The day I ate cow tongue...

Today was a late start, Dan and I slept until 10 a.m.  Ahhh, felt so good to sleep after the adventures of the last 48 hours.  We finally got going by mid-day and decided to take the Subte to Once neighbourhood and walk to Abasto.  Once is considered the 'multicultural' area of Buenos Aires.  There are alot of Peruvians, Koreans, Chinese and an important Jewish population.  Not exactly what I would consider 'multicultural' coming from a workplace neighbourhood like Côte des Neiges, Montreal which is considered the most multicultural in Canada.  But for BA, Once is multi.

Plaza in front of Once train station

We got out of the Subte and noticed the difference from the more central tourist areas.  It's doesn't seem as clean in the main plaza and graffiti everywhere on the monument statues.  We walked on Peuyrredon Street which was crazy busy with stores and merchants selling stuff on the sidewalk.  The social worker (with refugee claimants) in me noticed some Africans selling jewelry.  I read an article on the Internet saying that some Africans (ex. from Sierra Leone, Sénégal, Ivory Coast) are choosing to come to Argentina because they hear that obtaining status is too hard and life is difficult in North America.  According to the article, they don't have it much easier in Buenos Aires where they live racism, unemployment and poverty.  Sounds like a familiar scenario but nonetheless they would rather live safely in Buenos Aires than in their own country - this also sounds familiar. The majority of Argentians are largely of Spanish and Italian origin with some Germans and Lebanese too.  They also have a Native population. So the idea of multiculturalism is still quite unknown despite being a country of immigrants. The walk between Once and Abasto was nice because we got to see a more residential area.


Dan and I parted ways at Abasto Mercado, a shopping mall.  I'm not a great fan of malls but I appreciated having a cappuccino in the air conditioned McDonald's since it was so hot out (my standards of course).  Yes I know McDonald's !  Who would of thought but they actually have a good café section and it was cheap.

This is what $4 can buy you in McDonald's.  In BA, a coffee always comes with
a small 'agua con gas' and a small biscuit.  Love it!

I do sometimes like walking around malls to see what kind of stores they have and what kind of American influence and presence is around.  This Mercado actually has BA history as it was considered an important marketplace way back when.  It is now transformed into a mall and has an impressive art deco ceiling.  So after a wonder around, I had enough because despite being hot, it was gorgeous outside.

Not the McDonald's I went to but never seen a kosher one.

Buenos Aires is a great city to get around by foot especially since the format is very grid like. I decided that I would walk all the way back to the hostel.  Why not.  I walked up Corrientes Street which is really busy, full of shops and restaurants and has alot of theatres.  I noticed a synagogue that was quite impressive on a side street and decided to take a photo but a police officer told me I couldn't.  Apparently there has been a bombing before or bomb threats against the Jewish community... oops.

The synagogue I wasn't supposed to photograph.

I know another McDonald's but this time in a beautiful building next door to Tramps !

I then decided it was time to eat.  So I stopped at La Opera, a corner restaurant that is typical BA - huge, in existence forever (1934 to be exact) and a huge menu.  What I learned in BA is order less first because the meal always comes with minimum a basket of bread (even for one !) and maybe some extras.  This place gave me bread, bread sticks, marinated aubergines and some little empanada.  Too bad I ordered an empanada also.  I also got a salad that had all kinds of goodness - eggs, beats, potatoes, tomatoes, carrot, lettuce, etc. -  but it was huge.  I love BA.

This is what I got for free.

This is what I ordered.

Full to capacity, I walked over to Congreso where there is the beautiful building of the Argentine National Congress.

Congreso building

Of course there were protesters.

I then walked all along Avenido de Mayo, one of my favourite streets (because it has wide sidewalks so more place to walk). It took me three lights to cross the famous 9 de Julio - the largest street in the world.   You can't be in a hurry to cross.

The huge 9 de Julio Street, crazy traffic.

Almost to the other side...

Once I reached Florida Street a famous cobble stoned pedestrian street that is full of tourists, I stumbled upon some football (soccer) fans getting ready for a match.  They took over the street.  I made a video of this (notice i jump at the sound of a cracker).

Those crazy football fans.

After many hours of walking, I arrived at the hostel, blister on toe to prove my efforts of the day.  Since my feet felt so dirty, I decided to use the bidet to wash my feet.  Bidets are usually meant to be used to wash the fanny area but I my feet needed washing.  Again, courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca, here's the video he made of the adventure (by the way, it is really embarrassing that You Tube picked my heaping cleavage as the image to use to display the video):

Tonight we wanted to go out and eat some tapas type thing.  My guide book recommended Bar El Federal in San Telmo.  It is another place of Les Notables cafés.  Really old school, circa 1856, we like it. Only Dan had the camera tonight, so all credit goes to him (www.danielbaylis.ca).

courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca

courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca

They have the same menu than La Poesia.  We couldn't understand everything on the menu.  We used 'Franklin' for some help but he couldn't help with all the words.  Who is Franklin you ask?  He's a European translator device that I bought ages ago when I was living in Europe.  Franklin has been useful when I was in Spain and so I brought him along with me.  Anyway, we wanted to eat some cheese and some meat and you know tapas stuff.  We saw there were queso dishes but we didn't want to eat just cheese.


Our waitress who seemed utterly bothered by our existence said that yes the plate we were ordering was an assortment of stuff.   When she brought our plate we realized that we ordered a plate of just meat (ham, salamis) and one queso de campo (country cheese).  Oh well we said, not what we wanted but got to eat. I started with a meat that was kinda beige and marinated.  Tasted similar to roast beef I told Dan.  Dan tried and said 'it tastes gamey'.  Then he says 'actually look there are taste buds, I think it's tongue'. OMG OMG OMG.  All of a sudden I feel sick.  I type into Franklin 'tongue' and press 'Spanish' and 'lengua' appears.  I checked the menu again, look at our dish and last ingredient... lengua. 

OMG, now I felt really sick.  I have eaten many kinds of animals in my travels - zebra, crocodile, gemsbok, impala, etc.  but for some reason eating things like tripe, liver and now tongue, it grosses me out.  For some reason, I felt responsible (because I am like that) and kept apologizing to Dan.  Dan said it was just as much his responsibility because he agreed to order it.  I think I just kept apologizing because it was my way to deal with how nauseous I felt.  So I downed my beer and we ate the rest or what we could of all the meat.

Lengua is the beige looking one next to the cheese. Photo courtesy of www.danielbaylis.ca

We headed home tired and me continually visualizing the tongue.  This day will forever be the day I ate tongue and didn't know it.