they left. I'm assuming they made the flight since I haven't heard back.
So, Patty and I were so glad we decided to enjoy BA for the weekend! We left the hotel around 9:15, after waiting about 15 minutes to catch a taxi, guess it's hard to find one when it rains. We had the best taxi driver. She and I were chatting away and a car passed and the driver blew a kiss towards our car. Patty said, "oh, must be your boyfriend" and the taxi driver (who we thought didn't speak english) said "Not my boyfriend, I have a wife!" and started laughing. I then said, hey, we didn't know you spoke english and we spent the rest of the time talking to him about the US and how he wants to visit Las Vegas and San Diego. He almost crashed a few times and cut really close to other cars, but he got us to Diego's on time.
We were one of the first few people there and entered Diego Felix's house which was on a very simple street in the neighborhood of Chacarita. He and his wife, Sanra live there and also serve dinner to 16 guests each Thur,Fri, Sat nights. It was a beautiful little house. The two front rooms are the dining area, with two little tables for 2 each set up and two big tables of 6 each. The hallway opens up into a beautiful courtyard, where they normally serve dinner if the weather allows. At the end of the courtyard is the kitchen, the bedroom, an office and behind the kitchen is a little garden. It is amazing, they grow all their herbs and vegetables that they cook for you in their little garden.
They started off by serving us a little shot glass type welcome drink of passionfruit with pisco. It was really refreshing and you couldn't even taste the pisco. Diego showed me around and brought me into the back garden and pulled some fresh lemon verbena and burrito ( a native herb that tastes like mint, sort of). He grows tomatoes, squash, cukes, and other stuff. I took some pictures even though it was raining, hope I can upload them soon.
We sat met some of the other guests, two girls from CA. 6 friends from BA and 3 older couples from the Isle of Man. We all sat at our respective tables and dinner began. Simply put, dinner was made with love. Diego would come out and tell you all about the dish, where he got the ingredients from, mostly from his garden, and what inspired the cooking. It was complex, yet simple and fresh. As Diego said, it's not a restaurant, it's his home. Here was the menu:
Welcome Drink - Passionfruit pisco sour
From the garden - green tomatoes, chanar and paico ( on his fresh made wheat bread)
Botana - Humita (goats cheese) stuffed hibiscus flowers, green mango and suico salad, prickly pear vinaigrette
appetizer - mbeyu (i may have mispelled, not sure the english equivalent, kind like chayote), organic salsa criolla, bolivian lime and burrito tzatziki
intermezzo - lemon verbena granita
main course - grilled shrimp, zucchini, trigo mote, shaved fennel in summer aquaribay broth
dessert - lavender (from the garden) and coconut milk panna cotta, flambeed figs
Each of the course was paired with a local wine. If I could eat like this every night I travel I would. I asked if I could come again tomorrow but they are booked. It is the same menu, but I would go twice!
The coolest part is that they spend a few months each year traveling the US. They do this sort of thing in people's homes. They don't have plans to go to Atlanta this year, but maybe next year.
It is now 2:15 am, we got back in around 1:45 and I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so our boat tour was cancelled. Patty and I are going to try and explore Recoleta in the morning and continue eating our way thru BA!
One of my coworkers, Patty, decided to join me as she isn't leaving until Saturday night. We finished work around 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in the hotel lobby, finishing up some last minute emails and seeing off the rest of our group who was heading home to the US. It was horrible, torrential downpours, with beautiful lightning and flooding everywhere. I got a text from Chris (coworker) who was on his way to the airport and they said "Still not at airpt. On back streets. Many flooded" and 30 minutes later followed by "On the move again. He drove thru h2o that went above wheels, made a turn onto hiway. Car almost hit us. On we also drove in2 oncoming traffic on div hiway" soon after followed by my asking have you made it yet and his response of "just now" almost 2 hours after they left. I'm assuming they made the flight since I haven't heard back.
So, Patty and I were so glad we decided to enjoy BA for the weekend! We left the hotel around 9:15, after waiting about 15 minutes to catch a taxi, guess it's hard to find one when it rains. We had the best taxi driver. She and I were chatting away and a car passed and the driver blew a kiss towards our car. Patty said, "oh, must be your boyfriend" and the taxi driver (who we thought didn't speak english) said "Not my boyfriend, I have a wife!" and started laughing. I then said, hey, we didn't know you spoke english and we spent the rest of the time talking to him about the US and how he wants to visit Las Vegas and San Diego. He almost crashed a few times and cut really close to other cars, but he got us to Diego's on time.
