Wrapping up BA....and SA

Okay, it's definitely time to finish up my trip to BA (maybe a bit overdue).

Walking around BA, I reached a point where I felt I could not look another "ojo de bife" in the ojo. And, while I would love to tell you that this plate of wholesome vegetables and grains was outstanding, unfortunately it was not. It was really bland and unsatisfying. I mean, how hard would it have been to throw in a little salsa or some tahini to liven things up?? Anyway, I tried.

No worries however, as the next day, it was B2M (Back 2 Meat), with a genuine "asado" or barbeque at Alejandro's (my friend from business school who works in BA) mother in law's house.

About 15 minutes outside of the city center, Veronica's (Alejandro's wife) mom has a beautiful little house with a backyard pool and bbq (standard in every house in BA, as I understand). And she was quite the barbeque mistress, grilling up a whole side of beef, some sausages (including the illustrious morcilla...remember?).

Check out the mamones (papaya) with cheese for dessert. Also, not pictured are the provoleta (grilled provolone..mmmmm....and a whole chicken, which appeared on the grill mid-meal). We washed all of this down with a nice bottle of Malbec (kind of like Merlot, but better, in my opinion), and were ready for....a nap, really.

The nap did not happen, and, instead, ended up having a couple of shots of espresso at Alejandro and Veronica's condo nearby.

Alejandro has a Nespresso machine that makes espresso with the pods. A purist, before sampling, I shunned the contraption as I thought there was no way it could produce good coffee. Well, I am a convert and have now ordered myself a Nespresso LeCube 185 as a Hannukah present.

After our caffeine revival, we headed to Puerto Madero, one of the newer sections of BA, that is being built up and is home to several multinational companies. With swank apartments, five star hotels and high-end restaurants, this is truly the "new" BA, though it lacks some of the charm of areas like Recoleta or Palermo.

In any case, our cocktails by the pool at the five star Faena Hotel were outrageously good (watermelon passion fruit martini....shhh don't tell), to be followed by dinner in Palermo at a place called Olsen (no relation to the twins).

Actually, this was the first Scandinavian restaurant I had ever visited...and I never would have expected lox and bagels?? Who knew!

Oh, and these canape appetizers each paired with vodka concoctions were really good, if a bit of a novelty.

My entree, the seared tuna, actually looks a lot better in blog than it tasted in person, but, all the same, it wasn't too bad.

For my last day in Buenos Aires, I kind of just strolled around Recoleta, the area near my hotel, and actually was less than five minutes from the Four Seasons, where Madonna was staying.

She was performing on Monday, and Alejandro had an extra ticket, but I already had plans! I was to meet with Bret Rosen, my former alumni mentor from business school who is working for a hedge fund based in Buenos Aires. In any case, here is a picture of my last lunch in BA, fusilli

with tomato sauce! Also included is a photo of the Madonna images that sat outside her private quarters at "La Mansion," an entire house that is part of the Four Seasons and reserved for special guests.

Bret and I met for dinner at 10:00 PM (a bit early since he had just flown in from the States that morning!). I find it fitting that for my last meal in Buenos Aires, I had ravioli (kind of finishing things up where I had began a few months earlier in Italy!). Though not quite as tasty as some that I had sampled in Bologna, good nonetheless, and a nice end to three months of travel!

I will finish this post with a photo of the dulce de leche cake we had for dessert the night before at Olsen. A sweet finish to a great trip to South America!

La Plaza de Mayo...and some other stuff too

For my first "full" day in BA, I managed to knock out most of the major tourist attractions, which included checking out the "obelisco," Argentina's version of the Washington monument. No major significance to this statue, and some locals consider it an eyesore, maybe even to a greater extent when they cover it with a pink condom each year during AIDS Awareness Week.

After the obelisco, it was a trip to the famous Plaza de Mayo, known by some for the scene in Evita, where Madonna cried out "not to cry for her Argentina," as done decades earlier by Eva Peron, who is an idol in her own right to many Argentineans. A little bit later in this post, I will talk more about the significance of the Plaza de Mayo, and why my visit there later in the week was one of the highlights of the entire trip.





















