Our jet down here from Buenos Aires had to stop for gas before arriving at this port town, which is surrounded by the snow-capped Andes. I’ll add pics later since this may be my last chance at a hot spot before boarding the Ocean Nova for 10 days in Antarctica with no Internet. I’m staying at the Hotel Los Nires, a lovely rustic chalet on a hill about a 15 peso ($5) cab ride from “downtown” Ushaia. As you would expect at the end of the world, there’s a casino. And an Argentinean navy base (Viva los Malvinas). I took a break from Malbec quest to sample the Ushaia beer Beagle, which was refreshing drunk with a meaty sandwich at about 11:30 p.m., which meant it was almost dusk. Besides, while dining in the Palermo section of Buenos Aires last night, I had a pair of fabulous Malbecs, a 2004 Cadus and 2006 Finca Las Moras reserva. Along with — what else? — two types of steak, sweetbreads, chorizo, dulce de leche crepes and flan. We finished up around 2 and my dinner companions and I retired. They were headed to the Mendoza wine region for New Year’s. I was headed here. I bid the Alvear Palace goodbye and headed to the Jorge Newbery domestic airport. The folks at the Alvear strongly suggested not to put anything valuable in my luggage, advice seconded by my friends from dinner. The same friends also noted street crime in Buenos Aires is experiencing an uptick and noted some neighborhoods where it could be fatal to be there after dark. I don’t remember the names but I didn’t go much out of the Recoleto except to dinner in Palermo so this was not a priority for me. I love Buenos Aires and hope to get back. In Ushaia there are hills and stairs everywhere so my limping needs to calm down. Tomorrow I will tour the National Park near town before boarding the Nova around 4 p.m. (1 p.m. or so Eastern). I have to be up and eating again at 7 a.m. before the tour. Since it’s 1 a.m. now, I’m out.
Archive for December, 2008
The gilded Alvear Palace of spadom and champagne
December 29, 2008All right. After a hamburger with cheese and a fried egg (those Argentinians never met a protein they don’t like), some Malbec, and Torrontes, I collapsed last night and nearly missed my 11 a.m. manicure/pedicure. My feet and hands are now brilliant with red toes and pearly fingers. I left the spa long enough to linger over a discounted brunch with Mumm champagne (you could do much worse) and creme brulee, flan, shrimp, scallops, cheeses, beef medallions, pork loin, and green things known as vegetables. I had a little of everything and then struck up a conversation with the neighboring table, gave out the blog URL (feel free to do the same if you are reading this) and then went back to the spa for intense relaxation involving whirlpools, steam rooms, an eight-jet shower and my MP3 player playing first Rufus Wainwright then Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. I returned to my room/suite/apartment and decided that I should walk around the neighborhood. So back to the Giant Trees I went. Here’s a pic:
Big tree in Buenos Aires
I went back to the hotel and decided that leaving Argentina without leather was crazy, especially at 3.5 pesos to the dollar. So I went here:
The motto is "Nuestras Cosas" "Our Things"
One roomy black purse and two pairs of shoes later I left. Here’s a tip when shopping abroad: Make sure you get your VAT refund form from the seller. At the airport when you leave the country, you can get the form (or forms if you shop more than one place) stamped by customs and get the local tax — sometimes as high as 15 percent — refunded to you. This is not a bad thing
Later I am headed to the Palermo neighborhood for steak and wine. I’ve been told to arrive around 9 p.m. by my hosts, and not Argentina 9 p..m., which means about 9:30 at the earliest.
