Argentines - meat y vino

As I said before, the smell of grill fired Argentine meat spanks your nostrils as soon as you step foot out of the airport. The country is especially known for its adobo sauces and fresh chimichurri sauce. Our first taste of the local meat was over a late lunch at Don Julio, a restaurant in Palermo that specializes in the local favorite Parilla (grilled meat). We started with a chorizo sausage, provoleta (grilled cheese) and an empanada. Delicioso!



Our main course of tenderloin, dressed with fresh tossed salad, tomatoes and onions, easy balsamic vinegar on top was out of this world! The meat - extremely tender, literally no fat (which makes me a very pleased carnivore) and cooked to a perfect medium, mostly pink in the center. Homemade chimichurri, a mix of fresh parsley, other herbs, garlic and oil makes a great accompaniment to this slice of animal heaven. (Sorry my veggie-onlys)




On a rare occasion, I managed to join the clean plate club.


With any great Argentine steak, a bottle of the nation's rich Malbec should be shared. We enjoyed a bottle of Pulcu Limited Edition, signed it and sent it away to join the many others lining the restaurant shelves consumed by many other happy patrons before us. Pulcu is produced by Tierra Inti in the Mendoza region. This is a better of the bunch bottle.






















The first time we tried Choripán, a chorizo sausage, sliced and served on hard roll, was at San Telmo market. The roll was fresh and the flavor intense. I put some extra red chile sauce and chimichurri on it. The place was filled with locales watching football on an old tv.

Milwaukee connection to Buenos Aires & a very special place

Buenos Aires boasts a cousin bridge to Milwaukee's Art Museum and bridge designed by famed architect Santiago Calatrava. The bridge, known as the ' Puente de la Mujer' or Point of a Woman, is in the Puerto Madero district.






















Milwaukee's Calatrava





This up and coming urban area is lined with factory buildings-turned-fancy flats, some fantastic restaurants like Cabaña Las Lilas owned by my favorite Sao Paulo-based restaurant group Rubaiyat (and chains like Hooters and TGIFridays which spoil it's potential some), and fantastic modern business buildings and high-end hotels. The area's much like Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward.



Anyone who enjoys getting lost in a book store must make the time to see El Ateneo in this European-like, Latin-hip city. This is positively the most beautiful bookstore that I have ever seen.



Housed within an early 20th century theatre, the balconies are lined with best sellers, children's books, Argentine thrillers and private nooks to dig into a few of them. I picked up a copy of 'Asi Cocinan los Argentinos' or How Argentina Cooks which offers detail in both Spanish and English. This will help me bring the dazzling flavors of Argentine cuisine home to Wisconsin.






It's been listed as one of the world's best bookstores, but it is not number one. Looks like a visit to this Dutch book shop housed in an 800 year old church is one to add to the bucket list. Incredible transformations!

Buenos Aires streetshot

In Porteño land...



Upon stepping into the Buenos Aires night for the first time I near instantly felt I liked the place. The drive from the airport to Palermo passed many street vendors grilling Argentine meats, the smokey scent lingering through my nostrils, driving my taste buds to dance. A couple of dogs stood in the line of the fragrance; you could almost see the pooches dancing tango as the scent boomed its rapid beat in their tastebuds. It's a dog-friendly city I soon found out.






Cafe Tortoni is the country's oldest cafe and can be found on the main drag of Avenida de Mayo. It's rich in history, proven by its well-preserved wooden beams, stained glass ceiling and photographs of the country's famous authors and intellectuals. It's a bit touristy but the step back in time is worth it.








This main street, and the city as a whole really, is an architectural dream lined with fantastic structures mimicking Paris in a clear way.









Street Art has its own place in Buenos Aires. Colorful, artistic murals depicting a variety of scenes are throughout the city. Stenciled political slogans and other messages are found on sides of buildings, national landmarks, the street. This rainbow clearly links the city and its people together in a extraño way. On our Saturday, a large group of people were working together to repaint murals on one of the main street walls that draws the line between Palermo & Palermo Soho - the boho chic area of the city.













Still, while many are quite beautiful, the consistent splattering throughout the city can often appear more chaotic than poetic.

Hong Kong

Reflection of Hong Kong street in cab rear view mirror

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42), was occupied by Japan in during WWII and controlled again by the British until 1997. The Programme for International Student Assessment ranked Hong Kong as one of the top education systems in the world.







Traditional Chinese tea house - Lin Heung

At the historical tea house we shared a pot of wonderful Jasmine tea and took in the every day people that surrounded us reading the paper, discussing politics and playing crosswords. I discovered Pu Erh tea on this trip which tasted much like my favorite African Roobios (Red Bush).




Old Street leading to Hollywood Rd, one of the first streets built in the colony, on Hong Kong Island.

You can see that a florist on Hong Kong Island has a store packed with tangerine trees. Tangerines in Chinese tradition are supposed to bring luck into the new year; Oranges are to bring wealth. Both have evolved from a language pun since the Chinese words for luck and wealth are similar to that of tangerine and orange.