For lunch, it was finally time to try some beef. And I'm not talking about a few chunks of meat in an empanada, I'm talking about a real, 10 oz. grass fed "ojo de bife" (ribeye) steak. You can barely see the thing under all of this salsa criolla and roughage, but trust me, it was big and it was good. I was full for a good three hours after this thing. I worked some of it off walking around other parts of the city, and managed to get over to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which hosted works by prominent artists including Rodin, Picasso, Miro, Rivera, Modigliani, etc. Also some interesting works by lesser known local artists.















Near the museum is this flower statue, called Florales Generica, again, with no real historical significance, but nonetheless, pretty cool. Evidently it opens and closes with the sunlight, though I hear that it is not working that well and generally stays open.

Later in the week, I ended up returning to the Plaza de Mayo, and, not to get out of sequence with the blog, but figured I would post this photo and talk about the real significance of the Plaza.

For years, each Thursday at 3:30 PM, the "Madres de la Plaza de Mayo," march around the plaza in protest and remembrance of the "desaparecidos," or those that disappeared during what is commonly referred to as the "Guerra Sucia," or "Dirty War," in Argentina, which lasted from 1976-1983. The mothers and grandmothers wear white scarves with their childrens' names embroidered, to symbolize the diapers of the children and grandchildren that disappeared.














In reality, the Guerra Sucia was not really a war at all, but a government-sponsored massacre of left wing activists, or anyone rumored to express any ill will towards the ruling party. Over 30,000 people disappeared over these years, many of whom were tortured, beaten and murdered.

The picture below is with one of the leaders of the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo movement. In 1977, representatives of the military came to her house in the middle of the night, assaulted her husband and carried him off, never to be seen again.














Today, with the help of the government, and DNA testing, mothers are being reunited with their children who were kidnapped approximately 30 years ago. Still, out of the thousands of children that disappeared, only a few hundred have been located.

Although the government efforts are laudable, it can be a mixed blessing for the mothers. In particular, those that may have already moved on with their lives and accepted the notion that their loved ones were gone for good, may be given a false hope and be forced to bring back awful memories.

In any case, it was a special experience to meet this woman, and hear a bit about her story. According to another woman I spoke with at the Plaza, these days, fewer of the Madres are marching around the Plaza since they receive government support and tend to place less importance on the weekly gatherings. As a tourist however, previously only having read and heard about what had happened, I am glad that there are still people that find it important to go out and represent and remind the rest of us what occurred.

BA - Day 1

I arrived in BA on Monday at about 8:00 PM, and it was raining out, which was a bit surprising since I heard it had been in the 90's during the previous week.

The 45-minute cab ride from the airport to the center of town provided a good opportunity to practice my Spanish, and also learn about the extracurricular activities of my cab driver when he was not in his cab or at home with his wife and three kids.

After settling in to my hotel in Recoleta, a posh part of the city with lots of shops and restaurants, I rang Pilar, a friend of Dan Goodman, and we agreed to meet for dinner.



Two of Pilar's friends who were visiting from SF also joined. The first place she had in mind was closed, so we ended up at a restaurant that serves northern regional cuisine, and also had a tango performance that we could see for a few extra pesos.



Any initial suspicion that the tango might be a tourist-oriented performance was quickly put aside. This was the real deal! From 10:00 PM until 2:00 AM, the four of us, along with a crowd of locals, listened to some fantastic tango (now, some of you may be saying "Hey, I thought "tango" was about dancing. Well, tango is about dancing. But it is also about singing.)


Below is a picture of "locro," a type of Argintenean "guiso," or stew. This one in particular was filled with "choclo," or corn, as well as hominy and about six types of meat, most of which were some form of pork. As you can imagine, a hearty stew, made even better when accompanied by the beef empanada seen alongside. I am also including a shot of the tango singers.



















Oh yeah, lest we forget about dessert, following is a photo of a "panqueque con dulce de leche" with its own "branding" of the restaurant's logo. Pretty cool.