Buenos Aires Alvear Palace Hotel and the Recoleto Sunday market
December 28, 2008Before leaving DC from National Airport, I parked myself in the Admirals Club to await my flight to Miami. The Negress is happy to report that the Club has the Sea Glass 2007 Sauvignon Blanc I was first introduced to at the MIT Sloan dinner (for that post, click here). I had a couple of glasses and then the Club was closing so down to the gate I went. Our flight to Miami was supposed to leave on time, but was delayed by an hour with a crew change. Having cocktails in first class helped ease the delay and I did my bit by switching seats twice to accommodate people travelling together. Once on the ground in Miami, I had to journey to the, er, “neighboring” concourse to make my connection to Buenos Aires. The crabby foot (plantar fasciitis still hasn’t abated) had me hobbling through a maze a grey corridors with blue carpets and many signs apologizing for the renovation. I was still a good 1,000 yards away when some guy with a wheelchair took pity on me and took me to the gate. This airport badly needs a train system. I settled into my aisle bulkhead seat and unwrapped my quilted blanket and cloth-covered pillow to enjoy that international business class experience. Well, Let’s just say American Airlines has a long way to go to catch Continental and Qantas. No amenities except for a loaner pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones (note to Santa: me want). Pretty decent Gavi di Gavi Italian white wine marred by the presence of ice crystals. Good seats and video system that allowed me to recline and watch “Mamma Mia,” which I enjoyed every bit as much as the stage production (Worth noting: Neither the film or the stage version has anything to do with a reality and that’s lovely considering how that’s going right now). There were no blankets and pillows in the “main cabin” aka steerage at all. A lot of apologies were issued and the flight was kept toasty warm to make up for it. I sweated some but no matter. I arrived in Buenos Aires and really started sweating on the ground since it was nearly 80 degrees and I was wearing a sweater. I arrived at the Alvear Palace and tried not to drool openly as I checked in. No pics I take can do this justice so just check out the site. There’s butler service, turn down service, little roses embroidered on the terry cloth slippers and a spa which my feet will check out tomorrow. Now it’s time for the bar and then dinner. I did breeze through the Recoleto open air market, which features handcrafts and a lot of mate serving vessels. Here’s how it looks on the day after:
The market is on Sunday. This was taken the day after.
There are also dogs, kids, lovers, musicians and leather goods. Across from the market site is park with three 250 year old trees. Those need a picture. After my pedicure, I’ll walk over and do that.
Christmas fashion: Wine sweaters
December 28, 2008Every journey starts with a single bottle. The Negress and her sister descended on her cousins in DC to renew an annual tradition of dining and catching up. Thanks to a fortuitous set of circumstances, we had cooking by Chef Charley two nights in a row. Here’s our chef and his fiancee:
Two of the happiest people I know
Christmas night, standing rib roast with cheesy potatoes and Brussels sprouts plus mocha torte for dessert. Up until that we powered down an intensely rustic Malbec, a 2005 Chateau Reignac White Bordeaux, a 2005 Chateau Picampeau right bank red Bordeaux and some Il Bastardo, one of what I have come to call over-crush wines. These are wines made in California from all the juice the major producers have left over. Two Buck Chuck is probably the best known, but there are others that are good for evenings like this one, where talk and wine flow freely. The next night with pork loin, grilled portobello mushrooms with Gorgonzola and some mashed sweet potatoes and yams, another Picampeau , a 2005 Haut Mazerac Bordeaux and another Bastardo were killed as was a Pinotage from South Africa which was kind of odd. Occasionally, you do get an old tire nose with this crossing, but this wine had after-notes of Equal. Very weird. Not corked, but not good.
As for the wine sweaters, these are what your teeth wear to bed if you don’t brush and floss before retiring. Think of mohair on your teeth. With better wines, maybe angora but still a fuzzy feeling all around.
The year in review 2008
December 15, 2008Some of you will be reading this because you got the URL for this blog in a holiday card from me. This is designed for people who haven’t been reading every post all year. For those of you who have been doing that, thanks. If you haven’t, it’s understandable. This has been quite a year in terms of changes good and bad big and small. I spent some portion of the beginning of the year putting the finishing touches on my recovery from the right knee replacement. It’s gone well except for the occasional outbreaks of tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. The Crohn’s is sleeping and I am happy. My Mom hangs in and doesn’t recognize me as far as I know but she seems happy to see me whenever I make it down to DC. She will be 84 exactly one month from Christmas Day. One of the highlights of the year was a gathering last Christmas at my cousin Leslie’s home of various Whitt (Mom’s maiden name) cousins and kids. With any luck we can repeat some variation of this for the impending Christmas. Here’s a photo:
All our Whitts about us
It was the best Christmas ever. As the year rolled on, I got serious about my wine studies and continued with classes at the Cervantes Institute and the French Institute Alliance Francaise. I also enrolled at the International Wine Center to study for my Level 3 Advanced Certificate, a major step on the road to sommelier work. The exam was held in August and I was mildly terrified of the outcome. We had to blind taste one wine and guess the price and the area of origin. Eight weeks later, I got my pin and my certificate in the mail. I passed with merit. I have also been participating in Wine Blogging Wednesday, a monthly Web-wide tasting with topics assigned by various bloggers. That’s been fun and has added to my education.
