No llorer por mi, Argentina

If Spain and Italy were to have a lovechild and stash it far away from the Continent, Argentina would be the fruit of their loins.  It's very Euro-feeling, with the buildings and the wide boulevards, even the Spanish has the cadence and expressiveness of Italian.  For my first trip to South America, I thought another foreign marathon would be appropriate.  Maybe not the best idea leading up to NYC, but I threw race planning prudence to the wind and went for it.  Four of us (was supposed to be five) set out to run Evita's streets and enjoy the sights, sounds, and flavors along the way.
Pro tip - do NOT exchange money through official means or use a credit card.  Rather, find someone who will trade you dollars for pesos at almost twice the posted rate.  It makes a huge difference and is so much more affordable.
Carb-loading before the race was not ideal.  For a country with so many Italian immigrants, there is hardly any produce to be found on a menu.  Our usual meals consisted of steak and some form of potatoes.  Boy was it fabulous.  Our first stop once settled into the hotel was La Cabrera.  Empanadas were out of this world, so good that one of my traveling companions took some to go for her red-eye flight back home.  As we would soon discover, requesting the steaks be cooked "a punto" cooks the steak much more than the American palate prefers.  We also had good steaks post-race (more on that later) at Lo De Jesus, although service could have been a bit friendlier and intestines (chinchulines) are not "tripe".  Hands-down, the best steak we had was at La Brigada in San Telmo.  When we finally discovered that ordering steaks "jugoso" was the way to go, the waiter was able to cut our order with a spoon.  Like buttah, I tell you....
Tango is a really sexy dance.  However, it's not pornographic sport-shtupping, there's a plot, and it's not always romantic and loving.  Rather, there is an undercurrent of angry passion, longing, sadness, melancholy.  This comes out in spades at Rojo Tango at the Hotel Faena.  Amazing stuff, made me want to learn how to tango.  As our luck would have it, Steven Tyler was also at the show while in town for a concert, and after the show he had the pleasure of meeting the cast and posing for pictures.  The Puerto Madero area is much newer and swankier (read: more expensive) than other parts of Buenos Aires, but the show and our pre-theater dinner at Osaka were definitely well worth it.
I could feel some of the sadness that oozes out of the tango while walking around town.  La Recoleta Cemetary felt a bit creepy, with coffins exposed within the mausoleums rather than being sealed behind concrete or stone.  Outside the burial site, the political graffiti and demonstrations near the Casa Rosada and the murals that decorate the otherwise bleak La Boca made you feel that the wounds from La Guerra Sucia and prior have not fully healed.  However, this does give the city some soul and prevents it from feeling like any other place. Having a lomo de cerdo sandwich from a sidewalk parrilla that cost the equivalent of $3 is incredible, especially for the quality.  I hope Buenos Aires does not get too trendy and overpriced.
Mendoza was a nice respite after the race and usual hustle and bustle of life.  Despite obnoxious ticket prices on Aerolineas Argentinas (nice work creating a state monopoly, Kirschner), Entre Cielos was the ideal place to relax in between wine tours.  Rest was definitely what we needed after a marathon, steak meals at least twice a day, and then three wineries per day, which the hotel graciously set up.  M and I took advantage of the hotel's hammam, which involved several Turkish bath treatments before a massage.  How heavenly t odo nothing but relax and be pampered.  We ended up visiting Achaval Ferrer, Finca Decero, Septima, Catena Zapata, Ruca Malen, and Vina Cobos.  The landscape is stunning, and while the surrounding areas are not posh like in some American winegrowing regions, it still had incredibly charm.  Brindillas is a phenomenal restaurant, serving a beautiful tasting menu with impeccable service.  While the food was equally as good at Francis Mallman 1884, the maitre'd was a bit rude (aparently our reservation was misbooked but he insisted that reservations cannot be changed) and the service was just OK.
Before our trek home, one of M's colleagues took us for a boat ride on Rio de la Plata, and we floated our way through El Tigre.  The spring weather was perfect for a day on the water and was a nice closing for our South American adventure.  I'm looking forward to exploring more....

Semi-Homemade

During my FMLA break, one of my biggest tasks has been cleaning the house. My parents have started referring to me as the White Tornado, and they definitely batten down the hatches once I get started, especially when trash bags are in tow. My mother refuses to part with most of her possessions, each one has a story around its origin. The typical shrieked response is, "You can't get rid of that! That belonged to Grandma/your Aunt Frances/Bisnonna Meme," or "so-and-so gave that to me for my bridal shower." I have to admit, some of the pieces are really nice, such as a kitschy orange flower-shaped fruit bowl, but come on, a horse-head creamer? Three basket steamers? A British pudding mold? The kitchen has taken the longest thus far due to the number of hiding spaces and sheer volume of stuff that needs inspection, dusting or full wash, and neat stacking and organization. It shocks me and my folks how good I am at it, since I'm not exactly the neatest person. My room still has not been tackled properly, although I have been purging clothes.