And, just in case you go down there, in Argentina, they don't call dulce de leche "manjar," like in Chile. In fact, they claim not to know what you are talking about if you ask for "manjar." This is thought to be attributed to Argentina's loss to Chile in the Manjar Wars, shortly after its loss in the war over the Falklands in 1982....but nobody really cares about those falkand islands much anyway...

El dia del matrimonio

Here are a few more photos from Santiago, leading up to the wedding on Saturday. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the wedding, so I cannot post any photos of the church or the beautiful reception that was held at a country club a bit outside of the city center.

This breakfast shot of "tostada con palta," or toast with avocado, is one of my favorite. It is also the preferred breakfast of my nephew, Noah. I am pretty sure my other nephew Eli is an avocado aficionado as well. Yep, my nephews, they love them some avocadoes...can't wait to see them in a few weeks!

And just in case you thought I would have to wait to get to Argentina before having some carne, worry not, because the night before the wedding, Pato and Alice's family hosted a rehearsal dinner sans rehearsal, where we dined on meat of various forms, including some good ole fashioned morcilla, or blood sausage (the purple bubble protruding from the front of the tray).

Finishing up our dinner, we were entertained by a traditional (?) Chilean band, complete with uniforms and all.

Below is a shot of me and Pato, less than 24 hours before he would tie the knot.

And, since I did not bring my camera to the wedding, I will conclude this post with the last few pre-wedding shots.

I couldn't resist ordering corvina, or Chilean seabass, again before leaving, just like I cannot resist posting a photo of it for you now.

I enjoyed this with Maximiliano (Julio's cousin) and his wife, who also gave me a nice afternoon tour of the city.

As for the wedding itself, it was a somewhat traditional ceremony in a Catholic church, though the exchanging of vows, something common in the United States, is not usually done in Chile. Perhaps since Pato's uncle was the priest, they allowed for this americanism in the ceremony!! The reception was, as to be expected, an all night affair, complete with lots of eating, drinking and dancing. I am proud to say that I was on the last bus home at 4:30 AM, but, if not, then of what value was my last three months of training in Italy ;)

Mas Santiago

Hey amigos, I hope that your weekend was great and Monday thus far is a good one.

I am sitting in an internet cafe, baking in the 90 degree heat of Buenos Aires. I imagine it is a bit colder in the northern hemisphere these days...

In any case, I will be sure to post regarding the week spent in Argentina, but first need to finish my trip to Santiago for Pato and Alice's wedding.

The first full day in the city was a whirlwind, which included a trip to La Moneda, followed by some sightseeing from the top of a hill that affords views of downtown Santiago, which suffers from pretty bad pollution, though you can still make out ¨La Cordillera¨ or Andes Mountains in the background.

Following our lunch at the fish market and on our way to Pablo Neruda´s house, we passed by an area, Andres Bello I believe, with lots of outdoor cafes and restaurants. Just thought I would snap a photo of one of them, as it provides a nice contrast with the smoggy cityview. The trees with the purple flowers were ever present in the city and seem to abound in Buenos Aires as well. I am not sure what they are called.

Below are a few photos of the entrance of Neruda's house in Santiago, called ¨La Chascona,¨ named after his mistress, who later became his wife. By the way, for those of you who maybe were not Spanish Lit. majors, Neruda was one of the great Chilean poets, a Nobel laureate and, at one time, head of the Communist party in Chile. When Pinochet came to power, Neruda was expelled and went to live in Capri, Italy. Maybe some of you have seen the movie, Il Postino, which references Neruda´s time in Italy.

After returning to the hotel later in the afternoon, I met up with Quentin Knights, my first boss during my first job out of college. Over the years, we have kept in contact and he has been kind enough to write me various letters of recommendation and act as a reference for language school, business school and a few different jobs. Quentin now lives in Miami, and, during my seven hour layover, I thought to call him if only to say that I was in the 'hood. Turns out that by chance he was in Santiago, and thus we ended up meeting for a coffee.

And, of course, no post would be a good post without a few food photos. With that in mind, here are some shots of our Thanksgiving dinner in Santiago, celebrated with 20 or so of my closest acquaintances from business school. In true American style, there was turkey with all of the trimmings, though somehow it wasn't the same. And the pumpkin pie, though it looks rather gourmet, was missing all of the key spices.

