Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of those emerging holidays here in Argentina.  They are starting to celebrate, but haven't quite gotten the concept at this point.  Most of the costumes that we've seen on locals involve either an outfit covered in blood or the outfit they wore during the day coupled with a mask.  It's a work in progress.

It is nice to have the weather on the upswing as Halloween approaches. On Sunday, when all of the Halloween festivities took place, we had a beautiful, sunny 73 degree day.  It makes me wish that I had been in Buenos Aires all those years that I had to wear a jacket over my costume while trick-or-treating.  In order to take full advantage of the day, some of my mom's group friends and I ran in the AmCham 10K in Puerto Madero.  It was a perfect day for a race, and we got to keep these highly fashionable bright orange shirts!

We were excited to get Gretchen dressed up for her first Halloween, obviously, since dressing up babies in adorable costumes may be the cutest thing ever.  We are lucky enough to have some great friends that threw a fantastic Halloween party through BAIN, which was a great substitute for our traditional Halloween festivities.  We all got dressed up and had a great time, and though we didn't have the benefit of a whole bunch of American candy, we did have this little lovebug:

Thank you Gran for getting this precious vaquita de San Antonio/Ladybug costume.

The adults were requested to dress up, so we threw together a chef and teacher outfit, though it didn't matter since Gretchen stole the show.

And as with every childhood Halloween I can remember, tiredness took over toward the end of the party and we ended up with a very sleepy, sad ladybug.  It was time for a nap.  Let me just say that a baby crying in an adorable costume might be the funniest thing ever.  I hope to catch future Halloween meltdowns on camera, because it is comic genius.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with our little bug while she made us laugh, practiced standing, and enjoyed the simple joy of a baby in a costume.

As an additional bonus, little miss got her second tooth on Halloween!  She has a completed pair of bottom teeth now.  Congratulations to our little ladybug, and Happy Halloween to all of our friends and family back home!

iCentral Market

I have probably been to iCentral Market (Puerto Madero - esq. Pierina Dealessi y Macacha Güemes; 011 5775 0330) a dozen times, and for some reason I have not yet posted about it.  I love this place.  It's a great stopping point when we bring visitors to Puerto Madero to walk around, it is one of the few places I know will have a good salad, they have a great outdoor seating area and they are accommodating to groups, babies and English speakers.

There are two sister restaurants, iCentral and iFresh Market, both located in Puerto Madero one cross-bridge away from one another.  iCentral has a take-out counter for quick meals on the run, which is a rarity in the cafe culture of Buenos Aires, and if you proceed through their housewares and gift shop area you will walk right into the restaurant. 

Eating lunch with our friends visiting from the US at iCentral

The tables are nicely spaced out, so you don't feel like you are sitting on top of each other and the chairs are plush and comfortable.  The menu is ample, with a few items in each category; salads, sandwiches, entrees and desserts.  As far as drinks are concerned, they offer the usual water and soda selection, but they also have lemonade and fresh squeezed juices that are excellent.  I usually get the mint and ginger lemonade, which is served half frozen and is great as a summertime beverage.  It is even better when enjoyed with my smiling husband, as pictured on the left. 

They start you off with a nice selection of bread, served with herbed butter pats covered in sea salt.  Being a salt lover, I enjoy this touch.  Additionally, the waiter brings an amuse bouche to the table as they come to take your beverage order.  These have ranged from pate to a cream cheese based bite.  One of the more recent additions to the service is a bowl of hot water and towels that is brought to the table for you to wash your hands.  The towels look a lot like dinner mints, so don't be fooled, but when you submerge them in water they grow - similar to the pills-that-become-dinosaur-sponges that were so popular in the 80s.  I have never ordered anything that I didn't like, but recently, I've stuck to ordering either a salad or a sandwich.  They have interesting salad combinations, unusual for Buenos Aires, such as a pear and Gorgonzola with Dijon dressing (pictured below) or smoked salmon with poached egg and capers.  They also have a daily soup, the most recent time we were there it was squash and carrot and it was outstanding.

iCentral's summer menu has a delicious grilled chicken sandwich that I usually gravitate to, but since they have switched over to the winter menu, I have had to deviate from my norm.  The vegetarian sandwich is good with eggplant, squash and zucchini, but the real treat when you order a sandwich is the little bowl of fried potatoes that come with it.  This is their take on french fries, little crudely cut potatoes that are served the same as french fries.  One of our friends ordered the pastrami sandwich with arugula and his only complaint was that it came with too much brie cheese. 