Besides housewares, my mother is afflicted with Italian Famine Syndrome. Scratch that, it seems that most ethnic mothers are utterly paranoid of having their mission to keep their families well-fed thwarted by famine, blackouts, or supermarket closing hours. As a result, we have overflow of canned goods and spices on industrial warehouse shelves in the TV room. Many of these cans are past their expiration date. I ignore this since I hate to throw away food, and most canned products are pumped full of preservatives anyway. Thus I restack and demonstrate to my mom that we do not need anymore canned tuna, coriander, or jalapeno jam. The second prong of this attack is to use as many of these products as possible. We have been having jello and instant pudding at least twice a week. For Dad who insisted on three Costco jars of Welch's grape jelly, there is brownbag peanut butter and jelly, and one empty jar. I've also continued to sift through recipes, almost like Iron Chef. Instead of buying ahi tuna, I mixed canned Italian albacore in with the mayo mixture and used up two open jars of capers instead of opening cornichons in this yummy open-facedsandwich. Mom loved it. When my Betty Crocker mood struck, I had all the ingredients for Nigella's coffee-walnut splodge cookies to take to a friend's.

So I admit, I tend to scoff at people who "cook" by opening cans or boxes. Besides the health benefits of eating minimally processed food, cooking loses its creative edge when the only task is to add water. However, good food is good food, and if one can save time in an already busy day, it's still better than fast food. Sandra Lee, I will never thumb my nose at you. Maybe giggle at your emphasis on cocktails, but I respect thee for liberating busy cooks from the guilt of not having enough time to make everything from scratch. Will save that for the weekends....

This P*sses Me Off

Food trucks rock. The crackdown is so ridiculous. Any shop that feels threatened by a food truck probably sucks. Get over it, it's called a free market. Thank godness for The Lot on Tap

Picnic Favorite

Despite my host's protests, I brought this lovely side dish with my CSA bounty over the weekend. It was polished off in fifteen minutes flat.

Even though it's not outdoors, I made these muffins for my colleagues, and they were also promptly polished off.

Zucchini, it's green but tastes great.

How to Be Domestic Goddesses

O and I have been very domestic lately, making butter-poached breakfast radishes, root-topkopita, and rhubarb compote. What's next?

Root Cause

Given I had two rutabagas and celery root from my farm share on the verge of shrivelling into nothing, I decided to be domestic last night and make celery root puree from Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern and rutabaga fries. Of course, I didn't buy enough milk (1 quart = 4 cups, not 8!!!) and had no paprika on hand. No matter. It is exrtemely hard to burn milk and takes a loooooong time. Plus the rutabaga fries tasted yummy without it. The puree is quite hearty, very much like mashed potatoes.

Today's CSA delivery has more rutabaga and celery root. Contemplating what to do with them, although I will be concocting something with my sweet potatoes first....

UPDATE 1/10 - I made the sweet potato and pecan bread recipe I found earlier, huge hit!

Cookie Monster!

This Christmas, I have really outdone myself. Not only have I brought back the Finnish ginger pigs, I also made Nigella Lawson's gingerbread muffins, which smell as seductive as they taste, and Norwegian butter cookies, which tasted good even without the egg accidentally omitted. Mental note: do not let a drunk friend read out the recipe off the computer.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Cleaning out the Produce Drawer...

This morning I woke up feeling very congested, which gives me an excuse not to go to the gym. However, I don't like sitting idle. Instead of cleaning my visible apartment, I decided to attack the remnants of my last CSA delivery. Here's what I've accomplished:
- kale chips: found the inspiration for this on Chowhound. With the half bunch of kale I had, it fit neatly in my toaster oven, which is a bonus. Lately, I have been favoring the toaster oven for baking since it's easier and quicker. Last weekend, I baked the baking apples we received in it. Perfect results, same as the oven, with less muss and no fuss.
- broccoli and leek no-crust quiche: eggs, check. Veggies, check. Cheese, check (goat, Mexican shredded mix, and unidentified round brought back from Italy, to be precise). Mix in pie plate and bake in the oven. The smell is wafting over to my couch as we type.

If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll make pecan and roast sweet potato bread, even though they are not Thanksgiving leftovers.

Guten Appetit!

My coworker and I tracked down the Schnitzel and Things truck on Twitter. I am definitely a fan. Veal schnitzel was on special today-scrumptious! The Yukon Gold fries and chickpea salad were all right. If you work in midtown, I recommend it.

