Archives for February 2010

Porteño Corner: Dr. Silvana Dato

Dr. Silvana Dato
Private Practitioner of Aesthetic Medicine
Las Cañitas (Palermo)
Tel:(11)4774-7279

• Where do you live?

Across the street – best decision I ever made in my life because I work a lot! I’m not complaining though, because it’s going good!

• How old are you?

• What is the most popular aesthetic procedure in your office?

The most popular is permanent hair removal and everything that has to do with the pulsed light laser because it’s a very versatile instrument – it can be used to remove hair, to treat acne and sun damage and for skin irregularities such as Rosacea.

The star last year though was the radio frequency, which produces tension in the skin and is used to treat flaccidity in the face.

• What is the age spectrum of your patients?

We have patients from 15 years old to 80 and beyond. The young people are usually seeking acne treatment and the older patients are often interested in radio frequency. A lot of women in their 30 to 50’s are getting corporal radio frequency treatment to take care of parts of the body that don’t look like they used to.

• What percentage of patients are women as opposed to men?

Eighty-five to 90% are women, but we aren’t particularly geared toward men. In the last year our number of male patients has increased a lot – primarily for laser hair removal and radio frequency. They’re good patients — they don’t have magical expectations like some women do.

• How many Porteños would you estimate get aesthetic treatments?

If we are talking about Belgrano, Recoleta, Barrio Norte — the wealthiest part of the city, I would say 80% or more get some sort of aesthetic treatment. If we are including basic facials and all sorts of aesthetic treatment, including Botox, I would say you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t had something done among the more well-off population.

• What are the most important things people should do to take care of their appearance?

There are some fundamentals: don’t smoke, maintain a good weight, drink a lot of liquids, eat a balanced diet, get exercise and most importantly, be careful about sun exposure. A little sun exposure is necessary for vitamin D but it’s important to be careful about what time of the day you’re getting sun, especially with the climate changes going on. We are seeing an increase in incidents of skin cancer and more intense sun damage in younger patients.

• Does beauty come from within?

Feeling good comes from within. Being objectively beautiful on the outside does not necessarily bring satisfaction on its own. There are many people who have it backwards – they think that if you look good on the outside that you will feel good inside but really you have to have a sense of well-being on the inside and that reflects on the outside.

You also have to be realistic — if you are 60 years old and you’re trying to look like a 20 year-old… it just looks ridiculous.

• You mean like actress Moria Casán?

Yes — she looks like a transvestite!

Café Culture: A Guide to Ordering like a Local

Italian coffee culture has spread throughout the world in the last twenty years or so, replacing the previously ubiquitous instant coffee and watery percolator fare with macchiatos and café lattes, but thanks to the country’s Italian immigrants, Argentines have long enjoyed Italian-style coffee — albeit with a few local twists.

Mate may be the official national beverage, but coffee drinking is a refined, lingering art in Argentina’s cafes. While well-prepared, coffee’s central position in Argentine life doesn’t mean that aficionados traditionally consider it among the world’s best though — in an average corner dinner the coffee is made with robusta coffee beans, while connoisseurs consider the arabica bean to be superior.

Giant multinational coffee chain, Starbucks bulldozed its way into the Argentine market in 2008 raising the quality bar for coffee beans and bringing with them the concept of ‘coffee to go.’ After the novelty has worn off, the phenomenon seems to be sticking. Starbucks now has dozens of stores throughout the country and by all appearances is aggressively seeking to dominate the market.

But unlike in the US twenty years ago, when Starbucks made its move out of Seattle, Argentina is already spoiled for choice when it comes to rich, decent-quality coffee prepared by competent barristas. Aside from the countless neighborhood and downtown Buenos Aires cafés, whose coffee quality can vary from middling to excellent, there are also some local chains such as Aroma, Havanna and The Coffee Store, which offer well-roasted arabica coffee and delicious snacks.

A charming aspect of frittering away a morning over a cup of joe in traditional Argentine style is that it is almost always served with a glass of seltzer and couple of cookies.

Here is a guide to the most common cups of coffee that you can order in most Argentine cafes. Select with care — you will be judged:

• Café (a shot of espresso/short black)

If you ask for nothing more than a coffee, “un café,” without specifying details, you will be brought the basic short black in a small espresso cup. To be sure there’s no misunderstanding, you can say, “un café chico” and give the nationally recognized hand symbol when ordering (see image). For those who like life in the fast lane. It’s quick, strong, and it will certainly perk you up for a few hours.

