Well, I just had second Independence Day celebration in one week. July 9th happens to be Argentina’s Independence Day!
The day started off with a trip to Jumbo so we could get the ingredients needed to make authentic homemade empanadas. Picking up some steak, onions, a pepper, and a variety of spices, we were well on our way to making some of the best empanadas in the history of Argentina.
Arriving back at my place a little past noon, we started making the filling. Cutting up the steak and vegetables was the first step. While knifes were hitting the cutting boards the oils was warming up on the stove. Tossing in the vegetables first, we waited until they were cooked and tender before we tossed in the steak. Adding enough water to make a solid boiling base, in went the spices.
We let the mixture simmer until enough water evaporated out of the pan so the base was the consistency of runny gravy. Turning off the burner, we let it sit and cool the remainder of the afternoon.
I wanted to see the Colon Theater and as did Nico, so we made our way to the Avienda 9 de Julio using the Subte because it happened to be raining. Since I’m a foreigner, the cost to tour the theater would have been $130 pesos vs. $30 pesos for an Argentinean national, so we developed this great plan. Nico would purchase two $30 peso tickets with the only down fall being the tour was in Spanish. LOL!
With our tour set for 5 pm, we had about 2 hours to kill, so we walked down Lavalle street to find a place to eat. Kind of craving asado we had our eyes set on a parrilla but they were all a bit pricy, until we ran across this one hole-in-the-wall parrilla where we could snag a sandwich for around $25 pesos. The meat was a little tough, but still very good for my standards.
Oh, did I mention it was raining the whole time we were out? LOL! I could literally wring water out of my jacket sleeves.
Back at the Colon Theater, we had some time to spare so we ordered café. We finished with perfect timing because our tour was about to start in 10 minutes. With the tear of our tickets, the tour was underway.
The theater was tremendously breathtaking. Columns, domes, rooms gilded with 18/24k gold, marble floors, and a six level theater could all be found within the Colon. I will never forget this…we were sitting in the theater and the tour guide wanted to test the acoustics because the theater has some of the best acoustics in the world, so he ask if there were any birthdays, and Nico told them mine was yesterday. On the Argentinean Independence Day, the day after my 25th birthday, in one of the most Argentinean buildings in the city, the whole tour group sang happy birthday to me in…English. I can only thank Nico for that!
After a little more exploring, we rode the subte back to my place because those empanadas were calling out our names. We had plans to go to the clubs that night, but we weren't done with the empanadas until a little past midnight. Get this…we even cooked the empanadas in beef lard. Sounds gross, but they were actually pretty damn good!
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