Buenos Aires days
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
258
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
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Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Thursday, February 8, 2007
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A few random topics...
The accent
In Chile it was funny and annoying because they don't pronounce the S at the end of a word, be it a plural or a word that finishes with a S.
Here in Rio de la Plata (around BA and Uruguay, so that must be at least 20million people), they change the sound of theY or LL. Normally a Y or LL is a "wet I" as we call it, like the Y in yesterday or the LL in salsepareille. Well here they pronounce it SH or CH, like in wish or chaud.
When you get into a taxi, "Que calle" (what street), instead of being pronounced "ké kayé" is pronouned "ké kaché". Did not get it the first time. Same, Yo (I, Je) is pronounced CHO instead of YO.
The resulting language honestly sounds very rural, but they are very proud of it. Once I came across that point of pronunciation with my spanish teacher, and she gave it up, she admited I was pronouncing it better than her. I think that in fact she did not want to show she could pronounce it "normally". It was a funny two weeks of classes in that regard, as she was speaking in SH and I was answering in Y. I could have taken the local accent, but here they understand theY, whereas I am pretty sure that I would get laughed at in Spain if I spoke with SH.
The food
The bife de lomo, and bife de chorizo. I had been dreaming of these for month. Since Vietnam in July, I think, as there was absolutely no meat in the standard meal there.
My mum had been in Argentina at the same time, that is, in july, and came back saying the meat was incredible. I was just so expecting and craving it. Sometimes I would even not buy a big steak at the supermarket, while I was in Oceania, cause I knew I was going for an overdose in Argentina.
Well, now that I have tried the Argentinian beef, all I can say is that it is Incredible, yes, but moreover inimagineable. It is just impossible to describe, and in my wildest dreams of beef eating, I coulsd never have thought that such a thing existed. Sorry, you´ll just have to come and try it here.
However, it is not always a blast. The basic quality is like our top beef at home, and on a lucky day, let's say once out of four if you choose well your restaurants, you will get that perfect, incredible, indescriptible steak. It is so juicy, so tender, so sweet. You eat all the fat that goes with it. I tried to convince a vegetarian to try it, and all that came to my mind is that it is likea sweet. Barbecue flavour. You can't miss that in your life, it is an incredible, yet simple, culinary experience.
The rest of the food
Fresh fruits and vegetables? They have them. All sorts, all types of cooking, it's great.
Pizza and empenadas? great, with all levels of greasiness
Cheese? Oh my, that is the great surprise of the year: they have blue cheese, hard cheese, soft cheese. There is not as much choice as in Europe, but it is definitely enough. These cheeses have taste, they smell, they have consistency.
Pork? Jamon cocido, classical ham. But also smoked ham, like jambon de bayonne or serrano. They have also chorizo, common in spain, but also a type that is closer to french saucisson that is chorizo without spices. And all sorts of them, it's great.
And the bread? it is generally ok, but if you know where to go it is just perfect.
What more? The dulce de leche: you can make it in europe by cooking a can of condensed sweet milk au bain marie for a few hours: it results in a caramel ultra sweet paste that is close to dulce de leche. They eat a lot of that, they put it in pastries (oh yeah, and they can do pastries too)
More? We eat all of the pig, they eat all of the cow. They call that a parilla, and it is a serving that includes every part of the cow.
More? there are some soft cheese that are unknown to us, I am still investigating...
The wine
The wine is just great. If you want a correct wine, for aperitive or for diner, you have the same quality as in France, with the same prices. That is, the price we pay in euros, is the same in pesos. So an everyday wine would be under 4 pesos (1euro), a nice one will start at 8 pesos (2 euros). They have a cepage unknown to us too: the malbec. Quite strong, it seems like it was created to fit with argentinian steak. They also have all the merlot, syrah, cabernet-sauvignon, plus all the whites (although I haven't seen a manseng yet) (and no, burgundis, they don't have bourgogne aligote). I have also tried the borgona, which is a blend of syrah and malbec, it is brilliant.
The people
Most seem well off, but they are just coming throught the crash and are learning what it is to have money again. Not that they had forgotten, but they seem really to enjoy being able to have a "normal" life again: the middle class standards are pretty much the same as ours.
There are still a quite a number of people who do odd small jobs. One example is those who try to sell articles in the subte. They put a sticker or a pen or a notebook on your lap, and come later to colect it or collect the money for it. Does not seem to work a lot, but seems to give a job, or at least an occupation, to some kids or dissabled people. Begging seems to work, I think both because the population is very catholic, and because they all went through difficult times.
Then there are numerous people scavenging the trash in the evening and at night. They go around with troleys or big bags, and they get the cardboard an plastic from the domestic waste. They also get food when they find something in a good state.
Overall, the Argentinians are considered as arrogants, and the portenos (from Buenos Aires) are considered arrogant by the rest of Argentina. Indeed they show a bit of arrogance, directly coming from their italian roots, but it is an arrogance that is more like a game, they are very nice and usually helpful, and they always respond to conversation.
Social codes
Here the hello is always one kiss on the cheek to a girl (un beso), and often an acolade (un abrazo) and a kiss on the cheek to a guy. That is no problem to me, as we do it in France too, but to the other westerners, and especially anglo-saxons, it seemed hard to accept so much physical contact. The latinos also have a lot of touching and pating when they say hello or talkor just pass by, but again, that is nothing compared to the black-african an north-african customs.
Weather
It's february, it's summertime, I'm fine thanks!
Other topics to be developped
- Mate
- Tango
- and many others
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