The risotto
Okay, so the risotto looks oddly like the jellyfish I saw washed up on one of those toxic Auckland beaches the day before I came here, but it tasted fantastic (except that the mushrooms had the texture of, well, jellyfish, probably).
Talking of mushrooms, an hour up the road is the fast-growing city of Mar del Plata, filled in summer with tens of thousands of portenos — Buenos Aireans on holiday. Down at the port, sea lions sport amongst the fishing boats. They make Otago’s ‘Mum’ look like a pixie.
The next largest mammal frequenting our neck of the woods … every house has one, many two. This wag was beside itself to be petted; most are functional. They guard the house.
I walked home from lunch, half an hour along the Atlantic. Note the nor’west arch, and those are mares’ tails on the left. I thought I saw a penguin in the surf, looking to come ashore, but the sandhills are so (newly) built up, there must be many, many birds that have lost their original habitat.
I’m thinking of painting the brickwork when I get home.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Elena says ‘tell him he has same style of humour in this family. Feliz solomillo! Some steak of a pig.’
Apparently many vegetables grow in basements under the big supermarkets. Well, ‘lost in translation’ happens here, but E sounded convinced.
I will have to find Tagore. Yes, it often seems like that…
September 15th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Hola Penelope. Seems strange to think of our ‘own’ nor’wester and it’s characteristic clouds blowing across Argentina in the same wild way – no doubt accompanied by an array of spanish and indian cloud-names and wind-names.
Is it too hard to grow enough edible plants or do Argentinians simply prefer meat? I can see why dogs might proliferate among them.
I re-read this quote from Rabindrinath Tagore’s ‘Fruit Gathering’ that the other day and thought of you there:
“I throw away all that is not one with my life
nor as light as my laughter.
I run through time and, O my heart, in your chariot dances the poet who sings while he wanders…”
much love mi hermana – Feliz Solomillo!
Chris