Mendoza Week 18

I wander around to relax and shot street photography this week, I took some shots at a street entertainers working in a major intersection, and a soap bubble maker at Plaza Independencia.

Wondering around in Mendoza it’s one of my favorite thing to do, the sun is always out, this is the sunniest city I ever lived in.

Street entertainment

Plaza Independencia soap bubble maker

I doesn’t feel like Christmas is coming, but some store sells Christmas Trees and decorations, I asked around what was the Argentine way, apparently it’s really simple, family gathering around an asado, fruit salad, helado and sandwiches, not too much decoration, only biblical ones.
In Mendoza and I guess in Argentina they don't put their decoration out months in advance like we do in North America, they wait till the last few days before Christmas.

No snow for Christmas!

Helado is a great way to celebrate everything, I really enjoy trying deferent place, a lot of them are artisanal. What I am looking for is not as much as the creamy taste but the real taste of fruit or chocolate. I stopped by one of the biggest “Ferruccio Soppelsa” this week to try their dark chocolate and cherry helado, it was very good this one will go on my list.

The best ice cream

Sharing great moment with friends,

I also went to the mountain I will have a post about it in January when my post on Mendoza will resume,
Happy holidays to all,

Love

Diane:)))

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Mendoza Week 17

My friend Anne the Birthday girl, Rowena and I sitting at Soltiga before our excursion to Godoy Cruz

Monday I had to pick up my friend Anne arriving from Calgary, got there with my friend Craig to help with the luggage, her flight from Santiago Chile was delay for one hour, it’s a long trip but she was not too tired, she slept in her first flight a 10h direct flight from Toronto to Santiago. She will stay at Soltiga an apartment hotel in Mendoza Quinta section just 5 min walk from our house.

She will stay in Mendoza for 3 ½ months enjoying the Argentine summer.

Her flight landed at 5:30pm and by the time she passed customs and the ride to Soltiga it was already 7pm, to welcome her to our neighborhood we decided to have a beer at Leon and introduce her to David the owner, after what we had a light diner at our place.

On Tuesday I went with her to the “blue pesos exchange” she got a very good rate, around 12 pesos per US$.  

Wednesday was Anne birthday, and Craig had organized a visit to Godoy Cruz a city that is part of the metropolitan area of the provincial capital Mendoza to meet with one of his friend an artist muralist, and to show us one of the last mural project in Godoy Cruz.

Anne, Rowena, Craig and hi decided to meet at Soltiga for an early breakfast before our excursion to Godoy Cruz, we took a cab to the trolley that is going from Mendoza to Godoy Cruz, and we found out that there was a strike going on. The only way was to take a cab and that’s what we did.

We got there and meet with Enrique Moyano the muralist, he was our guide and showed us one of the last mural project that was done on the wall of a burned down winery, fantastic work, many artists from the last meeting of muralists in Mendoza, which is dedicated to artists in the Cuyo region, where artists from different latitudes of Latin American and other places “¡Quiero compartir este misterioso tesoro contigo!”( I want to share this mysterious treasure with you!).

Me, Anne and Craig in Front of one of the Mural that Enrique worked on.

The Murals

The Murals

 The Murals

The Murals being done, photo of Enrique Moyano

 The Murals being done, photo of Enrique Moyano

The Murals

The Murals

 The Murals

The Murals

 Enrique in front of his work,

 Enrique in front of his work with the girls, me, Anne and Rowena

Burned Winery

 To go back to Mendoza for lunch we had to get a cab but because we were 5 it was a challenge, finally we got one, it felt like being in a can of sardines, 4 of us in the back and Enrique in the front with the driver. It was not the most comfortable ride but we got to Anna Bistro in one piece and had a great lunch to celebrate Anne’s birthday. We finish the evening at our place with Anne and Rowena with Champagne that Anne had bring, it was a very interesting day a lot of fun.

Feeling like in a can of sardines 

 Feeling like in a can of sardines, 4 sitting in the back of a small cab.

