The great things about dining in Argentina are:

1. The food is amazing
2. The exchange rate with the dollar makes it possible to be a little extravagant.

We definitely took advantage of both!

Here is a diary of our favorite meals. You’ll notice that most meals were our favorite! And of course, you can’t have meals with out some amazing Argentinean wine.  And I’ve included links to the restaurants/bars Web site when available. Enjoy!

Day 1 – Thursday, Nov. 22 – Thanksgiving

We arrived at our hotel (Sheraton Convention Center) in Buenos Aires around noon, or maybe later. After showering we ventured out into the city, walking along the very crowed Florida Ave. Billed as “great shopping” by the travel books, we were sorely disappointed. It was very touristy and the stuff was poor quality. Though we did amuse ourselves with all the Mr. Sweater shops Otro Mr. Sweater And we soon realized that there was a Christian Dior on just about every corner in Buenos Aires.

Anyway, Lunch… We were starving by this point! We visited the famed Café Tortoni for some Coke a Cola Light and bocadillos. I had Jamon Crudo y queso. Luke had a regular ham sandwich. It hit the spot. We also noticed that they had churros y chocolate on the menu!

Walked around a little bit more, and then hit up an ice cream parlor on Florida Ave. It was the most amazing ice cream ever! I had 2 scoops of Banana Split flavor. It was to die for! Luke had a scoop of dolce de leche and a scoop of tiramisu.

Before dinner we walked around the Palermo neighborhood and saw a bunch of cute restaurants, bars and shops. This was my favorite neighborhood in BA. We were looking for a couple of cool-sounding bars that we read about in the travel books. Unfortunately, some of them must have closed, because we couldn’t find them. We had a few pre-dinner drinks at Vace (1982 Fitz Roy).

What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with a nice steak dinner? Our first night we went to El Trapiche (5599 Paraguay, Palermo Viejo). The steak was good, but this was actually my least favorite meal. The place was very cute though and it looked it liked they had good pastas, too. We had Trapiche Origen Malbec wine.

Day 2 – Friday, Nov. 23

We flew to Iguazu to visit the waterfalls. We were at the Hotel Esturion for 2 nights. We walked around the small town center, again looking for a cool-sounding bar/café that was listed in the book. It too must have closed because we didn’t see it. Instead we ate lunch at a pizza place, I don’t know the name, but the pizza was sooo good! We also order 3 empanadas that were to die for! Jamon y queso, beef and queso. And we got the large beer!

For dinner we ate at El Quincho de Tio Querido (Bompland Street) and ordered the mixed grill, which included some strange meats that we did not eat. But the steak, chicken, ribs and sausage were delicious!

Day 3 – Saturday, Nov. 24

We visited the national park and saw the waterfalls! They were soooo cool! There were all these trails that you could follow that took you right up close to the Falls. After a boat ride through the falls, in which we got completely soaked, we shared a jamon y queso bocadillo from the park café.

For dinner we ate at the hotel outdoor barbeque next to the pool – Naipi y Taroba. I don’t know what that means, but it was really good! We both got steaks and had Latitude 33 Malbec wine.

Day 4 – Sunday, Nov. 25

Back in Buenos Aires, we did an insane amount of walking around … visited the San Telmo street market. For lunch we went to Pizzeria Guerrin (1368 Corrientes). It was an old-time pizza place and the pizza was to die for!! For dinner we ate at Filo. I had pumpkin ravioli and Luke had meat ravioli. Both were amazing!

Day 5 – Monday, Nov. 26 – My birthday!

We returned to the Palermo neighborhood for some shopping! Had lunch at the most random, delicious, hole in the wall, authentic Spanish café El Preferido de Palermo (4801 Guatemala and Borges). First we were on the restaurant side of the place, but they didn’t serve the special that we saw advertised on the street sign, we had to go to the other side of the café, which was more casual. We ordered the “Maxi” plate of different meats (jamon, salami, etc) and cheeses. YUM!

After a little shopping, we regained the strength we needed to make it back to our hotel NH Jousten by stopping at Bar 6 (1676 Armenia between El Salvador and Honduras) for some fruit smoothies. I had raspberry and orange and Luke had pear and cilantro and lime. They were delicious.

We had a fantastic dinner down by the waterfront at Cabanas Las Lilas. This restaurant was written up by Tom Sietsema, Washington Post food critic. It was a little chilly that night, but we sat outside and watches stars emerge. At the restaurant, they started us out with a bunch of free appetizers – potato puff things, mushrooms, tomatoes and mozzarella, roasted red peppers, grilled vegetables and bruchetta and a spicy pesto like dip for bread. We were in heaven already! Tom had recommended the rib eye steak and potato soufflé, which were like airy French fries or potato chips – so that’s what I ordered. Luke had a strip steak, but it wasn’t like a NY strip steak… so, we would have to return again so he could get the correct steak. Oh, and we had beef carparrcio for an appetizer.

Day 6 – Tuesday, Nov. 27

Again, we did an insane amount of walking. For lunch we ate at Tancat (645 Paraguay, between Maipu and Florida) another Spanish tapas place. We were starving and went a little crazy with ordering – the waiter literally had to tell us to stop ordering because we had ordered a lot of food! We had tortilla espanola, mushrooms, jamon y queso, olives and a big jug of sangria. Yum! We didn’t get the try the gazpacho or the boqerones.

For dinner we ate at Gran Bar Danzon. This place was really cool! We started with some cocktails at the bar, then moved to the restaurant section and actually sat at the bar because we didn’t have a reservation. It was a wine bar, so we tried 4 different wines by the glass. I had Enrique Foster Reserva Malbec 2004 and Ben Marco Malbec. Both were really delicious, we brought back a bottle of each. Luke had Achaval Ferrer Quimera 2004 and Dona Paula Pinot Noir 2006. He liked them, but not enough to buy a bottle to take home with us. The food was also AMAZING here! We shared a couple of appetizers and an entrée ceviche and an apple and goat cheese tart to start and rabbit ravioli for an entrée. We had chocolate cake for dessert.

Day 7 – Wednesday, Nov. 28

We chilled out on our last day in Buenos Aires. Didn’t do too much walking because we knew we wouldn’t really be able to stretch out on the plane ride home. We picked up some Argentinean snacks from the Arcor factory store to send to my brother and some Havana cookies to bring into my office. Unfortunately, we left the bag of goodies on the airplane whoever found it had themselves a little fiesta!

For lunch, and our last meal, we went back to Cabana Las Lilas. Luke wanted to order the correct steak (the Chorizo Steak is the closest cut to a New York strip steak), plus it was our favorite restaurant overall. So, again, they brought us all the free appetizers. This time we ordered the veal empanadas, which were recommended by Tom. Luke ordered strip steak and I ordered the fish of the day – a white fish that came with mushrooms and tomatoes and 3 different kinds of dipping sauces. YUM! A perfect end to a great vacation.

Dinner was on the plane and it was not good. Luckily, Luke is Primer Exec. on United, so we got to go into the Red Carpet Club. We had a couple of beers, some cheese, nuts and crackers.