Cafe culture

La Biela

One of the things that BsAs (Buenos Aires) is known for is its many cafes. There is a strong culture of artists, authors, protesters and revolutionaries sitting in cafes talking about politics.  And the tradition continues today. One of our Spanish teachers tells us that people can spend up to five hours setting the world to rights over a single cup of coffee!  You'd be thrown out of any cafe in the England long before that.

We've been sampling a few of the many nearby cafes in the hour break between our Spanish lessons. So far the two best ones are Crack-up and La Salamandra. Crack-up is a few tables in a little old bookshop that has quite a laid back, studenty feel to it, a friendly guy serving and tasty pancakes with dulce de leche. For those unfamiliar, dulce de leche is a very sweet caramelised milk, much like the filling of a banoffee pie.

A plate of cakes in La Salamandra

La Salamandra is Nic's favourite so far. It's run by a company that produces dulce de leche and mozzarella and has a much more modern feel. But the best bit is the cakes. They have a great selection of little canapé sized cakes and they are all look beautiful and taste lovely, especially the Alfajoritas (dulce de leche between two shortbread rounds). I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that between us we have tried them all!  Of course this indulgence will have to stop as is isn't helping our plans to get fitter before we head off on the truck!

For drinks we have been working through beers, wines, tea and coffee, but my favourite is the hot chocolate - or 'submarino' - where you get a glass of hot milk and a small bar of chocolate to submerge into it.  I especially liked the one where the chocolate was actually shaped like a submarine.

La Biela

But the best cafes are the big old ones; touristy perhaps, but they still show a real picture of traditional Argentina.  We found one in Recoleta yesterday.  We had walked around the craft stalls by the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried, and hadn't yet had lunch, when we spotted La Biela.  It dates back to 1850, but really got popular in the 1950s as a regular for motor racing drivers.  It has a slightly art deco style, which I rather liked, and was relaxed and friendly.  It's a very touristy area, but the people inside seemed to be locals out with family or friends, maybe a benefit of us coming here in the winter. We opted for sharing one each of their two afternoon teas, expecting a nice snack to keep us going until dinner.  Of course we had reckoned without the huge Argentinian portion sizes and ended up sharing three rounds of toasted sandwiches, two croissants and five cakes.

We thought La Biela was great, and will be trying out other cafes during our stay here, but we skipped dinner last night!