Category: Mendoza

Megadegustacion 2011

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Ok, so during the Vendimia time they have a wine-tasting festival. It lasts for 3 consecutive days and features bodegas from all around Mendoza and Argentina in general where you can taste it all in one place. It’s called Megadegustación and it. is. awesome.

This year, I hear, was more tame than the years before because we were limited to a certain number of glasses of wine by buying our entrance tickets. Tickets for premium tasting were 60 pesos (divide that by 4 and you have your price in dollars), while the regular tasting was 30 pesos (I think). With that, you got coupons for 5 glasses of wine. Or maybe 4. I don’t remember. It was a good time.  The city shuts down Sarmiento (a major street) for 4 blocks between the Plaza Independencia and Belgrano for this epic shindig.  There’s the wine and they also sell food if you’re hungry (empanadas, etc).

My personal favorite for the evening was the wines from bodega Azul. It was a cab-malbec reserva blend, I think. Soooo good. I also tried reservas from Altos las Hormigas (someone check me on that spelling/name), aand…yeah I’m gonna have to check and see which wines I tasted.

My favorite part of the evening was when my BEAUROCRAT BOYFRIEND approached me and said “Hey, remember me?!”… I said “Yes, of course I do” and he laughed and said “Hey, I’m sorry about today. Cheers!” and toasted me, and walked off.

The city of Mendoza is just a really big town.

Weinert Bodega in Lujan (Mendoza)

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This past weekend I paid a visit to the Weinert bodega (vineyard + premises) in Lujan, an area south of the center of the city.

The winery is family-owned, and we were treated to an amazing Brazilian meal consisting of feijoala (sp?) and bobó do pesce (another spellcheck, please) courtesy of our chef friends and son of the winery owner. This was in preparation for next week’s Brazilian Carnival expat luncheon to be held on the premises on Saturday.

We drank the 2005 Malbec (one of my favorites so far of the Malbecs I’ve had), the Merlot (didn’t catch the year), the Cabernet Sauvignon, and then came my unlikely favorite (with dessert in the form of traditional Brazilian ‘brigaderos’):

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The Cosecha de Otoño Sauvignon Blanc

Okay, this wine is fantastic. And no, I have nothing to gain financially from giving it a gold star. It’s sweet, but not too sweet; it still tastes like wine. It’s not overpowering, but it goes well with chocolate and cream. It’s the kind of wine you wish you could finish your dinner with when you aren’t in the mood for a super-sweet port, or a bitter digestif like Fernet.  Not syrupy at all, it has a light texture and is (maybe too) easy to drink.  It’s just perfect. I want more!  It’s slightly more expensive than other bottles Weinert produces given the fact that it’s harvested so late, it’s basically made from raisins. But it’s worth the money. Trust me.

My new friend informed me that they sell in the US, and particularly in Texas, so keep an eye out.

Brief restaurant review (Anna Bistro) and an Argentina obsession

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I just had the most delicious salad EVAR at this restaurant slash cafe really close to where I live called Anna Bistro. It’s called the Italian …(something something). It had 2 types of prosciutto, shaved parmesan cheese, golden raisins, kiwis, plums, mangoes, nuts, arugula, mixed greens, cracked pepper, croutons, and sundried tomatoes. I’m full.

Some food-porn available here.

The place itself is super cool and they have English menus, in addition to the usual Spanish. My server spoke English to me (yayyy) but I tried my best to respond in Spanish and use my newly-acquired ordering skills. Continue reading →

Will you be my Valentine Asador?

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Started this week off right with a Valentine’s day asado after work. However, this was after my “novio”(BF) sent me a ton of pink lilies to my office. Turns out, he was able to order them online, without speaking Spanish, and have them delivered in Mendoza. I was über impressed. 

The funny part is one of our CEO’s came in to tell me on Tuesday (the day after V-day, for those of you following) that my flowers had made me the subject of some hot gossip; How does the girl who’s been in the country for a little over a week get flowers for Valentine’s Day already? She must work fast!

I’m still impressed with my novio. Good boy.

The asado was fantastic, and I got to meet new people – a couple who were also expats. And it helps that the other guests at a party are chefs, because dang, the guy can make a MEAN steak.  We drank 5 bottles of wine between 3 people and it was an amazing night.

You may have noticed or became jealous of my usage and correct spelling of über earlier. I’m pretty impressed with myself that I’ve learned the international keyboard setting on my Mac actually has a function. Now I can write emails with to all the “Señors”, asking for the “sustitución”, and when they say “sí “, I can reply “Está bien”. Or something. Very exciting.

(not so) Lazy Weekend

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Yesterday I tried in vain to find a pair of cute sandals. This is mainly motivated by the fact that I realized I only have my purple Havaianas here with me, which are my only summer footwear. The women here wear the cutest sandals, so I thought to myself “Hey, let’s get me a pair of those.”