If you have room for coffee or dessert there are several options.  They have just recently started serving ice cream, and although it is not quite as good as Arkakao, it is respectable.  I prefer their coffee drinks, which are as pretty as they are good, for example, here is my cappuccino:

With any sort of coffee order, they serve these meringue dulce de leche filled cookies.  I'm not big on the meringue part, but the dulce de leche is delish.  



So here is the downside of iCentral, it is pricey.  Not Cabana Las Lilas expensive, but over the last month or so they have raised their prices by 20 - 30 pesos per entree.  I expect these sort of prices in Puerto Madero, it's one of the more expensive areas of town, but it is frustrating to have the same meal that two weeks ago was US$8 cheaper. 

I still enjoy iCentral, and as long as they don't continue to raise their prices at this ridiculous rate, I will continue to meet friends here for lunch and bring our people from out of town to enjoy their hand towels and meringue cookies. 

Museo Fortabat

Lornie and I staying out of the rain

More correctly named Coleccion de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, this museum is a lesser known spot that just recently opened in October 2008 and is such a hidden find (or just too new) that it only shows up in 1 of my 4 tour books. Kudos to the thorough writers at Eyewitness Travel.

Coleccion de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat

Location: Olga Cossenttini 141, Puerto Madero

Phone: (54-11) 4310-6600
Hours: 12:00pm - 9:00pm Tues - Sun, Closed Mon
Admission: $15 pesos for adults, $8 pesos for kids under 12, seniors, students and educators

We stumbled upon this museum during one of the many days of rain we had during Jon's parent's visit. The approx. 65,000 square foot building is impressive enough to warrant the entry fee, it is incredibly modern and almost exclusively steel and glass. A unique design detail is the retractable aluminium roof made of individual shields that change with the location of the sun, similar to a robotic sunflower. The building has four floors of art exhibits divided into themed rooms, each room larger than the last. There are also these crazy state-of-the-art escalators throughout the museum that accelerate when you step onto them, quite fancy.

According to the ever-trusted Wikipedia, Ms. Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat is worth over US$2 billion and therefore, Argentina's wealthiest woman. I have no doubts that this is true, considering that this entire museum is merely a sampling of her private art collection. She has an unbelievable art collection including a portrait of herself done by Andy Warhol, one of my favorites - the painting pictured to the right "Bouquet de Printemps" by Marc Chagall and an assortment of Argentine artists and international artists alike. The second floor is dedicated to objects in her collection, carvings and sculptures, some of which date back to over 2,000 BC. This museum will appeal to almost everyone considering that the collection is so diverse, many styles and eras are represented, and for the individuals that don't particularly like museums or art, the building is enough to keep you interested.

There are guided tours everyday (except Sunday and Monday when they're closed) at 3:00 and 5:00pm. English tours can be arranged in advance for groups by calling the museum or emailing visitas@coleccionforabat.org.ar. They also have fancy-shmancy iPhone audio tour that allows you to explore the museum at your own pace and touch the thumbnail icon of selected pieces when you are ready for the explanation. I cannot remember if there is an additional cost for the tour - and the website does not list a price - so this may be included in the admission price. There is also a restaurant adjacent to the museum, La Coleccion, that offers decent food at reasonable prices (for that area of town) and a great view of the port.

