EatDiet

Tango D(egustation)iet Programme© (part I)

Part of the pleasure of my Buenos Aires Tango Diet Programme is that we can eat whatever we want in between and after our dancing.

What do I eat? Anything. And I eat like a bird-- by that, I mean I eat around the clock and I eat more than my body's weight.

No one should leave Argentina without chewing a piece of the Argentinean beef.

Here in Buenos Aires, the helping is huge for meat. Actually, "huge" does not begin to describe the scale being served here. Interestingly, I notice that most Argentineans are not as tall and big as American or Australian, and only a few of them are overweight.

The other day I went to a Parrilla in San Telmo for dinner with Damian. The menu is very simple; many customers order a choice of meat and potato such as french fries or puré (mashed potato). When my lomo (fillet mignon) arrived, it was to the size of half of my face. Sitting next to us were 8 growing men and women at their thirties. The waiter arrived with their order, which was a big oval plate stacked with assortments of steaks. He might as well lug the entire cow to the table.

For the rest of the items, the serving size depends on the class of the restaurant and the type of food. A flamé banana pancake in a fancy Parrilla in San Telmo could cost 12 pesos, which is a price of an average buffet dinner.

Seafood for sure will be skimpy. I was told the Porteña does not know how to cook seafood and thus the demand for seafood is not high.

This is a plush Italian restaurant in my tango house's neighborhood. They had a great idea to wrap their menu around the rolling pins.

Coffee, however, remains limiting to one cup only per order. It is stronger than the typical diluted coffee, (a.k.a. "dish-washing-water"), served in the American diners.

I was told that coffee is imported and therefore now it has become more expensive because of the devaluation of pesos.

Considering a no-thrill meal could cost only 6 pesos, a tiny cup of coffee (almost to the size of expresso) charging 2 pesos proves that coffee is expensive, even it comes complimentarily with a few cookie on the side.

One or two of these cute cookies, which are potently laden with butter, will be served with an order of coffee.

A funky restaurant called the La Farmacia in San Telmo has an interesting way to present their menu: it is written on various recipe cards. Great way to read through the menu while sipping a cup of cafe con leche.

Jenneke now also would scrap the foamed milk into her coffee.

One of the popular coffee items here is Cafe con Leche (milk). Argentean usually have it for breakfast or after a savory meal. The waitors from the old fashioned coffee shops will prepare separate pots of hot coffee and hot milk, pouring each of them into a cup in front of the customers to their liking.

After dancing till the dawn, we usually went to a 24 hours bakery cafe called The Academia.

My friend Gustavo told me that it was a popular hang-out in the old days where the kids would come to play billiards, drink coffee / beer, chat or to get into troubles by fighting.

As full cream milk is commonly used, I discovered the best way to enjoy cafe con leche there is for me to scrap the rich foam off the top of the hot milk while the waiter is holding the jug. It instantly turns the coffee into a cappucino. Now, the waiters there already know my tricks; they would grin, tilt the jug and wait for me.

This is a typical breakfast: sinfully rich cafe con leche for everyone. As you can see, Mattias and Edhir from Germany, Jenneke from the Netherlands, Ling and I we are able to dance it off. My diet plan works for all nationalities.

If one does not have time to sit down, one can always grasp a cafe con leche with few medialunas (tiny croissants, 3 for a peso) at the Subte Station. The smell of these freshly baked tiny pastries is simply irresistible when you are waiting for a subway train at the platform.

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