We were one of the first few people there and entered Diego Felix's house which was on a very simple street in the neighborhood of Chacarita. He and his wife, Sanra live there and also serve dinner to 16 guests each Thur,Fri, Sat nights. It was a beautiful little house. The two front rooms are the dining area, with two little tables for 2 each set up and two big tables of 6 each. The hallway opens up into a beautiful courtyard, where they normally serve dinner if the weather allows. At the end of the courtyard is the kitchen, the bedroom, an office and behind the kitchen is a little garden. It is amazing, they grow all their herbs and vegetables that they cook for you in their little garden.
They started off by serving us a little shot glass type welcome drink of passionfruit with pisco. It was really refreshing and you couldn't even taste the pisco. Diego showed me around and brought me into the back garden and pulled some fresh lemon verbena and burrito ( a native herb that tastes like mint, sort of). He grows tomatoes, squash, cukes, and other stuff. I took some pictures even though it was raining, hope I can upload them soon.
We sat met some of the other guests, two girls from CA. 6 friends from BA and 3 older couples from the Isle of Man. We all sat at our respective tables and dinner began. Simply put, dinner was made with love. Diego would come out and tell you all about the dish, where he got the ingredients from, mostly from his garden, and what inspired the cooking. It was complex, yet simple and fresh. As Diego said, it's not a restaurant, it's his home. Here was the menu:
Welcome Drink - Passionfruit pisco sour
From the garden - green tomatoes, chanar and paico ( on his fresh made wheat bread)
Botana - Humita (goats cheese) stuffed hibiscus flowers, green mango and suico salad, prickly pear vinaigrette
appetizer - mbeyu (i may have mispelled, not sure the english equivalent, kind like chayote), organic salsa criolla, bolivian lime and burrito tzatziki
intermezzo - lemon verbena granita
main course - grilled shrimp, zucchini, trigo mote, shaved fennel in summer aquaribay broth
dessert - lavender (from the garden) and coconut milk panna cotta, flambeed figs
Each of the course was paired with a local wine. If I could eat like this every night I travel I would. I asked if I could come again tomorrow but they are booked. It is the same menu, but I would go twice!
The coolest part is that they spend a few months each year traveling the US. They do this sort of thing in people's homes. They don't have plans to go to Atlanta this year, but maybe next year.
It is now 2:15 am, we got back in around 1:45 and I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. It's supposed to rain, so our boat tour was cancelled. Patty and I are going to try and explore Recoleta in the morning and continue eating our way thru BA!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
I'm liking this city...
Work started on Monday and I've decided that I really like this city. The people at the office are extremely nice and passionate about everything that they do and the review we are doing this week is going extremely well so far. We had a kickoff meeting on Monday, which normally is attended by at the most 3 people and I had a room full (probably 30 or so people) of managers who were excited to have us help them. They have had croissants with honey waiting for us each morning, tea in the afternoon with these awesome cookies filled with dulce de leche and have made sure the taxis are all arranged to pick us up and take us back to the hotel. They aren't giving us the royal treatment, they are just treating us how they would each other.
But the best part, and one of the reasons why I decided I like this city - the men great each other by kissing on the cheek. The only person I know outside of Argentina who kisses other men on the cheek is my dad, and we used to make fun of him. But now I realize it's a sign of genuine respect and friendship and is done by men of all ages. Sorry dad, I apologize for years of making fun. And I apologize for my siblings too, well, some of them. So, I was standing at the elevator the other morning and two young guys in their twenties greeted each other with a smile, kissed on the cheek (always to the left) and carried on a very energetic conversation. It was so refreshing and quite pleasant.
Monday and Tuesday were very busy and the other folks here for the review and I just grabbed dinner near the hotel. I wasn't really impressed with the food. We are in a touristy area so they jack up the prices and the food is mediocre, nothing to rave home about. We did walk to dinner last night and got to see a new part of the city - Retiro. The weather has been really beautiful, about 75 during the day and in the 60's at night.
But tonight, we had a really great time. I found a pizza / empanada place that was recommended in the guide books and also trip advisor that was located in the Centro part of town. We are on a limited budget and since we went over the past two nights, I thought we needed to eat a bit cheaper tonight. And I also heard that we had to try the pizza here.
