Eating my way through BA

In the early 1900s, the president of Argentina fell in love with Paris and decided to rebuild parts of Buenos Aires in the French style. This, combined with a large Italian and Spanish population gives BA a very European feel. So much so that I have to keep reminding myself that I`m in South America and not somewhere in Europe.



It seems that the major tourist attraction to Buenos Aires is the cheap food and drink. The Argentinean beef and Argentinean wine (particularly Malbec) are some of the best I`ve ever tasted and are ridiculously, ridiculously, ridiculously cheap (those of you that have seen Zoolander can insert the accent). Last night a group of us went to a really nice steak house called Siga La Vaca (Follow the Cow) where I completely gorged myself on some of the most tender meat I`ve ever had. The complete meal that included as much steak as you could eat (you literally walked up to the grill and pointed at which cut of meat you wanted and could go back as many times as you wanted), a huge salad bar, a nice desert, many bottles of champagne and wine cost only 40 pesos. That`s equivalent to just under $15.

My only complaint is that everything in this city starts really late. We went to the restaurant for dinner at 11:00pm (nobody dines before 10pm here). By the time we were finished desert it was 1:45 in the morning (the restaurant was still full). From there we went to a night club that was completely empty. We were told it was the most popular place in town so we waited around. Sure enough, between 2:30 and 3 am people started rolling in. By 4 am the place was jammed. When I left at 6 am it was still full. I know for a fact that I can`t keep up that kind of pace.