Archive for category Buenos Aires
My REAL Standard Porteño Breakfast
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires on January 30, 2009
No Ordering Required!
Don’t worry, I didn’t lie. My standard porteño breakfast is still “café con leche y tres medialunas de manteca.” The reason I share the same fact today, at the end the week, having had it four more times since my post on Sunday, is simply to share an aspect my daily dining life that I wasn’t served up in Caballito, at Américas, where they know me, but not like they do in my own hood.
Here in Barracas, when I dine “afuera” for breakfast — which is, um, likely basically every day that I dine for breakfast — I almost inevitably choose Pop. It’s not just because pop is close or that it features Roy Lichtenstein artwork in its façade. And it’s not even that Pop serves up the best medialunas in the neighborhood.
My Standard Porteño Breakfast
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños, Travels on January 25, 2009
Café con leche and medialunas in Buenos Aires.
I’ve eaten this classic Buenos Aires breakfast hundreds of times before, and I can imagine stopping anytime soon. This is what they just delivered me here at “Américas” restaurant here in the Caballito neighborhood when I ordered:
“Café con leche con tres medialunas de manteca.” The small glass of “agua con gas” is automatically delivered on the side and, in true porteño form, a pile of sugar is provided to dump into the rich, milky coffee. Talk about “yum!” meets “comfortingly familiar.”
Missing the Warm Burn of Wonderful Cold
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires on January 13, 2009
Yesterday, just after 5pm EST, Indira stopped our phone conversation to marvel at the fact that–thank god!–there was still a touch of sunlight in cold, cold New York City. Here in Buenos Aires, just after 8pm local time, there was still plenty of light, not to mention sticky heat and pesky summer bugs. But even when our seasons swap and I have less light and more cold I still won’t get the freezing weather of my Upstate New York childhood or my New York City adulthood. And I miss it.
Like most people I appreciate the beauty of a landscape–country or city–freshly painted with pristine snow. But it’s so much more than that. Not only is my stocky, pale, hairy Northern European body engineered for dark and cold, but my spirit seems to be as well. I feel enlivened by the biting sting of cold–as if my engine revs up automatically–while the heat knocks me on my physical and emotional ass. Snow and sleet and ice and biting, Read the rest of this entry »
Son of a Bitch! "Hijo de Puta" Unmasked!
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on January 10, 2009
Sure, I could tell you that “hijo de puta” means “son of a bitch” or, more literally, “son of a whore.” But that just doesn´t translate how the colorful phrase is used so colorfully and almost non-stop by portenos. It can be shit, damn, fuck and all kinds of other things, but to really get it you need to see it in action. And thanks to YouTube and a cultural tipoff I got today, you can.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwuC5dw2ZOw&feature=related]
You don´t have to know Spanish to appreciate the flexibility of “hijo de puta” in real-life situations. The malleable “mala palabra” helps passionate portenos express anything. Anything.
This awesome documentation comes from a now defunct TV show for the early 2000s called “Todo Por Dos Pesos.” Clearly the “HP” series is a spoof but it sure seems real to me. (You got it. “HP” for “Hijo de Puta.”)
This HP episode is particularly hilarious because it features Graciela Dufau, a famous actress of dramas. Check out her use of HP. Epa!
Old Roomies Collide, FaceBook Not Involved
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on January 10, 2009
Last night I was hanging out with this guy named Brendon for more than an hour before we finally realized we had been roommates in boarding school. This was 23 years ago, and 21 since we lost saw each other, so you can imagine our surprise.
"Hey! We used to sleep together 23 years ago!"
It was greet to meet up with Brendon Sharp down here in Buenos Aires, where he has a local wife and three half-local children. It was wild to find out that 20 years will make very different teenagers very like-minded, buena onda-oriented men.
It was also nice that complete randomness and not FaceBook or any other such social media medium brought us back together. It was just Veronica. She and I were hanging and decided to visit her buddy Frankie, who was staying with his friend Brendon, who had some kids she said.
When you have a chance encounter of this magnitude it´s hard to get over the Whoa! Factor. It´s hard to not keep saying, ¨I can´t fucking believe it!” So I actually think it was great that Brandon and I didn´t figure out that we were Brendon and Ethan from Oakwood Friends School for an hour. It gave us a chance to meet each other like regular people, to talk about the lives we´ve been living outside the States, but much longer.
To FaceBook-less encounters!
Ateneo Does Books Right
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires on December 31, 2008
What can I say? The Ateneo bookstore on Santa Fe rocks. A beautiful, airy rescued old theater. Amazing books. Friendly, casual. Absurdly expensive. Coffees served in the former stage area will set you back a dinner. A place I sometimes meet up with friends. Good air conditioning. Awesome browsing. Understandably, a popular spot with tourists. Good for R&R. And $500USD art books.
El Ateneo Bookstore, Buenos Aires
Can You Cross Nueve de Julio in One Light?
Posted by Ethan G. Salwen in Buenos Aires, Life Among Porteños on December 18, 2008
This is the must-see Part II of a “Crossing Nueve de Julio.” Part I was good but Part II knocks it out of the park. If you want to get the back farther in Nueve de Julio crossing experience, check out “Crossing Nueve de Julio: Part I.”
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