Little Chicks

While I write this, my Mom, Dad and brother Robbie are preparing for landing in Buenos Aires, could anything be more exciting?! As I anxiously await the arrival of our first wave of Christmas guests, let me recap my almost-as-exciting yesterday.

A little back story, we have a newly renovated apartment in a very old building, and to the renovator's credit, they did a fantastic job. One of the key components that is missing is that none of the "exhaust" pipes to the outside of the building (bathroom fans, dryer vent, stove exhaust, etc) were capped off with a grate or cap of some kind. Thus, birds have taken up residence with us for the last year.

I thought it was kind of cute, these birds would dive bomb into these little pipes and then sit outside and sing and chirp and whatever all day. They were kind of like my little pets that required no maintenance whatsoever. That, and apparently I have a lot of time on my hands. Moving on -
This became a problem when the nests they build started to overflow into our apartment, specifically, two of our bathrooms had bugs and twigs and crap falling all over the place on a daily basis. And the bathroom fans stopped working. And the birds were LOUD starting super early in the morning. And I think I've mentioned we're having company. These roommates needed to move out.

Cut to yesterday, the maintenance men came to evict my bird-friends only to find 5 baby chicks living in one of our bathroom pipes. It was dramatic. Being pregnant, emotional and an animal lover I was flipping out that the babies were going to die. That and the mama bird was spazzing out crying and squawking because her chicks have mysteriously disappeared. I called Jon. I called my mom. I may have cried a little. Maybe this is why the maintenance guys brought the nest (complete with 5 chicks) inside and asked where I wanted them to relocate the home. The answer: On the window ledge.
Right next to my beloved basil. Actually, they are kind of guarded by the basil since we live on the fourth floor and there is nothing stopping them from walking right off the ledge.

So the rest of my day was luring the mama bird to her chick's new home and praying that she doesn't abandon them because they now have human smell. (Speaking of which, is that true? People have talked about birds instantly abandoning their young due to a human picking them up one time. True or False??) I lured her with crackers and cereal - neither of which she wanted anything to do with. She just kept trying to fly into the caged off bathroom fan tube. I am pleased to report that she has found her babies, as has the papa bird, and they have been feeding their hungry chicks dragon flies and bugs all day. Thank goodness.

One more shot of my adopted chicks. They're pretty freakin' cute.

And that, my friends, is how I spent my Thursday.

Finicky Ficus

We gladly inherited some trees from a friend that moved back to the US despite having no knowledge or experience with trees of any sort.  They warm up our house, reduce echos and generally make it a more comfortable space.  Aside from that, they are a pain. 

We are now the proud owners of two ficus trees and two palms of some sort.  The palms are a piece of cake, it's the ficus trees that are making me mental.  When we first brought the trees home, both ficus trees lost about half of their leaves.  After some internet research and moving them elsewhere in the house, we finally found a home for each tree. 

All was well until we put up the Christmas tree and had to move one of the ficus trees 20 feet from his home.  Wouldn't you know it, that tree has now resorted to weeping in the corner.  Everyday there is another pile of dead leaves waiting for me underneath the tree.  I don't know which one is worse, keeping the tree where it is and hoping to ride out the storm, or moving it again and risk the finicky fallout. 

At this rate, it's going to make Charlie Brown's Christmas tree look like a redwood.  Any thoughts on how to help our ailing ficus?  We will reunite him with his favorite spot after Christmas. 

The Pavita

This weekend I will conquer: The Pavita.

In all my years of celebrating holidays and eating turkey, I have never actually cooked a turkey. Actually, let's be real - I have never made a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner at all. There was this one time in college when my roommates and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner - Julie and Sarah took care of the turkey (leading to much hilarity...) and I'm pretty sure we were all tipsy on wine as we made everything else. Point being, the only actual holiday dinner I hosted is such a blur I can't pull any helpful tips from the experience. Although from what I remember, the dinner was amazing.

So, in preparation for this Christmas, when we joyfully have the vast majority of both my and Jon's family joining us from the US - I need to practice. I mean really, they're all coming all the way to Argentina for the holidays - the least I can do is give them a proper holiday dinner, right? It's already 85 degrees and humid outside, with long summer nights and outdoor markets, basically the opposite of every Christmastime I've ever thought of, so a little taste of American-traditional Christmas is what I'm going for. And herein lies the complication.

For numerous reasons, "traditional" holiday dinners are just not the same here. First off, turkey is just not all that common. Grocery stores generally have turkey cold cuts and some places have turkey breasts in the meat department, but ham (or pork in general), beef and chicken are much more popular, so finding a whole turkey is a bit of a challenge. Also, when is the last time you decided in the middle of August to cook anything that takes hours in the oven? It's a bit of a dilemma, air conditioning vs. oven heat. And then to sit down to a huge, heavy meal when it's 90 degrees outside....you get my drift.

So, after feeling entirely too proud of myself for finding a turkey, borrowing a roasting pan, printing recipes, shopping for ingredients and looking up substitutions for the ingredients I couldn't find, all I really need to do now is practice my skills. This Saturday, some of our bravest friends are going to be my holiday dinner guinea pigs, while I try my hand at making a pavita.

That is, assuming, a pavita is actually a turkey.

