Happy Valentine's Day!! - Notes to mylovely

With my wife and I now approaching our two year anniversary, I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. It seems like yesterday we were exploring Argentina together, fully immersed in our newlywed bliss. Now that's not to say blissful love has vanished between us, but I am sure you married folks understand.

I actually look forward to Valentine's Day now. I feel it is essential to proclaim the love you share for each other daily, through actions and words. Yet on this special day we convey those feelings through the words of a wonderfully penned greeting card, purchased during your lunch hour on Monday 02/14/11 at your local card shop. Not only do these cards truly capture and express our deepest feelings, they make a great gift card holder for a local restaurant or retailer which completes your token of love. Talk about the path of least resistance.

If you are wondering, yes, the prior explained sequence has occurred the last two years for my lovely Valentine. This year I thought I would change it up a bit...Kind of. I thought this year I would get her a few cards from the local bookstore showing some interesting ideas of love.

Warning this may not be suitable for your Valentine...

From 2011-02 (Feb)

The inside reads, "Let's hear if for a wonderful Valentine's Day!

From 2011-02 (Feb)

The inside reads, "The perfect recipe for a perfect Valentine's Day.

Credit goes to Max and Lucy for their crazy fun cards.

I hope you have a happy and humorous Valentine's Day!

Happy Halloween, From my family to yours!!

Starring in order of appearance...

Tory Jo - Victor Frankenstein
Scott - Frankenstien
Jared - Werewolf
Lindsey - Vampire
Jamie - Frankenstiens Bride

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Check out the new registry form

The many cafes of Buenos Aires

There is some sense of achievement that I feel after going to, and returning from, the bread basket of South America. The coffee that you and I enjoy at Bestsellers Books and Coffee is downright stupendous.


After starting out our trip spoiled with Itelligentsia Coffee, it wasn't long before we realized we had had the end of acceptable coffee. It was sad really. There are no US coffee chains in Argentina and very few in all of South America. What they do have in the way of coffee is pure swill.

The quality of coffee doesn't however deter the Argentines from enjoying the numerous cafes in each part of the country. The cafe scene is very much like it is in our lovely cafe each morning. Business men drinking quick espresso at the bar, the students getting big frozen drinks, the retired sitting sipping cappuccino or tea; these are all common place each and everyday. It seems to be much more about the community and social interaction than the actual product being consumed.

That being said, it makes sense that they have table service, and if you aren't getting a single espresso from the bar then you really can't order unless you are seen by a server. There is never a line that they wait in. They wouldn't know what to think in a US cafe, with the fast paced - order, pay, get out model.


They do however serve that wonderful fresh squeezed juice and simple breakfasts. We pretty much got used to the bad coffee and just downed it for the caffiene. The cafes were too much fun not to go to them each day.



We visited many different cafes and had coffee all over. There is pretty much coffee in every restaurant, party store, drug store. They drink a lot of it.

Cafe Tortoni is the oldest and most written about cafe in Buenos Aires. It is however a Tourist Trap! The service is all around bad and like I stated above the coffee was foul.

We had the best coffee at a small local chain called Havana. They served decent coffee and nice chocolates. I tried to find them on the web but I couldn't find any website.


Check out this good article about Argentine Cafe Culture. "Cafe Culture in Buenos Aires"

The long nights of Mendoza

After Vendimia's festivities Ash and I slept in for what seemed like most of the day. It was pretty much what everyone was doing.

We decided we would take a walk around and check out the sites and find a good spot for dinner. There are always a lot of people around Plaza Independencia selling nick-nacks and what not. It is definitely the central meeting place for all Mendacinos both young and old. It is beautifully laid out with large fountains and shady green lawns for napping and picnics. Ashley and I both love chocolate (see Vosges post) so we stopped of for Argentina's most famous sweet Dulce de Leche. Literally meaning "sweet milk" This is a caramel that is simply divine. This is just one picture of us enjoying one of the many forms of Dulce de leche we tasted in Mendoza, and was a nice small snack before dinner.




We arrived at Facundo a little after 10:30pm and the place was hopping. It is on the same street as AzaFran and other great restaurants. (Note: AzaFran will get its own post, but deserves some serious writing)

Sarmiento Avenue, which we dubbed "Foodie Heaven" was full of awesome eateries, cafes, and gelato shops.

