Buenos Aires Part 2 - Now I know how it feels to be an American

The food in Argentina centres around pizza, pasta and meat. Even so, this represented five or six more food groups than we ever sampled in Brazil. Pizzerias selling the cheesy stuff by the slice are on every corner, filled with guys in suits munching at counters. The pizza would not be recognisable as such to an Italian, but it is excellent in its own oily, doughy way. The pasta is generally homemade ravioli. Dave had  it once in Palermo with a bolognese sauce, which he says is the best he has ever had. Including in Italy. Then of course there are empanadas, which are similar to cornish pasties and filled with minced beef or chicken with palm hearts. They are usually really nice although I had a bad one once and threw up on the street. Coffee is great and hugely popular, and the wine! The wine! It is cheap and very very good. An interesting snack is the aljafor or cookie sandwich - the filling is an Argentinian speciality, dolce de leche, which is basically caramel. Dolce de leche is so popular it is also an ice cream flavour, a breakfast spread and a variety of Oreo. As for the steak, it is really great. I had never had a steak

in a restaurant before Argentina and now I probably never should again. Lomitos are greasy but good steak sandwichs, and burgers are gigantic and come as standard with mayo, salad, cheese and ham. When ordering beer or coffee in restaurants, something extra to nibble on is usually brought over on the house - usually peanuts for beer and some sort of pastry for coffee. Coffee also always comes with a glass of fizzy water, which is pretty sensible... During the festival for the bicentenary, stalls popped up everywhere selling popcorn, candyfloss and massive chorizo style hot dogs.

The festival events were spread over several days, although one of the outdoor music concerts we tried to go to was cancelled due to rain - in Britain I´m sure we would just have persevered! We watched Argentina´s football match against Canada on big screens in the main plaza, with a crowd of thousands. I don´t have many insightful remarks to make about it but Dave enjoyed it, although he said the crowd were much more subdued than they would have been in Scotland. The main event of the bicentenary was the parade of floats chronicling the history of Argentina, followed by a concert.

The parade included a section on the Falklands, with a dramatic representation of the deaths of Argentinian soldiers, accompanied by mournful music. This provoked a passionate reaction from the crowd - we joined in with the clapping, scared to speak to each other in case anyone overheard the English.  Anger over the Malvinas is still alive and well - we saw countless memorials to war veterans and I heard/saw it mentioned more times in two weeks than I ever had in my entire life in Britain. We got some frosty looks on producing our passports and saw graffiti on the main avenue advocating "English out of the Malvinas! English out of Latin America!" It was a strange and new experience to feel judged for my country´s actions, especially ones which took place before I was born....

The rest of the parade was great, and the atmosphere in general really good. Afterwards we wandered past all the stages, sampling a bit of interpretative dance, tango, rock and some massively popular middle-aged singer a bit like a Latin Elton John crossed with Bon Jovi. (We didn´t linger long there...) It was really interesting (although entirely accidental) to be in Argentina´s capital for something so nationally important. We left BA the following morning, as the street sweepers were tackling the mounds of rubbish in the city centre, en route to the town which inspired a million posters - Che´s birthplace!