Thanksgiving in Buenos Aires

As good a time as any to test out the iPhone Blogger app with some photos from this past Thanksgiving.

This year, Thanksgiving was in Buenos Aires, at an American restaurant, Kansas.

The meal consisted of turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied carrots, mashed sweet potatoes (with pecans and apples). And for dessert, pecan pie.

Read more »

Home Cookin': Cranberry Ice Cream & Cranberry Cheesecake

Cranberry season is here for many. This means you'll find a few places with some cranberry muffins on the menu, but for the most part, it's still Thanksgiving cranberry sauce that will be the primary time you'll eat the tasty tart berry.

But if you're a big fan of the cranberry, there are a few other creative things you can do with them.

Or course there are muffins and various cakes and breads you can use them with. But you can also use them to make a tasty and unique ice cream flavor.

In fact, it's a great way to use any leftover cranberry sauce you make for Thanksgiving. When making a home made vanilla ice cream, just include a desired amount of your homemade cranberry sauce into the ice cream ingredients. The result is a sweet ice cream with all the berry flavor and a hint of tartness.

Cranberry Ice Cream

The same sauce is also a great topping for cheesecake, a nice alternative to strawberries, raspberrys, blueberries, chocolate, etc.

Cranberry Cheesecake

Read more »

Montevideo, Uruguay in Food Photos

Took a two night weekend trip to Montevideo to grab a few things I've long craved, with seafood at the top of the list. Despite it's location near the Atlantic, Buenos Aires is as far from a "seafood city" as you can get. Yet not far away in Montevideo, Uruguay, you'll find that beef and parrilla are still king, but also lots of great seafood options. But even when in a city with better seafood, you can't fully bypass trying the excellent parrilla options...and of course a chivito of two. Not to be forgotten...we also included a trip to one of my favorite German restaurants.

Grilled meats from Estancia del Puerto, Montevideo, Uruguay

Parrilla Mariscos Mixto: shrimp, pulpo, calamari, corvina, salmon, zucchini, potato, squash, red and yellow bell peppers from Rara Avis, Montevideo, Uruguay

The national food of Uruguay...the Chivito. One of the greatest sandwiches on the planet consisting of bife de lomo, lechuga, tomate, huevos, queso and usually jamon y panceta:
Chivito from Chiviteria Marcos, Montevideo, Uruguay

Pez de espada con papas natual from El Peregrino, Montevideo, Uruguay

Apple pancake with rum flambe with vanilla ice cream from El Peregrino, Montevideo, Uruguay

Grilled swordfish with boiled potatoes and sauteed onions and peppers from El Peregrino, Montevideo, Uruguay

Costilla ahumada con papas Suiza y pure de manzanas from one of my favorite German restaurants,  Dackel, Montevideo, Uruguay. Easily the greatest pork chop I've ever had!

And another shot: Costilla ahumada con papas Suiza y pure de manzanas from one of my favorite German restaurants,  Dackel, Montevideo, Uruguay. Easily the greatest pork chop I've ever had!

Always good to get a quality dark dunkel beer...

Salchicha y medio-medio (half champagne, half white wine) from Estancia del Puerto, Montevideo, Uruguay

Caprese salad from Dackel, Montevideo, Uruguay

And from previous trips:

Tasty pan seared fish in a curry and safron sauce with mussels from El Fogon in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Gaze upon the greatest pork chop ever cooked. One wouldn't expect Uruguay to have a good German restaurant, but Dackel is real good.

The specialty at Dackel is the Costilla Ahumada Kassler. This pork chop is almost 3 inches thick and slow cooked in a smoker. They then finish it off with more dry rub (mostly pepper) on the grill. The sides are Papas a la Suiza which is a hash brown by US standards, and apple sauce.

Dackel has a good selection of traditional German cuisine that you seldom find in Buenos Aires. While the photo doesn't show it, they have lots of more traditional German breads...which I ate before the photog. 

As Dackel is 2 clocks from the beach in Carrasco, there's also some seafood selections. The neighborhood is a good 30-40 minute cab ride from Ciudad Vieja, where most tourists are in Montevideo. But it's well worth the trip. Besides, you can just head to the beach and walk off all that pork fat.

Read more »

Jabali by Nature, Not Cause I Hate Ya

With the countdown on for my next move to another country, leaving Argentina, I'm going out of my way to enjoy the few food specialties Argentina has to offer. This pretty much means all the great beef via parrillas, empanadas, locro, helado, and Malbec.

But there is also the Patagonian cuisine to include on the list.

And for this meal, we headed to Ayers de Patagonia in Puerto Madero.

Here we had some of the best jabali I've had in Buenos Aires. The star of the show was the slow roasted & grilled wild boar (Jabali) with a black beer and spiced honey sauce, accompanied by caramelized pears and red cabbage chutney. Tender meat with crispy skin, it's a meal I'd go back for again.

PULQUI WILD BOAR
Grilled wild boar with black beer and spiced honey sauce, accompanied by caramelized pears and red cabbage chutney from Aires de Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The other entree was the Ciervo Huemul, a gamey yet tasty deer dish with papines, mushrooms and some broccoli. It was good, but overshadowed by the excellent jabali.

HUEMUL DEER
Traditional deer cooked in clay oven with season vegetables and herbs from the Patagonia from Ayers de Patagonia, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Read more »

Oktoberfest Food

Come the end of September and beginning of October each year, I always use it as an excuse to experience good German food and beer in honor or Oktoberfest.

This year was no different. But I took it a step further by traveling to Villa General Belgrano in Argentina for their annual Oktoberfest, one of the best in the world. In fact, it is technically the 3rd largest in the world.

Before heading to the festival, I started it off with some home cookin':

2 lb bratwurst with sautéed onions, drizzle of BBQ sauce on a whole wheat loaf of bread.

Once in Villa General Belgrano, a town with an alpine feel to it, the food was a big step up. Here are a few samples from the restaurants we visited.

Bondiola con salsa cerveza negra, pure de manzana, papas (Left) y costillos en salsa cerveza con chucrut y ensalada de papas (Right) from Viejo Munich, Villa General Belgrano, Argentina

smoked pork chops, kielbasa, vienna sausage and knockwurst from Bierkeller in Villa General Belgrano, Argentina

Red Cabbage and pure de papas from Bierkeller, Villa General Belgrano, Argentina

As for the Oktoberfest festival in Villa General Belgrano, here's a taste of what the atmosphere was in the town and the festival:

Read more »