Sushi Club

Ave 9 de Julio 1465, Recoleta. Prior to moving here, sushi for us meant getting takeout from Whole Foods. Then our friends Juan and Sole introduced us to Sushi Club, and our whole world of sushi changed. There are a whole bunch of Sushi Club locations and we've been to a few of them. Each location is decorated with interesting cool details, comfortable couch-like chairs and really chic light fixtures. In addition to great sushi, they also offer an extensive drink list (items with and without alcohol) and a drink of the day. Our favorite item here is called "Boom" (I think, it's an appetizer) although strangely enough, it's not available on Mondays. The Puerto Madero location has a really cool outdoor seating area - we'll head back that way as soon as the mosquitoes clear out.

As with most places in Buenos Aires, Sushi Club delivers. We have gotten really spoiled and ordered delivery the last few times we have enjoyed their sushi. The best part for us is that they have an easy online ordering system that allows us to order our meal without the painful Spanish phone conversation that normally ensues. We order online, they call 5 minutes later and confirm our order and deliver it an hour or so later. In a strange twist from typical US ordering, delivery is free, they give a 15% discount for just about everything (because it's Wednesday, because you have a certain internet provider, because you belong to our gym) and they throw in a free dessert just for using their online ordering system.

Sushi here is slightly different than what we are used to in the US, although we like it just the same. They love to put Philadelphia cream cheese in the sushi rolls. Generally, the rolls are pretty simple, with some sort of cream cheese, avocado, fish and rice combination. They add or subtract one of the ingredients and call it by a different name. My favorite has fried shrimp, avocado and rice. The delivery orders are served in this cute little boat thing with your choice of sauces, wasabi and ginger. Last night they also threw in some poppy seed rolls just for the fun of it. The only downside is that Sushi Club is a little on the pricey side, so it can't be an every week meal.

Puerto Madero

Puerto Madero is one of my favorite places to go to walk around on a sunny day. It is roughly a 30 minute walk from our apartment, or a US$5.00 cab ride. The history goes that it was a working port in the late 1800s until newer ship designs made it difficult to access. That and a newer port (creatively named "Puerto Nuevo") was built a few miles north in the 1920s, so Puerto Madero was left vacant for approximately 50 years. Starting in the 1990s, the area began to rebuild and now it is a hot spot for bars, cafes, nightclubs, high end restaurants and as of today, Jon's new office (check out the great view from his desk!). This area is probably best known for it's interesting pedestrian bridge, the Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of the Woman). I think of it as the Georgetown of Buenos Aires.

The first time I went to Puerto Madero, it was after we attended a going away party for a coworker of Jon. This was my first true experience with "Argentine Time". Argentine Time refers to the fact that everything takes longer, lasts longer and starts later here. For example, every restaurant that we have gone to has been empty at 8pm - sometimes not even open yet. Generally places start to get busy for dinner around 10:30 and it's not unusual for restaurants to be on a significant wait at 11:30 or midnight. Anyways, the party started at 10:30pm, we mingled and ate and had a great time. At 1:45am, the host announced that he was sad to leave, thanked everyone for coming and said that it was time to leave his apartment. What we didn't realize was that he wasn't talking abou the night being over - just that the apartment party was over. He ushered everyone downstairs where a number of taxis were waiting to take us to Asia de Cuba in Puerto Madero. When we got there, the bar was almost completely empty, apparently 2am is really early to arrive at a bar. Jon and I stuck it out for another 2 hours, until I was virtually falling asleep standing up. At 4:00am we were the first people from the party to leave the bar. Yikes. These people know how to party.

Since then, we've gone a few other times to walk around and stop for coffee. I took my friend Lauren when she was in town and we had a great bottle of wine at one of the restaurants lining the port. It's a great spot to people watch, take pictures or just go for a walk. There is also a nature preserve a little farther towards the water that has jogging and bike trails. If you are in the mood for meat, right after Jon moved here he went to a great restaurant called Siga La Vaca (literally - Follow The Cow) which is a great parrilla place.