The blog of the blob

Well, there is no secret that Argentina is known for steaks and wine. I had plenty of both and a lot of other local specialties as well. So this blog update is dedicated to the Argentinean food and drinks.

On my first night in Buenos Aires, I of course went out for a steak dinner and it was amazing – and huge! I got a plate with a fairly big steak with melted cheese on top, salad, chips and fried eggs on top of my chips. Now that’s a lot of food! And that was to be the standard size of the meals for the next four weeks…

The best steak I had was on the tango show in BA. I have never tasted a steak so good ever before. But that was also the most expensive meal I had on my whole trip, but the food with the wine and the show, it was worth it!

In addition to steak, there is another typical Argentinean dish called Milanese. It is breaded meat or chicken. I had a lot of that too and in general, there has been a lot of red meat and deep fried meat during the last few weeks. Towards the end I was craving chicken, rice and veggies!

The wine of course I got to taste quite a bit of, and although I know very little about wine, the wine, I drank some very nice ones (but idiot-me never wrote down a name and can’t remember any name…). Beer however, I do remember a name, Quilmes! Very nice beer. In Argentina, when you order a beer in a restaurant or in a bar they actually give you big bottle, almost a liter, in a ice bucket! Which is not what I’m used to! First time I experienced this I was having lunch with Lee from England after checking out the cemetery in BA. Lee didn’t order anything to drink and I ordered a beer thinking they would bring me a glass or a small bottle. The they came back with this huge bottle and poor Lee had to help me drink it (I don’t think he minded it too much though). Anyway, once I got used to the big size-bottles I kind of liked it. It is a very social way of having a beer with friends…in Norway you can't even order jugs...

Then it’s mate. Mate is a kind of herbal tea that Argentinean people drink A LOT of. They have a special cup that they fill with herbal leaves and add hot water. Mate is so important in every day-life of an Argeninean that they have to bring the cup and a thermos with hot water with them wherever they go.

I never became a big fan of mate, but didn’t mind it either. The first time I had mate, I did completely miss the social aspect of drinking it though…I was offered mate by my “sisters”, the girls I lived with. We were sitting on their porch drinking mate and talking. I took the cup with mate and drank it all myself, then I realized that you’re supposed to have a sip and pass the cup around…oh well…

Mate contains caffeine and is quite addictive, but mate did not become my serious addiction when I was in Argentina – Dulce de leche, on the other hand, did turn me into an addict!

It was heaven in a plastic box! Soooo good! Dulce de leche is a caramel spread that was just perfection! I put it on rolls, on banana (it tasted like banoffy-pie) or just ate it straight from the box.

Even though I played a lot of soccer when I was in Argentina, walked a lot or went jogging along the Costanero, I really felt that living healthy in Argentina was quite a challenge!

The last two weeks in Posadas was very nice. After the first week I was more comfortable in my role as a coach and really started to enjoy it towards the end.

On the third weekend, Larisa, Daly and I went to San Ignacio, a small town about an hour from Posadas, and checked out the ruins from the days of the Jesuits. They were very Beautiful.

That weekend new volunteers arrived and it was great to meet some new people. We went partying at Power, which is one of the biggest clubs in Argentina and has 12 different rooms. It was good fun!

I also spent some days at the beach, had lunch at the Costanero, and of course, Larisa and I made sure we never missed out on ladies night at Cristobal, where everything is half price for women, but only if they are without guys. That pretty much meant that if any of the volunteer-boys wanted to join us they had to sit at another table…

Heather (Australia), Larsa, Alex (England) and I went to Parguay one day. We pretty much just got on the bus, wnt over the bridge, got our passport stamped and hung out a few hours in a town called Encarnacion. It was an okay town, not much to see or do, but we had lunch there and checked out the markets before we returned.

And before I knew it, my time in Argentina was up. And I was heading north – no not home, but to Canada. I decided to take a detour and stop in Canada on my way home and spend to weeks in Sylvan Lake.