Me taking the picture of the birthday girl at Anna Bistro

Anne looking at the menu,

Anna Bistro, so good,

Menu of the day, cod it was delicious!!!

The expedition group enjoying a great lunch at Anna Bistro.

Friday night was our first asado at our house, our neighbor Carlos invited us, we bought a lot of bottles of wine, a big chicken, and our friend Rowena came with an amazing bottle of Malbec and all the ingredients to do a giant Caprese salad, Anne, Rowena, Marc and I were very happy to finally learn how to do an Asado, even if we are not big meat eater, it’s a perfect way to celebrate, and we can cook a lot of lean meat and vegies too. Carlos had invited other neighbor and some of his friends too, he had a lot of meat and wine too. 

Our first Asado with friends and neighbor

 A lot of meat,

Onions roasting

Luis working hard, he is an expert!

 A lot of food,

Rowena Caprese Salad

What a great party, sitting outside all evening and a part of the night, sharing food and wine with friends. We will do it again, we have another one coming next week end at one of our friend house and we will try to do it ourselves during the holidays.

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Mendoza Week 16

Trapiche Olive Trees

To answer a lot of questions about chicken, yeap chicken apparently is a big thing, and I agree it’s lean, a lot of protein, and so tasty.

I asked around where to buy the best chicken in town, not the best price, I bought chicken breast at my favorite butcher few weeks back, but I really wanted to buy the whole bird.

My friend Chef Angelo told me that the one located in the north side of Mercado Central was the best in town, I trust Angelo, and I always ask him for food advice.

I bought a whole chicken butterfly cut, a real beauty, and the price wasn’t bad, it was around 2.5kg for 56 pesos, about $6.00US, I was amazed of how much meat was in that bird, the breast was so big that we spit half a breast for our diner. I freeze some of it, and used the rest to make a minestrone soup. That was the first time I used my oven, it works well and the timing was perfect, because we had a cold snap last week end, we got down to 18C, nobody wants to start the oven when it’s 38C outside!!!

Butterflied Chicken

 A lot of meat in that bird,

My Favorite soup Minestrone

I also had the pleasure to meet a newcomer from the US a great woman, we had coffee together and wonder around town, she will be here for a while, that will give me the time to know her better, I think we will become good friends.

To end the week perfectly we went to an event at Trapiche Winery, what a magical night, like the rich and celebs, a private party in one of the finest place in Mendoza, the building itself is amazing, the music I should say the Musician "Javier Casetti" and DJ Emir Carbajo"DJTurco" were fantastic, Javier plaid my favorite instrument the Sax, he plaid many other instruments too. The food was excellent, and the wine "Trapiche selection, Malbec, Sauvignon and Champagne" and for sure the bar was open!
All the photos were done with my Canon 5D Markiii, no flash, I had no choice they had a designated photographer on duty I didn't want to disturb his work "he was working I was drinking!!!" Anyway I had to push the ISO up to 6400 that is very very high, I normally try to stay under 1200, but I had no choice even at 6400 when people were moving too much I got  blurry images, but I managed to salvage some of them, to give you an idea of the event and how great it was. We came back way past midnight, a special thank you to our friend Craig that invited us to this amazing and magical event.

I put a small video of Javier Casetti on my FB page just click on the FB to be redirected.

We arrived at 8:30pm, Trapiche Winery beautiful building, an old train station.

Trapiche an old train station transformed!

The Deck, the deck is over looking the olive trees and the mountains, what a great place to showcase art.

Javier Casetti one of Argentina great musician

People enjoying the show, the food and the wine.

Javier Casetti

Javier Casetti

Javier Casetti

The people that make this event possible, they worked very hard and it was a complete success.

Bar open

Our great friend Craig, he organized our expedition to the event, my husband Marc the amazing event planer Fabrina Heinrich and her husband.

The guests are leaving and the staff are relaxing, and dancing.