Here and There

I am currently in London, for a few months.... But will be in Argentina from October on to keep showing visitors my city! Best wishes
Macu

Old Buenos Aires! 1932 old good times...

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=O2Bvvt7sUA4&pop_ads=NoAdSlots#t=14

ANTITOUR IN THE GUARDIAN!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/nov/21/buenos-aires-secret-restaurants?page=all

Buenos Aires' secret restaurants

In Buenos Aires chefs are turning their own homes into restaurants – offering affordable dining and the perfect place to meet locals

• Jamie Crawford
• The Guardian, Saturday 21 November 2009

Across Buenos Aires, behind nondescript front doors and in family living rooms, a host of homespun restaurants are the latest foodie fad. The tricky bit is finding them – and I fall at the first hurdle.

Almacen Secreto, or the Secret Store (+54 11 4854 9131), is – as its name suggests – virtually impossible to locate. Admittedly, I've forgotten to write down the street number, but it's also because it's on an unremarkable road in the residential Villa Crespo neighbourhood. I stride straight past. It's easily done. The anodyne corrugated door, framed by two lonely pot plants and some graffiti, is a stone's throw from a tatty antiques warehouse and railway line.

This is just one of a growing number of puertas cerradas, or closed-door restaurants, springing up across Buenos Aires. "Before, it was all about being seen," says Almacen Secreto founder Maria Morales, "Everyone wanted flashy restaurants with floor-to-ceiling windows onto the street. Now it seems people want something more intimate, much more personal."

And that's exactly what she provides. Almacen Secreto offers a shaded courtyard and simple dining room with so few tables that guests mingle naturally. At lunch I find myself next to some circus school students. Maria's menu divides the country into three regions and I opt for a tender braised Patagonian lamb with rosemary and roast potatoes. Like the food, earthenware crockery, and artwork lining the walls and gallery, the wine is home grown, from small bodegas whose "wines you won't find in any supermarket."

"You hear about these restaurants by word of mouth," says the circus school teacher Hernan Carbon. "A friend sent me an email about this place, and I've been coming ever since."

Fortunately, from their highly secretive beginnings, increasing popularity has earned the closed-door restaurants mentions in Time Out Buenos Aires and other guides, and most hotels can now help too – so you need neither local contacts nor advanced Spanish to seek them out. Alternatively, an internet search for "puertas cerradas Buenos Aires" brings up blogs and Facebook fan clubs.

Asian kitchen ... Cocina Sunae

Or you could sign up for a tour like the one I took with Macu Morales Bustamante, owner ofAntiTour (tours costs $30-$90 depending on group size). She's not one to be seen waving a brolly, herding flocks of punters past Evita's tomb. Instead, she shows me a side of the city I always thought existed but never knew how to access.

Through an easily-missable entrance on traffic-choked Avenida de Mayo, Macu shows me a dusty book shop stacked with ancient tomes. From law books to leather-bound French literature, it's fantastically eclectic and I leave with several 1930s guidebooks and an anthology of Spanish poetry to make me look erudite.

From spectacular city-wide views to meeting local designers, we spend the day gauging the city's pulse before relaxing in the rose gardens of Palermo with a traditional Argentine tea, or mate, a pungent herbal brew. The highlight of my tour though, comes in the early evening.

It's easy to be sucked into often soulless tourist tango shows. But Macu takes me to a bandstand in a suburban park. There, once a week, melancholy classics are pumped from ageing speakers and everyone from old couples to young romantics dance in the warm evening air. This is real tango – best followed by real home cooking.

Macu used to waitress in her mother's own closed-door suburban restaurant; it's now shut but she knows plenty of alternatives and recommends supper at another cryptic address, the home of travelling chef Diego Felix.

Buenos Aires born, 35-year-old Diego is a vegetarian on the move. We're lucky to catch him at home. "Casa Felix (+54 11 4555 1882) is not a place," he says. "It's wherever we happen to be." This summer has seen him and his photojournalist wife on a trans-America cooking tour. But now they're back home, feeding a dozen guests twice a week. It's an intimate setting, in the living room and patio of his classic Buenos Aires "chorizo" house – so called for its sausage shape, curving around an interior courtyard. Diego likes cooking at home, where he makes the most of his neat backyard garden with wild herbs from across Argentinaincluding varieties like burrito – little donkey.

These underpin an ever-changing menu. "I decide on it as I travel to the market on my moped." Such spontaneity pays off and we're treated to five courses from a delicate nut and Peruvian black mint soup to sea bass marinated in deep red Bolivian achiote seasoning. It costs just £17.

While Diego is a licensed caterer many closed-door restaurants operate under the radar, serving local wines – permit or no permit. Step forwardCocina Sunae. Christina Sunae is a New Yorker of Korean origin offering south-east Asian food. "The puertas cerradas go hand-in-hand with an Argentine tendency for artisanship," she explains. "People love the fact they are little secrets with a limited number of guests." Maybe that's why her living room's full every week. The sofa is pushed aside, family photos overlook the diners and there's a conviviality and multilingual chatter never found in conventional restaurants.