So we got back to the hotel around 6 from the office and I went for jog along the river. We left for dinner around 8 (that's early, they don't usually eat here til 9:30 or later) and I told the team they were either in for an adventure with me or they were on their own. So, they all hopped in the cab (two cabs actually, there were 7 of us) and we made our way to El Cuartito. It was awesome and the atmosphere was very authentic. We sat at very simple tables and half the restaurant was take out while the other half table service. The majority of people there were locals, which meant it had to be good. We had some empanadas, shared two large pizzas, two bottles of wine, a ton of beer, an awesome flan/dulce de leche dessert and spent all but $10 each. The atmosphere was loud and fun and lively, and my team really bonded. I'm glad they decided to tag along for my adventure and that we got to see other parts of the city.
So, what's next? Well, tomorrow is a long work day, we will be in the office from 8 to 8. We finish up on Friday and I have another closed door restaurant to check out. A coworker, Patty is staying thru Saturday night, so we have reservations at Casa Felix (www.diegofelix.com), which specializes in organic/vegetarian/seafood dinners. We may go to synagogue beforehand at the recommendation of my new friends from my dinner last Sunday night, but we'll see. I don't go to temple in Atlanta, but why not in BA? Supposedly the service is entirely sung and played with traditional music and is very beautiful. Why not check it out? Patty is game, even though she is Methodist. We'll see what works out. More on that to come Friday....
But the best part, and one of the reasons why I decided I like this city - the men great each other by kissing on the cheek. The only person I know outside of Argentina who kisses other men on the cheek is my dad, and we used to make fun of him. But now I realize it's a sign of genuine respect and friendship and is done by men of all ages. Sorry dad, I apologize for years of making fun. And I apologize for my siblings too, well, some of them. So, I was standing at the elevator the other morning and two young guys in their twenties greeted each other with a smile, kissed on the cheek (always to the left) and carried on a very energetic conversation. It was so refreshing and quite pleasant.
Monday and Tuesday were very busy and the other folks here for the review and I just grabbed dinner near the hotel. I wasn't really impressed with the food. We are in a touristy area so they jack up the prices and the food is mediocre, nothing to rave home about. We did walk to dinner last night and got to see a new part of the city - Retiro. The weather has been really beautiful, about 75 during the day and in the 60's at night.
But tonight, we had a really great time. I found a pizza / empanada place that was recommended in the guide books and also trip advisor that was located in the Centro part of town. We are on a limited budget and since we went over the past two nights, I thought we needed to eat a bit cheaper tonight. And I also heard that we had to try the pizza here.
So we got back to the hotel around 6 from the office and I went for jog along the river. We left for dinner around 8 (that's early, they don't usually eat here til 9:30 or later) and I told the team they were either in for an adventure with me or they were on their own. So, they all hopped in the cab (two cabs actually, there were 7 of us) and we made our way to El Cuartito. It was awesome and the atmosphere was very authentic. We sat at very simple tables and half the restaurant was take out while the other half table service. The majority of people there were locals, which meant it had to be good. We had some empanadas, shared two large pizzas, two bottles of wine, a ton of beer, an awesome flan/dulce de leche dessert and spent all but $10 each. The atmosphere was loud and fun and lively, and my team really bonded. I'm glad they decided to tag along for my adventure and that we got to see other parts of the city.
So, what's next? Well, tomorrow is a long work day, we will be in the office from 8 to 8. We finish up on Friday and I have another closed door restaurant to check out. A coworker, Patty is staying thru Saturday night, so we have reservations at Casa Felix (www.diegofelix.com), which specializes in organic/vegetarian/seafood dinners. We may go to synagogue beforehand at the recommendation of my new friends from my dinner last Sunday night, but we'll see. I don't go to temple in Atlanta, but why not in BA? Supposedly the service is entirely sung and played with traditional music and is very beautiful. Why not check it out? Patty is game, even though she is Methodist. We'll see what works out. More on that to come Friday....
Monday, February 15, 2010
Buenos Aires - Day 1
So, I've made it to Argentina! Hard to believe that I'm actually in the Southern Hemisphere. Flying is and has always been a very odd concept to me, it's like time travel and you feel like you close your eyes for a second and voila, there you are, 4999 miles away from home (according to Delta I earned 4999 miles). I wonder if this is how dog's feel when their master's leave for the day and return 8 hours later.
I had a pretty uneventful flight down here, taking full advantage of my upgrade and enjoying several glasses of wine. I had ordered a low salt/no salt meal and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Some grilled veggies and a salad, and of course an ice cream sundae. Business class was full of older couples, most of them needing the aid of a cane to walk up and down the aisles. The couple next to me was on their way to a cruise to Antarctica, I think most of the older folks were. I guess they leave from Buenos Aires and have about 300 people on a ship for a 2 week sail down south. I'll have to add that to the list of things to do some day.
