After our trip to Uruguay and another late night dinner we were exhausted and slept until after midday. Eventually we roused ourselves and decided to head out to the shops. I wanted to look at hand bags and get a couple of gifts and Jen was after a painting or piece of art. We headed back into the centre getting out on the huge avenue. We walked miles reasonably aimlessly and picked up a few bits and pieces. I didn’t see any handbags that I really wanted but enjoyed checking out the streets. We stopped and had empanadas at this place called Guerrins which rates well as a local institution. The front is take away or eat standing at these tables. We didn’t really know what we were doing but managed to order a ham and cheese and a mince variety and some cokes and stood with the locals consuming them on the premises. These ones were properly hot and quite yummy. I’m not quite sure how Argentinians manage to stay generally so slim. They seem to eat plenty of starchy and sweet food.
We got back to the hotel in the late afternoon ready to change and set off to The Argentine Experience. We had booked dinner at this venue before we left home. It is highly rated on trip advisor and rightly so.
We had booked the wine/cocktail match as well as dinner. We didn’t know quite what to expect but set out to walk the 4 blocks in order to be there at 6.15pm as directed on the booking. It was a pleasant walk in the evening as dark was falling. When we got to the address there was no sign. Just a giant door with a small microphone/doorbell thing that you had to speak into. We spoke and the door was opened by a pleasant young man with an English accent.
The inside was surprising. High ceilings, wooden floors and quite New York loftish in design. It had a bar at the side, stairs directly in front of the entrance hall and tables set up with small bottles. We were met by several charming young men in their late twenties or early thirties and introduced to a young Brazilian couple who were smelling the bottles. It turns out that they have an icebreaker whereby you try to identify the scents from a list of 30. We had to estimate our own ability first. Jen went for 10/20 and I thought I was about a 9/20. It was remarkably hard but it turns out Jen has a very good sense of smell and correctly guessed 13. I managed 11 so we were both better than we thought and both better than average.
We were then called to the bar to begin the ‘tasting’. Turns out it was tasting and making wine based cocktails using local fruits and wines. A couple of Chinese businessmen joined us and we watched this young man with an American accent who was thoroughly entertaining and very theatrical. He was also very informative. The idea was that he would make 3 cocktails that we would each taste and then choose the one we preferred to have with our meal. It was our partner that had to prepare the cocktail having watched him first. Much fun and very yummy also. Jen and I liked different ones and had fun preparing them for each other.
The meal was a joint affair with 5 other couples: the Chinese, 2 US sisters, a German couple, an Argentine couple of guys and some people from Peru. The Brazilians joined some other people upstairs, probably all speaking Portuguese.
The dinner was accompanied by more theatre and laughter all intended to introduce us to a variety of different but typically Argentine dishes. It was all delicious and we got to make and consume our own empanadas.
Our hosts explained various customs and elicited support from the local couple amongst us, who happily concurred.
The concept for the evening is to give travellers an opportunity to both experience some of the local culture and cuisine but also to meet other travellers, which is a positive feature of backpacking holidays that gets lost on a higher budget. Our main host was born in Argentina but grew up in Ohio (or some state in the US) and clearly had a good university business education. He and his mates have come up with a great concept that is extremely well executed.
We thoroughly enjoyed meeting our hosts and the other guests and after the restaurant closed, headed to a bar with the US girls and Chinese guys. All in all a great time had and we would recommend the Argentine Experience in Buenos Aires, – also in Iguazu Falls and the Thailand Experience (somewhere in Thailand). Another very late night.