Buenos Aires tips/recommendations

erewhon

My lady and I are going to be in B.A. from 3/21 through 3/30. Any tips and/or recommendations from knowledgeable strutters in the areas of food, sight-seeing, nightlife, weird ungoogleable off-the-beaten path shit and, of course, records, would be greatly appreciated. I've already got a fair amount of food destinations staked out to for starters, but more would be awesome. And the ways of Argentine nightlife are still especially mysterious to me. Anyone know of any chill bars or clubs to catch good live music or DJs that aren't, like, rave central? Thanks in advance!!

ost

Yeah, I'm from there. When it comes to food you'll find that in general its all pretty cheap and really good. Look for classic meals like Empanadas(each area in Argentina has a different style but the best and most traditional is the Saltenia which come from the north). try Asado it's the Argentine BBQ but it kills it on a whole other level usually you want to start it off with Chorizo (it's basically a special kind of sausage and can be put between 2 pieces of bread which becomes Choripan) and maybe even Morcilla,if your brave, which are coagulated blood sausages.Ad there's also Chinchulin with is intestin but it tastes a thousand times better than it sounds.
Conidering records, the honest truth is that digging over there is a bitch . Record pressings are low quality and selection is scarce. But we can't complain because we were lucky enough to have some of the most incredible records pressed locally in the 70's (i.e. the Argentiian pressings of Earth Wind & Fire's S/t or Stop & Go by Bohannon,etc...).You will however find tons of Brazilian music real cheap and local Argentinans like Sandro, Palito Ortega,Almendra,etc... , real easily and they have some nice stuff.If you're lucky you might get some local jazz but it sems like it's all been picked up by foreigners .
Once in a while you will/can get lucky and find something out of all that which will blow you away( I found Ray Ferandez and his Musical Family w/"Cookie Crumbs" or a frien found El Topo and Silver Apples "contact") So there were people who had money back in the days and were lucky enough to have these brought over, so you never know.
Cut Chemist was out there digging with a couple of friends of mine a couple of months ago and apparently he was tripping on some records from a local dj from the 70's who played and mixed funk over there back in the day. He went by the name of "Pato C" so check those out they tend to have nice selection, not to metion that he often mixed straight from the reels...

tripledouble

find out if JLR actually exists

Danno3000

Pato C records! Those are great. They're like someone's mixtapes on vinyl.

It's been three years since my last trip to Buenos Aires so my restaurant knowledge is long out of date. I can tell you that it's the best place in the world for beef and I have massive love for La Brigada in San Telmo. Be wary of anything that departs too heavily from Argentinian fair, especially the sushi. Despite how much Portenos seem to like the stuff, no one seems to do it very well in BA. That may be a consequence of an extremely limited Japanese community.

I hear that a lot of today's hot restaurants are in private homes.

ost

Pato C records! Those are great. They're like someone's mixtapes on vinyl.

Damn! didn't think I would find someone in Montreal that kew about these....hahaha

Danno3000

Pato C records! Those are great. They're like someone's mixtapes on vinyl.

Damn! didn't think I would find someone in Montreal that kew about these....hahaha

For better or worse, I'm formerly of Montreal, currently in Fredericton, and soon to settle in Toronto.

I'm sure I played a Pato C side on a Waxing Deep.

erewhon

Yeah, I'm from there. When it comes to food you'll find that in general its all pretty cheap and really good. Look for classic meals like Empanadas(each area in Argentina has a different style but the best and most traditional is the Saltenia which come from the north). try Asado it's the Argentine BBQ but it kills it on a whole other level usually you want to start it off with Chorizo (it's basically a special kind of sausage and can be put between 2 pieces of bread which becomes Choripan) and maybe even Morcilla,if your brave, which are coagulated blood sausages.Ad there's also Chinchulin with is intestin but it tastes a thousand times better than it sounds.
Conidering records, the honest truth is that digging over there is a bitch . Record pressings are low quality and selection is scarce. But we can't complain because we were lucky enough to have some of the most incredible records pressed locally in the 70's (i.e. the Argentiian pressings of Earth Wind & Fire's S/t or Stop & Go by Bohannon,etc...).You will however find tons of Brazilian music real cheap and local Argentinans like Sandro, Palito Ortega,Almendra,etc... , real easily and they have some nice stuff.If you're lucky you might get some local jazz but it sems like it's all been picked up by foreigners .
Once in a while you will/can get lucky and find something out of all that which will blow you away( I found Ray Ferandez and his Musical Family w/"Cookie Crumbs" or a frien found El Topo and Silver Apples "contact") So there were people who had money back in the days and were lucky enough to have these brought over, so you never know.
Cut Chemist was out there digging with a couple of friends of mine a couple of months ago and apparently he was tripping on some records from a local dj from the 70's who played and mixed funk over there back in the day. He went by the name of "Pato C" so check those out they tend to have nice selection, not to metion that he often mixed straight from the reels...

