1) Mate Tea. For whatever reason, the Argentinian coffee is
not really a coffee I enjoy. It tastes different and I don’t like it. Even when
freshly prepared in a nice coffee shop, the coffee still tastes weird and even
locals have told me that they don’t fancy their own coffee. So, in order to get
my daily amount of caffeine and also because it is such a national infusion, I gave
the mate tea a try. It was not love at first sight, I found the tea to taste a
bit like dried grass, but once I got used to it, this tea became the first
thing for me to prepare in the morning. I really like it. And I also like the
way the tea is traditionally prepared, not as I was used to in either tea bags
or in a big tea pot, but rather with a metal straw from a shared hollow
calabash gourd.
2) Fernet con Coca. To our surprise, Fernet is very popular
in Argentina! Apparently, it was introduced by Italians during a European
immigration wave to Argentina. We were served our first Fernet with Coke
cocktail by our hosts in Buenos Aires. I did not grow overly fond of this
cocktail when I first tried it, but while finishing the bottle of Fernet over
the next days, I got hooked. The bitter taste of the Fernet in combination with
the sweetness of Cola is delicious and refreshing. We normally mix one measure
of Fernet with two to three measures of Cola and add some ice cubes. Give it a
try!!
3) Dulce de Leche: Heaven-like, if you have a sweet tooth. Dulce
de leche is a super-sweet, brown and gooey paste which is prepared by slowly
heating sweetened milk which then changes flavour and colour in the process. I
finished a little pot of this yesterday evening simply by eating it spoon by
spoon straight out of its container… Okay, I might have add an urge for sweet things
that evening, but still… Mmmmmmh!
I found a recipe for this sweet stuff on the webpage www.seriouseats.com (husband is a huge
fan of this page for a longer time now; have a look at it if like cooking!), a
webpage that provides great general insights into the processes of preparing
food as well as recipes. The following link on this webpage discusses various
ways of preparing dulce de leche, a normally quite time consuming process (http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/12/dulce-de-leche-caramel-sauce-recipe.html).
I really cannot wait trying to prepare this sweet stuff by myself. Oh, and it
will be batches and batches of it, for sure…!
4) Alfajores. In Argentina, these confections generally consist
of two round, sweet biscuits made of wheat flour or corn starch joined together
with dulce de leche; however, varieties (depending on the country) include
different elements in the preparation of the biscuits, fillings and coatings. I
could eat those alffajores for breakfast, lunch and dinner… Super yummy! Again,
this was added to my list of things I have to try by myself, once proper
kitchen equipment is available again (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/dulces-alfajores-dulce-de-leche-sandwich-cookies-recipe.html).
5) Malbec wine. Malbec is a purple grape variety used in
making red wine. We have not come across this grape before and were surprised
to find out when doing some research, that it is a grape originating in France.
It is even known as one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux
wine (another fact I did not know; I always thought that Bordeaux wine also
related to a specific grape and not only the region in France, but anyway…). The
Malbec grape was introduced to Argentina over hundred years ago and is very
popular here. Someone even told us that French people do not seem to like this
wine… well, not sure about this, but I looked further into it. The Malbec grape
appears to have been very popular in France once, but then lost ground to
Carbernet Franc and Merlot because of its bigger sensitiveness to many
different vine ailments.
However, it’s delicious and we currently enjoy it on a
regular basis. Actually, I am sipping on a glass of this wine just now. :)
In the meantime…
Our second and third day at the olive farm are over and we
are still enjoying our time here a lot. The weather was lovely yesterday, with
a lot of sunshine but at the same time not too hot. We harvested more olive trees
and the work is somewhat meditative. You pick some olives, the thoughts start
to wander and occasionally we share them with each other or I just talk to
myself, the leaves and the countryside, haha! Our host Gisela joins us from
time to time for two or three hours and gives us the opportunity to practise
our Spanish which for most of the time reduces to trying to understand the
meaning but we’ll get there eventually! *fingers*crossed*
Yesterday was also a national holiday in Argentina, referring
to the May Revolution in 1810. This revolution was a week-long series of events
that took place from May 18 to 25, in Buenos Aires. The result of this
revolution was the establishment of a local government, the Primera Junta on
May 25. It was the first successful revolution in South American’s independence
process from Spain.
Because of this holiday, we were also invited to a big lunch
which took around three hours of time! And we struggled getting to work again
thereafter, slightly tipsy from the lovely wine we shared and some sparkling
wine made from honey. Super delicioso! – Sweet, but a little bit amargo at the
same time. However, our hosts were not worried or rushing us, they simply said
that we should pick the olives ‘una por una’… :)
Today, we continued picking olives but it was cloudy and
hence, much colder. The farmer’s dogs keep us company while we are out in the
field: an older lady, a teenager and two pups. It so warms our hearts to see
them happily greeting us every morning and accompanying us when we walk from
the cottage out onto the field, resting next to the tree we are busy with or
playing with each other and sometimes barking at other farmers that are passing
by. On our way home for lunch or in the evening, they trot along with us again.
It is so sweet to see how quickly they accepted us and they keep us entertained
a lot… Dogs are just so cool <3
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