I’m not a vegetarian. I’m an Argentarian.

Sunday, February 19^th, 2012

After an embarrassingly late wake-up at 2:30 (hey I stayed up til 5AM!!!) I had no idea what to do. Not wanting to get out of bed, I picked up my Buenos Aires guidebook and started making note of interesting things to do that were free or pretty cheap. While I wouldn’t say Buenos Aires lacks entertainment (you could do something fun and different every day for the rest of eternity), it’s definitely a little different than a tourist experience in Paris, which is a city that knows it’s a tourist destination. Buenos Aires has seen a big rise in tourism, but it’s still not the most tourist-friendly city in that some locals treat tourists badly or places of interest seem to be closed arbitrarily (and not like “we’re closed on Mondays” but like “we’re open but nobody can actually come in”). It’s not that I’m necessarily only looking for tourist stuff, but I figure it’s a good place to start so I can get better acquainted with the neighborhoods and places of interest here. I think a lot of places will be found simply by stumbling upon them—but on days when I’d rather let somebody else do the stumbling, I’ll head to a museum or place of interest.

A few lazy hours had passed and my host family invited me to go to the feria in San Isidro with them. Anything sounded better than sitting for 5 more hours so I jumped in the car with them. San Isidro is the area outside of Capital Federal, which is Buenos Aires proper. While there are some sketchy areas, there are also a lot of very nice houses (houses, not apartments). We arrived at a huge cathedral and suddenly I thought maybe I’d misunderstood Juan. We’re not going to mass are we? He looked at me and laughed. No way. It’s just a cool cathedral, so we popped in for a look-see. While many Argentines are devout Catholics, there are many that aren’t affiliated at all or are “Catholic”, and luckily my host family fits in those categories. It’s not that I have anything against Catholics, it’s just that after 21 years of not being non-theistic, I would prefer to not start now.

Despite the feriado (long weekend), the feria was somewhat deserted probably due to the possible impending rain shower, so we left to have a snack at a restaurant on the river. The Río de la Plata is the widest river in the world, and you can certainly tell this because when you’re eating on its banks, it feels as though you’re looking into the ocean—especially when you’re watching a palm tree’s silhouette growing darker against the sunset. I thought I might have been in paradise. There is nothing better than eating sweet potato fries (batatas fritas) while listening to ambient music during the sunset. In addition to that, I continued to enjoy the company of my host family who never ceases to make me completely carefree and happy. But apparently there was something better than that, because we left to have dinner elsewhere.

We were ironically (but unsurprisingly) looking for La Escondida parilla grill (escondida means hidden…) which is quite close to our apartment in Nuñez. In addition to the perfect outdoor ambiance, the food was to die for. I could have eaten an entire meal of small rolls that came with dinner, but found myself thoroughly stuffed with perfect cuts of beef that we had ordered that we washed down with a nice Malbec. It was the best dinner I’ve had in a long time and there’s tons of parilla grills in BA, but I definitely want to come back to this one.

I should probably stop and explain that after months of learning about the food/meat industry in the U.S., I read the book, ’Eating Animals’, and became a vegetarian in July of 2011. Everybody told me it was stupid to be a vegetarian in Argentina because they are known for their beef. Yeah, I know. But the beef industry in Argentina is different than how it is in the U.S. and if you don’t believe me, read the book—you’ll refrain from meat guaranteed. I felt like a hypocrite because in the last month and a half before my trip I did eat meat—but this was mostly due to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to eat this type of food for who knows how long. Plus, when your hot Alaskan boyfriend offers to cook you salmon from his home state, you don’t refuse. You ask for seconds (of both…). But in my defense, Ana never cooks with meat so I never eat it unless I’m dining out with the intent of tasting the culture of Argentina. So I’m not a vegetarian…I’m an Argentarian.

Fully loaded with beef, wine and bread, I was a satisfied Nikki. While I digested my great feast, I watched the movie ‘Nueve Reinas’ (9 Queens) which is about an Argentine con artist getting conned. It was all Argentina, as many people here are big scammers, in addition to all the lunfardo (Porteño slang) tossed around in the dialogue. Plus it has Ricardo Darín, and he’s pretty much the only Argentine actor I know…

Looking back on the day, I decided it was perhaps one of my best days yet, because in addition to eating great food and being with my incredibly gracious, interesting and funny hosts it seemed like the perfect day of all things Argentina that I might not have found otherwise.