Sounds Good on Paper

Category: videos

  • Eating an entire cow (not in one sitting) part 7 – cow heart

    We chose the restaurant Monumental for our next beef adventure.   We chose it for several reasons:  it’s near our apartment, has outdoor seating, looks like a castle.

    I had planned to eat mollejas (sweat breads also known as glands) but the waiter was completely freaked out that I was ordering only sweatbreads for dinner.  He didn’t think this was an appropriate dinner. I didn’t either, but assumed they’d be inedible and I’d be going out for dinner #2 at McDonalds afterward.

    He suggested corazon which is beef heart.   I was little apprehensive so we also ordered lots of wine, a “ensalada Americana,” a backup pork chop and I made sure Jeff was ordering a big enough steak that I could mooch off him if needed.

    The heart really wasn’t that bad.  It sort of tasted like a weird cut of steak. Now the salad, on the other hand, was totally weird. Lots of corn and white stuff which was either the worst cheese in the world, or a strange vegetable.

    My favorite part of dinner was observing the family next to us.  It was past 11:30pm and an entire family including a baby, toddler, and nanny were enjoying dinner.  At around 12:30am we had to go home, we were yawning, but the family was still on dessert.

  • Eating an Entire cow (not in one sitting) part 6

    Our guidebooks talk about all kinds of scams that can happen in Argentina.  Cab drivers give out counterfeit bills, thieves wait at ATM machines,  pick pockets throw mustard on your shoe.  So far none of these things have come even close to happening.

    The only scam so far, has been the old “this matambre steak is cow shoulder,” trick.

    The restaurant looks innocent enough, but since they don’t have a menu,  the waitress just told us what they were serving that day — matambre. When we asked what part of the cow that was, she said pointed to her shoulder.

    Several things could have happened:

    1. it really was shoulder, but she just called it matambre
    2. it was flank steak which she thought came from the shoulder of a cow.
    3. she had a sore shoulder and was massaging it while taking our order.
    4. she was trying to trick me.

    Now that I think about it, I’m not sure cows even have shoulders.      Later when I googled matambre I got this.

    Matambre is a beef dish from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Of an Italian style, it is a rolled flank steak filled with vegetables, eggs and herbs that is then boiled or oven-roasted. (from Wikipedia).

    So obviously, she tricked me into eating flank steak.  The confusing thing is, there was no roll, vegetables, eggs or herbs. It was just a slab of meat. And, the other weird thing is it was super light, almost white.   After much time on the internet comparing my photo to other photos of matambre, I’m pretty sure it was flank steak. You can’t really mind eating a flank steak twice.

    doesn't this look more like a shoulder than a flank?

    Although, I’ve had a lot of flank steak both on this trip and in Seattle and it’s never looked like this.  But, it was super good, so no matter what it is, I see lots of matambre in my future.

    Notice how I had to edit out me saying “this is cow shoulder.”

  • Brew at Home Coffee crisis

    When my Spanish teacher asked me what we did this past weekend I answered,   “Nosotros buscamos cafe en los supermarcados.”  Surely she misunderstood. We didn’t search for supermarket coffee ALL weekend, did we?

    Well….um…yeah….kind of.

    Jeff and I love to make coffee at home. We like going out for coffee too, but we need that first cup at home to wake up enough to go out to get more.   When we moved into this apartment in Salta the first thing we did was buy a coffee maker. The second thing we did was buy the 100% Arabica coffee beans.

    When we went back to the store 3 days later for more, the store was out — of all Arabica beans.   Now hardcore travelers would just switch to robusto or instant. Hardcore travelers wouldn’t even be drinking coffee, they’d be drinking yerba mate out of gourds.  But, we’re not hardcore.

    Part of traveling is adapting. We’ve adapted to a different language, customs, weather, foods, and scenery.   But for some reason, we just can’t do it with the coffee.   We need good beans that we can brew at home.

    We actually did try several emergency options.  We found an ancient jar of instant in the cabinet.

    We tried robusto beans.

    And then we pretty much freaked out. We were dead set on finding those beans. It put us on a 2 day, 4 mile, 5 supermarcado  brew at home odyssey to all the supermarcdos in Salta.

    stop #1

    Finally, at the last of the big supermarkets, we found them –  Arabica beans without sugar or cardamon added.   Was it worth it? (I’m taking a sip of coffee as I type) Yes.

    We can go without peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies, Pop Chips, The Daily Show, Washington wine, cottage cheese, Kinetix bars, margaritas, Chinese food, all our family, all our friends, my income and the entire English lanugage, but 100% Arabica beans to brew at home? No way.

  • Eating an Entire Cow (not in one sitting) part 5

    We spent our last night in Buenos Aires at the same restaurant we went to the first night.   Here’s what we’ve learned in a month in Buenos Aires.

    • 10:30 is a good time to go out for dinner.  Midnight is not.  They were done for the night, but still seated us.

    • Our Spanish still needs work.  We ordered 3 different steaks. When they came one turned out to be chicken.

    • Steaks taste a lot better than organs (at least the one organ I’ve tried so far).  We got a flank and skirt steak. Both were really good.
    • They don’t call it skirt steak here. Jeff tried to buy a “lomo de falda” at a butcher the next day which made the butcher laugh.
    • Pictures of gauchos holding giant knives should not scare you.

    • You need to use caution when salting.  Salt shakers run really fast here.
    • Dulce de leche ice cream rocks

  • Happy New Year!

    Happy New Year!  We wish everyone a wonderful, healthy 2011.

    Our New Year’s Eve didn’t go as planned.  Going out to dinner was a disaster.   We walked home in a torrential downpour. The clock struck midnight while we were in an elevator. But then we were surprised by a huge fireworks display that we could see from our balcony.

    That’s what I love about traveling, even when things are going poorly, they can turn around when you least expect it.

    Wishing everyone lots of wonderful surprises in 2011.