We landed around 7 am and had car service waiting to take me to the Hilton. Right away I felt the heat and it was a welcomed change from snow I left in GA. The city is pretty big, about 4.5 million living within the city limits. I don't feel like I'm in a once bankrupt country, I could be in NY or London or Paris. The first thing I noticed was cell towers EVERY WHERE, most of the apartment buildings have them. I got to the hotel around 9 and wasn't able to checkin to my room. So I took a bath at the fitness center (in the spa area), and sat at the pool in the sun, mapping out my strategy for the day. The hotel is located in Puerto Madero, which is a newly renovated area, like the Docklands in London, right on a little river inlet with bridges crossing it like in Paris or London. Lots of restaurants and shops and prime real estate (taxi driver told me $1300 / sq m). I took off around 11 and starting walking towards San Telmo.
The first place I stopped was Plaza de Mayo, which is home to the Government House. It's open for tours, but they really aren't tours. I went thru the front gates and saw a line of people, so I stood in it. No one spoke English so I had to assume it was the line to get in. About 15 minutes later they let us thru the next set of gates and up a gorgeous marble staircase into the Govt House. That's all I really know. Nothing was in English, there were no "guides" even in Spanish and there were young guys dressed in traditional military garb standing around but they didn't say anything. I took a lot of pictures and I am guessing I was in the house where all the Presidents conduct business. Some rooms were setup for press conferences, there were pictures of past presidents, famous women (of course Eva Peron) and busts of the past presidents. It was a stunningly beautiful building and I'll have to read about it when I get home.
I continued across Plaza de Mayo where some people were protesting something, which is supposedly typical for a Sunday afternoon. The weather was gorgeous, 75, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. I have a nice sunburn to prove it, I didn't even think to put sunscreen on. I was making my way to Plaza Dorrego which has a famous antiques market on Sundays. Well, the entire mile or so walk down Defensa was a street market. There were vendors everywhere and tons of people. You could find anything from souvenirs to fine art and high end antiques. I stopped at a little bakery and had a couple empanadas, my first meal since 5 am and it was so good! I wandered my way down the mile long stretch, filled with a lot of locals and tourists. People had their cameras out, and I felt very safe, since everyone else looked like more of a tourist than me. I got a bunch of great pictures, the architecture reminded me of an Italian town, with cobbled streets and balconies with shutters and little porches. Very quaint and fun, but supposedly not a place to walk at night. I bought some little pressed glass bowls, a couple of handmade sweaters and some oil paintings. I love how I don't know Spanish, the vendors don't speak English but we still managed to strike up a deal, and the sweater and painting ladies both kissed me on the cheek happy to see their work head off to the states.
I made my way back to the hotel about 4 hours later and rested before dinner at the pool. I headed out to my underground restaurant (okay, it's really a closed door restaurant but I like the way underground sounds better) and was a bit nervous about finding the place. All I had was an address to someone's house and no clue how else to find it. There is no name on the door, it's like an apt in NYC where you have to buzz the apt and they let you in. When I arrived, there were 3 other people standing outside "Casa SaltShaker", a young, cute guy with two older people, I'm assuming were his parents. The young guy had buzzed the apt and was speaking in Spanish so I waited and finally asked if they were waiting for Dan and he replied in American English yes. We were let in and made our way to Dan's apt. Dan is a writer/chef originally from NYC who moved to Buenos Aires about 4 years ago to be with his boyfriend. He opens his house 3 nights a week and serves about 12 people dinner at a big communal table. He conjures up menus from his experiences (a few weeks ago it was inspired by the anniversary of the Beatles breakup). Today was a Chilean theme from his recent visit there. His place was small but very quaint, two main rooms and a tiny, tiny kitchen. There was a little courtyard open to the living room and another one by the kitchen and a little loft upstairs. Very airy and comfortable. There were two tables setup, one seating 6, the other 8. The guests all mingled and I met a couple from Washington State (the two with their son), New Orleans, Toronto, a lady from the Vineyard and some others. We started off with a welcome cocktail, the national drink of Chile, white wine with melted pineapple sorbet. We took our seats and the courses started. I saw at the bigger table next to Charlie (young guy with his parents) and a lady from Toronto. Turns out Charlie lives in NYC and runs a jazz club/restaurant in the West Village (www.garagejazz.com). He was traveling throughout South America for 7 weeks and his parents came down for 2 to meet him. His next stop was Bogota, for the second time to catch up with his boyfriend (of course! I should have known when he said he spent his summers on Fire Island). Everyone was super nice and the conversation just flowed. I sat across from a couple from New Orleans and the husband thought he was being quiet and leaned over to his wife and said "Is Sacha jewish?" and I responded, yes, I didn't know if it was my nose that gave it away, but he said he thought so, since it's a Russian name. Ruth next to me and her husband were also Jewish, they were here for a few weeks in Spanish school. The bonding began! So we ate, we drank good wine that Dan paired with each meal and 2.5 hours later I felt like I just finished a meal with family. Such a great idea and nice way to really feel comfortable in the city. We all exchanged email addressed and Ruth's husband, Michael had been taking notes all night and said he would email them. Charlie sent me an email this morning with a list of places to see, where to shop and eat and I told him I'd send him the name of places in the Hudson Valley. What a great way to start my trip! I'll post pictures of the courses at some point.
