Casa Saltshaker

We were lucky enough to go to Argentina while our very dear friends were living there.  Not only did they know the best places to go visit and eat, they babysat for us while we did it.  Whoohoooo!  One of their recommendations was a closed- door restaurant called Casa Saltshaker.  I had never heard of something like this before and really wanted to try it out.  Apparently closed-door restaurants are literally restaurants that are closed to the public unless you get an invitation or make a reservation by hearing about it through a friend.  The one we attended was held at a chef's home in Buenos Aires.


our dinner menu with wine pairings



http://www.casasaltshaker.com/indexen.htm



Casa Saltshaker was like attending a dinner party with a bunch of people you don't know and eating seriously good food.  Sounds intimidating at first, but everyone there was really interesting and fun.  My husband and I had a blast.  The menu that evening was inspired by Moroccan Independence Day.  Each course was paired with FABULOUS wine so I can not remember exactly everything we ate so I posted the menu below.  On the website there is a link for the recipes too.  YUM! 

http://youtu.be/FgKz8QgYSMk



I am also linking a video which explains more about the concept of secret restaurants and it features our chef.

El Ombú estancia in San Antonio de Areco

I have not posted in a while. My grandfather passed away while we were on vacation:( We tried to get flights home, but the soonest we could get home was Thursday afternoon and the funeral was Thursday morning. Let's just say we needed to get away somewhere to relax and reflect. We packed our bags and headed out with some good friends to an estancia two hours outside of the city. An estancia is a real working farm with available rooms for you to stay in and enjoy lots of good food.



View of the lunch feast tables and horses



 

We were not sure what to expect. Let's just say my expectations were more than exceeded. After a two hour bus ride, we landed in what I perceived to be the closest thing to heaven. We were greeted and shown to our ADORABLE rooms. From there it only got better. I love food. All of our trips and vacations revolve around food. This was the place to be! For lunch, aka the feast, there were tables set up on the lawn of the old mansion that overlooked the farm. All of the tables had bottles of wine, salads, empanadas, and fresh bread to greet us. I had to give applause where they were due.... although I may have embarrassed my family with all of the squealing and hand clapping. Next came, hot off the asado (grill/smoker), chicken,steak, sausage, and ribs with such flavor that my mouth is watering just typing this. Did I mention dessert?



One of the many puppies on the estancia

Where my heaven has lots of food, my girls' heaven has lots of doggies. There were dogs everywhere. Those dogs probably never had so much attention in their lives. My girls were all over them. They ran and played and had a ball.

After a long nap, we took a carriage ride around the property. We had tea and alfajores (cookies with caramel in the middle) followed by a beer in honor of my Papaw. The day was just magical.

If you are traveling in Argentina with children, an estancia is definitely worth checking out.  El Ombú estancia in San Antonio de Areco gets my two thumbs up.





Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay

One of the highlights of our trip so far was hopping on a boat (aka buquebus) and heading to the sleepy and historical town of Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay. The kids loved it so much that when it was time to leave, the oldest cried. We definitely could have spent several more days there since there was plenty to see and..... eat.

We stayed in the historic district of the town at a quaint little hotel called El Capullo. It was so adorable and had the warmest people working there. We were greeted and promptly introduced to the toy chest. The girls were in heaven. I loved the giant orange tree growing in the back neighbors garden that hung over the fence.

Walking around the town you felt such a sense of history. The town had been founded by the Portuguese and, several back and forth battles later, settled by the Spanish. We took a guided tour after being there a few days and learned quite a bit of interesting information. One interesting tidbit was the Portuguese had used tiles on their roofs that were made by placing the clay over the top part of a slave's leg. Because no slave had the same size muscle, the tiles were all different sizes. You could see this on many of the original buildings. Colonia de Sacramento also had the oldest church in all of Uruguay that we were able to go into and tour.

One of the things that the girls truly loved was renting a golf car and driving around the town. It was a little scary for Mommy and Daddy because we were on the same road as many other cars, but the gorgeous view of the coast along the way made it worth it. Word to the wise- make sure you get a golf cart with seat belts.

We drove our little golf cart out to Playa Ferrando, a lovely little beach about 2 km from town. The girls enjoyed putting their toes in the water. Apparently you could walk out for 100 meters and still not have the water go above your knees. We did not test that theory though. We stopped at a local shipwreck museum. It was quite interesting to learn of all of the ships that had sunk right around the port of the town. We also drove out to a dilapidated bull ring. Apparently the bull ring was built in 1910 but bull fighting was made illegal in 1912. LOL

Drinking mate (pronounced matay) is a way of life if not an obsession in Uruguay. You would see everyone walking around with their little hollowed out gourds sipping mate tea through a bombilla (a metal straw). The guide on our tour mentioned the average person there drinks roughly 4 liters of mate a day. Whoa!!!!