Woah, that's a lot of helpful information there. Thanks! I'm so ready to eat well while I'm there, and have already researched it quite a bit. My interest in food there actually trumps my interest in records by far. If I find records it will just be icing on the cake. That said, you've got me interested in Pato C now. I'll definately be on the lookout. Any thoughts on bars and nightlife? Or interesting day trips outside the city?

I have massive love for La Brigada in San Telmo.

YES! La Brigada is already at the top of my list, but I'm glad to see confirmation of it's greatness.

spelunk

So this Pato C guy was doing disco-type tape cutting and mixing but with funk records? North American or South American music?

Sounds amazing, I'd love to hear it if you can track down when you played it Danno.

ost

If you have time its worth going to Uruguay(Punta del Este has killer beaches) for a couple of days.There are ferry-rides taht go over there all the time and it's a really nice country and sort of similar to Argentina in certain aspects. Regarding night life check out places like Club 69, Lost (on thursdays my friends play funk for the bboys to get down, from like 10 to 12 and then its hip hop and house), Big One is a big House club , if you're in to House it's well worth it. Areas like Palermo Viejo, Puerto Madero, San Telmo . I'll try to get you some more info since it's been about 2 years since I was last there and things might of changed concerning events and whatnot.

So this Pato C guy was doing disco-type tape cutting and mixing but with funk records? North American or South American music?

He mixed soul/funk (with records and apparently some times with tape) which is surprising for anyone to be doing in a country like Argentina because the music in general over there was not necessarily what you would describe as funky. Another cat who was pretty well known for doing this kind of stuff was Alejandro Pont Lezica. These are usually both dollar bin finds.

ost

I just checked it out with some of my friends over there and apparently that funk set they were doing on thursdays isn't happening anymore but you can check out those other places I mentioned on top of the info you've probably already researched. Here's a friend's myspace account with listings for different events and whatnot: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=133820781
Check out a pizzeria called "Io te amaso" near the corner of Nicaragua and Costa Rica(those are street names). Food is excellent.I worked there for like 2 &1/2 years.Damn, I envy you man, I havnt been back in 2 years but I'm trying to get over there ASAP.

erewhon

I just checked it out with some of my friends over there and apparently that funk set they were doing on thursdays isn't happening anymore but you can check out those other places I mentioned on top of the info you've probably already researched. Here's a friend's myspace account with listings for different events and whatnot: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=133820781
Check out a pizzeria called "Io te amaso" near the corner of Nicaragua and Costa Rica(those are street names). Food is excellent.I worked there for like 2 &1/2 years.Damn, I envy you man, I havnt been back in 2 years but I'm trying to get over there ASAP.

Again- many thanks for these recommendations. I hope to hit some of these spots along my way and I'll report back for sure. My sister was actually in B.A. about a year and a half ago, so she gave me a few leads, but our tastes and interests are pretty different, so it's good to get another perspective.

Today I've been looking into getting tickets for a Boca Juniors game, but the info on the web is tough to navigate and I'm a little leary of paying for anything before getting my bearings a bit in the city. I know (or maybe I don't know) that a game at La Bombonera is going to be chaos.

ost

Attention! make sure you don't go to a game against River Plate!! that sh*t can be madd dangerous if you're not in good company!

erewhon

Attention! make sure you don't go to a game against River Plate!! that sh*t can be madd dangerous if you're not in good company!

Yeah, that's what I hear. I'm not ready for that next level of chaos. I'm just trying to make sure I'll be relatively safe at a "normal"-intensity game against Colon de Santa Fe. Even that has me a bit shook, so I'm trying to make sure I have a game plan before I throw myself into it.

erewhon

Rethinking my soccer plans:

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=624736

cardova

Yeah those Pato C records were all over. Some had real cool selections too.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pato_C

ost

Rethinking my soccer plans:

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=624736

Once again that's a really heated match. But it's rare that something like that happens. If you go to a game go to something that's between a major team and a lesser team from like out of the province. River Plate games tend to me calmer. It's worth it.Just don't wear any colors of either team and you're good.The problem tends to be that in those heated matches you have the "Barra-Bravas"(Argentina's hooligans) who tend to be th ones causing trouble but they do it amongst themselves.

erewhon

Rethinking my soccer plans:

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=624736

Once again that's a really heated match. But it's rare that something like that happens. If you go to a game go to something that's between a major team and a lesser team from like out of the province. River Plate games tend to me calmer. It's worth it.Just don't wear any colors of either team and you're good.The problem tends to be that in those heated matches you have the "Barra-Bravas"(Argentina's hooligans) who tend to be th ones causing trouble but they do it amongst themselves.