Try-athlon

Many of you have expressed concerns about my mental health lately. Just to clear the air, lots of people do triathlons every year. Several thousand just participated in this morning's NYC Tri. Moreover, the Hudson is safe for swimming. It's similar to bathing in a swamp, yes, but the EPA tests it regularly. (Not sure if that will inspire confidence; maybe the fact that I wore a wetsuit is better.)

After having swum 1500 meters in said river, biking 40k (25 miles) up and down the potholed and puddle-slicked West Side Highway with extremely aggressive competitors whizzing past, and running 10k (6.2 miles) after that, I am exhausted and cognitively fuzzy but HOOKED! Training for this event has been challenging, and my cycling is still very slow. It doesn't help that I'm riding the bike I've had since I was ten, with some modifications to make it race-ready. The upside is that I have been eating ravenously but have trimmed down a lot. The triathlon club I joined has been great for preparation, and there are some great people in it. As an added bonus, triathletes are HOT.

No Leftover Recipe: Stuffed Zucchini (Among Other Things)

M's 30th birthday was last night, so a bunch of us had brunch and then hit the Met. Given times are slim, we decided to cook instead of get dinner out. In addition to my mom's honey chicken recipe (family secret), I whipped up Yukon Gold and yam home fries and this zucchini recipe. Yes, it's Rachael Ray. From past experience, she either has good concept recipes that require very slight tweaks, or they just suck. This one probably needed slightly less liquid in the filling, but everyone devoured it. Happy Dirty 30!

No-Leftover Recipe: Creamy Pesto

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed cooking. It's difficult preparing meals for one, particularly eating the same meal several times, so often I will invite friends to join me. Over the year, my goal is to find at least 1-2 recipes a month that are eaten in one shot, without sending any home with the guests.

Since I had basil in my fridge, I felt inspired to pulverize it into a pesto, even though it's a bit out of season. The nutty garlicky flavor is somewhat comforting, but I wanted to take the edge off a bit. Enter cream. A bunch of supermarket basil is enough for at least two batches of this sauce, so I made it this twice, once as a Happy New Year/Congratulations dinner for my friend T and is new fiancee, and the second time as a post-spinning repast with my gym buddy M. On both occasions, there were no (Barilla Plus for health) rotelle left in my massive pasta bowl. Therefore, I think this qualifies nicely as a No-Leftover Recipe.

Half-and-half is a fine substitute (and eliminates some fat and calories), and for a lighter sauce, leave out the parmesan while whisking the pesto into the boiled cream. Buon appetito!

(Even eating a half pound of pasta, I still have prominent collarbones now. Guess the triathlon training has been effective.)

Another One Bites the Dust

Upon arriving home from Australia, all tan and warm, not only am I greeted by snow/slush/rain, but also a padlock on the door of one of my favorite neighborhood cafes. Munch Cafe, a recent press darling in Time Out and AM New York, is gone. According to the owner, flooding that remained unaddressed by the co-op board or the building managing agent forced the place to shutter. While service was a tad slow, it made damn good coffee and was very friendly. I do hope it reopens again somewhere else on Yellowstone.

Inflation Sliced and Diced

So DiFara's Pizza has now hit 4 bucks a slice. Having eaten a lot of pizza around this great city, I'd say this is worth it. The ingredients are very high-quality and taste fresh and flavorful.

I do disagree with DeMarco that he takes his time with each pie. When I went with J and T last summer, all toppings slid off the slices if you tried to pick them up. The crust was great, but the center of the pie was not fully cooked.

I guess I'll have to go back and see if it's still worth the price -- and the wait.

Off The Wagon

Today is not a low-carb day. I need egg and cheese on a roll to sustain me through the day, after working until midnight last night. ARGH

Favorite Restaurants in Midtown Manhattan

There is hope yet for the neighborhood that really has no name. Yes, it's touristy because of the Empire State Building and Macy's, but so far I have managed to avoid the out-of-town hordes. Here are the PAC Project's favorite lunch spots:

• Minado for important milestone lunches


• Grand Szechuan for roll-on or roll-of lunches, it's a hike but the xiao long bao rock


• Chipotle for both take-out or eat-in, it's worth the schlep to 8th Ave


• Chennai Garden or Dimple for curry if you're not in a hurry


• Blue Smoke for the carnivores

My new fave is Bonobo's. Yes, raw vegan cuisine sounds scary and paradoxical, but the gazpacho kicks @ss and the napa cabbage sandwiches satisfy without putting you into a food coma. So far, no one will come with me, but I still love it to death!