Santiago

Hola amigos!! Como estamos hoy?

Finally a chance to post from South America!!

After a six hour flight from SFO, at last I arrived.....but not in South America.

That would be another flight of eight hours, after a layover of equal length in Miami, which included quality time spent: (1) asking the guys who, for $15 will "wrap" your luggage in blue plastic wrap, if anyone ever asked them to wrap up a friend or family member; (2) checking if it was possible to get the 10-minute manicure done in nine minutes (they called my bluff....evidently it was); (3) trying (rather unsuccessfuly) to learn Mandarin in 30 minutes on the 60-inch plasma demo of Rosetta Stone; and (4) losing a negotiating battle to re-turn-on the frozen yogurt maker at Haagen Dazs after it had been shut off for the evening.

Keeping in the spirit of posting food photos, here is a shot of some ropa vieja (literally, "old clothing," but actually a traditional Cuban dish of shredded beef with a tomato creole sauce accompanied by plantains and black beans and rice) that I enjoyed while waiting for my flight to Santiago. Also, looks like they are getting ready for Channukah early this year in Miami...



After finally arriving in Santiago at 6:00 AM on Wednesday, I had breakfast at the hotel, then slept for several hours before meeting up with Alice and Patricio (the bride and groom, pictured below) and some other friends from business school, for dinner. Since we ended up eating at Tiramisu, I will spare you the photos of our pizze, which, did not come close to any that I sampled during my stay in Italy.

On Thursday, my first full day in Santiago, I toured the town with some friends from business school, Peter, Chris and Ken. Our first stop was "La Moneda," or the fomer presidential palace (named "moneda," or "coin," because it had previously been a mint), and also the location of the U.S. orchestrated bloody coup d'etat of Salvador Allende by Augusto Pinochet in 1973.

Not a single mention of the coup anywhere near the palace, which now hosts a museum on the lower floors. We got to see a pretty cool Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo exhibit (though the artists were Mexican, not Chilean)

You can see Asian versions of the artists below (Diego is fairly convincing, but think that I'll stick with Salma Hayek for my Frida......sorry Peter).





For lunch, we headed over to the Mercado Central (central marketplace) for some good old seafood. We were not let down at a local favorite, "Donde Augusto," where we dined on congrio frito (fried white fish, similar to eel....but a bit tougher and meatier), corvina a la plancha con ensalada chilena (Chilean "sea bass" with tomato and onion salad...you can see how fresh the fish was, probably one of the best I sampled this trip), gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic) as well as a congrio soup, whose name I do not recall. All very delicious and reasonably priced.





























Check out the black corn being sold in the marketplace. Pretty cool, and apparently very sweet. I also purchased a small bag of coca leaves (street legal, and commonly used for high altitudes), but am disappointed to report that they had less of an effect that my afternoon espresso.















Well, that's about it for now. In a few hours, I am heading off to Buenos Aires for a week.

A two hour flight, so I will arrive late this afternoon. On the next post, I will tell you all about a chance meeting with my former (first) boss in Santiago, a (sort of) traditional Chilean wedding and a nice afternoon spent in Santiago with my friend Julio's cousin and wife.

Until then, for a sweet afternoon, here is a photo of a "chilenito," or a couple of wafers that surround the famous "manjar," aka "dulce de leche," aka "brown gold," aka "Santiago scrumptiousness," aka "boiled condensed milk," aka "pinnacle of caloric density," aka...alright, getting old....

Hola Amigos!!

Hola amigos! Estoy aqui en Santiago, Chile.....about to go check out the town with three friends from business school.

Hope you are well and a Happy Thanksgiving to all! I will try to do another post later on with some exciting photos from the Miami airport....and a few from Santiago as well!

Ciao for now!

Home

Well ragazzi, it's finally that time.

After nearly two and a half months in Bologna, Italy, I am now back in California, and I can unequivocally say, it's GREAT to be home!!

There is a certain feeling of being back home that is undescribable, but, I will do my best.

