The Celery Seed Adventure

Sub-title:  Grocery shopping in Buenos Aires

Tuesday, March 24, 2009. 

We are in Buenos Aires and it has been marvelous.  It's in the upper 80's and sunny every day so far (we arrived Saturday morning). The ten-day forecast ranges from sunny to partly cloudy and in the upper 70's to upper 80's. We've been very laid back. Just riding our bikes into new neighborhoods; exploring. Yesterday, the bulk of the day was taken up shopping for ingredients to prepare dinner for our friends Adriana and Carlos tonight. We shopped yesterday because today is a holiday here and we're not sure what stores will be open. Much of what we needed to buy involved a search because the ingredients are either not common here or have to be bought in a specialty shop. One example is celery seed. First of all, grocery stores and supermarkets generally don't carry herbs and spices. You have to go to a store called a dietetica.

  A small dietetica

These are small shops that specialize in herbs and spices, as well as natural products and alternative medicines. We visited several dieteticas and were surprised that none carried celery seed. At the start of search we were hampered by the fact that we only knew the word for celery, in Spanish (apio), but the word for seed. Our Franklin translator only has the verb "seed," but not the noun. The woman in the first dietetica assured me that the verduleria (vegetable store) next door would have it. (Also called a fruteria-verduleria). The green grocer rummaged around and finally offered me nice bunch of celery, which I politely declined. And the search resumed.

    A typical fruteria-verdularia

While I was running into the stores, Carolyn guarded our bikes. At one point she struck up a conversation with two school girls who spoke English (I don't know how this happened). This was fortuitous because they told us the word for "seed." Semilla. Yippee! Now we could do some shopping! Semillas de apio!

  The helpfull schoolgirl

We stopped at two more dieteticas. The additional knowledge it didn't help, other than it gave the appearance that I knew what was looking for, which simply encouraged the people in the dieteticas to offer me alternatives to consider. i.e. alternatives from the perspective of alternative medicine purposes. I don't think that works for recipes, but perhaps I'm wrong. Substituting basil for celery might result in an entirely different but perfectly tasty dish.

In desperation, we resorted to looking at the COTO (a supermarket). Surprisingly, they did offer an assortment of condiments, herbs and spices in a section of imported foods. They had, for example, cayenne, which we had already found previously in a dietetica. (More on cayenne below). They also had an interesting assortment of condiments from the U.S. that I have never seen in the U.S., as well as various Asian stuff, but no celery seed.

Carolyn spied the awning and tables of Don Julio at the end of the block. We decided to postpone the search in favor of lunch. After my brain had been degreased with a couple of glasses of wine, I asked the waiter if he knew where some semillas de apio might be had. He offered to ask the cook and returned with an out of the box thinking type answer: Go to the the end of the block and around the corner there is a garden center. They sell seeds at the garden center. Eureka!

  Eureka!  Celery seeds!

Last night our friend Silvia had us over for dinner. We related search. When I mentioned my search for small red potatoes, which I eventually found in a she smiled and explained that they are not normally found in the supermarket or even the verduleria. Nope. They only sell the large white potatoes. She told us that you have to keep an eye out for one of the Bolivian women that claim a spot on the sidewalk to sell their small stock of vegetables, herbs and spices. These women often have the "Bolivian potatoes." i.e. Small red potatoes.

This morning we discovered that somehow we managed to lose the precious package of celery seeds. It probably fell out of the bicycle basket.  Tuesday morning Tito suggested a store called KLeR, which sells spices, but it was closed for the holiday.  He led me to a flower stand on the corner, which I thought would be an unlikely place, but the vendor apologetically explained that he usually had celery seeds, but was out of stock due to the constant demand.  Demand?  He explained, with a wink, that celery seed is a natural alternative to Viagra.  Later Carolyn and I went to the big garden center on Scalabrini Ortiz, Vivero Mario and found they had plenty of celery seed in stock.  Finally we had the 1/2 teaspoon that we needed for the salad dressing!  See the recipe HERE.

 

More on shopping for groceries . . .

Another search involved potatoes.  Small red potatoes.  I went to at least a half dozen verdulerias and the COTO but the only thing I could find were large white potatoes.  Eventually I stumbled across a small verduleria that had what were small dirt-encrusted potatoes.  Not red, but at least they were small.  The next day Tito confirmed, with a broad smile, that the common potato found in stores and verdulerias are large white potatoes, "with dirt or without . . . as you like."  Our friend Silvia noted that near all the large supermarkets one will find one or more Bolivian ladies sitting along the sidewalk selling vegetables, fruit, herbs and spices.  These ladies typically have small potatoes (papas bolivianas).  But as for red potatoes . . . we have not see any.

  Potatoes . . . with dirt and without

Spicy food is generally not in the repertoire of Argentine cooks.  Indeed, we once found Tabasco sauce in the supermarket and were amused to find that it was marked "MILD."  Surprisingly, we had less trouble finding cayenne pepper than celery seed.  The second or third verduliara had them.  Unlike ground cayenne pepper in the U.S., the peppers are ground by hand and include the seeds.  See photo below.

