Happy Weekend

On the third weekend of most months, our bank pulls out all the stops to entice clients to use their debit (or sometimes credit) cards. We happily oblige because the savings are substantial.

"Happy Weekend" (yep, that's the term, no translation needed) offers discounts of 20% on purchases at certain supermarkets, 30% on restaurants (up to 50 pesos per day per account), and 50% on movie tickets. Happy Weekend has become routine for us; around it we plan major grocery shopping expeditions for nonperishables and staples as well as culinary excursions to old haunts or new favorites.

This past weekend we headed to the Coto (the big supermarket in the neighborhood that partners with the bank) on Friday for staples and then again on Sunday for fresh meat and other items. Supermarket savings both days: 108 pesos.

We managed two cafés on Friday, first La Biela, the iconic lunch spot right across from the Recoleta Cemetary, for a shared lunch of toasted ham & cheese sandwich (an Argentine staple) with fries, and then Piola, our latest favorite pizza place, on Libertad near 9 de Julio. Saturday featured dinner with friends at Caseros on the border of San Telmo and Barracas, for the first but not the last time. Sunday dinner was three blocks from the apartment at Los Pinos, our favorite neighborhood steak spot. Restaurant savings: 139 pesos.

Total savings: 247 pesos, or about $62 USD. It was a happy weekend.

Empanada Night

Cross-section of the finished product

Tonight we finally attempted what top culinary experts call the quintessential Argentine food: the empanada. And we're proud to say we achieved success.

Since moving to Buenos Aires almost three years ago, we have sampled many different styles and fillings of these flavorful turnovers: carne (both "sauve" and "picante" - though picante here does not mean what it does in Mexico), humita (a type of creamed corn), capresse (as Italian as it sounds, with mozzarella, tomato, and basil leaves), and hongos, among others. We particularly like empanadas mendocinos, the meat pies from Mendoza that are juicier than others but not to the extent of being messy. So when we finally decided to try our hands at our own home-made empanadas, we of course consulted our sources on all things mendocino, Eduardo and Stella Molteno. Additional resources included How Argentina Cooks and Eusebio, one of our favorite people at Mas Pastas, where Kurt purchased for less than 7 pesos the "masa" or preformed dough circles we used to encapsulate the meat filling. (One thing at a time . . . )

The ingredients

According to the Moltenos, the secret to a moist meat filling is onion . . .  and lots of it. They told us to use 3 kilos of onions for each kilo of ground meat. Saute the onion, add the meat until it just browns, and then cut off the heat and top the pan for two hours, they advised. Add spices, a little chopped hard-boiled egg, and an olive, and voila!

Sounded good, but we wanted to incorporate some additional flavors; we had always thought that our recipe for picadillo - a treasure from Kurt's mom that melded formulas from her mother Belén and her mother-in-law Flora - could be adapted to empanadas. And of course we were right (though we have to admit that heavying up on the onion makes all the difference in the world). Here's what we devised:

• sautee in a small amount of olive oil 3 thinly sliced medium-sized onions and 1 diced green pepper
• add 1 large clove minced garlic 
• add 1 pound lean ground meat, and cook just until color changes
• turn off heat
• stir in 1/2 tsp. each oregano, ground cumin, and dried parsley; 1 tsp. each paprika and red pepper flakes; freshly ground salt and pepper to taste; Tabasco or other hot sauce al gusto; 1/4 cup home-made tomato paste; and 10-12 chopped up green olives
• cover pot and let sit for 1 hour

Forming the empanadas

When the mix is ready, chop 2 hard-boiled eggs. Then put 1-2 tablespoons of filling in the middle of each dough circle, add about 1 Tbs. of the egg, and fold the dough over, pressing the edges together. Place a few drops of olive oil onto a cookie sheet, and then sprinkle over that a small amount of flour. Place the formed empanadas on the sheet so that they are not touching, and cook in a preheated 350 F oven for about 15 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen tasty empanadas.

Baking empanadas

We served our empanadas with frijoles bayos estilo mexicano and some simple avocado slices with lemon juice and sesame seeds. YUM!

Special thanks to Waitress from Mensa, who asked quite some time ago for Argentine recipes.