Certain things like a hot shower with great water pressure, excellent customer service, a turkey burger and bottomless iced tea....18 holes of golf....these things are part of "home" for me.

But, what's really great about being home? Family and friends. Without a doubt.

I guess you could say it's like the hamster you don't really miss until it's gone, then you go to Italy for two months and come back and that hamster is there welcoming you back.......okay, this isn't really working and I never had a hamster growing up (we had pet rats, Snowball and Midnight).

I guess the thing is, there is no good analogy that comes to mind right now to describe how good it feels to be back on American soil, welcomed by family and friends.

In only a few short months, the financial world has been turned upside down, and chaos continues to ensue on a daily basis. Even so, the sun is still shining, birds are chirping and there is so much natural beauty surrounding us. Just driving across the Golden Gate bridge and staring out at the ocean (while keeping one eye on the road and staying out of the middle lane), or winding through the vineyards on the way back from Napa as the sun sets....man, these things truly make my home a special place.

Spending a few days with my parents, catching up and learning what's new, sharing my experiences from Italy.....talking on the phone with friends and hearing about what has been going on in their lives.

Yes, two and a half months is a short period of time, but also enough to step away and come back and realize how grateful I truly am to live in a beautiful part of the world with wonderful people in my life.

Perhaps I could have gained this perspective in another way, but, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to take some time off and travel to another beautiful part of the world, meet some great people and do some exploring. But, this relatively short trip, and my subsequent return has reinforced the notion of what "home" means to me.

A few days ago, when I spoke to my brother, he had asked me if I was going to do a post that summed up my travels in Italy. I said that for sure I was, though at the time, I wasn't really sure how I could summarize those two and a half months. What did I learn? What could I take away from the experience? Then, as I began to write, words started flowing, and it dawned on me that the most important thing that I learned was how lucky I am and how much I truly love "home." To all of you reading this blog, and not just those living in California, e.g., Ted in Moscow, Sarah in NY and others out of state and out of country, you are part of "home," and I genuinely thank you for your friendship and your love and want you to know that each of you means a great deal to me and I am so happy to have you in my life.

And so, on that note, I will say "ciao," but as in posts of past, "ciao for now," because within a few days, I will be reporting live, from South America, with more pictures of food, more obnoxious observations and more........pictures of food.

Okay, ragazzi, this is not the end....but I feel myself growing sentimental as we move on from this portion of the blog, so, as they told me in Italy before I left, not "addio" (i.e., goodbye), rather "arrivederci," (i.e., "see you"), and in this case, "arrivederci presto!," (see you soon!).

L'ultimo aperitivo

Ragazzi, I am running off to meet some friends for the last aperitivo of this trip to Italy, so I will make this a short, photo-less :( post.

I will save some pics for the next post, in which I will also (possibly) attempt to wrap up this experience in a few words........but, not this blog.

You didn't really think the travel adventure ended in Italy, did you....?

Back to the good ole US of A for five days....then off to....

......................

SOUTH AMERICA!! More interesting (hopefully?) posts from Chile and Buenos Aires.

Arrivederci ragazzi!!

Ciao!

Chowing down Croatian style, then B to B

While I will still give the nod to Italy for best food in Europe, hands down, I will say that our dining experiences in Croatia were.....interesting.

Jon and I did our best to sample many of the local dishes, some pictured below, including pašticada which is beef marinated in wine and vinegar, eaten with gnocchi; baccala a la bianca, which is salted cod with whipped potatoes, and lots and lots of grilled fish varying in terms of quality.

Wash it all down with a Bitter Lemon Pipi (the name provided me with no small amusement) and a palačinke, or walnut crepe (Jon's favorite from his time spent in Hungary) and you are good to go!

After almost a week in Croatia (following the week in Germany), it was good to get back to temporary home in Bologna.

We finished off the weekend with a whirlwind day in Bologna, doing the MamBo (Museum of Modern Art Bologna) in the morning, hiking one of the two towers in the early afternoon (pause for gelato), lunch at Cesarina and dinner at Bitone, a restaurant just outside the city center that earned itself a Michelin star.