  A bag of ground cayenne pepper

Delivery

Virtually every store delivers.  Supermarkets, cafes, restaurants, electronics . . . you name it; they deliver. Even a cup of coffee. We often see elderly people leaving the grocery store, accompanied by a delivery boy.  In a dense urban environment, where cars are not used for shopping, delivery is an essential service.

Museo Xul Solar

Museo de Xul Solar is often overlooked by visitors to Buenos Aires, which is an unfortunate oversight.

Xul Solar was a man of many talents and interests . . . a painter, sculptor, inventor of languages, and writer. A small museum, in the building in which he lived, is architecturally interesting, in addition to an extensive collection.

Don't miss this gem of a museum:
Museo de Xul Solar
Laprida 1212

Cementerio de la Chacarita

We spent another two glorious weeks in Buenos Aires, beginning November 20, 2008. The first week was unseasonably hot (90's but welcome) and the second week was perfect (mid 80's). It poured one afternoon and was cloudy the next day. Actually, and I can't believe I'm going to say it, the cloudy day was a welcome reprieve from day after day of perfect blue skies and sunshine. See the photos here.

Last March we bought some bikes, which greatly expanded our opportunities for exploring the city. One of the most fascinating things we explored was this time was Cementerio de la Chacarita. We arrived at a modest, secondary entrance that did not offer a clue to what lay beyond the walls. Yes, walls. The entire place is surrounded by huge walls, like a medieval castle. For some reason, this entrance is identified as Cementerio del Oeste.

We quickly discovered that this cemetery is enormous. Immense. On the order of eight or ten times the size of the touristy Cementerio de la Recoleta. Simply put: It's the largest cemetery in South America.

In the map above (click to enlarge), the Recoleta is outlined in red. Cementerio de la Chacarita is outlined in blue. The yellow dot denotes the location of Casa Palermo. Unlike Recoleta, there were few people here on a Sunday afternoon.

Chacarita was established in 1871 and quickly began accepting victims of the yellow fever epidemic that raged in La Boca and San Telmo. Although less costly to be buried here than in Recoleta, there are many famous Porteños here. Among the most famous is Carlos Gardel, the beloved tango singer, who died in a plane crash in 1935. Each June 26th the area around his burial site is crammed with fans to this day. However, the most famous person buried here was Peron himself (Juan Domingo Peron). In 1987 thieves broke into his vault and severed and took his hands. Some speculate this was done to get his finger prints and access secret Swiss banks accounts. I dunno, seems a bit farfetched to me. Recently, his body was moved to his country home in San Vincente.

One of the fascinating aspects of Cemenerio de la Chacarita is the vast network of underground vaults and niches. There are two sections. One, closer to the part of the cemetery near the main entrance, and seemingly older, has small niches. See next two photos.

Further away from the main entrance is another, larger underground labyrinth, these being on two levels:

Click the photo above to see more detail. This is an extensive underground necropolis, with architecturally interesting access points at ground level. We found a plaque indicating that this was built in 1958.

Of course, the cemetery has blocks and blocks of monumental vaults similar to those found at Recoleta:

We found that vandals had broken into many of these, but the majority are in excellent condition. The "streets" within the cemetery seem to be endless. The following photos is of the main entrance, which we got to see on the way out:

Statistics: 12,000 burial vaults, 100,000 gravesites, 350,000 niches, covering an area of 95 blocks. In addition, there are two contiguous but separate cemeteries: Cementerio Aleman and Cementerio Britanico (We did not get a chance to visit either of these).

Cementerio de la Chacarita is accessible by taking Linea B to the Federico LaCroze station. On the weekends, there is an enormous market in the adjacent park. Larger than any other I have seen in Buenos Aires (at least so far).

Buying Art in Argentina

Last March we agreed to purchase a couple of paintings in Buenos Aires. One was about 14" x 20" and the other 3' x 5'. These were both oil paintings and not "street" art, but rather, fine art (accompanying image is a photo of the larger of the two). The smaller painting cost $200 US and the other $1,500 US. We left the larger one behind because it required restoration.

The seller packaged the smaller painting nicely, but he did not give us a receipt. When we got to the airport (EZE), the American Airlines clerk was very concerned that the painting would be confiscated because we did not have formal documentation evidencing that this was not a national treasure (!). Nor did we have documentation evidencing official permission to take our painting out of the country. He suggested that the police look at it before we took it through customs. Some police guy looked at it, shrugged and said it was up the the customs people upstairs. At this point we were quite nervous, not to mention irritated, but the customs people barely looked at it. My understanding is that some buyers of art have not been so lucky and have had "street art" confiscated or, at minimum, underwent considerable scrutiny before being allowed to depart with their treasure.

