We're Missing the Chile #10

In which we continue our recounting of little cp's adventures in Argentina. Sites seen in Buenos Aires:
1. La Boca - Little cp's favorite part! Colourful buildings, restaurants with live tango dancers, musicians playing sambas in the streets...What's not to like? Some musicians just walked into the restaurant little cp was eating at and started playing! Then some customers started dancing! Good times! Also, saw some street dancers doing national dances and walked along the Calle Caminito.

Scenes from La Boca:


2. La Recoleta Cemetery - Interesting and large cemetery in upscale district. Click here for a walk through. Some of the tombs had been broken into. One had a cat living in it! Mostly famous for being the final resting place of Eva Peron.

Historical Note: The life of the much loved, much popularized Eva Peron is interesting and fraught with political and personal strife, but I'm not going to talk about that because we're talking about the cemetery (focus people!). More appropriate to the topic at hand is the crazy story of what happened to her after she died. After her death in 1952, the corpse was embalmed and put on display at the headquarters of the General Confederation of Labor (many thousands of admirers would come from far and wide to see her, light candles, hold vigils, and other fun Catholic things). It was due to the meticulousnes of her embalmer, Pedro Ara, that the body managed to stay in such pristine condition, potentially forever (he even preserved the body with all its internal organs, which are normally removed). Apparently he was going for Lenin-quality preservation...it took him a year to accomplish. Anyway in 1955, the military leaders who overthrew Juan Peron confiscated Eva Peron's corpse because they were afraid that the opposition would use the body to rally the populace. Since the body was such a powerful symbol (for the nation's poor especially) they couldn't just destroy it or they would risk massive repercussions. So they tried to hide it, but they were never able to keep it totally hidden/secret from locals, who would bring flowers and other offerings. This was in spite of trying to trick people by employing multiple wax replicas of the body that Pedro Ara had made. One story goes that, after many stays in various and sundry military installations in Buenos Aires, the body was taken to the house of an army major who stored it in his attic. But (and this goes to the legend of Eva's haunting of Argentina/her corpse/her resting place), the major mysteriously shot his wife and so the body had to be moved again. The military decided to send the body to a secret site in Italy where it was buried under the name "Maggi"(this was in '57). Juan, who had been exiled to Spain, managed to recover it in 1971 in exchange for granting his blessing to the new Argentinian regime of the day. He stored it in an open casket in his house! Far from being weirded out by this, his then wife Isabel performed daily devotions and even combed it's hair. Peron was re-elected in 1974 but promptly died and Isabel went back to Argentina to succeed him as president and brought Eva with her (persumably to lend support to her presidency). The body stayed at the presidential estate until 1976 (when Mrs. Peron was overthrown) when it was finally buried in the Duarte (Eva's maiden name) family tomb in the Recoleta Cemetery. She lies in a glass case 6 metres underground, surrounded by bank vault-esque steel plates. Whew!

3. Casa Rosada - President's house. Pink-coloured because mixed white and red (the conservative and liberal colours).

4. Obelisco - The Obelisk of Buenos Aires, built in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the city's founding.
Fun things to do with your Obelisk:
-acrobatic highwire acts
-hang signs geared at silencing the masses
-celebrate football wins
-put a giant pink condom on it
-dress it up like a pencil in remembrance of la Noche de los Lápices.

5. Floralis Generica - giant metal sculpture of a flower made by architect Eduardo Catalano in 2002. It is 23 metres tall and has a mechanism inside that opens the 6 petals in the morning and closes them at night. Cool! It is located in the Plaza Naciones Unidas (behind El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes).

6. El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - The National Fine Arts Museum houses some of the most important art pieces in South America. Showcases important pre-20th Century works from all over the world (and the occasional contemporary artist). I don't know much about art but they have a Monet that I recognize from that Monet coffee table book my parents have. I dunno, you could spend days there looking! Also the building has an interesting history...

7. Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo - Spitting distance from #5 and #6. Cool museum with a grab bag of fancy pants decorative art from furniture to porcelain housed in what was once one of the country’s grandest single-family homes in the early 20th century.

Personal observations:
-So many plazas! San Martin (of course), Chile, Uruguay, Francia, Republica, etc. Also there are so many museums in Buenos Aires! Too many things to see in a day! Sensory overload!
-Saw a local dance troupe doing capoeira. Neat.
-Buenos Aires has amazing ice cream!
-The wealth disparity in the city is clearly evident in it's slums with hole-ridden buildings and people begging for change to live. Upsetting and makes you appreciate how much we have in Canada.

