29 November 2007

foodie finds :: empanada mama

empanada mama
763 9th avenue
new york, ny 10019

i just love hot pockets of goodness. empanada mama is exactly that - goodness in a deep-fried whole wheat package. um um good! you can't go wrong with these little guys - i've not had one i didn't like. they remind me of the little empanada stand that used to be outside of my apartment in buenos aires - but i digress. these little meat-filled pastries do pack a great punch for the buck - you can eat like a champ and not even break your wallet. they have dessert ones too - omg - elvis would have died for these - wait - he may have - they do have the peanut butter banana one! even better - they'll bring it to you so you don't even have to move (far - you have to answer the door) to have them any time!

22 November 2007

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

man oh man alive - it's been a couple of unexpected days - well not so unexpected in the daytime but my god - the nights - well they have been spectacular. well - not every night - spectacular yes - but last night - let me tell you - i can sum it up in two words - foam party. that's right you heard me.

we all went to a spectacular steak dinner. i've never had a steak so tender and so good - and i never eat red meat - it melted in my mouth. we had two fantastic bottles of wine to boot. after - we went to search. walked in - typical night - drag show - ho-hum hum-drum. i honestly didn't think we'd last through the show it was that bad. when the show ended - it turned into a typical night of dancing. and we did.

the gogo boys mounted their boxes and all seemed right with the world and then someone handed them aerosol cans filled with some kind of foam. they sprayed themselves - they sprayed passers-by. innocent fun right? well - not so much. these cans began to appear in the hands of the patrons. suddenly - foam fights - people spraying people left and right. out of the blue and with no warning - the dance floor exploded in foam. evidently the event of the night was indeed a foam party.

normally a foam party would irritate the hell out of me - this however - was more fun than i could imagine. we drank - danced - and loved the night away covered in foam. it was great. what was a hum-drum night turned out to be a fantastic surprise had by all.

tonight was just a simple dinner and a few drinks. early morning tomorrow - going to colonia (uruguay) for the day then back to ba for thanksgiving dinner.

happy thanksgiving everyone!

ps - still no hot water - ugh!

19 November 2007

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

what is it with this place and the hot water? it's a moody as a cat in heat - haha - i said heat - which is exactly what our water needs. it either comes out in trickles or in buckets - but never consistent. that's the only complaint i have for this trip. otherwise - it's been great.

last night we danced the night away at club amerika - a new place for us - i'm not sure it was even here last year. multiple floors of dancing and balconies on which to socialize and people watch - it was a great spot and the music and scene was much better than at palacio.

we also went to san telmo during the day to do some antique shopping. michael went crazy for the antique seltzer bottles. i think he's taking home three. i just took a picture of them. due to time issues - we skipped the tango class - oh well.

today was a shopping day - tons and tons of great shops in our neighborhood. i treated myself to some housewares and a few pieces of clothing. lord only knows how i'll get the leather rugs home. yes indeed - more hides for the house - they are beautiful here so i opted to get a few for the living/dining rooms.

tonight we have plans to dine on the river and visit the local casino for some light gambling. after we'll hit the bars i'm sure. tonight is joshua, ben, and billy's last night in ba. they head back home tomorrow.

this is definitely a city i could visit time and time again. next time we may try to find a different company from which to rent the apartment - grrr on the hot water.

18 November 2007

say something photo :: buenos aires

here's just some fun pics from our time here so far - more to come - so stay tuned. none of these have anything to 'say' really - but they all have a back story.

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

yesterday turned out to be way much more fun than we thought. after everyone was showered and ready - we headed over to the plaza de mayo for the pride celebration. it was just like a typical small-town pride (only in spanish - we imagined the festival was like any border town pride in the u.s.). bandstand in the middle of the plaza with performers and people making announcements - booths with information and things that you could buy to support various local charities - food and beer carts - and the parade trucks parked over to one side that would eventually be in the parade later that evening. evidently it's tradition for everyone to meet and party in the plaza and then at 6pm the real party starts. this is when the parade takes off down the avenue and suddenly you are in a sea of thousands of people walking with and in the parade. it was fantastic. of course we walked next to the woman selling canned beers to keep us sufficiently hydrated for our long long walk down the parade route.

we met a 16-year old girl who's parents live in wisconsin. she's always lived in ba and refuses to move to the u.s. as a sign of rebellion to her parents. she's a fashion designer and wants to live in japan and become a harajuku girl. we also met a group of 4 older men who were from san francisco but had retired down in palm springs. they are here in ba to study spanish for a month. oh to be retired - lol. we saw trannies - hotties - freaks - and everything in between. typical pride really when you boil it down to the basics.

