Kosher, but not so healthy...

For the last few years, I've kept boxes of Mannischewitz Matzo Ball and Soup Mix in the pantry as a go-to quick delicious light and healthy (or so I thought) soup meal. All it takes is water and eggs and you have a light but filling delicious soup in 20 minutes. Also, adding a bit of Sriracha makes an extra special treat.

Today, I pulled out the last box in the pantry for lunch and amused myself by reading the ingredients.

MSG? Really?

54% of my daily sodium?

9 Servings in this little box?

Holy Moley.

Seeing as how E and I often divide a box into 2 large servings with a 3rd serving left over, it would appear that every time we do so we're getting > 162% of our daily sodium and an extra dash of MSG to boot.

I will be learning to make this meal from scratch!

In hindsight, I'm not sure why I thought the general rule that pre-prepared foods are bad for you didn't apply to Matzo ball soup in my mind. But, I've learned my lesson. Beware the pre-prepared foods! Even when calorically sound, they often have other gotchas you just don't need.

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Argentina Food

Many other folks have written extensively about the amazing food of Argentina.

So, I'll just keep it to photos with minimal comments.

First, there is the glorious culture of the parilla:



Which results in juicy awesome steaks (Note: contrary to popular opinion, in our experience, the word Jugoso will get you a rare steak.):






But, the appetizers were the big surprise. Salads -- construct them from the ingredients on the menu. And, if you've never had fresh hearts of palm, order some palmitos. The fresh meristem of the palm has to be one of the most wonderously delicious vegetables on the planet (and, it's healthy!) Think artichoke hearts without the chokey flavor and an order of magnitude more succulent and yummy. Simply add a little balsamic vinegar, and some olive oil, and you are in heaven.



At one lunch, when I ordered sautéed vegetables as a break from the meat orgy, I was blessed with palm stringy things. I asked and more or less understood them to be related to hearts of palms, but easier to come by (and slightly less delicious, but still oh-so-salivation-inducing-tasty). Yet, upon arrival back home, despite at least 5 minutes of internet research, I was unable to identify what they were.



At the time, the server seemed so complacent that I figured it would be easy to figure out. But Google has thwarted me and instead distracted me to this hilarious video about someone stealing palm trees.

Back to Argentina. Have you heard of Empanadas?



Ay! Dios Mio! Que rico! And baked. The baked ones are to die for. They come in vegetarian cheesy goodness with tomatoes and other veggies, and of course, a full selection of meaty varieties, including chicken with curry flavors, which surprised me. I am sad that the ones we have in California are almost always fried. On the other hand, I'm trying to be caloricly deficient since our return, to eliminate the excess of Argentina that attached itself to me. So perhaps I'm not that sad...

And, now, to my favorite appetizer: Provoleta.

A huge hunk of locally made cow's milk cheese covered with herbs and grilled? As a starter? What a wonderful thing!

And, if you are lucky, you can order Provoleta a la napoletana or Provoleta completa which comes with ham and an onion tomato garlic sauce or just fresh chopped onions and tomatoes. Either way, it's a brilliant appetizer and I wonder why, with all of the Real California Cheese marketing they haven't figured out that this is an easy way to convince diners to order and consume half a pound of cheese, no problem.





Ahumados. Smoked Goodness. Ciervo (venison), Trucha (trout, including pink trout, delicious!), and Fabali (wild boar), plus, of course, queso (cheese, which they often interlace in meats prior to smoking... how cool is that?)

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2010: The Year in Books

Despite my Slow Start, I made it to 27 28 (forgot one). My best showing since I started keeping track. And, this year feels like it's got potential, so I'm going to challenge myself to 30. Any suggestions?

1. The Year of the Flood, Margaret Atwood. Awesomely complex characters riddled by religion/society/scars from other humans. Primarily strong women, which is, of course, if repeated throughout many books, a flaw, as an author should be more balanced with well developed characters of all genders, but much like most male authors throughout history who have favored their male characters, hers is a common and easily overlooked flaw. Also, there are lyrics of song and worship that reminded me of Blake, one of my favorite poets. In the afterward, she noted Blake as one of her inspirations. Overall, this was one of the most enjoyable books I read this year.

2. The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferris. No doubt you've heard of it and some of the many opinions it has incited. I found its perspectives interesting -- some useful, but most ridiculous. Good preparation for going out on my own as a solo.

3. World Without End, Ken Follett. Masterful storytelling -- twisting and turning plot with complex, flawed, but loveable characters. Excellent historical research.

4. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood. Amazing, painful, at times chuckle-worthy, but at all times clear descriptions of raw humans and their wrinkles and bows, set firmly in the details of the mid-20th century.