I got back to the hotel around 1 am, where some famous band (no idea who) was arriving and there were police escorts everywhere. They ignored me as I walked across the lobby and as soon as I got into my room, I crawled into bed.
Not a bad way at all to start a week of work!
** yes, this is very long, I need to work on figuring out how to get everything down and trying to not write a novel.....thanks for reading this far!
I had a pretty uneventful flight down here, taking full advantage of my upgrade and enjoying several glasses of wine. I had ordered a low salt/no salt meal and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Some grilled veggies and a salad, and of course an ice cream sundae. Business class was full of older couples, most of them needing the aid of a cane to walk up and down the aisles. The couple next to me was on their way to a cruise to Antarctica, I think most of the older folks were. I guess they leave from Buenos Aires and have about 300 people on a ship for a 2 week sail down south. I'll have to add that to the list of things to do some day.
We landed around 7 am and had car service waiting to take me to the Hilton. Right away I felt the heat and it was a welcomed change from snow I left in GA. The city is pretty big, about 4.5 million living within the city limits. I don't feel like I'm in a once bankrupt country, I could be in NY or London or Paris. The first thing I noticed was cell towers EVERY WHERE, most of the apartment buildings have them. I got to the hotel around 9 and wasn't able to checkin to my room. So I took a bath at the fitness center (in the spa area), and sat at the pool in the sun, mapping out my strategy for the day. The hotel is located in Puerto Madero, which is a newly renovated area, like the Docklands in London, right on a little river inlet with bridges crossing it like in Paris or London. Lots of restaurants and shops and prime real estate (taxi driver told me $1300 / sq m). I took off around 11 and starting walking towards San Telmo.
The first place I stopped was Plaza de Mayo, which is home to the Government House. It's open for tours, but they really aren't tours. I went thru the front gates and saw a line of people, so I stood in it. No one spoke English so I had to assume it was the line to get in. About 15 minutes later they let us thru the next set of gates and up a gorgeous marble staircase into the Govt House. That's all I really know. Nothing was in English, there were no "guides" even in Spanish and there were young guys dressed in traditional military garb standing around but they didn't say anything. I took a lot of pictures and I am guessing I was in the house where all the Presidents conduct business. Some rooms were setup for press conferences, there were pictures of past presidents, famous women (of course Eva Peron) and busts of the past presidents. It was a stunningly beautiful building and I'll have to read about it when I get home.
I continued across Plaza de Mayo where some people were protesting something, which is supposedly typical for a Sunday afternoon. The weather was gorgeous, 75, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. I have a nice sunburn to prove it, I didn't even think to put sunscreen on. I was making my way to Plaza Dorrego which has a famous antiques market on Sundays. Well, the entire mile or so walk down Defensa was a street market. There were vendors everywhere and tons of people. You could find anything from souvenirs to fine art and high end antiques. I stopped at a little bakery and had a couple empanadas, my first meal since 5 am and it was so good! I wandered my way down the mile long stretch, filled with a lot of locals and tourists. People had their cameras out, and I felt very safe, since everyone else looked like more of a tourist than me. I got a bunch of great pictures, the architecture reminded me of an Italian town, with cobbled streets and balconies with shutters and little porches. Very quaint and fun, but supposedly not a place to walk at night. I bought some little pressed glass bowls, a couple of handmade sweaters and some oil paintings. I love how I don't know Spanish, the vendors don't speak English but we still managed to strike up a deal, and the sweater and painting ladies both kissed me on the cheek happy to see their work head off to the states.
