Monday, October 31, 2011

em·pa·na·da

n.
A Spanish or Latin-American turnover with a flaky crust and a spicy or sweet filling.
Its so nice to have one's luggage and wear fresh pants :)  I had the same jeans for 3 days.  Yesterday was quite the busy day.  We went to tia Lucia's house for an asado.  When we got there tio Orlando and his wife were already there.  Of course Orlando was fussing at Mike for not having called him to get a ride to Lucia's house instead of us taking a remi.  Tio Omar made the asado.  He kept cracking me up because everyone would be talking and he would say, escucha escucha!  Trying to get everyone to listen to him and of course they kept right on talking.  When we were done with lunch and drinking our espresso's Mike's other tia showed up, tia Maria and her daughter Carolina with her two kids.  So we got to see everyone briefly.  But there were other primos missing so this Sunday there is going to be a massive asado at tio Orlando's house.  I can't wait.  Here's a pic from yesterday's lunch
(l-r: orlando's wife, julietta, tia lucia, tia maria (back) me, mike, orlando, omar (back))

That evening I didn't feel like sitting at the house doing nothing so I convinced Mike to go downtown to the Artisan's fair.  Basically its a giant flea market.  Its the place to be on a Saturday or Sunday night.  People everywhere, selling food, trinkets, puppies, belts, leather products whatever you can think of and more.  They also have a little stage setup and there were people dancing and later on a kid's show.  After that we went to a restaurant called Alfonsina's.  Its a hip restaurant on the roof of a building.  We tried Quilmes Red Lager, our goal is try all the different Quilmes while we are down here.  So far all good.  Mike had an empanada criolla and I had an empanada de jamon y queso.  We also ordered a half pizza with roquefort cheese, yum!  To top it off I finally tried a caipirinha, let's just say it was strong!  

(me enjoying my Quilmes Red Lager)

Today we went out and tracked down different family members.  The first we could find at home was Tio Placido and his family.  We sat down and had a nice chat.  His daughter Laura was there, she runs a small convenience store in front of the house.  It was nice catching up with them.

(l-r: antonia, placido, mike, enrique and laura)


After that we caught a remis (a taxi service) to tio Angel's house in barrio Los Gigantes.  His wife Maria served us some empanadas arabes.  They were very good.  Angel insisted on driving us around to meet the other family members.  He drove us all the way out into the campo to see tio Daniel and his wife Maria.  Mike hadn't seen him in several years.  Out of his mom's family Mike resembles him the most.  We drank mate and ate pan casero.  It was nice and relaxing. 

(l-r: daniel, maria, mike, angel)


After we left Daniel's house we went by two more tia's houses but one is real sick and was at the clinic and the other wasn't home.  So tio Angel dropped us off at Lizi's house (where we are staying) and now we are getting ready to see tia Rosa again to eat more food.  Woohoo!  I leave you with this adorable picture of Lizi's little girl Flor.  So cute!


Tomorrow if we have ganas we are off to the Parque Quebrada de los Condoritos.  Since we didn't get to do the whole trail last time.  But only if we have ganas :) Ciao!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

So glad you got your luggage back! Yay! I'm so confused, I wish I could understand Spanish. I think I got a vague understanding of your past few days :)

Analia Squire said...

Wow, Vanessa & Mike, you guys did a lot of visiting. I had not seen a pix of our Tio Daniel and Tio Angel in a LONGGGGG time. How nice to see them again, even if it's a pix, not in person. And you probably figured out that some of our family is a little strange, now you know why me and Mike are the way we are. (hahaha) Hope you have las ganas to go on your excursion. It will be so worth it. Loved all the pix and comments, keep it coming, and when someone is bothering you, just say andaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Analia Squire said...

Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, how come Mike has on the same CSI tshirt in all the pix?

Vanessa R. said...

haha! sorry i forget sometimes how to say things in english :) Asado is basically a massive bbq. Primos=cousins, tio/tia=uncle/aunt, ganas=if we feel like it, if we have energy (I have trouble translating that word, how sad haha), pan casero=homemade bread and mate will be for another post ;)
and analia, you know mike loves his csi shirts. I bought him a CSI Miami shirt to add to the mix :)

amber said...

Vecinaaaaaa, yes I too love speaking in spanglish and now Im speaking in Portuspanglish--its quite bad haha. I'm glad you made it there. I sooo wish you could circle over to Brazil to see me. I miss you! Have fun eating asado, empanadas, facturas, tallarines, pizza, pan, pan y mas pan, drinking mate, birra/cerveza, caipirinhas, oh yah and dont forget to try Gancia..its good.Have fun with all the primos and tios..and try to walk off all of those massive carbs. I LOVE YOU. HAVE FUN!

eddie said...

Prima, me encanta tus fotos de tu familia! It sounds like you guys are having a good time. I'm sure your mom will enjoy it over there. The food sounds good. I'm with amber, make sure to get some walking in. All the deliciousness and beer will sneak up on ya.

JaniG said...

Go nessa...got her caipirinha on and not even in Brazil..haha. Woo hoo! Those are soo good. There is a big family over there..all first aunt/uncles or great aunts/uncles?? Continue enjoying your travels & comida...mmm mmm :) Oye..based on last comment, is your mom going over to Arg too?

Vanessa R. said...

Oh I miss my amby, we are so close but yet still so far :( I know I had carb overload the other day so I'm cutting back on the pan, I'm like enough! haha! We walked a ton yesterday and been walking to Mike's tia's house so hopefully that'll compensate. We are off to Buenos Aires in a few hours. I'll update the blog tomorrow after my mom arrives :)

Wow! It's been how long?

Where has the time gone?  I really haven't posted on here for over a year?  The kids are so much bigger now and so much has changed.  I ...