I think there’s no question that the biggest news of the year was my decision to accept a buyout after 11 years at the newspaper in Newark. The print news biz is a grim thing, and I knew for a while it was time to make a change. In the intervening months, I learned how to code HTML and the nuances of Cascading Style Sheets, InDesign and Photoshop. I study French and have applied for about 15 jobs with no feedback for the moment.
Anyway, with a half century on this earth looming, I’m headed to Antarctica since once I start working again, who knows when I will be able to afford a vacation of any length? I’ve also applied for a fellowship to the Wine Writers Symposium, an event I attended earlier this year that was quite enlightening.
My neighbors welcomed a baby in June and I spent a lot of the months since then knitting for the little cutie. I love to knit and spent much of the year plumping up my yarn stash and hanging with the Yarrrrn Pirates, my knitting posse.
Just in case you were worried, my rock ‘n’ roll self careened to prominence and as a result, I saw three different shows on the Nine Inch Nails “Lights Above the Sky” tour. I also bought the new Metallica album and am contemplating if I can afford the new Calle 13 record. I am still on the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame nominating committee, and that’s fun too.
Oh yeah, nice election, no? Best wishes to you all and thanks for checking in. These entries have taken the place of the tree-killing holiday letter I used to put in the cards. Next year I will put up a Christmas tree.
Knitting Noro
December 8, 2008Before we dive into “Knitting Noro: The Magic of Knitting with Hand Dyed Yarns” by Jane Ellison, a confession must be made. One day at the Connecticut Yarn and Wool Company in Haddam, we ran into a great yarn sale and some lovely hand-dyed yarn so we scooped up as much as we could fit in a bag (that was the deal) and went home and pumped up our yarn stash. Not too long after that, we opened this book and started drooling. Noro yarns are hand-dyed and run about $12 a skein. Some are mohair blends, which don’t suit me at all (you want hives with that?) but all are gorgeous. Ellison has collected patterns that bring out the beauty of the yarns and are easy to follow. There’s even an LYS guide in the back if you want to find the yarns locally plus YarnMarket, one of our favorite on-line retailers. The book will make a nice holiday gift for knitters who are ready for beauty without too much pain and suffering.
Switch Craft and the need for time and disposable income
December 8, 2008There’s never a good time to lose your job, but the arrival of “Switch Craft: Battery Powered Crafts to Make and Sew” almost made the Negress regret taking the buyout from her most recent place of employment. Never mind that she doesn’t sew, has been mildly electrocuted from toasters and isn’t sure she needs gloves that can handle touch screens. So much of the stuff in here is very cool and intriguing you will almost forget about how many of these objects will increase your carbon footprint to the size of a clown shoe. So we recommend seriously browsing, but not sure if we would spring for the $24.95 price. Hey. that’s two movies out or two months of downsized NetFlix. Your crafting mileage may vary.
National Finals Rodeo and craft books from Potter
December 8, 2008You may be wondering how these topics are related, but sometimes even a dedicated hockey fan has to take a break from her usual pursuits. When we are not drinking wine, we knit. We have a pair of Perpetual Sweaters we pick up and work on when we don’t have something fun to do. Where the National Finals Rodeo fits in is what we do when we’ve been seized with enthusiasm for a new project that knocks the Perpetual Sweaters out of our hands. In short, we stay up late, ball yarn and watch cowboy butts get flung earthwards at high speed. This is the 50th anniversary of the NFR. For the first 10 days or so of December, various ESPNs rev up the rodeo action at midnight. The cowboys break legs, tear pectoral muscles, dislocate elbows and land with a thud with alarming regularity. They are also jut-jawed, mostly good-looking and black and brown on occasion. No matter who is president, these guys are not getting health insurance, dig?