My understanding is that galleries are familiar with the regulations and procedures, however, it's not uncommon to buy art either from a vendor or artist at a street market or directly from an artist at his/her studio. I don't know if the artists are aware the regulations and/or the potential problems facing a buyer.

The formal steps required to get official approval to take art from Argentina are rather onerous:

1) Request a appraisal at the Banco Ciudad, which takes at least 24 hours, and,
2) With the appraisal in hand, submit a formal request at the Dirección de Artes Visuales, which is within the Ministry of Culture, to authorize the departure of the work, a procedure that takes about ten days.

I can't imagine that many people do this, but those who don't are at some risk . . . so be aware.

Note: As it turned out, a well qualified friend inspected the larger painting after the restoration was complete and advised us that it would not meet our expectations. So, we ended up declining the purchase. Had we concluded the transaction, I imagine we would have encountered considerable difficulty at the airport. The seller, a minor dealer, didn't say a word about it. As in all transactions, remember the doctrine of caveat emptor (buyer beware).

An article on this topic appears at this link (in Spanish): La Nacion

Christmas & New Year's Eve in Buenos Aires

Celebration in Buenos Aires

Casa Palermo has had a number of guest inquiries about Christmas in Buenos Aires, so I will share our experience . . .

Christmas

In general, we found that Christmas was less commercialized than in the U.S. Stores often had decorations, to some extent, but nothing like in the U.S. It was a welcome change.

We had the foresight to stop in at Roof, a restaurant around the corner, about a week ahead of time to ask if reservations were necessary for Christmas Eve. Indeed, not only were reservations required, but a deposit in the form of full payment was necessary. We we arrived it was evident why. The place was entirely filled. And unlike many restaurants in the U.S., they don't "turn tables." Once you have your table, you have it for the evening. We arrived at 9:00 p.m., with daughters Natalie and Julia, and didn't leave until 1:00 a.m. They had a fixed menu, but with numerous choices for appetizers, main courses, sides, etc. Everything was excellent; the service, the food, the ambiance, as well as the festive atmosphere that the staff created.

After dinner there was dancing and we took full advantage. In addition, two teenage boys from Colombia came to our table to ask us for approval for them to invite Natalie and Julia (teenagers then) to dance. Around the time desert was served, Santa appeared, in complete costume, an visited each table, giving every lady a small gift bag.

At midnight, two unexpected things happened. First, everyone in the restaurant started clapping and counting down the last minute before midnight. Second, at midnight, the sky erupted with fireworks and a lot of the people, including us, stepped outside to watch them. The sky was filled with fireworks in every direction. These were not organized displays, but fireworks being shot from what seemed like half the houses in BA. It was entirely unexpected and spectacular. Overall, it was a most memorable Christmas Eve, particularly because Natalie and Julia were able to be with us.

We anticipated that not much would be open on Christmas Day, so during the day on Christmas Eve we bought medialunas (small glazed, crescent-shaped bioche), fruit and other provisions for breakfast. Thank god! Nothing was open. Absolutely nothing. The city was wonderfully quiet. No traffic whatsoever; just the songs of birds. We had to do some hunting to find a place for lunch, but interestingly, by dinnertime, a lot of restaurants reopened. In any case, be prepared.

New Year's Eve

Shortly after making reservations at Roof for Christmas Eve it occurred to us to plan on New Year's Eve and we made reservations at the now defunct Club del Vino. Natalie and Julia left shortly after Christmas, so it was just the two of us for New Year's Eve. Although the atmosphere at Club Del Vino was less festive, the food was good, but they offered way too much. We had finished two main courses by 11:30 p.m. and saw the wait staff delivering plates with what looked like some sort of cakes. We decided to forgo the desert and made a sudden plan to leave and get to the roof terrace at Casa Palermo to watch the inevitable fire works. While waiting for the check, we realized that the "cakes" were not cakes at all, but yet a third course of lomo (filet mignon)! Once outside we discovered that there wasn't a taxi to be found and started on a brisk walk home (about 1 mile). We were astonished to find that there was no traffic on Scalabrini Ortiz; normally a heavily packed four lane thoroughfare. We arrived at Casa Palermo in time to crack open a bottle of champagne and to get to the terrace a few minutes before midnight. Once the fireworks started, they didn't end until almost 1:00 a.m. We watched an incredible display, with rockets and bursts in all directions. New Year's Day was similar to Christmas Day. Virtually everything closed and a wonderful quiet and peace everywhere we walked.

Living in Buenos Aires

A interesting article (Crisis and Renewal by Maxine Swann) about a norte americano living in Buenos Aires appears HERE.

Photo Essay: Montecarlo

Montecarlo is a typical corner cafe-bar, operated by a young man named Gerardo Lorenzo and his mother. The menu is typical of such places, but the ambiance and friendly service make is a great place to have breakfast or lunch. It's a comfortable place to people watch. A perfect oasis to take a break while exploring Palermo.

Montecarlo
Paraguay 5499-91

click here to see photo essay.