Celebrating a Clear Title

Luis Batiston in what was then his apartment

Last night we raised a glass of Cinco Sentindos Extra Brut (acquired, of course, from our good friend Eduardo) to the memory of Matilde Milagros Paulliere, who passed away 10 years ago yesterday at the age of 92 years. We never had the pleasure of meeting Srta. Paulliere, but we do know her nephew, Luis Alejandro Batiston Paulliere, who in 2006 sold us the apartment where we now live.

Sr. Batiston had inherited the apartment from his maternal aunt, as specified in her will. Under Argentine law, however, a direct descendent has rights to real property that trump any bequest to another person, related or not. Although Srta. Paulliere never married and had no known descendents, the law also provides for the possibility of offspring and stipulates a 10-year period from the date of death to allow any offspring to make themselves known.

All this was carefully explained to us when we entered into the contract to buy the apartment and at each subsequent step in the process. The escribano (a cross between a lawyer and a notary who handles real estate transactions) called the issue a "cloud" on the title, or escritura. This cloud previously had dissuaded an Argentine family from purchasing the apartment. But Escribano Monte - as well as Sr. Batiston - also told us it was highly unlikely an heir would materialize. Being the adventurous souls we are, we readily committed to the deal. We had fallen in love with the apartment and felt that in this case the cloud was sure to have a silver lining.

Yesterday, all clouds lifted. Cheers!

Economic Snapshot: Living in Buenos Aires

"So how much does it cost to live in Buenos Aires?" That's probably the question most frequently lobbed to us from people in the United States. (A close second is "And what about health care?" but we think we've covered that topic already.)

So as Linda was pulling together all the pieces of paper necessary to file our U.S. tax returns (because Uncle Sam does indeed tax all worldwide income, unless you're in a special exempt group), she decided to add up the receipts for just about everything we spend money on regularly in Argentina. The spreadsheet to the right basically lays out the details. All amounts are in Argentina pesos, which has been trading for some time now at around 3.95 pesos to the U.S. dollar (down from 3.78 a year ago).

Some quick observations:

• Basic living expenses are low. Utilities, especially electricity costs, are subsidized by the government. Without the subsidy, our electric bills for the year would have totaled slightly over 1,000 pesos (still low by U.S. standards). Water is not metered, so consumption is estimated.
• Property taxes, called "rentas," are collected by the city government and used to pay for street lighting and cleaning and maintenance of public roadways and sidewalks. The taxes on our 88 square meter apartment have not increased since we bought it in 2006. For us, then, the taxes actually have gone down, since the dollars we transfer here have increased in value against the peso.
• Our laundry expenses appear high because we do not own a washing machine or dryer. Our 88 square meters don't offer enough space. On the upside, for every 7 "valet" services (one bag full washed, dried, and folded for 15 pesos), we get one free from our favorite laundry. 
• We've obviously failed to add in expenditures for such things as clothes, entertainment, transportation, and travel. Suffice it to say that public transportation - subways, buses, and domestic airlines - are also subsidized. Bus and subway tickets run about 1.10 pesos per ride for everyone. And thanks to our residency status, domestic tickets on LAN Argentina and Aerolineas Argentina are about half what they cost nonresidents.

Additionally, our living costs also are low since we own our apartment outright. Mortgages are uncommon here; interest rates for those few in existence hover around 22% (meaning real estate bubbles do NOT happen in Argentina). But rents are low, and very nice apartments can be found for under 3,000 pesos per month.  All in all, a couple can live well here on an income not much beyond the poverty threshold in the U.S. Put another way: our "grand total" for 2010 is well below what we paid in property taxes alone in Austin in 2005.

Feliz Navidad 2010

BA's obelisk as Christmas tree

All is calm, all is quiet . . . finally! Last week was hectic in Buenos Aires, as inhabitants wrapped up business and school activities and prepared to head to the beach or the mountains for summer vacations. Traffic is now down to a minimum; the constant horn-honking piles of cars, trucks, and motorcycles backed up for blocks is gone and in its place is heavenly peace and quiet. "Muy tranqui," as the porteños say.

