Bags and Sweets

Vasalissa in Recoleta...a pink and celadon paradise of chocolate

While I didn't manage to get to any sort of fiber-y shop in Buenos Aires, how can a place teeming with shoes, bags, and sweets be bad?

That bag came home with me...

In addition to eating my weight in beef (sorry, my vegan friends...but when in Argentina...although actually I eat plenty of beef right here at home so it's not a good excuse) I also managed to consume a fair amount of chocolate, pastries both straight from the bakery and in the million and one cafes I sat in, cheese, nuts, and olives. In other words, my ideal diet: chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and coffee, chased down with pastry and steak. The minute I manage to look like Valerie Bertinelli I plan on cashing in.

If you are in BA, don't miss Fervor. We had a fantastic dinner there, the ambience is warm and lively, and the dessert menu includes flan with ice cream. You hear that? Flan AND ice cream, both made in-house. What a great idea - two-course dessert. And of course we went to La Cabrera, a BA must.



I also went to a couple of really nice bars, something I rarely do at home. (Actually, that came out wrong: it's not that I don't go to nice bars...it's that I don't go to ANY bars...lest you think I go to dives. And I do go to the Whaling Bar once in a blue moon.) The Library at the Faena Hotel is such a nice place for a drink, and the bathroom is not to be missed. It's a palace of marble and beveled glass, with fresh flowers and freaking swan faucets. The Oak Bar a the Hyatt was pretty spectacular too, although you do have to brave the cigar smoke.



And just in case you gather the impression we didn't do anything "cultural" at all (four women loose in Argentina = no museums) we did visit the very beautiful Recoleta Cemetery. And, I believe I can make a very good argument for the case that we experienced more culture talking to the wonderful, friendly locals than we would have on the tourist circuit.