The China Rose

Today I met a friend for lunch and a very fruitful shopping trip in Barrio Chino, the perfect outing for a hazy Tuesday afternoon. Barrio Chino, or Chinatown, in Buenos Aires is pretty small version of the Chinatown you may be used to in other big cities. It's 2 square blocks to be exact. This mini-barrio is located in Belgrano, right next to the Belgrano train station, and there are treasures to be discovered all over the place. There are little trinket shops all over the place, most of which are filled with cheap, Chinese-imported plastic junk; little waving cats or plastic beads, but sometimes they have hidden treasures.
I originally saw this style of tea cup at Sirop Folie, a cool little tea room across the way from Sirop the restaurant (which was also really liked). I loved that the mugs are perfect for loose leaf tea and then you can balance the leaf strainer on the mug lid - genius! I was really excited to find them available for purchase, not to mention the adorable patterns, blue and yellow, just like our kitchen, and blue and white, which my Grandmother once told me was timeless. There are plenty of other ceramic patterns as well, I thought they were a good mix of practical and gimmicky. Now I just need to buy some loose leaf tea. Moving on.

We stopped at China Rose - Mendoza 1689, Barrio Chino - for lunch, and it was surprisingly good. The restaurant is clean, nicely furnished and (very importantly for the 2 pregnant ladies) has really nice bathrooms. I've been to China Rose once before and it was good then too, so it seemed an appropriate place to go for a second visit. I am no expert, but the items I've had here were tasty, non-greasy and straightforward, basically, everything that I'm looking for when I order Chinese.

They offer a fixed price menu for lunch, either $28 or $32 pesos which gets you a drink, appetizer, entree and dessert or coffee. The entree items to choose from are pretty standard, rice or noodle dishes on the $28 peso list - chow mien, fried rice, etc and $32 pesos gets you a meat based dish - pineapple chicken, broccoli chicken and such. As an appetizer, we each ordered the veggie spring rolls which, hilariously, came on a plain white plate. No garnish, no sauce, just rolls. In fairness, there are sauces available on your table, it just looks funny having the spring rolls loose and moving all around your plate.

I ordered the chicken fried rice as my main dish, which is maybe my favorite item on any Chinese food menu and it didn't disappoint. My friend had the pineapple chicken, which was good but would have been better if it had come with a side of rice.

The coffee at the end of the meal was by far the worst thing I had, it was so bitter I couldn't stomach it. All in all it was a good meal and I'm happy to have a standard lunch spot for my China town adventures.

After lunch we went to the grocery store two doors down, the Oriental Asia Market, and picked up some cooking goodies, including quite a few seafood items. Bs.As. is not known for it's seafood, but if your looking for ingredients, Barrio Chino is known as the best place in town to purchase fish and other seafood items for a reasonable price. A word of warning, be ready for the smell, the markets have lots of open air seafood departments which make for a pretty smelly shopping experience.

One Year, Can You Believe It?

As you may have noticed, I've been a bit slack on my postings lately so I have missed both one year anniversary dates for Jon's and my arrival in Argentina (we arrived separately due to my visa delay issues) BUT I have made it in time for another very important anniversary.  It was one year ago today that we moved into our apartment here in Buenos Aires.

One Year!  Can you believe it!?  (Cue Jon Lovitz as Hanukkah Harry SNL skit - "Eight pair!  Can you believe it?! - absolutely one of the funniest SNL skits ever.  If you haven't seen it, look it up, I would post the video but NBC refuses to stream internationally...)

So much has changed in a year. Welcome to my blogging version of a "clip-show".

A year ago today my horrid Coto grocery delivery experience happened, and now I'm ordering from Jumbo, Disco and Quinta Fresca virtually every week. 

A year ago, I couldn't imagine cooking in Argentina without a suitcase (or two) filled with ingredients from the US.  Now, this same suitcase is certainly appreciated (and requested) but I am confident that I can cook 99% of the items with substitutions I find here in the stores.

Our Spanish still has a ways to go, but we are both confident going into a taxi, restaurant or store and communicating what we need.  A year ago I ordered a Chicken Caesar Salad that came with tuna on top - I HATE tuna - but I ate it because I didn't know how to say that it was wrong.  Today I would send that salad back in a heartbeat - and that, my friends, is progress. 

In the last year I have figured out how to grow things - most fondly, basil.  Compare my current basil plants on the left to those just a few months ago.  An amazing feat after the numerous rounds of dead plants that I threw away while Jon shook his head.

Over the past year we have been lucky enough to have lots of great visitors, taken several amazing vacations, made lots of new friends and even said good-bye to some friends that have moved away. Here are some highlights from our last year in Argentina:

Our friends Kelly and Tabo who have sadly moved an hour outside of Buenos Aires

My brother Chris and I in Puerto Madero during his visit in June

My Mom, Pat and Miguel at Estancia Oriental in March

Jon and his parents at Iguazu Falls during their trip in April

My family enjoying National's Stadium in May

Jon and Shankar at his 30th birthday party

Our amazing friends who threw us a baby shower in October

My brother Robbie and I - and a bag of Tostidos - with some adorable VT baby slippers

My wonderful friends Julie and Sarah that came to visit me in Virginia in October

 

Our friends the Wilsons who came with their beautiful family for a visit from Venezuela

All in all, it's been an incredible and adventure filled year for the Gill Family.  Considering that we expect to be living here for a while longer, we will certainly have lots of new adventures in the upcoming months/year.  We hope everyone enjoyed their Turkey Day (and that my parents enjoyed their 32nd wedding anniversary!) and we are very much looking forward to our next, huge round of visitors at Christmas.  To our next year here in Argentina!