Fall Fashion in B.A.

All the girls have pulled on their boots now with the cool weather....Dave has been enthralled with the healthy look of all the young college students that stream by his neighborhood hangout...he thought this was a great example.....

And here is my favorite!....this girl boarded the subway with all her giggling friends...was it street theater?  did she loose a bet?   no, it turns out that throwing eggs and flour all over a person is a tradition here for when a person graduates from school!  this girl just graduated in accounting.

When the rain stopped, Dave and I went for an architecture walk...

Dave had been raving about the next building on Calle Sarmiento for a week,  and wanted me to see it(he dreams of renovating it with some friends)...it appears to be abondoned now, but used to house the Society for the Italian Opera....

here's another view of the same building..I think it would entail a bit more effort to make homey than I am up to right now....

Due to rain, my landscape drawing group met inside Retiro train station this week...that's Professor Carlos on the right....

And here are some of our drawings ...

Half  a block from our house, some people did make the plunge and renovated a wreck of a big building. Alma del Plata Hotel,  Santiago del Estero 727, just opened and the restaurant has become our favorite.  The two chefs are from Northern Argentina, and the food is carefully prepared and a fusion of many cultures.

I had chicken breast rolled and seared in a mild curry like coating, served with a cous cous to die for.  Dave had a bowl of braised goat, then simmered with tomatoes/onion/garlic, accompanied with a side bowl of creamed corn oven finished with provolone...fantastic and less than 10 dollars each.. Every time we have gone there, we are the only customers...so if you are in BA, give this restaurant a try (so we keep our local favorite alive0.

 

Nora Sarmoria and RAIN

Before friend Peter went back to the Isle of Mann, he took me to a back door jazz place in Belgrano (Casa Pedraza) that I had been wanting to check out...we arrived at 9:30 when the music was scheduled...were getting ready to leave at 10:45 cause still no music, when Nora Sarmoria's group finally filled the small living room..and I am so glad we stayed!  Her compositions are complex, lilting and just plan great...check out her web site to find out where she is playing around town....

That's Nora in the center at the piano.....

Peter left and the rain and cold came....fall in BA.... no more cafe society! (tears trickling down ....mournful jazz in background)

what to do on a rainy day?  Dave and I decided it was time to take care of unfinished business and headed down to the Immigration office and have another stab and getting our DNI  expedited...Dave looked up and spotted where our paperwork is probably nestled....

This month the Museo de Sivori in Lagos Palermo park has a "don't miss" exhibit of paintings, drawings and sculpture put on by the City of Buenos Aires....the scope and skill is truly amazing...I had tears in my eyes in front of several pieces, they were that good....one of the best exhibitions I have seen here...

 

Before Peter left, he took us to a restaurant he had heard about in barrio Bodeo, Pan y Teatro, Las Casas 4095...it used to be a flea market, then art studio and bakery/theater, but now its devoted to great northern Argentine cuisine...

 

the stuff in the crockery bowl was a rabbit/polenta/squash casserole that was rich and sweet and spicy... and the pastry wrapped lamb was fantastic too...

 

After the rains came, I had a hankering for comfort pizza and we returned to the very first restaurant we ever ate in in Buenos Aires, Senior Telmo on Defensa...They have a great thin crackly crust in the "piedras" style....

 

Here's to surviving fall in comfort...

Horses on the streets!

Argentina has a long tradition of being "horsey".....here's a great old tile mural I found in one of the older subways

but its not just in bygone days that horses galloped the streets of BA...this week saw hundreds of horses racing around for the Bi Centennial horse exhibition/auction/contests....

Horsey folks came in from all over....this truck is painted in traditional "fileteado" designs...

here's the front of the same truck....

 Friend Peter from the Isle of Mann came and stayed with us a few days this week.....

returning in time to go with us to the Australian Embassy fund raising cocktail party....we didn't win the door prize of two flights to Aucland, but did get to hob nob with fancy folks and eat amazing little fancy nibbles...

We also took Peter to an art opening of Ignacio Delucca's new paintings...we had seen his work before...very powerful abstract stuff, but his new works are quite different-light and lyrical ...inspired from his homeland in Misiones, up in the northern jungle of Argentina, full of animals and amazing plants...

Your food shot for this week is a great gazpachio I found in a small Spanish restaurant a few blocks away from our place in Montserrat....the topping is their house speciality...a calamari cervechi....the perfect light lunch on a hot day, recouperating from so many champagne parties this week....

Eats and Art....

I wanted to plan something special for the last night of the relative's visit to BA, and since they are big "foodies,"  I looked in the Guia Oleo (a restaurant review site for Buenos Aires) and picked the top ranked restaurant, Casa Coupage.  It's a small private dinner house, beautiful setting, with impeccable service and surprising taste combinations.....in between courses, the owner talked of different wine bouquets...passed around scent bottles from France, asking us to guess what each one was....a thoroughly enjoyable evening on the "fancy" side....

Before their flight back home Sunday morn, sister mentioned regretting not seeing any tango, so we went down to San Telmo's Plaza Dorego and watched some pros....

Dave and I often go to Los Arboles on Plaza Dorego to hear great free jazz (with envelopes left on the tables for tips), and we usually see Senior Martini there...a great man who seems to know everyone that walks through the door...he has amazing stories about musicians and artists and a gigantic heart...

Enough partying, it's time to get back to work!....Dave continues to chisel away at his big stone on the Plaza of Central Cultural Recoletta...

but I decided my tiny stone woman was done.....enough chiseling for me...

I am back in a plein air drawing group through the extension courses at UBA...

and trying to go at least twice a week to Association Estimulo de Belles Artes for figure drawing...

and we always make time to eat well in this town...