I Eat My Way Into Argentina

Cell service when traveling now feels essential. Rather than pay my carrier at homes, I got an e-SIM before this trip that is supposed to work internationally. Sadly, when I connect to the service it does almost nothing, so I had to turn on my US eSIM.

If that’s the worst thing that happens this trip I can deal with it.

I’m staying in Palermo Soho, which is a very trendy area of the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

I can see this gym from my hotel room, and it’s always packed.

Palermo Soho is a beautiful area; it’s very residential with shops and restaurants everywhere, but I might be a bit far from some of the typical tourist attractions of BA.

So when my food tour started at 1130 there really wasn’t enough time to do much besides walk around a bit, get a feel of the place, and finally have a cappuccino.

The food tour was a lot of fun. Maya was our guide, an outgoing lead with fiery red hair and an effusive smile.

We met as a group at Picsa where we had pizza and empanadas (this is how they spell pizza here). The pizza is delicious, with bready crust and onions. An olive is deposited on each slice, which is how it is routinely made here (olives being standard, rather than a topping).

The empanadas have shredded beef inside rather than the ground beef I had last night – they are definitely a step up.

The others on this tour are all American. Eight of us, in total, signed up for this food tour, and 6 of them are from New Jersey.

The last is Millennial Stephen, who is a digital nomad. He has an interesting story – he spent 5 years living in Thailand while working remotely, and is now planning to spend the next 6-9 months living here. He mostly works for Google, but generally holds 3 jobs at a time. It sounds like he has to be very organized to make it to his many online meetings, and sometimes has to choose between them.

I have a single job and sometimes can’t remember all of my meetings. I don’t know if I should envy him, fear him, or pity him, but mostly I respect him.

Our next stop after picsa is a neighborhood restaurant specializing in local fare.

Here, we have Milanesa, which is the Italian version of schnitzel. They call it Milanesa here because the Italian immigrants brought it with them. It’s delicious, but I’m more interested in the small piece of fainá you can barely see behind the Milanesa. It is a chickpea pancake that is traditionally served on picsa, but now is being served on its own.

I suspect it has a Sicilian origin, but Maya doesn’t know where it comes from. It reminds me of panelle that haven’t been fried yet.

Amusingly enough we were also served these buns that look like … buns. The olive oil and olives are all Argentinian.

They love their murals here.

And their futbol.

The final stop before gelato was at a restaurant specializing in asado (barbecue), where we were served chorizo, provoletta, and black and blue sirloin, all of which were delicious.

The tour had started late and carried well into the afternoon, so time was limited. I explored the neighborhood and even tried to figure out the subway.

Somewhere in my wandering I happened on the Eva Peron museum. I didn’t know what to expect, and truthfully didn’t know much about her before I walked through the door, but I can see why she has meant so much to so many people.

She was a singular person, a true revolutionary who changed her world and those of the people around her.

This building was once a refuge for women coming to Buenos Aires from the country. This was but one of many refuges her charities helped to found.

The curators didn’t spend much time on some of the controversies around her – or if they did I couldn’t tell, because I don’t speak Spanish.

Still, I learned something about a pioneer today. And this alone was worth it.