beef | Infused exposures

Jan 23

Heading south; first stop Mendoza, the country’s biggest wine country

From the northwest of Argentina we traveled south to Argentina's other (and more famous) wine country in Mendoza. Mendoza is a fairly large city in Argentina, located in the north west part of the country. It's also easily reachable from Santiago in Chile. Mendoza is located in the desert Cuyo region making it an arid, hot place and even though it's a desert, a startling number of trees have been planted all over the city, providing some much needed shade especially in the summer months.

Jan 23

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Top tips for visiting the northwest of Argentina

Visiting the northwest of Argentina was one of the highlights of our trip in South America so far. However, I found it a bit daunting when planning our time in this region. There is so much to see and do, where do you start? We knew we wanted to rent a car for sure to give us freedom and flexibility but for how long? Where would we rent the car? I scoured the internet and guide books for answers.

Dec 2

From quinoa filets to llama stew….exploring the foods of the Andean Argentinian northwest

So we didn’t just road trip our way through the northwest snapping photos of the amazing scenery. We also ate. A lot. Prior to our journey, I had read about the unique cuisine of the Andan north of Argentina. So I knew to expect specialties like humitas, tamales, llama stews and other hearty dishes like locro and carbonada. While visiting this region, I made it a point to try all of these local dishes, as well as take notes comparing empanadas from Tucuman up to Salta (very different in style). It was a difficult task but a tasty one that I was certainly up for!

Nov 9

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Discovering Jupiter and our inner gaucho in Cordoba

Did you know you all have an inner gaucho? Well you do and I recently discovered mine. In case you don't know, gauchos are the South American version of the North American cowboy. Riding over the pampas on their horse with no name, the nomadic gauchos lived their lives by hunting cattle. Much like the cowboys, guachos were thought to be the honest, strong, silent types, but proud and capable of violence when necessary. Gauchos often carried a faćon (ginormous, sharp knife) tucked into their pockets and they often used only their faćon for eating. They ate, almost exclusively, meat. Even though I am a former vegetarian, I long to be a gaucho. Waving around my faćon, eating my beef and laying in the sun. I finally had the chance.

Oct 25

Welcome to Montevideo; how I fell in love with Uruguay part one

The taxi came for us around 9 pm to take us to Retiro. Retiro is the main bus terminal in BA, quite the unsavory place to be at night but this time we were smart not to take mass transit and instead the taxi driver dropped us off right in front of the bus terminal. It was pouring. We (gratefully) carried a lighter load and were off to Uruguay. We left many of our heavier and very annoying- to -carry Antarctica clothes with one of the couchsurfers we stayed with. Yes, it is already annoying to carry all these winter clothes!!

Traveling light was a blessing. We boarded an overnight bus that would take us over the border of Uruguay at around 2 am and we would arrive in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, at 8 am. Sleep came pretty easy, surprisingly, even though we had to wake up for the border crossing (a simple process). Bus travel in Argentina is pretty luxurious and cheap. You get a tray of food when you arrive. Just some sandwiches and cookies but it's all pretty tasty. Then there are the seats. We slept through the bus ride on our cama seats. Cama seats mean that the seats recline back pretty far (almost flat) and they are very wide, oversized seats. They feel like they are made out of some thick memory foam, so comfy! With a smooth ride, the gentle rocking lulls you right to sleep. Greyhound needs to take some lessons!!

Oct 24

Dulce de leche, empanadas, milanesas and more meat! An introduction to the foods of Argentina

I am so behind in writing my posts! We had some technical difficulties with connections and honestly, we spent a lot of time just relaxing. As I write this, we are still in Uruguay but will be leaving tomorrow to head back to Buenos Aires for two more days. We spent an amazing time here and I really fell in love with this country. But more on that later, for now I want to tell you all about some of the foods I tried in Buenos Aires before too much more time passes!

Oct 19

La Cabrera

When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we were hungry for still more beef. I did a little searching and found La Cabrera. It's a pretty touristic place but it doesn't really matter when the beef is so good.La Cabrera is not a typical, old fashioned parilla. You cannot see the grill in front of you, it's more hidden in the kitchen. The place itself is whimsical and fun with hot air balloons hanging from the ceiling, plates shaped like cows and photos of cows showing their various cuts of meat. We arrived at 8:15, (which is very early to dine in Buenos Aires) and there was already a long queue and to top it off, we were without a reservation. But after about a 30 minute wait, we were seated.

Oct 17

TBC restaurant, Tigre

Since Tigre was our first stop in Argentina, we couldn't wait to have some famous (and rightfully so) Argentinian beef. The ill-named TBC restaurant, did not disappoint. Although it's located on the Paseo Victorica, which is the main road that strolls along the waterfront, it is a bit under the radar and hidden, due to the giant ivy covered walls that surround it, concealing it slightly.

Behind the walls, revealed a grand mansion, tastefully decorated. We were led to the spacious porch where diners could sit and enjoy the exquisite beef while sipping their Malbec wine. Service was attentive and we were seated on the porch right away

Oct 7

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Beautiful Tigre, the first destination

We arrived to Tigre, Argentina on our first morning. We weren't really supposed to go to Tigre. We were going to go out about 2 hours to the Pampas, to an older city with a long history of gaucho culture (gauchos are the south american version of cowboys). But we were so tired from our travels and the supervolcano that took place before the travels, that we decided to go to a city closer. We had read about Tigre and it's proximity to Buenos Aires and how nice it was. So we decided to go.