Steak in Uruguay is a source of pride. According to our guide, there are three cows to every person there. We thought we would help them control the cow population by eating at the local parillas. El Porton is the one to eat at if you ever get the chance. Uh....yum!!!!

Life was relaxing in Colonia. I can still hear the bell from the church tolling while drum beats from a local drum parade marched by my window. Ahhhh....

Ferias

Every weekend in Buenos Aires there is an arts fair where local artists can sell their handmade goods. On Saturday we hit the one in Recoleta which is referred to as the Feria Hippy. Score!!!! There was so much stuff there. Because of the exchange rate, prices are super favorable too. I found some pretty great stuff. There was everything from leather purses, clothing, jewelry to little handmade toys. Did I mention there's a little park right in the middle of the fair so your hubby can take the kids to burn off some steam while you shop?

On Sunday we hit the San Telmo fair. There are booths of handmade goods that go on for maybe 10 blocks. There was plenty of entertainment out on the streets too. The kids had a blast watching a puppet show. Albeit the man was working a marionette of a little drunk guy trying to walk down a little tiny street. The kids had no idea. Mommy had fun because she found really cool leather hair clips for $5 us. Yahoo!!!!

Food and the City

Being this is our second time to Argentina we knew what to expect as far as what the kids would enjoy to do and eat. If you have never been to Buenos Aires, it is probably not what you expected. It is not called "The Paris of the South" for nothing. It is quite a large city with tall buildings, somewhat like New York, but with a lot of French influence in the parks, gardens, and older buildings. The food is beyond delicious. I believe I had read 70 percent of the surnames here are Italian so one would be right in expecting some of the best homemade pasta outside of Italia can be found here. As with any big city there will be people will be kids. Buenos Aires seems to be super kid friendly. Even the nicest restaurant will welcome children and have a baby seat available. I love the fact that many of the restaurants will serve the children first and pretty immediately which keeps a hungry kiddo from getting loud and grumpy.

The main fare here is meat at a parilla (steak house) , pasta, and pizza. The people here are quite proud of the food and for good reason. Everything is fresh from the farm. You see trucks coming in daily with fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, milk, and eggs. The beef is from grass fed cows that actually get to roam around on the Pampas. Because of the climate and size of the country, fresh fruits and vegetables are available year round.

My kids love the handmade pasta that is available everywhere. Since we have been here they have lived on toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, pasta, alfajores (two cookies with caramel... aka dulce de leche inside), and of course gelato. I have been living off of milanesas (breaded veal), steak, pizza, gnocchi, choripan (sausage inside a homemade bun with chimichuri sauce),amazing cheeses, and the list goes on and on. When we travel it is all about the food. Thank goodness for all of the walking, huh? Enough with the food talk. I am pretty hungry and suddenly dreaming about hitting a local parilla for a good steak and bottle of wine.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Forgive me for it has been over a week since my last entry. Traveling with kids is exhausting. What's more exhausting is navigating around a big bustling city and constantly getting lost. I love the fact that Buenos Aires is a walking city. You walk every where you want to go. If it is too far for two little ones, you can take a taxi (which scares me since the drivers LOVE to talk to you while making eye contact). Did I mention they are driving...with my children in the car? Although taking a taxi is fairly cheap ($6us for an in town 15 minute ride), we decided to try out the buses, trains, and subways.

The last time we were in Buenos Aires we used the subway system called the subte. I really liked taking the subte with the exception of rush hour. The subte was jammed packed full of people trying to make their way home at that time. I have found that if you travel with children any where you will be assured a seat. There is a wonderful etiquette here about allowing people with children and elderly ladies to have priority seating. People are generally nicer to you too when you have two cute little girls with you. This is no exaggeration. When I make a run to the store, people appear distant and busy, but that is not so when I have the girls with me. Everyone wants to stop and chat.

We decided to take the train out to an area called Tigre. This seemed easy enough when we went with friends. Although we must have lucked out because the second time we tried to go we took the wrong train and did not realize it until an hour into the train ride. We ended up in Suarez. There was a super nice guy sitting behind us who told us we had to go all the way back to the train station and board the next train out. Yikes! The train station is quite confusing but a really cheap ($0.25 us and interesting alternative to taxis or remises. And by interesting there is no shortage of on board entertainment from the buskers. Make sure to bring a few pesos to give to these guys. On our last train ride to San Isidro there was a man playing a harp. He rocked it too!