FYI: Italian connections:
Did you know that Argentina has a significant Italian/Italian ancestry population? It's true! Italians formed a significant portion of the immigrant population to Argentina since the late 1870s (although the flow has stemmed in since the 1960s). Many features of Italian culture have permeated Argentinian culture such as customs and food (resulting in the many many Italian inspired, Argentinian fusion restaurants). If Wikipedia is to be believed, Argentina has 1.5 million Italian speakers and 60% of Argentinians have some sort of Italian ancestry. Hmmm...coincidence that little cp like this place so much?

p.s. Check the detailed map below and see if you can find the places mentioned (click to embiggen).

Cooking with Chickens! (#2): Gnocchi

Gnocchi (aka. gnocchi di patata) are little potato dumplings that are eaten like pasta (i.e. with sugo or cheese). They are a tasty Italian treat that can't be beat and is one of little cp's favorites. FYI It is pronounced "nee-yo-kee" and comes from the word "nocchio" which means a knot in wood (as in Pinnochio). From what I understand, in Toscana (Tuscany) some call them "topini" which means little mice (as in Topo Gigio). I don't really advise ordering them as that anywhere else though.

Ingredients:
1kg (2.2lbs) potatoes
1 egg
300g (11oz.) flour
salted water

This video is OK recipe-wise, but is clearly Inglese in its approach. First you don't have to use rock salt, regular salt is fine. Basically, make some mashed potatoes. But, no extras like milk or butter. You can season it if you really want to but if you boiled them in salted water you probably won't need any more salt (or anything really, maybe some salt in the water when you boil the gnocchi if you want), mix in egg and flour to make dough. Sometimes if people want to get fancy they add things to the dough like spinach puree or tomato, but that's pretty crazy. Anyway, you cut the dough into gnocchi by rolling a small portion into a finger-thick string and chop them off. In the video they leave them like that (Blasphemy!), but I assume it is because of how they served them with oil). It's much better if you shape them. We squish and roll each one with two fingers to make a folded indent, which makes some texture to catch the sauce. Some people roll them onto a fork (or gnocchi board), over the zester side of a 4-sided cheese grater, or whatever. It's all good as long as it's done with love (and preferably painstakingly).

Now, the biggest thing that can go wrong is to over boil them. If you do that, they might turn to rubber, sludge, or even disintegrate (depending on how long you boiled them and the consistency of the dough you started with). It's best not to boil too many at a time because they will float when they are ready to come out. Also, some people fry them (with onions, etc. like perogies) instead of boiling, but I've never had them like that. As for serving, I've never seen anyone eat them with olive oil like in the video, but I assume that is why he didn't shape the gnocchi at all (as I said, the shaping process is to make it so the gnocchi will catch and hold sauce, but who wants to eat dumplings with puddles of oil in them?). We always eat it with tomato sauce or with butter and Parmigiano. But, to each their own I suppose. So there you have it! Buon Appetito! Next time, Nonna's chicken soupa...or maybe sugo...whichever I feel like.

Buon Vigilia di Natale!

Happy day of "fasting" everyone! Buon Vigilia di Natale (Christmas eve)! The day before any feast day there is a traditional day of abstinance from gluttony and Vigil Mass (note the connection to Vigilia de Natale). Nowadays this is really only for Christmas eve (which makes sense because every other day is a feast day in the Catholic calendar depending on which saints you like). The 1983 Code of Canon Law eliminated true fasting, but traditional Catholics still keep the fast in spirit by eating seafood, noodles, other forms of pasta, etc. for the Christmas Eve Supper (so no "meat"). Many Italian households always prepare a certain number of fish dishes (mostly a central/southern trdaition) . Seven is most common and this usually represents the seven sacraments (but may also represent the days in a week, the seven pilgrimage churches in Rome, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or just about any religious-y thingy that is a multiple of seven). We don't usually trouble with that many fishes though (baccala, shrimp, and pasta with fish sugo are the staples), I think we're doing good enough just observing the fish thing. Traditions are fun.

A note on goodies: Most Italian Christmas goodies like panettone (italian version of fruitcake) or torrone (nougat) are made with nuts (especially almonds) and honey. According to folklore, to eat nuts favors the fertility of the earth and aids in the increase of wealth and prosperty (i.e. more children and animals running around=good). The honey thing goes back to ancient Rome where it was offered at this time of year so that the new year might be sweet. Those wacky peasants and their tasty theories.

Wily Italians