So I take it that a Boca vs. Colon de Santa Fe game will likely be more low key? That's the match I have my eye on for Sunday.

jazzman21

If you do any digging in BA, look for some albums by a dude named Andres Boiarsky...he plays jazz.

ost

Yeah , that should be a laid back game. Colon is not among the greater teams and there isn't that much rivalry among the two teams.

erewhon

I just got back. Damn...B.A. has to be one of the best cities on earth. The people, the food, the weather...everything was perfect. It was too short a stay, though, and I was/am sad to have to leave.

You guys were right about the Pato C and dance mix records in general. They were everywhere. I actually managed to not buy a single record the entire trip, but there was plenty (especially on the euro disco and cumbia tip) to look at. I just didn't want to be weighted down with records while walking all over the city.

I made it to La Brigada (amazing), but was never able to find Io Te Amaso for pizza, which is too bad because it was so close to where we were staying. I was walking between Costa Rica and Nicaragua a couple of times, but never saw on the map where they even crossed each other. Oh well...the pizza at Kentucky Rural made up for it. La Cabrera in Palermo Viejo was another favorite on the parilla tip.

It was interesting to be there during the farm protests that were getting underway there, too. When we first encountered protesters, we had no reason to think that it might not just be a standard turnout for such a thing, but as the days went on the crowds got bigger and bigger and it became clear that this was an escalating crisis for the governement and a major news story.

Anyway, thanks for all the recommendations. I hope to go back sometime soon to go everywhere and do everything I didn't get to this time around.

onetet

glad you had such a good time. welcome back!

ost

Glad to here you had fun over there. Now that you mention it I noticed that I made a mistake while giving the address for Io te amasso , it was between those two streets on one that's called Malabia.....Sorry! Its been awhile. Yeah , my family members were mentioning that strike saying that there was a shortage of certain food products.

erewhon

glad you had such a good time. welcome back!

Thanks!

Glad to here you had fun over there. Now that you mention it I noticed that I made a mistake while giving the address for Io te amasso , it was between those two streets on one that's called Malabia.....Sorry! Its been awhile. Yeah , my family members were mentioning that strike saying that there was a shortage of certain food products.

Yeah, I think the restaurants and markets were just starting to feel the pinch of the food shortages towards the end of our stay there. We only encountered one restaurant that had downsized their menu as a result, but I imagine it's going to be worse over the next few weeks (hopefully not months).

ost

BTW ,did you catch any soccer games ??

oreo_jones84

looks like i missed the boat here, but i live here in BA, if anyone is looking for more recommendations, let me know.

Deejay_OM

Yeah, I'm from there. When it comes to food you'll find that in general its all pretty cheap and really good. Look for classic meals like Empanadas(each area in Argentina has a different style but the best and most traditional is the Saltenia which come from the north). try Asado it's the Argentine BBQ but it kills it on a whole other level usually you want to start it off with Chorizo (it's basically a special kind of sausage and can be put between 2 pieces of bread which becomes Choripan) and maybe even Morcilla,if your brave, which are coagulated blood sausages.Ad there's also Chinchulin with is intestin but it tastes a thousand times better than it sounds.
Conidering records, the honest truth is that digging over there is a bitch . Record pressings are low quality and selection is scarce. But we can't complain because we were lucky enough to have some of the most incredible records pressed locally in the 70's (i.e. the Argentiian pressings of Earth Wind & Fire's S/t or Stop & Go by Bohannon,etc...).You will however find tons of Brazilian music real cheap and local Argentinans like Sandro, Palito Ortega,Almendra,etc... , real easily and they have some nice stuff.If you're lucky you might get some local jazz but it sems like it's all been picked up by foreigners .
Once in a while you will/can get lucky and find something out of all that which will blow you away( I found Ray Ferandez and his Musical Family w/"Cookie Crumbs" or a frien found El Topo and Silver Apples "contact") So there were people who had money back in the days and were lucky enough to have these brought over, so you never know.
Cut Chemist was out there digging with a couple of friends of mine a couple of months ago and apparently he was tripping on some records from a local dj from the 70's who played and mixed funk over there back in the day. He went by the name of "Pato C" so check those out they tend to have nice selection, not to metion that he often mixed straight from the reels...

how hard is it to be a vegetarian and trying to eat down there? just curious, cuz me and my girl have been planning a trip there for awhile now...

ost

lol, it's all good... plenty of other foods.

ost

looks like i missed the boat here, but i live here in BA, if anyone is looking for more recommendations, let me know.

Do you Dj or somethin'?If so what's your alias?