06 Malbec - Don Nicarnor Bodegas Nieto Senetiner

This wine was bursting with bright tart cherry and apple. As it opened up it exhibited some interesting licorice, raisin aromas.

The wine was a deep magenta in color with a nice velvety texture.

The wine exploded with fresh apple flavors. Truly apple from the cider fields. It was really amazing that it was so close.

This wine went so well with the Parma Ham salad that we started with. This was just about a 1/2lb of parma prosciutto and a small serving of potato salad. It was savory, rich and went with the more bright Malbec well.

For our entrees; we ordered the flank steak with scallion sauce and also a sirloin steak shishkabob.

The flank steak was simply to die for. I have never had flank steak that was so tender. (no offense to my mother and mother-in-law) This beef truly melted in your mouth. The scallion sauce wasn't really even a part of the joy but added a nice green topping. This was probably the best steak I had in Mendoza that was not your normal loin cut which I generally prefer. (i.e. ribeye, tenderloin, sirloin)
Simply amazing. I also ordered a side of huevos fritas (fried eggs) because almost all Argentines eat eggs at dinner. (The eggs here are better too)

Ash was handling the kebob (in between stealing bites of the flank steak), it was very nice and full of fresh grilled peppers, tomatoes, and onions. The steak was very tender and each piece was topped with a thick slice of bacon that was not cooked. It was a great dish, but the flank steak took the gold medal this time!
Side note: We have found that they rarely cook the bacon in dishes here. For example after we had partied all night on Friday we found Liverpool Pub. We of course ordered the Liverpool sandwich and it too had uncooked bacon on it. (it was good at 430AM tho)


We finished dinner around 12:30am and decided to turn in for the night. Being our first weekend in Argentina we were a little tired adjusting to the way they live. Short days...LONG nights.

Vendimia 2009, Huge Party

Vendimia 2009...This was a real treat.

The video is from a Mendoza News station.



Vendimia is a yearly festival which coincides with Argentina's annual agricultural harvest. Always the first week of March, in more recent years, it has become in large part a celebration of wine.

Also the Harvest Queen of Mendoza Province is chosen, which is more or less a beauty pageant. This is a huge deal in Mendoza. There have been many times when the father of the losing queen has filed lawsuits over the judging. The province of San Martin delivered the winning beauty this year a-mid controversy about the governor's dealings with the judges, blah, blah, blah. Our taxi driver told us that it was the same arguments every year, no matter who wins.

Many people from all over South America come to Mendoza for this grand festival and it is really a huge party that goes from Friday midday until Tuesday morning. We definitely tried our hardest to keep up with the locals but man, they party.

That night as we were pushing our way through the mobs of people that had formed on San Martin Ave. we started to realize the extent of the party. Each county in Mendoza has a float that displays their Queen candidate to all of the captivated on-lookers. They also throw fruit back and forth between the crowd and the parade participants making the street look like the end of a Gallagher Show.



We were starting to get a little squished by all the people on the streets and just so happened to see a fellow English speaking couple, cracking a joke about the old camera equipment that the tv stations were using. Will and Lara invited us to go to a resto-bar that their concierge had told them about. The concierge assured them it was the best spot in Mendoza to watch the parade and it wasn't long before we realized that she was right. 10 floors above the street, on a open-air terrace was just what we needed to get away from the crowds and relax. Decimo...More on this bar in another post.

Here are some pics of the parade from the terrace at Decimo.

Best juice in Mendoza - Dante Soppelsa

Dante Soppelsa

The first weekend in town Ash and I found the best fresh juice in the city of Mendoza. Dante Soppelsa. This was a really chic ice cream shop that hosts some of the best treats in the city. It is locally owned and you can tell that they really have a passion for what they do. We stumbled upon this at about 1 am after dinner at Facundo. They were advertising fresh squeezed juice. Some of you make know that we are juice freaks and serve this seasonally at the cafe, so we had to try it. (Little did we know that we would be drinking the best juice ever for about three more weeks!)



We ordered two jugos de naranja con pomelo. (Orange/Grapefruit Juice) They were simply amazing. A short time after we ordered, a dapper looking waiter served us two juices and two small cups of sparkling water...Such a nice touch.