I discovered this amazing store in the city called Initial: The Unusual Experience that is armed with super classic cuts with determinedly pimped-out detail. One of my personal favorites was a longer white flowy blouse with a small fur detail just on the collar.
Photo from: http://www.allabouthongkong.com/?p=169

The decore is inviting although a sculpture at the front literally shocked me so into the unusual that I almost walked right back out...thankfully I didn't! The website is fancy, but I can't see anywhere that I can do some real shopping; makes me wish I had done more while there!

We also checked out S.T.P. who became popular with its edgy lines of gift and leather goods, and is now growing an name for its clothing line.


Busy merchant street on Hong Kong Island



After some adventuring through the busy streets, wandering through the occasional sale, we made it to Cafe Landmark for a truly brilliant lunch. My host had the lobster linguine pictured on the website. I enjoyed a small kobe steak thinly sliced served aside wild greens with aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was the most classic, comforting decadence.

For desert we tried a few scoops of ice cream - get this - rose petal and ginger flavors. The were rather different and nice to try, but I'll touche with my Kopps's chocolate custard any day, time or place.

All of these views are in Kowloon near the Harbor City mall

2011: Year of the Rabbit

China has gone through such immense change in the last fifty years - from a solid red country completely sheltered from the West, it is a powerful economy in the modern world, one filled with wonderful tradition, hard-working intelligent people, thriving businesses, monstrous hectic cities, a rising fashion industry and so much more...

I picked up Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China written by Jung Chang to read in the couple weeks prior to the trip, and while I was adventuring there. It’s great for prepping the mind to understand today’s China in real context, learning first hand how history has created the present. The country's prevalent cultural strings have similarities to Berlin with a harsh dichotomy of old and new; yet China still has its own feel of opposites in red and gray, young and old, past and present, closed and open, tradition and trend.



After a skip through Hong Kong airport, I hailed a cab after a customs check and collecting my luggage at the Shanghai Pudong airport. It was already 1:30 in the morning but my dearest friend and colleague Vette was waiting eagerly for me to arrive at her flat a good 45 minutes away. When I arrived to her street in the city center, I admired the adorable, traditional looking strip mall that housed a bar, restaurant, 7-eleven and a Starbucks. Directly across the cobble street is her fifty floor apartment building.





A nice cup of English tea and a quick catch-up led us to sink heavily under the sheets. Waking to the rush of the city made me ready to go. The view from my room screamed for another day’s work to begin. We ran into Starbucks before hailing a cab to drop us at our Shanghai office about 10 minutes ride from the flat. I had a funny feeling, like I was in any other big city – New York, London – doing the same things that any city slicker on this planet does on a weekday morning.



Over lunch we went to a hip hair removal joint called Browhaus. I desperately needed to have my eyebrows threaded! We LOVED this advert outside the building ;-)




Our China office went out for a team dinner at a Rong Ji in Shanghai, which specializes in a spicy crab dish that is out of this world! Xiang La Xie has thin slices of potatoes, lotus flower stem slices, a green veggie something like a celery-cucumber mix, colorful spicy peppers and full crabs.

We also enjoyed some strong duck soup, and a breaded pork that should be wrapped in a dumpling with hoisin sauce and eaten as a ‘sandwich’.








Next we ventured to a karaoke house like I’ve never seen before. It’s like a large hotel with rooms in every direction you look, loaded with round booth seats and high-tech sound equipment. We had a hoot singing Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys and Guns’N’Roses.


The next morning I hopped a flight to Guangzhou where I was going on a plant tour for work, followed by the plant’s New Year party that involved all 300 plus employees. What an event!! Associates practice for weeks to perform as part of the evening’s entertainment. There were so many talented and passionate performers – singing, playing traditional Chinese drums, dancing, a group drag show and of course the Lucky Draw. Yes, even the bunnies at the top are employees dressed for the occasion. How absolutely incredible to see such ownership and pride resonate from the participants.


During Chinese New Year it’s tradition to give children and single people red packets, Lai-See envelopes or Hong-Bao, filled with money as a symbol of a prosperous future. Any sort of random draw is always a very special event as the culture in general is a very superstitious one. Winners of the lucky draw are hoped to be especially prosperous over the next year.



The following day I had some time to wander through this area of Hong Kong near the Harbor City mall in Kowloon near the Langham Hotel that houses all of the most lavish brands: Chanel, Dior, Prada, Valentino, Louis Vuitton, and D&G. It was an absolutely gorgeous day; people were out an about everywhere – tourists, brides galore and graduates.

I found a great spot on the second story of the outdoor Harbor shopping area. There I sat in the sun, working on my articles, listening to my tunes, watching the bustle of a sunny Sunday at one of Hong Kong’s hot spots.


That night we went for drinks at Aqua which serves as a top rated restaurant situated amongst the lights of the Harbor skyline and a swanky night club. No surprise that the view was incredible, even better than I had imagined. Many of the buildings still had extra decorations for the holidays, and a laser show between the ultra tall building on the two sides of the water commence at 8:30.