Sunny days in Lujan

 2009, Argentina, Lujan  No Responses »
Nov 152009
 

The City of Lujan is located 68 Km away from the City of Buenos Aires, and it is characterized by the hospitality offered to travelers. In Lujan we will be able to find the Neo Gothic temple that worships the Virgin of Lujan. This majestic basilica with its two towers can be seen on arrival to the city from the highway leading to Lujan.

Photolog link : http://www.rishisankar.com/Travel/Argentin/Lujan-2009-14th-November-2009/10317916_b6S6Y

 

 Posted by rishiray at 1:22 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Milanesas at Kentucky Pizza? Clam bombs on Pizza and Choripan at Retiro train station…

 2009, Argentina, Buenos Aires  1 Response »
Nov 142009
 

Gotta love the food here! After  a couple day here, I am starting to figure out that BA is a town of many things but the place called Kentucky Pizza is by far a porteno thing. It seems that everyone has a Kentucky Pizza story, it’s like a Rol San story in Toronto, everyone has been there and everyone has an opinion on the place.

The funny thing is that Kentucky and Pizza are not the two words that should every go together in food, unless you are looking for some serious gut rot!

Well they had a gazillion types of pizza, of which none I could have! So instead I ended up with the “Kentucky Special Milanesa”.

This lovely piece of death was basically a fried egg, with fried beef flank in batter, with fried ham and tomatoes and lettuce – who needs a triple Baconator when I have this to eat.

After ingesting said gutbomb, I felt the years drain away from life, like a Harry Potter Death Eater was on me. Was it really good? Well let’s say I won’t have it again, but if I had some alcohol in me again, I also wouldn’t say no to it either.

Later on for dinner prior to meeting Chris and BsAs pub crawl crew, dinner was at this other small restaurant Filo, right around the hotel and the pizza was something out of a Sci-fi convention but so ridiculously good. It was a half Fruitta de mare (Seafood pizza with Claim, shrimp, tomato sauce and garlic) and half Pepperoni pizza.

How awesome is that pizza. The chef basically treated the whole affair like an afterthought. Why bother taking the meat out of the shell, when he could just drop the shells right on to the pizza.

So after the night of drinking with Chris in the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl crew,

then it was off to Retiro train station for early morning Choripan with tons of Chimi. The guys at the train station love me after seeing me wolf down 4 odd of these thing…while they looked in horror and amazement.

Sigh… I will miss this place and the food, ahhhh the lovely food.

 Posted by rishiray at 3:07 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Nightshooting in Buenos Aires

 2009, Argentina, Buenos Aires  No Responses »
Nov 132009
 

Floralis Generica is a beautiful sculpture located in United Nations Park in Buenos Aires.  This Park is right next to the Recoleta district (actually across the street from the Recoleta flea market on weekends) and is next to the Law School.

Floralis Generic is a giant, 23 meter sculpture made of steel and aluminum (its weight is 18 tons). The structure of the flower is made of steel and the shiny panels in the petals are made of aluminum.  The sculpture moves, closing its petals at night and opening them during the day.  It has some lighting for special ocassions too

The law school at night is quite a stunning building

Walking around Recoleta park and walkways around, there are many graffiti style piece of public art all around.

Randomly seeing the nocturnal activity

More memorials….

 Posted by rishiray at 9:58 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

I finally figured out the secret to staying thin in Buenos Aires…

 2009, Argentina, Buenos Aires  2 Responses »
Nov 122009
 

Since the beginning of this trip, I have been trying to figure out the secret to how the Portenos stay so slim and in shape while eating some of the richest food around. After walking Buenos Aires all day and all night, it was obvious to see – they are all runners and play soccer in the evenings. Yesterday, my friend Raj and I walked and talked from noon till midnight yesterday, and everywhere it was evident that people were milling about their own affairs but once it got dark (7pm or so), then the streets and the parks were filled with portenos of all ages, runnings on the streets, playing pick up soccer or doing some type of physical fitness activity.

The weather, broad promenades and ample green space combine to create a very fitness positive space where people can indulge themselves. Well, I figure they have to, since everyone got dressed up after 9.30 pm to go have a late dinner. As usual, after all the walking, touring and photographing, I had an excellent dinner at a nice little Peruvian restaurant called Chan Chan. This place was picked at random from the book with no reservations accepted, so we were a bit worried when we got there a little after 9.30, and we should have been. The place was full and loud, with a couple large tables formed by shoving smaller tables together. From my perspective, this is a good sign: Folks show up in groups, wanting reasonable prices and an atmosphere conducive to multiple conversations and cross-talk. Chan Chan is basically just a simple, medium-sized room, with white-tiled walls and a multi-colored mosaic over the kitchen. Open and unpretentious, except for maybe the cache of plaster saints that presides over the dining area.

The food however was again cheap and spectacular. Raj and I ordered the Ceviche Sample which consisted for 4 types of Ceviche, 3 of which I have tried before at other Peruvian places across my travels:

  • Tiradito Ceviche : This is newer cousin of traditional ceviche, somewhat like Sashimi, in that it was thin, slightly longer strips of marinated raw fish but with no onions. It came garnished with slices of boiled corn, and boiled root veggies.Thankfully, the waitress saw me inhale the salsa picante and she asked me in English, whether I liked it hot… of course my response was for them to kill it with pepper and they did :)
  • Ceviche Mixto : This is a bit more traditional ceviche, with a mix of seafood (clams, oysters, octopus) and raw fish diced in 2cm cubes and marinated in lime juice and ajíes (hot peppers), served with raw onions, sweet potato and corn. The volume of onions was ridiculous but so fantastically good and of course this one was also awesomely hot as every bit was infused with chunks of scotch bonnet peppers
  • Ceviche de Lenguado: This is tradtional ceviche, just the raw fish, onions, lime, cilantro, and tons of pepper. Crisp, clean and refreshing
  • Ceviche in Rocoto Cream sauce : Obviously a newer type of ceviche, but anything creamy I wont touch. Raj was the taster for this one, and she didn’t fancy the whole deal, so this one was left till last and in the end, she couldn’t finish it.

I also had a traditional rice and peas with stewed beef, and it tasted exactly like traditional west indian stewed beef except it wasn’t as sweet or hot, but the cut of beef was ridiculously soft and well done.

Again overall cost of the meal, plus drinks and wine = 100 pesos (28$ CDN). Another fantastic value for the money, as the exact same meal in Toronto, San Francisco or New York, would have cost double or triple that price and surely not as good.

Prior to the Peruvian dinner experience, it was hours and hours of walking through the parks and all across Buenos Aires. From the craft markets in Recoleta to Carlos Gardel Musuem street in Abasto and all along hustle and bustle of Avenida Santa Fe and rich little houses and shops in Avenida Alvare.

 Posted by rishiray at 8:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , ,

Back in BsAs….and I still think the Brazilian side was better

 2009, Buenos Aires  No Responses »
Nov 112009
 

I don’t know why I think that but overall I preferred the imaginary Brazilian side better – I like seeing the entire panorama’s of the falls. However after doing the Devil’s Throat, the power and the fury is amazing. Anyway time for Pizza…. let’s see what adventure awaits in BsAs tonight

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