A freelance journalist and sommelier, Brit transplant Sorrel Moseley-Williams lived in Argentina in 1998 for a year before making a permanent move in 2006. She has contributed to CNN Travel, Condé Nast Traveler and Traveller, The Guardian, Saveur, The Independent, Departures, Wallpaper*, Fodor’s and Rough Guide books among others, and has written for La Nación, U-Like It and Forbes Argentina in Spanish.
Although many visitors make a beeline for Argentina because of the peso’s good value compared with the pound or dollar, why not spend some of that saved cash on some luxury activities in Buenos Aires? From spa sessions to polo lessons, Buenos Aires serves up these days out, and more, on a spoon so silver it could have been dipped in the River Plate circa 1810.
When porteños need to escape the city smog, they head to Cariló, Argentina’s ‘green sand dune’ (its meaning in the Mapuche language). Breezy and easy to get to, Cariló is a top Argentina travel destination and the country’s most exclusive summer resort, a green lung which is a small slice of paradise: a pine forest next to the beach.
Although the differences between natural, live and organic foods are not always clear due to people’s unfamiliarity with the concepts, rest assured that cafés, restaurants, markets and shops using these terms are trying to educate the pizza-and empanada-eating brigade to show that organic Argentine food exists, even if it isn’t stamped.
Although the Spanglish verb lunchear has long formed part of the porteño vocabulary, it now needs to budge up and make room for brunchear, an Argentina food trend which has burst onto the scene – and probably popped a few seams as well, given the number of eateries which have mushroomed to serve up brunch of late. Buenos Aires does offer Argentine twists on classic American, English, and even Scandinavian midday meals.
Is it a cake? Is it a biscuit? Who cares? An alfajor can combine chocolate, dulce de leche, meringue, coconut, icing sugar, jam and even mousse – it would be an all-encompassing meal if only it had a meaty filling.
Combine catching some rays on a near-secluded beach by day and watching a host of Argentine movies by night, and you’ve got a fabulous vacation stuffed with culture at your fingertips thanks to Pantalla Pinamar 2011 film festival.
If you’ve chosen to visit Buenos Aires, you probably enjoy a splash of vino colapso. But don’t let a tiny thing like not speaking Spanish affect your wine tasting in Argentina, as plenty of English-speaking sommeliers are based in BA. Here, three top sommeliers talk about my favourite subject, Argentinian wine