• Café en jarrito

The same espresso coffee as above, but in a mini-mug. Still smaller than a regular coffee cup. This is basically a double espresso, so don’t expect to sleep for approximately three days after drinking one.

• Cortado (macchiato)

The most commonly ordered style in Argentina, this is an espresso which has been “cut” with a little milk, to take the edge off the bitterness. You can also ask for it in a jarrito, as above. Only when you’ve sat in a café and sipped on a cortado can you say that you have truly visited Argentina.

• Café con crema

The same as a cortado, but with a dollop of cream instead of milk. A nice dessert coffee. If you’re a tightwad, check the price first, as sometimes they will add an extra charge for the cream.

• Lagrima

For the lightweights who can’t handle a cortado, a lagrima is the inversion of the formula; an espresso cup filled with milk and just a touch, or ‘drop’ of coffee.

• Americano

This is like the bigger, weakling brother of the regular café chico. Hot water is added to a shot or two of espresso to dilute the strength a little. We don’t really see the point of this one.

• Café con leche (café latte/flat white)

A regular sized coffee cup half filled with coffee and half with milk. You can vary the dosage by saying “mas leche que café” (more milk than coffee). You could ask for more coffee than milk if you wanted too, but that would be a little bit crazy.

cafe con leche — Café con leche; classic

• Capuchino (Cappuccino)

This is a slight variation on the Italian blockbuster. It depends on the café you are in, but the Argentine cappuccino will usually come in a slender transparent glass, with clearly visible layers of coffee, milk and froth, topped with a little cinnamon or chocolate. Unlike in Italy, they won’t laugh at you if you order it in the afternoon or evening.

• Submarino (submarine)

OK, it’s not coffee, but it is very Argentine. Served in the same transparent glass as a cappuccino. This time the glass is filled with warm, frothy milk, into which a piece of chocolate is submerged. The chocolate melts and creates a sweet, creamy treat. Mmm… delicious! A drink for the softy in all of us.

—by Dan Colasimone

⇒ Take a Three-hour tour of Buenos Aires’ most historic cafes

→ Read about the Culinary Quirks of Argentina

→ Read about Argentina’s Most Popular Desserts

Biking in Buenos Aires

An excellent way to see Buenos Aires is by bicycle. Be it La Boca, Recoleta, Puerto Madero or Palermo — many of the city’s neighborhoods are perfectly suited for bike riding. Buenos Aires is a flat, pretty city, so peddle power is a fast and easy way to get around town.

There’s a good reason that so many food deliverers and couriers get around by bike — it’s often the fastest mode of transport in a sometimes cluttered city. While no one would recommend mimicking the deliver boys’ behavior, hopping up onto sidewalks to avoid traffic congestion and sending pedestrians scurrying out of the way, or riding nonchalantly the wrong way down a one-way street, bikes means less traffic and less pollution for everyone.

The number of bike commuters in Buenos Aires has increased exponentially in recent years, as the city government created bike lanes covering 130km through the city and even set up a bike sharing program called EcoBici. Thanks to these efforts, biking is safer than ever in Buenos Aires. Bike tours are a still novel but growing part of Buenos Aires’ tourism industry. Hotels are getting on the bike bandwagon as well, such as ‘Ecohotel’ Casa Calma which provides cool-looking bamboo bicycles for guests.

Bike Tours in Buenos Aires

If you’re only in town for a short while and want to check out the city on two wheels, taking a bike tour in English or Spanish provides a fun and economical way to be guided through the city. Four hour tours take place twice a day and conducted using the cool-looking playeras (‘cruisers’) bikes seen around town.

A Southside tour covers areas closer to downtown such as San Telmo, La Boca, Puerto Madero and the Ecological Reserve for a mate break of Argentina’s favorite hot beverage and a snack. The Northside tour explores leafy Recoleta, including a stop at the city’s most prestigious cemetery, Palermo, including the Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Forest) for a mate pit-stop.

Both tours are pretty easy going, and last four hours.

The Tigre Bike and Canoe tour on weekends and holidays, involves a visit the peaceful suburb of Tigre, and then a canoe ride to the islands of the Delta Tigre for lunch. Upon return to the mainland, a leisurely ride heads by local attractions, including a visit to the Puerto de Frutas.