Anyway, what started the latest knitting jag was a chance remark from the grandmother upstairs that her grandson needed a hat with earflaps. So we picked up “The Expectant Knitter” and knocked out the “Winter Wonderland Hat” in about 12 hours of total knitting time. Here’s the hat:
Winter Wonderland Hat
Cute, no? The book is by Marie Connolly, owner of the StitchDC shops in Washington. If you’re not having a baby, you can skip the bits about your growing belly, taking your vitamins and other prenatal mishegas. There are some very cute patterns in here and most of them are easy to follow and open to modification by most intermediate and advanced knitters.
This is a three yarn ball book. On the Negress yarn ball rating scale, three means you’ll make at least three things in the book and you’ll share it eagerly with your knitting pals. You can check out Potter Craft for more stuff and blogs and whatnot.
Cervantes Institute tasting in the Land of Women: female Spanish winemakers
December 8, 2008Helio San Miguel leads the wine classes at the Cervantes Institute with a dash of philosophy, some film recommendations and a delicious sense of humor. This class, which was held on Dec. 4 and Nov. 28, highlighted 12 wines crafted by female winemakers in Spain. Helio offered some hilarious generalizations about “feminine” wines being more rounded, elegant and sophisticated while “masculine” wines were brawnier, more belligerent and whatnot. I half expected him to say that the female winemakers had to take one week a month off from wine-making decisions because their hormones were getting the best of them. He didn’t, but did ask why he had more women in his introductory classes than men, We pondered that for a while, and then went through a 12-wine flight of girls having fun with grapes. In the spirit of the staircase, I think there are more women in the introductory classes because women like the idea of a class structure where men will just go out, buy wine and bang out a hierarchy the same way they repair drywall — shoddily with no thought to aesthetics. Fight amongst yourselves. As for the wines, my favorite was the 2006 Can Blau from Montsant, a a blend of Garnacha, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mazuelo and Syrah. This is a “feminine” wine but in the best sense of elegance and suppleness. It’s also about $20 a bottle, and is a much better value than some of the wines from the neighboring Priorat region. The worst wine hands down was the 2003 Torres Milmanda, an engineered oak bomb Chardonnay that will set you back about 50 clams. It’s extremely popular in Spain, but I like to think the Spaniards know they are drinking a parody of some California Chardonnay. This wine is neither masculine nor feminine; it’s just bad. Also worth seeking out is the 2004 Elias Mora Crianza from Toro, which needs some time to mature fully but could grow into something pretty fabulous. Heilo is teaching classes at the Institute through June and you can drop by or check out the lineup here. Click on the wine seminars to see the lineup. Word to the wise: During the tastings, no one talks about the wine, but any and all political subjects are fair game and offered with a malicious spirit. If this kind of thing offends you, just drink and don’t say much.
Wine Blogging Wednesday #52: Casa Lapostolle 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon
December 3, 2008The indolence of unemployment has left the Negress almost incapable of meeting deadlines so this particular WBW sneaked up on her. Thanks to Tim Lemke at Cheap Wine Ratings, our topic this evening is Chilean red wines under $20. I ended up inadvertently fulfilling this assignment two weeks or so ago when I sampled the 2006 Casa Lapostolle Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2006 retails for about $10 most places, and, unlike its Wine Spectator top wine Clos Apalta $100 a bottle sibling, this is a wine for anyone who relishes a well-balanced Cabernet that doesn’t require making off with the kids’ college money or borrowing against the house. The wine was served with an earthy mushroom dish when I first had it, and its black fruit and supple tannins were a inspired match. All of the Casa Lapostolle wines I’ve had are extraordinary for the price and are perfect for these cash-poor days. In fact, we suspect the Clos Apalta is hideously overrated (Helio San Miguel confirmed this suspicion the last time we tasted with him), but we love the Casa wines right down to the ground. I can also heartily recommend the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, which I opened before writing this post since I clearly thought the word “Sauvignon” was enough. This wine came in at $10.69 with tax from an odd little wine store in Livingston New Jersey. The Casa wines are widely available and are now on sale at one of my local wine stores for about $8 a bottle.
