Tango, Artes, y Carne

Tango on Tuesday night was a success! Mike and I learned a few steps pretty well, so the next time tango music comes on we´ll be able to slowly dance the same few moves over and over. :-) After learning a little bit, we got to watch our teacher and other professional dancers put on show. The music was amazing and the dancing was phenomenal!

Wednesday it was rainy (like Tuesday), so we tried to do something indoors. We visited El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. I love how they specify that this is the museum of beautiful art. And it was. The museum is open everyday and is completely free. I think my favorite part was an exhibit by an Argentinian artist named Antonio Berni. He made large paintings, many of which incorporated other materials like fabric and tin cans, and his works are strong social commentaries on moments in Argentina´s history.

Thursday it was still rainy. So far, Buenos Aires is just rainy. We decided that if we waited till it stopped raining to really see Buenos Aires, we´d never see it. So we donned our hiking boots and waterproof jackets and went for a cold, wet walking tour. We stopped in at la Biblioteca Nacional (yes, I´m that big of a dork that I really wanted to see the library). We spent the afternoon walking around Recoleta and Palermo enjoying the architecture and looking in fun little shops and galleries. Throughout the day we drank plenty of tea and coffee to stay warm.

Then, last night: La Parrilla. There are parrillas all over Buenos Aires, and I´m pretty sure the word can have different contextual meanings. It can mean the steak house in general. I think it´s also a reference to the specific type of grill they use. There´s space to burn wood on one side, and then the coals that develop are spread underneath the rest of the grill where the meat actually sits. And then there´s the meaning of the word that we did last night.

I think you can also use the word to mean the social event of a barbecue. We attended a parrilla behind a bar called Cómo te extraño Clara. There were about 15 people there, including us. Some were from the US (us, a couple from Seattle, a guy from California), a couple of people from Brazil, Sam from New Zealand (who works at our hostel and suggested we attend), and local porteños (people from Buenos Aires).

This was quite possibly the most interesting meat-eating experience I´ve ever had. The grill was stuffed with tons of different cuts of meat, as well as achuras. Achuras are the special inside-parts of the bull that are often not eaten. But oh did we eat them. The cocinero knew exactly how long to cook each part, exactly how much salt to season it with, exactly how crunchy it should be... it was amazing.

We were all in the dark about what we were eating until we´d eaten it. The cocinero would bring it out as small pieces on a wooden serving platter with little toothpicks stuck in each piece. We´d ask ``What´s this?´´ and the response was always ``Try it first.´´ I think I would have tried everything anyway, but this way we could get our first taste unbiased by any preconceived notions.

We ate (get ready, this is kind of amazing):

• Blood Sausage
• Empanadas (delicious pastries filled with ground beef, peppers, and yummy seasonings)
  
• Choripan (not part of the cow but cooked on the grill - it´s pig sausage in a bun, and it´s delicious)
• Kidney (chewy, salty, tasty)
• Heart (I was surprised, but this was actually my favorite part!)
• Testicles (suave is my best way to describe them)
  
• Intestines (cooked till they´re skinny and crunchy)
• Flank steak
• Rump roast
• Ribs
• Vacio (which the cocinero kept translating as ``empty´´ and comes from the part of the bull where the ribs end)
• Loin

The entire night was a blast. We ate meat till we couldn´t move, drank cerveza till our Spanish was excellent, and had fantastic conversations that kept switching between Spanish, English, and Portuguese, sometimes mid-sentence.

All in all, an absolutely amazing Argentinian experience! And now you know, if anyone ever offers you corazón de toro, you should accept, because it´s delicious.