Turns out, it’s not that easy. First of all, shoe stores here are seriously intimidating. I realize it was Saturday, but all the stores along Av. Las Heras were packed (although that’s not really the place to be looking for shoes), but so were the stores along Av. San Martin and the Pietonal (pedestrianized shopping street w/ cafes). But the crowd wasn’t really the problem. The problem is that you LOOK IN THE STORE WINDOW TO PICK OUT YOUR SHOES.  Like, you need to know what you want before you even go into the store to ask for your size. Do you even realize how difficult that is for someone who barely speaks Spanish? I can basically say “The black ones” or “the brown ones”, or even “the white sandals”, but that’s as far as it goes. Forget people asking me if I needed help. I just froze and mumbled and walked away.

Shoe shopping fail. After walking and searching in vain for 4 miles, I gave up.

Note to self: Do NOT drink entire 1L bottle of Andes beer with lunch by myself. If so, siesta is necessary.

However, last night I went to the Casino at the Park Hyatt. FINALLY, something I could do without speaking Spanish! Even the slot machines were in English – especially my ol’ reliable Star Trek machine. Don’t act like you don’t know the one. I ended up playing various games for around 4 hours before I headed home 350 pesos poorer, which is about, oh, US$85. This is after hours of blackjack, roulette, and slots. I had a good time by myself, so I think it was worth it.

This morning I took a nice stroll (and by stroll I mean a long walk that probably covered a couple miles) down to what I thought would be a nice little breakfast in an Irish pub on Av. Colon. However, said pub was not open when I finally arrived there 30 minutes later. Le sigh. So I made the best of it and went to the nearby Plaza Espana, took some photos and enjoyed the scenery. It’s this amazing little plaza with tons of painted tiles everywhere, and Spain-themed, of course. I’ve heard that there used to be tons of artists who sold their wares and did their art-ing in the Plaza, but they’ve since relocated.

Ended up eating breakfast, or as they call it here ironically “Brunch” at a little corner cafe called La Belle Epoque. The Brunch #3 was coffee, orange juice, 4 pieces of toast with cream cheese and preserves. To my happy surprise, the orange juice was fresh-squeezed, probably on-site. The cream cheese was freshly made, and the preserves were ah-mazing. Plus, the coffee was really espresso with milk. All this for US $4.

A few random comments:
I really need to learn how to use this Argentine cell phone. I seriously think I just texted Egypt.
Dreadlock mullets are sort of an epidemic here. They are everywhere. And they are just as gross as you can imagine.
They give out free samples of mixed cocktails at the supermarket. I was in Carrefour earlier today, doing a little Sunday grocery shopping, and there was a temporary stand set up where this nice young man was mixing Gancia cocktails and handing them out like candy. 
Gancia cocktail: Gancia (an italian liqueur, I believe) and Sprite. Tastes like just Sprite. 
Directions: Enjoy while shopping.

Jazz in the Park y mas

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So it’s the weekend of Valentine’s day here in the great city of Mendoza. Normally I’d be hating said weekend, since I’m usually conveniently (or not so conveniently) single for the Holiday of Love. However, this year I have a wonderful Valentine..except he’s thousands of miles away. Dammit. But, I’m not depressed or sad that it’s Singles Awareness Day (or weekend, in this case), because I’m hanging around living la vita bella here and making new friends. Yay!  Also, just got an email suggesting that me and 2 of the other girls hit the spa on Monday night for a 2-for-1 spa special, so that could be very relaxing.

Last night my friend who took me to the music on the rooftop event came through AGAIN and invited me to go with her and her husband to Jazz in the Park, a 3-night mini jazz concert festival in Parque General San Martin, the biggest park in Mendoza. The park itself is gorgeous; it has a huge man-made lake, running trails, giant fountain, tons of little areas, weeping willows, a health club, etc. It’s huge, and I think I’ve only seen a part of it so far. But anyway, the jazz is set up on the “lake”shore with chairs all around and some elevated tables and chairs in the back with waiter service. The event is totally free and it’s part of the series of events leading up to the Vendimia. The music was actually awesome, and culminated with a band who had a Brazilian bossa nova singer with them who had an incredible voice. We drank Andes beer and ate empanadas while listening to some seriously good music. It was over at 12 or so, and we walked home the other way from the way we came in.

This is kind of interesting. Turns out, at night on weekends here, teenagers and early 20-somethings take their cars up to the road in the park, parallel park them, open all the doors or trunk and have a little party where they blast bad techno music and drink crappy beverages akin to Smirnoff Ice and others. I really wish I had my camera out to capture the amount of mullets, rattails and dreadlock mullets I saw. Yes, dreadlock mullets.

I’m told that families do it too, earlier in the day or on Sunday afternoons for barbecues, but that late on Sunday the teens and college kids take over and it’s unbearable to be there past 4pm.

It reminded me a little of what they do in Queens under the Triboro bridge, is it? I always get my bridges mixed up.