Hot dogs and dinosaurs

We were very fortunate to be able to borrow a car from a friend during this 6-week summer break. After living car-free for the last 2 and a half years it has made a nice break from walking to the grocery store and riding bikes everywhere. Next week we'll be back to biking to school, but we took advantage of the car for some huge grocery store trips and a few day-trips out of the city.

Last week we drove 2 hours to this great hot dog stand in La Plata, a city south of Buenos Aires.

Super pancho con papas fritas

The hot dogs just happened to be outside of the Museo de La Plata, the Museum of the Natural Sciences Department of the University of La Plata. Okay, we didn't really go for the hot dogs - we went to see dinosaurs!

This isn't even one of the Argentine dinosaurs - it's a replica of a Diplodocus that was found in Wyoming

There were also these awesome Glyptodonts, giant prehistoric armadillos that ruled in South America!

 

Milan is sad because they are not dinosaurs

Whole rooms full of skeletons!

A cross-section of a paper wasp nest!

Giant models of mosquitoes!

 

...and mosquito larvae!

Awww cute little Ades larvae

There was more upstairs but Milan was D.O.N.E. with the museum as soon as we finished the dinosaur sections, so we had our gormet pancho lunch and headed next door to the Jardin Zoologico y Botanico. This makes our third zoo since Thanksgiving and we have now covered every zoo within a 100 km radius of Buenos Aires. This one made us understand the reason for the animal rights spray paint graffiti outside. Let's just say that the highlight was this palm tree with a strangler fig growing around it.

Come on, admit it, that is cool!

La Plata has such a different feel from Buenos Aires or the suburbs where we live. Smaller, more provincial, and less expensive. Even the hot dogs were cheaper! And in between La Plata and Buenos Aires the pampas grasslands are flat and rolling and beautiful.

Happy Chinese New Year!

I dragged Milan to Chinatown this afternoon driven by a craving for noodles and nostalgia for Chinese New Year. I don't know why I thought the Chinatown I have visited a half dozen times before would magically become all-of-my-favorite-places-in-China and my favorite food too just because it is Chinese New Year. But I think I did expect some sort of excitement. None. Nope. Nothin' much going on down there. And the noodle-lunch counter in the "Almost-RT Mart" grocery store was closed. Sniff sniff. I needed those noodles. So we headed to a restaurant and I ordered the most disappointing greasy slimy nasty plate of noodles I have even seen. I should have know better.

With all of the frustrations and difficulties of living in a small-ish city in China, I never thought I would miss it THIS MUCH. I miss it terribly. All the time. Most of all I miss our community and wonderful friends there. Friends who are still there and those who have moved on already. A community that felt like family almost instantly. Missing all of the wonderful Chinese food is largely about missing the double-table-squeezed-into-a-crowded-smoky-restaurant with friends. Kids and all. The quiet lunches of hand-stretched noodles after school with Milan and any friends we passed on the way with a craving for a big steamy bowl of noodles. Hot pot adventures where the soup is so hot you cry and eat with your coat and hat on in the winter. Long afternoons of preparing elaborate dinners, themed potlucks, and so many dishes it takes three rounds to wash them all.

So, in order to try to celebrate in our own way, over here on the other side of the planet, we came home and made shuǐ jiǎo (水餃) boiled dumplings. So much better than those greasy noodles I had for lunch. I even attempted shǒu sī bāo cài 手撕包菜 hand-torn cabbage. It was not half as good as Spicy restaurant, and missing a big helping of friends.

 

Happy Year of the Dragon, wherever you are!

Restaurant of the Week - Beef, it's what's for lunch

I know you have been anxiously awaiting more more restaurant experiences and pictures, but unfortunately our plan of a family lunch-a-week has been stalled due to a family epidemic of viral pink eye.

 

Milan, looking like the un-dead with his RED eye

I brought the plague into our house on Christmas Eve (I will spare you the close-up pictures of my bloody eye), Milan followed about a week later, and Tim is bringing up the rear to ensure that at least one of us is infected for a total of 30 days.  So, given the state of our infection, depression, quarantine, and shocking appearance, we avoided restaurants and most public places where sunglasses were not acceptable. I am happy to report that Milan and I are 100% better. Tim is on the mend and is now able to pass for normal when dining on an outside patio setting (with sunglasses).

Needless to say I have a blog backlog and will try to get out the half dozen blogs I have in my head, starting with the most recent and working backwards. 

So today we headed down to the Rio de la Plata for a traditional Argentine parrilla restaurant. That means BEEF. Barbecue. Grilled meat.

 

  We ordered, what else, Beef. 

Tim can't wait for my photo opportunity. Notice the sunglasses. 

The steak in the foreground (mine) is called bife de choirzo, like a NY strip steak (they cut up the cow differently here, so we are still trying to learn the different names for the cuts. Can I admit that I thought I was ordering sausage?). Tim's is called bife de lomo (tenderloin). They were both amazing. And even a side of "vegetables" (french fries and some pureed squash). 

After stuffing ourselves with meat, bread, potatoes, and a coffee to finish off, we took a stroll through the antique stalls across the street, filled with treasures, junk, and about 10 years worth of McDonald's Happy Meal toys.

Only 10 more days of summer vacation! But, who's counting?