Much of the activity in the streets seems to have revolved around the wine business. Wine deliveries to the wine stores, wine purchases at the wine stores, wine deliveries from the wine stores. We experienced this first hand at our favorite wine store right around the corner from our apartment: la Cava de Vittorio Enoteca, where Kurt had been helping our friend Eduardo Molteno cope with the holiday rush. Lots of physical as well as mental exercise: running up and down the stairs to fill orders, packing up gift boxes and bags, making deliveries both in our neighborhood and further afield (in rush hour traffic and worse), and assisting English-speaking tourists with their wine selections. And all this in record heat of 33 to 34 degrees celsius. 

On the terrace for the fireworks:
Stella, Curt, Linda, Kurt, Caron
(photo by Eduardo!)

Eduardo and his wife Stella joined us for Christmas Eve dinner at the rental apartment, along with our good-natured guests Curtis and Caron Seebaldt, the latter a classmate of Kurt's from Balboa High in the Panama Canal Zone back in the days.

We grilled a few kilos of great steaks and sausages and Eduardo served up some of his excellent wares, including one of our favorites, the delicious tannat-malbec spumante from Familia Perulan, a small bodega from Mendoza. Feliz fiesta indeed!

Linda's Medical Emergency

Nur für Krankenwagen

One of the things we really like about where we live is the proximity of just about everything we need. We walk to our grocery stores, fruit and vegetable stands, subway station, gym, shoe repair and pedicure shops, barber, bank. Early on the morning of Thursday, November 4, we even walked - albeit slowly and with several pauses - to the nearest emergency room, located about 4 blocks away at Hospital Alemán.

Linda had awakened hours before with what she thought was stomach pain that grew steadily more severe. Finally we agreed that the situation required medical attention and headed to the emergency room, where Linda was whisked right away into an exam room. There blood samples were drawn, an IV with pain killer hooked up, and an exam conducted by the very capable and personable physican on duty - Dr. Alejandro Fabian Irastorza - assisted by two eager young residents. Something was wrong with her liver. A consult with a team of surgeons was ordered, as were an ultrasound and a CT scan, all conducted promptly and efficiently. Meanwhile, with each order, Kurt was given a receipt and directed to the cashier's office. A real pay-as-you-go system for those without applicable insurance.

Eight hours later, with pain and nausea conquered, Linda was allowed to leave, but with a strict diet of no medications and only crackers, white rice and pasta, the latter of which, Dr. Irastorza said, could be flavored with a little olive oil. (Surprising how good that is!) Follow-up blood samples were conducted the next day and again three days later. Levels of bilirubin and other indicators of liver functions that had been off the chart were falling dramatically to normal levels. In the meantime, it became clear that the probable culprit was a medication that Linda had been taking for several years and that evidently had accumulated to toxic levels in her liver. That element was dispensed with and she's now long since back to a regular diet. Subsequent tests have confirmed the source and - more importantly - the resolution of the problem.

some of our "facturas"

We have no idea of what all the diagnostic procedures and professional consultations and analyses would have cost in the States. One friend has suggested at least $15,000 for the emergency room alone. Our total bill worked out to just about $1,500 USD, under the threshold for filing an out-of-network claim with our US insurer.

Feriado

Entrance to Barrio Chino

 December 8 in Argentina - as in most if not all of Latin America plus Spain - is a holiday. The Immaculate Conception of Mary. Occurring as it did on a Wednesday this year, the feriado makes for interesting vacation plans. Some folks connected to the past weekend, others to the next weekend, using the "puente" (bridge) concept we learned about decades ago in Mexico City. We applaud those who do both.

In any event,  the occasion is an opportunity to anticipate the "real" summer and holiday vacation times of late December, January, and half of February that are looming. For us, these times are the absolute best to be in the city: warm weather, blue skies, and much fewer people with whom to share the streets and the subway. And the jacarandas, of course, though past their November prime, still are gloriously lavender.

Jacarandas 2010

So this afternoon we decided to head to China Town, the very small barrio of about 4 square blocks located in the Belgrano area of town. The grocery stores there carry a good assortment of items hard to find in regular Argentine stores. We got wild rice, dried mushrooms of various types, American style freshly made oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies (go figure), and 4 cans of frijoles negros enteros imported from Mexico.

El Jefe

On the way back to the subway, we stopped at Big Mamma, a cafe attached to the Sarmiento Museum, for some liquid refreshments in the outdoor section. Next time we'll also get some food: Kurt is dying to try the Rueben that marched past our table to another guest. Linda's interested in the Salad Nicoise. Something for everyone.