5. Tales From the Pancake Guy, Jamis MacNiven. Hilarious insider stories from Silicon Valley, Berkeley in the 60s and the random travels of a true adventurer (and likely a tall-tale-teller, but a great one).

6. Shanghai Baby, Wei Hui. A crazy tale of a foreign life lived by a young female author in a foreign city, but told in a way that felt eerily familiar. It made me want to spend some time in Shanghai.

7. Zorro, Isabel Allende. A mythical lyrical tale of adventure in the early 19th century combining the Spanish missions in California, Native American magic, gypsies, fencing, pirates, secret societies, unrequited love, prison breaks, travel across the world, and more. A delightful escape.

8. Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver. A multi-character narative told from the interwoven perspectives of a Mountain woman, an aging farmer, and a "city-girl" widower. An impressively researched biologically fact-heavy story of life and interdependencies. One of my favorite books of the year.

9. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver. As E said, "You've got a complete girl-crush on Barbara Kingsolver." This book tells the story of an adventure after my own heart. As a gardner and food enthusiast, I couldn't agree with her more. It was entertaining, educational, and inspirational.

10. Farm city: The Education of an Urban Farmer, Novella Carpenter.

11. Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier. Simply written sentences told a bold and intriguing tale. A study in character development -- I could not help but fall for and root for the heroine.

12. Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything, Geneen Roth. Interesting combination of Zen and Yogic philsophies as applied to women's compulsive eating issues. While I had difficulty relating to the majority of the eating issues displayed by the author and her clients, I was surprised as the application of philosophies I have come to embrace in the face of my own patterns -- it helped me understand that the zen and yogic philosophies are, at their core, about how we, as humans, can learn not to hide from our true nature.

13. The Other Boleyn Girl, Phillipa Gregory. An excellent tour of pre-Elizabethan British Courts and the ridiculousnous that ruled the world therefrom. Also, a great life story of one who loves despite the power struggles that make it unintelligent to do so.

14. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseni. A poignant love story that graphically depicts the fate of women in Afghanistan.

15. The World to Come, Dara Horn. A mystical tale of birth, death, life, love and art built on Jewish, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian and American culture.

16. Halting State, Charles Stross. A mystery science fiction novel set in Scotland post UK economic meltdown setting forth a super-speedy tale of esponage, crimes perpetrated in virtual reality, and one possibility of the future of economics and trusted computing.

17. The Gold Coast, Nelson Demille. A novel in the Gatsby Tradition regarding the fading gentry of Long Island's Gold Coast, their social mores and traditions, and how they mix and react with the only new money that can buy them out: mafia, foreign royalty, and others.

18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larssen. A gripping crime trilogy with a whiplash-inducing plot focused on drawing attention to violence and hatred against women by men.

19. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Steig Larssen.

20. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, Steig Larssen.

21. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. A lighthearted skim of the little bit humans have learned the development of life on earth. Informative and funny.

22. Gang Leader For a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh. A fascinating look inside the daily life of one of Chicago's largest projects and the various power brokers within it.

23. Tinkers, Paul Harding. A woven story of fathers and sons, told in non-linear time, and sad but precise poetic language.

24. The Solace of Open Spaces, Gretel Ehrlich. Language paints the rugged sadness and lonely beauty of Wyoming and how the space can heal.

25. Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros. Beautiful Vingnettes. Strong Language. Often painful Stories, achingly told.

26. Kate Vaiden, Reynolds Price. Best female character I've ever read written by a male author. An orphan due to tragedy tells her story of survival and the choices she made in hopes of reuniting with the son she gave up for adoption 40 years ago.

27. Run with the Horsemen, Ferrol Sams. Languid biography of growing up in the South interspersed with vivid displays of racial tension and race/class roles all told from the view of a child who's known nothing else.

28. A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr. A gripping real-life tale of a self-destructing lawyer chasing a complex toxic tort case.

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Uruguayan Fried Fish

It's a thirty-five minute flight from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, which I believe is the shortest flight I've ever taken in my life.

Montevideo on a Sunday evening in early January is an overwhelming horde of people lounging, wading, eating, sunning, swimming, biking, and walking along the 20Km stretch of beach that makes up much of the city's border.

Our cab driver probably cheated us by taking the long route (along the coast) from the airport to our hotel, but it was very helpful in helping us decide between the beaches of Punta del Este or the historic town of Colonia. The masses on the beach made it clear -- we were going to head for the sleepier northern town on the river rather than the crowds of the beaches.

We walked to dinner at El Fogon. E's pulpo a la gallega was amazing. My order of merluza a la marinera came as a lightly fried filet without tomatoes or any kind of sauce.

