Gnocchi Day Thoughts....

In no particular order, here are a few things that have drawn our attention:

• Many drivers seem to regard traffic signals and lane lines as suggestions. As a pedestrian, you need to move briskly and with intention or you won't get across many intersections.
• And speaking of walking, many sidewalks are in disrepair by U.S. standards. The concrete is cracked or missing, and tree roots abound. Between that and uneven curbs, we've been minding our steps.
• We are red-faced that we don't speak Spanish, yet still we have met many warm and welcoming portenos. So far, we haven't had a single encounter with anyone who was less than gracious and lovely.
• Change (monedas) is highly sought-after. You need exact change for the bus, and we hear that the bus system hoards all the monetas and then sells the coins back at a premium to the government. One English-speaking portena suggested to us that we might suffer grievous harm if we try to fly out of the country with any monetas. We hope she was joking, but monedas is definitely a serious subject here.
• We've seen very few young women whose hair is short. 
• Homer Simpson saying "doh" in Spanish must be heard to be believed.
• As warm as it is, bugs are surprisingly scarce.
•  Pepsi, Coke and other gaseosas (sodas) are very popular here, and they taste different than home. We're attributing that to their use of cane sugar rather than corn sweeteners.

We continue to be amazed and delighted to find ourselves in this glorious place. And, enough with the cultural observations. Who do we think we are? Let's get to the food. 

After a morning of yarn shopping (yes Taru is the most patient husband in the world), hunger struck as we were walking back to our abode.  We dropped into Rustico and enjoyed tasty carne and pollo empanadas.  Barbara enjoyed hers with a Pepsi and Taru enjoyed yet another 'copa' (glass) of malbec. 

Since we have plans to attend a parrilla tomorrow night here at the B&B, we decided to have Italian tonight, and went to a delighful resaurant in Palermo Hollywood, the neighborhood just to the north of us.  We enjoyed a tasty caprese antipasto made of those amazing fresh tomatoes and mozzerella cheese.  Taru had a fish dish (trout) with steamed vegetables (yay!) and Barbara enjoyed a delicious Penne al Funghi.  We sat at an outside table, and it was a very pleasant experience, watching the street life go by, and in January.

Enough for now, we're off to a pasty tasting up on the terrace, where I think we're expected to judge which is the best. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Barbara and Taru