after we had walked the length of the parade route - we pulled off to the side for some port-a-potty action and put together a game plan for the rest of the evening. since we didn't think we were going to take as much time walking the route as we did - we had little time to get a dinner plan together. we chose to go back to mott because the food is good and we were certain they could house a party of 8. everyone went home to freshen-up and assemble back in an hour for dinner. i was able to sneak in a power-nap so i was good to go.

turned out that shawn stayed home to rest and catch up on sleep as did joshua. so our party of 8 is now only 6. anthony, michael, ben, billy, aaron (newest addition from d.c. who arrived yesterday), and myself. dinner was great - as always. anthony and i took aaron to sitges to get him acclimated to ba nightlife. we had a few drinks there then went dancing at glam. at 5am we decided to call it an early night and left - aaron decided to stay - hopefully he made it home in one piece.

i think today we are going to head to san telmo for some flea market shopping and a tango class. yes - this year i may actually dance instead of observing from the side-line. ooh - and the sinus infection seems to be on it's very last legs - fantastic. too fun!

17 November 2007

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

well here we are on day 4 of our trip and the sinus are going hay-wire from all the smoke in the clubs. i'm hopped up on everything to keep it under control and so far so good. hope to keep it contained to less than 3 days. never fails!

the water issues from the previous days fortunately were remedied after 7 grueling hours with plumbers and contractors at the house yesterday. in the middle of the turmoil - i thought it was a good idea to buzz my head. so - i grabbed my trusty clippers - plugged them into the converter and went at my head. all was fine and good except when i was only a third of the way into it - there was a pop and a burn and boom - the clippers met an untimely death. see pic of 'cancer-boy' - not pretty. finally found a place that sold clippers and was able to finish the job.

for dinner it was back to bar 6 for a light meal where we met two people from nyc and they joined us at our table. we left bar 6 and headed to bulnes class for some cocktails. it was friday night so it's the start of the 3 day club nights at palacio - so we headed there for dancing. it was just as i remembered it - huge dance floor - very loud music - affordable cover charge - it's the roxy of buenos aires.

today is gay pride. we'll be heading to the plaza later and then at 6pm is the parade down the avenue. should be fun. tomorrow we'll start the hard-core touristy stuff. can't wait to hit the cemetery and say hello to evita!

16 November 2007

say something photo :: fat nap (buenos aires)

while dining at hooters at puerto madero, buenos aires (yes i understand i said hooters - yes i understand that's an american chain - yes - bad bad decision - but i digress) - i managed to find a fantastic fat nap. you know me - always looking for an opportunity to capture things on film - this was an excellent surprise to my vacation. aww - and she has a balloon!

thanksgiving with the boys :: season 4 :: buenos aires

well what can i say - when you find a good thing - keep it. last year we had such a fantastic time in buenos aires we decided to return this year for an encore performance. anthony is back for a 4th season of 'thanksgiving with the boys' - returning are shawn (amsterdam - season 1 and canary islands - season 2) and michael (canary islands - season 2). surprise guest stars are 2 friends from d.c. (joshua and ben) and their friend from nyc (billy). they just happened to be on the plane sitting next to shawn. joshua is an old friend from the d.c. days. they are staying across town but have been excellent additions to the cast.

we booked an 'amazing' place for our stay - beautiful - new - jacuzzi - and - no hot water - water pressure - heat control - oh - and the jacuzzi isn't working. we've been here for 48 hours and we are waiting for the plumber to work his magic so we can take an actual shower for a change. hopefully we can have the 'jacuzzi laundry party' after this is all done. the jacuzzi knocked out the power to the house for a good half day until they came to fix it. more concerning is the hot water situation - you know me - i do enjoy a hot shower!

we have returned to some of our favorite haunts already. dining at bar 6, olsen, and mott so far - and an unfortunate decision to have lunch at hooters at puerto madero. if you ever get the idea to eat hooters in argentina - don't - bad bad decision - not for the aftermath that usually happens with hooters - no no - this was just inedible freezer-burned chicken (pollo - pronounced here in buenos aires - pol'jzso) with no flavor, texture, or pop.

we've also entertained ourselves at some familiar nighttime haunts - sitges, glam, and titanic (now called something else but the name escapes me). as always - sitges had horrible drag shows and friendly people - glam was - well - glam - and titanic hardly fit it's new name since the murals from the movie are still painted on the walls.

so far we are off to a great start - well - assuming we get the plumbing issues taken care of. wish us luck!