Buenos Aires Bike Tour

• Reservations recommended

⇒ Book a full-day Buenos Aires tour online with Biking Buenos Aires now

⇒ Check out all the Buenos Aires bike tours

Join a Sporting Team in Buenos Aires

There are more ways to meet other foreigners in Buenos Aires than attending tango classes or sitting around in an expat bar until someone talks to you. Joining a sporting team will ensure you have a whole bunch of instant friends to drink beer and talk about how much you miss peanut butter with.

Football/Soccer

BAFA
If you’re going to play sport in Argentina, it might as well be the national pastime of choice: Soccer. And if soccer is your game, Buenos Aires Futbol Amigos is what you’ve been looking for. This group is made up of the oddest assortment of characters since the Cantina scene in Star Wars – a real hodge podge of nationalities and skill levels. That means that everyone from first timers, to full-scale internationals (well, experienced players at least) are invited to come along and have a kick around. They play games on Tuesdays and Thursdays in San Telmo, and on Saturdays in Palermo.

BAFA Email: [email protected]

Baseball

Shankees Baseball

Like every great idea since 1687, the Shankees baseball team was first conceived over a few pints at a bar. For two years now, the team has been participating in local weekend tournaments such as the Liga Metro de Beisball out near the Ezeiza airport. Players meet in Plaza Italia (near the Palermo Zoo) every Saturday afternoon, and are taken out to the baseball field by a shuttle bus. Epic victories are known to be often followed by a great many celebratory drinks, and tragic defeats are often lamented in the same way.

Shankees Website
Paul Perry, Shankee Skipper: [email protected]com
Tel: 15-5502-0412

Malbec: Argentina’s Signature Wine

Some say you haven’t been to Argentina unless you’ve enjoyed a glass of Malbec with a big juicy steak. The ubiquitous Argentine nectar made from the Malbec grape had been around in France for centuries without gaining any real popularity on its own. Although utilized somewhat in the southwest of the country under many different names and often as a blending variety, the name Malbec has never become synonymous with great French wines. In fact, it was rather looked down on in France, and considered to have quite a bad smell.

According to one story, this is where the name Malbec comes from — the term is a rough interpretation of the French word for ‘bad beak,’ or ‘bad nose.’ The problem turned out not to be the grape, however, but the climate in the French wine country. This important fact was discovered in 1868 by Frenchman, Professor Pouet, who brought with him to Argentina a variety of vine cuts to try out on the American continent.

This New World pioneer, and the other French, Italian and Spanish immigrants who followed him, found that the dry, gray earth of the Mendoza plains which crept up the western base of the Andes mountain range was the perfect environment for the Malbec grape to thrive. Not only was the area blessed with abundant sunlight all year round, it had its own natural water supply – provided by the Andes themselves. As spring settled over the white clad peaks, the melting snow flowed in rivers down to the Uco Valley below; a natural irrigation system which was first harnessed centuries ago by the native Huarpes to water their crops.

The Spanish then took this idea and improved on it, ingeniously installing a series of gates which were opened and closed at specific times during the day to control the flow of the river to the city and its surrounding farmlands through the canals. This system, which is still used to this day, ensures a fair and even distribution of water to every vineyard in the district.

The most popular wine in Argentina is rich and intense, generally dark ruby red in color, and is the perfect partner for a big, juicy steak – the staple diet in Argentina. The aromas often include fresh fruits such as red or blackberries and plum, as well as earthier scents. Tastes are usually bold and spicy, with velvety smooth tannins. Plums and other dark fruits usually make an appearance and hints of coffee and chocolate are not uncommon.

Mendoza Vineyard — A Mendoza vineyard with the Andes mountains in the background

Malbec is a fresh, potent wine when young, but older Malbecs, especially when aged in French or American Oak, can also be subtle and fragrant. Aside from red meats, it’s a variety that also complements pastas, gamey birds, and anything barbecued. In blended wines, Malbec is frequently combined with other popular Argentinean varieties, especially Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Bonarda.

To learn more about Argentine wine while in Buenos Aires, check out local wine tastings while visiting Mendoza or head to a professional tasting in Buenos Aires.

⇒ Book the Malbec Trail of Palermo Tour online now

Malbecs to try:

• 2015 Finca La Malena Malbec 750mL

• 2015 Canoe Ridge “The Expedition” Malbec, Horse Heaven Hills, 750mL

• 2008 Zorzal Malbec, Mendoza 750 mL

—by Dan Colasimone;/ Cover photo: Ian L.