Assuming I knew what I'd ordered (to some degree, expecting at a minimum some tomatoes) I told the waiter that my dish was not what I had ordered.

After a look of confusion, he apologized profusely. He took the dish away and returned, triumphant, 5 minutes later, with the same fish, obviously much more elaborately battered and fried.

At this point, I remembered that a la napolitana was what I wanted, and E laughed hysterically at the likely conversation in the kitchen, because clearly, in this restaurant, a la marinera just meant *fried*:

Those Americans sent this marinera back because it isn't fried to their standards. You know Americans. They invented KFC. Could you please fry it some more for them?

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Happy

The greatest thing about this trip is the uninterrupted time with my best friend. In hindsight, I remember saying the same thing about our Asia trip in 2008. And, historically, we've left the country together at least once every 12 months, so the last 20 months have been something of an anomaly. But still, the wonderful togetherness and sharing of things that haven't been shared with anyone else -- they are the happiest and most unique glue in our relationship.

I'm not sure what I did to deserve such a wonderful husband who feels that travel in my style is good (e.g. with partial-planning of the big things but with lots of seat-of-the-pants adventures). But, I hope to keep it up.

Traveling the world with someone who shares my values is an amazing gift. I am grateful. We've been to two Catholic churches this trip, and in both I've left an offering and taken the time to kneel and give thanks for many things (you may note, I feel free to worship in pretty much any sacred place). My wonderful husband, best friend, supporter, and fun travel friend -- this has been the object of the first of my thanks in each case.

In many touchy-feely events and classes I've attended throughout my life, I've been asked to define what "success" means to me. I've never really known how to answer. Generally, my feeling has been, "I'll let you know if I get there."

Yesterday, I thought of those events and smiled. We were sitting outside under a metal awning in a restaurant that looked like a 50's drive-in but had table service, in Montevideo, on the corner of Ejido and 18 de Julio (the main street of the capital of Uruguay). I was enjoying a chivito sandwich (with a fried egg!), while E was eating mushroom raviolli, and, of course, both of us sipped on agua mineral con gas y vino while sharing a salad of palmitos. For more than 2 hours, we watched the world go by in the city with the highest literacy rate in South America, and leisurely felt at home in the pace of life and language of our 5th continent and 13th country together.

I don't think I've never smiled when thinking about my own definition of "success" before. So, I guess that's something kind of big.

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Bariloche

We splurged on a fancy-pants resort for our 3 night stay in Bariloche. We checked in to gorgeous views of the lake on a uniquely calm day.

The first night, our buddy Ivan at the front desk recommended the best (and best priced) parilla experience of our trip: El Boliche de Alberto. It was a nice 1.5 Km walk, each way, which was a good thing because we opted for provoleta, salad, and huge Entraña in addition to wine and water. This may have been my favorite meal of the trip.

The next day we walked to Teleferico de Cerro Otto and took the old-school two-cable gondola to the top of the mountain for an awesome lunch of local specialties (smoked venison, wild boar, fish and cheeses) and salad while we rotated through the 360 degrees of views in the rotating restaurant. After 2 hours of rotating, we hiked to the nearest peak and enjoyed the views.

From there, we headed downtown and walked until we'd worked up an appetite for gelato at Jauja heladeria (mmmm... thanks for the recommedation ALV). We walked around town, watched a windsurfing race, toured the cathedral and eventually figured out how to catch a bus to somewhere near our hotel.

We liked our first night's recommendation for dinner so much that we asked Ivan for advice on night two. He recommended El Patacon (check out the picture of Bill on the homepage!). Upon entrance, they pour you rosehip pulp mixed with white wine -- a bit odd, but quite delicious, actually, and it makes their guerrilla jewelry salon sales efforts more tolerable (thanks to their efforts, I bought a handmade necklace of leather and metal, so perhaps they know what they are doing). The fire with the splayed lambs in the lobby won E over on first sight, and, fittingly, after smoked venison and glazed mushrooms starter and an empanada, they served him his favorite meal of the trip -- an amazing medallones de lomo preparation with mashed potatoes (my trout was bright pink and flavorful in a light acidic break from the red meat orgy).

The last day, after a false start with the bus system and waiting "ten minutes" (aka 40 minutes) for a cab, we headed out to the much fancier than our digs resort of Llao Llao, where we were unable to take the hike we'd scheduled, but were mistaken as guests of a wedding (American daughter of ex-pats who live in Bariloche marrying a Central American man, I believe) and, so, they allowed us to sit for lunch in the fully reserved lobby bar. (Score!) Food was good, but the views, eavesdropping, and people-watching were phenomenal.