I made my way back to the hotel about 4 hours later and rested before dinner at the pool. I headed out to my underground restaurant (okay, it's really a closed door restaurant but I like the way underground sounds better) and was a bit nervous about finding the place. All I had was an address to someone's house and no clue how else to find it. There is no name on the door, it's like an apt in NYC where you have to buzz the apt and they let you in. When I arrived, there were 3 other people standing outside "Casa SaltShaker", a young, cute guy with two older people, I'm assuming were his parents. The young guy had buzzed the apt and was speaking in Spanish so I waited and finally asked if they were waiting for Dan and he replied in American English yes. We were let in and made our way to Dan's apt. Dan is a writer/chef originally from NYC who moved to Buenos Aires about 4 years ago to be with his boyfriend. He opens his house 3 nights a week and serves about 12 people dinner at a big communal table. He conjures up menus from his experiences (a few weeks ago it was inspired by the anniversary of the Beatles breakup). Today was a Chilean theme from his recent visit there. His place was small but very quaint, two main rooms and a tiny, tiny kitchen. There was a little courtyard open to the living room and another one by the kitchen and a little loft upstairs. Very airy and comfortable. There were two tables setup, one seating 6, the other 8. The guests all mingled and I met a couple from Washington State (the two with their son), New Orleans, Toronto, a lady from the Vineyard and some others. We started off with a welcome cocktail, the national drink of Chile, white wine with melted pineapple sorbet. We took our seats and the courses started. I saw at the bigger table next to Charlie (young guy with his parents) and a lady from Toronto. Turns out Charlie lives in NYC and runs a jazz club/restaurant in the West Village (www.garagejazz.com). He was traveling throughout South America for 7 weeks and his parents came down for 2 to meet him. His next stop was Bogota, for the second time to catch up with his boyfriend (of course! I should have known when he said he spent his summers on Fire Island). Everyone was super nice and the conversation just flowed. I sat across from a couple from New Orleans and the husband thought he was being quiet and leaned over to his wife and said "Is Sacha jewish?" and I responded, yes, I didn't know if it was my nose that gave it away, but he said he thought so, since it's a Russian name. Ruth next to me and her husband were also Jewish, they were here for a few weeks in Spanish school. The bonding began! So we ate, we drank good wine that Dan paired with each meal and 2.5 hours later I felt like I just finished a meal with family. Such a great idea and nice way to really feel comfortable in the city. We all exchanged email addressed and Ruth's husband, Michael had been taking notes all night and said he would email them. Charlie sent me an email this morning with a list of places to see, where to shop and eat and I told him I'd send him the name of places in the Hudson Valley. What a great way to start my trip! I'll post pictures of the courses at some point.
I got back to the hotel around 1 am, where some famous band (no idea who) was arriving and there were police escorts everywhere. They ignored me as I walked across the lobby and as soon as I got into my room, I crawled into bed.
Not a bad way at all to start a week of work!
** yes, this is very long, I need to work on figuring out how to get everything down and trying to not write a novel.....thanks for reading this far!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
First Post
Hello Everyone, thanks for following my blog request. I have been saying for years that I should start a blog to keep everyone updated on my travels and am finally doing it! It reminds me of when my sisters and I were in college and my Dad would send us emails from the dog. Hopefully I'll be able to be as witty and interesting!
My first adventure for 2010 starts this weekend with a work trip to Buenos Aires. I get in to BA on Sunday morning and already have a few things planned. The first is a dinner at a "closed" restaurant on Sunday night, called Casa Saltshaker www.casasaltshaker.com . I have never heard of these before, but supposedly there are 8 or 9 in BA. Kind of an underground restaurant. The host is usually a chef or sommellier or foodie and opens his/her home on the weekends to guests. The location is not published, you only get the address once you confirm your reservation, the menu is set, and there are only about 12-15 people at dinner. I hope it is as good as it sounds! I'll post more after my meal on Sunday if I can ever find the place.
My first adventure for 2010 starts this weekend with a work trip to Buenos Aires. I get in to BA on Sunday morning and already have a few things planned. The first is a dinner at a "closed" restaurant on Sunday night, called Casa Saltshaker www.casasaltshaker.com . I have never heard of these before, but supposedly there are 8 or 9 in BA. Kind of an underground restaurant. The host is usually a chef or sommellier or foodie and opens his/her home on the weekends to guests. The location is not published, you only get the address once you confirm your reservation, the menu is set, and there are only about 12-15 people at dinner. I hope it is as good as it sounds! I'll post more after my meal on Sunday if I can ever find the place.
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