"I never stop talking about food," says Juan, a bearded and bespectacled American-Argentine. We eat Filipino spring rolls and fish in sweet and spicy Thai sauce. True to his word Juan doesn't shut up. But his enthusiasm is infectious. After piles of food and Argentine wines, we part with friendly backslaps and promises to return.

And I will. I'm already investigating my next puerta cerrada, a tip off from Juan called Mis Raices (+54 11 4784 5100), meaning My Roots, where septuagenarian Juanita cooks up traditional Jewish dishes served with tales of her family history. Now all I need do is find the place…

• I-escape.com has a range of stylish guesthouses and hotels in the city from under US$100 per room. Flights to Buenos Aires are available onkayak.co.uk from £505 with Tam from March 2010.

VOcAbulARy

Thanks to my tourists, the words that I´m using are becoming more accurate and my vocabulary is getting bigger and bigger in each tour, I would like to put the name of the person who owns each word, more than a year has passed since I started giving tours, so I really don´t remember who taught each of my new words, but I do remember one of them Lizzie Lee… she make me realize how awful I say the word “Very” with a “V”!!! no a B, she would say every time…not letting me pass one.. and marking it, an insisting all the time, well, it doesn’t matter, now I believe I say it correctly, but not only that, she also explained to me the meaning of “Former”, “Braids”, and her sister, Katherine, in the other hand taught me “Stray” which is of extremely importance and great use when you are visiting neighborhoods like La Boca. Another man who I don’t remember the name.. taught me the meaning of “Brothel”, or expressions like “you own the building” or “To see and be seeing”…. SO from now on I will keep a record of my new words and the generous people who contributed.

"Awkward" Thanks Chance Miller for my new word, although I´m not quite sure how to use it...

"Mouthful" I love this word, and Emma Balch my ex next door neighbour taught me (among many other important words) and she was the one who encouraged me to speak english. Thnxs

Thanxs Gordon, from London but living in Aukland for explaining and introducing me to the word "Buzz"

Any Comments? be my guest..

You woke up and it was raining?

What to do on a rainy day in Buenos Aires? well, I think that the easiest answer would be, "go to the movies"... (movies are spoken in their original language and subtitled) But I dont think is the best idea... you should better use all your time in Buenos Aires, and more even if you are only for a few days around. So here is a list of activities:

Visit a Museum, depending on the day of the week, you can visit: 1) MALBA, (Wednesday to Monday opened.) this is the Museum of Latin American Art, and amazing collection, and what´s more interesting is that is a private collection hosted in an amazing architecture. 2) MNBA, is opened from Tuesday to Sunday, is a free entrance Museum, and hosts a great collection of national art and also European art, and private collections that were donated of furniture, indigenous art, and much more. 3) MUSEO DE ARTE DECORATIVO, is the National Museum of Decorative Arts, this museum is located in Libertador Ave 1902, an example of French eclectic architecture of the early 1900´s, it was built by a French architect, originally the house of Alvear-Errázuriz family. Everything was brought from Europe, the floors, the furniture inside, every detail, a place definitely to enjoy the view. It also has a beautiful cafe, where you can sit and just relax.

But if Museums are not your type of place, do something different, try dancing, go to a "Milonga"! and learn to dance some tango, LA IDEAL, give tango lessons early in the afternoon, not only at night. It´s a classic "confiteria" and a perfect atmosphere to start with lessons, but if you just want to watch, you are welcome too. Adress: Suipacha 380.

Buenos Aires is full or interesting architecture, you can use a rainy day to explore a bit more deeply, PALACIO BAROLO is called the office building placed on Avenida de Mayo 1370, the whole biulding is a homage to Dante Alighieri´s Divine Comedy. Is a real jewel of the city, built around 1924. You can have a guided visit and enjoy the magnificents views from the top of the building.

But if these tips arent enough, so just stay home and have a nice SIESTA, and prepare for the night! nobody cares if outside is still raining.

Milongas in Buenos Aires

What´s a “Milonga”? It´s a Tango term for sure, but it has more than one meaning, First we call MILONGA to the Tango clubs, the location for tango dancing where couples go to learn and dance tango, there´re lots of Milongas in Buenos Aires, one, two and more for each day, the public is diverse varying depending on the milonga, is not easy to find a place 100% porteños anymore, tourists and expats are everywhere mixing with the local people. Secondly milonga also refers to a distinct style of tango, it difference is based on a faster-paced and less complex, and more emphasis on the rhythm of the music.

Qué es una Milonga? Es un término usado en tango, tiene mas de un significado, primero Milonga es el lugar en donde se baila el tango, donde las parejas van a aprender y bailar. Hay muchas milongas en Buenos Aires, más de una para cada día, la gente es muy variada dependiendo de la milonga, no es fácil encontrar un lugar con 100% porteños, los turistas estan en todas partes mezclandose con el público local. Milonga también es un estilo distinto de tango, su diferencia esta basada principalmente en un paso mas rápido y menos complejo con más énfasis en el ritmo.