Perhaps this is why the port for our boat tour out to a peninsula and an island in the middle of the lake left from their driveway. You know what they say: Location, Location, Location. The entire boat ride, E and I couldn't help but gape in awe at the majority of the lake's edges and their pristine state of undeveloped nature. Thank you Perito Moreno (think the John Muir of Argentina).

Upon return to our hotel (we made the bus system work for us on the way back), we learned we'd been upgraded to a suite with an in-room sauna for our last night (double score!).

For dinner, we walked to the finest meal of our trip at Butterfly. With only 7 tables and two seatings, reservations are very difficult, but ALV had given us the head's up so we'd made it a priority ahead of time. Wow! Assuming I can find the time, there will be a whole separate post to rave in particularity with pictures. Regardless of my schedule, suffice it to say that this group of folks is on the rise. In an amusing coincidence, the Irish chef, Edward (from Cork) had attended the wedding at Llao Llao the night before and he, like the Llao Llao staff, mistook us for guests he'd met there. He was embarrassed and apologized profusely, but we were very amused. Apparently, the parents of the bride are very good customers and fans of his restaurant, so he was invited to the wedding -- this explains the unexpected cancellation of our original reservation and their request to reschedule. A nearby table during our dinner was 4 obvious guests on the American side, as well, all currently living in New York.

This was one of those times that travel really makes you think -- events that have nothing to do with your life prior to arrival can become extremely relevant during your stay. To travel well is to be aware of your own frame of reference and your life's state of relativity.

Speaking of frames of reference. While it occasionally annoyed us (buses, dry dirty roads -- or choking dust, as E liked to call it), for the most part, Bariloche spoiled us.

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Mendoza

Wine. Food. Wine. Food.

I felt like I was living a fairly healthy tourist lifestyle in Buenos Aires. Lots of walking. Working out. No bread or pastas except for the occasional empanada. Sharing delicous portions of meat on the side of full portions of vegetables. With a few modifications, we followed this pattern in Iguazu as well.

With no scales to be had, I convinced myself I must be getting healthier and losing weight on this Atkin's diet of sorts.

And now, I'll never know if it was true. Thanks Mendoza.

We flew from Iguazu back to Buenos Aires and, despite the chaos and confusion of the Mitre Omnibus Terminal, we managed to board our bus for the overnight ride to Mendoza. Apparently, this is the standard mode of transportation in Argentina. So, while our trip was too short to do it for every leg of transport between cities, we figured we'd give it a try at least once.

Pros: it's less expensive than flying and much more comfortable than 13 hours on a plane in economy class. Also, there's a dedicated attendant, and since we opted to pay the extra $25 US or so to get leather seats that fully reclined, our seats came with sparkling wine and our dinner came with wine.

Cons: The flight would have been about an hour and forty minutes. More importantly for me, a rocking bus in traffic is much louder than a plane. So, I spent much of the night almost dozing off to be woken by a horn, a jostle, cross traffic, or my fellow passengers. While awake, I cursed my stupidity for leaving my earplugs in my checked luggage.

Eventually, we arrived in Mendoza unshowered and sleepy. Thankfully, we were immediately checked in, and after a shower, we sat for a 2 hour Italian lunch including a meat and cheese plate, salad, beet and squash gnocchi with lamb in a tomato sauce, and pounded veal cutlets for E in a white wine olive sauce. You know, a light lunch.

Siesta.

A flight of wines at Vines of Mendoza Tasting Room (highly recommended).

Dinner at the hotel and sleep. Glorious sleep.

A weak excuse for a workout. Wait for the driver, who is 30 minutes after the rescheduled late arrival. Coffee. Of course, the driver arrives once the coffee has been ordered.

A gluttonous day of wine tasting and food including the lunch of infinite awkwardness. Suffice it to say that we are not wine buyers, but we were the guests of a winemaking family who had come under this impression for some reason. They were not thrilled with our honest questions, like "Rioja? As in Spain?" (Note: we have since learned that there is a wine region known as Rioja in Argentina as well)

Thankfully, despite the mix-up, we had a superlative day of fabulous wines and great food, which makes everything wonderful.

For dinner, we followed the advice of the amazing Carolyn of Uncorked Argentina and enjoyed a deliciously multi-regional meal at Siete Cocinas (Note: best scallop ceviche I've ever had. Order it.)

On our walk home, we stopped to buy water. We re-hydrated until sleep.

The last morning in Mendoza, I rose to work out, guiltily. Restraint of any sort had not been in effect for several days and the workout felt as you'd imagine.

From there, we were to fly to Bariloche, the land of chocolate.

(pictures and more details to come)

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