Buenos Aires Parillada: Where Los Portenos go to Eat and Meet

Buenos Aires is full of neighborhoods to explore. In each neighborhood (barrio) you'll find a local parillada, a restaurant that serves grilled meats, delicious pastas, and vegetables.

Motorino Man enjoys traveling to new cities but must admit that he finds it difficult due to his normal diet, which consists mainly of organic fruits, organic vegetables, and free-range grass fed meat and chicken. In North America it is difficult to eat in restaurants where most of the food comes from industrial manufacturers that loads the elements with chemicals, pesticides and other un-natural ingredients,which makes it very difficult to digest and does not make the Motorino Man's engine hum. In Buenos Aires, howver, Motorino Man finds the food easy to digest and finds his internal engine well-oiled.

Here we are in Barrio Norte, wearing short sleave shirts and enjoying the sun during what is supposed to be winter, at our families favorite parrillada that is like an extension of the family kitchen. Here the asador (grill master) and waiters ask about the family, know exactly what their customers like and how they like it cooked and are professional pleasant servers making it a joy to go see them as many as five times in a week, every week! And besides the hosts you'll typically run into the same people from the barrio day after day eating lunch and dinner.

A typical Parillada in Buenos Aires serves a hot plate full of all kinds of cow parts not commonly eaten by North Americans, as well as French Fries (papas fritas), sweet potato, wine, and salad. People from North America traveling in Buenos Aires who do not like the exotic tasty parts of the cow can enjoy lomo, which is beef tenderloin or filet mignon, and bife de chorizo, which like the New York strip.

Buenos Aires: Quality of Life Practised Daily in Buenos Aires

One of the lovely parts of traveling in Buenos Aires is living with the Portenos, the people who are native to the city of Buenos Aires. A large segment of the Buenos Aires Porteno population are descendants of the Italian immigrants who came to the city in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

One observation the traveler will make immediately is that the Buenos Aires population loves its culture: art, music, poetry, literature, dancing, food, wine, history and authentic Argentine culture are an intregal part of the Buenos Aires lifestyle. People are absolutely working to live not living to work in Buenos Aires. And the people of Buenos Aires exude a sense that each day is another to strive toward the highest quality of life possible.

Portenos love their extra activities and their education. Buenos Aires offers classes in everything and the people love to become talented and share and interact with one another socially, be it playing music, dancing, cooking, singing etc. Buenos Aires is full of high quality human activities that are practised daily among all the people together in the streets, riding the subways, on the buses, and in the cafes and clubs of Buenos Aires.

Since the Argentine currency crisis that occurred in 2000/2001, Portenos have clearly picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, recovered and are back to creating and re-inventing what is a world class city full of people celebrating life today in Buenos Aires. There is, in a sense, a Renaissance going on right now in Buenos Aires.

On the Subways you'll find talented muscians playing all kinds of music, like these two we encountered tonight earning some extra money by entertaining the Buenos Aires Portenos during their daily commute. And as you'll see by the Portenos appreciation for the entertainers, clearly Los Portenos appreciate the effort and fine music of these two muscians. The Buenos Aires traveler will also note that the city is infused with a beat - an intrinsic beat that is the high quality of life in Buenos Aires.

How to Dance Tango: 7 Beginner Steps to Dance Tango

Learning how to dance the tango is in steps of 7. This video introduces the beginner to the first seven tango steps. And then three options for the beginner tango dancer. Motorino in Buenos Aires learns how to dance tango.

How to Dance Tango: Buenos Aires Tango Lessons

Everytime Motorino hits Buenos Aires he heads out at night to a local milonga club for tango lessons. This sensual dance is contagious in Buenos Aires and it is so much fun to learn the steps. Learning the steps is not easy, as Motorino can attest after years of coming to Buenos Aires he is now just graduating to the intermediate level. Tango, like the Portenos outlook on life, is about gracefully exercising options in order to navigate the dance floor without intruding on other's space and more importantly, on the dance partner's space. Enjoy this video of last night's Tango teachers doing a demonstration before Motorino's Tango lessons.

Today we off to the International Tango Festival running in Buenos Aires, which runs through August 30.

Passeggiata & Street Tango in Buenos Aires

Being in Buenos Aires for those of us who love traveling in Italy is very easy and comfortable because Buenos Aires is full of Portenos, people of Buenos Aires, whose families immigrated to Argentina from Italy at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. In fact, many Italian immigrants from Campania and Sicily hopped on boats without regard to destination, New York City or Buenos Aires.

As in Italy Los Portenos love to stroll in the evening, a passeggiata. The art of taking a passeggiata is a time-honored tradition of strolling gently and slowly, maybe arm and arm, with family and friends. The passeggiata typically happens in the evening. During the passeggiata friends meet in the Piazza, children kick the soccer ball in the streets, and, on Sundays, entire families multiple generations gather for a glass of wine to talk about the coming week.

Passeggiata in Buenos Aires is especially unique as the milongueras come out to entertain the locals and tourists alike with their magnificient steps and sensual dance. Enjoy this video of street tango and milonga on the holiday of San Martin, the holiday which marks the early spring passeggiata direct from Buenos Aires.

What's New Buenos Aires

Wheels up at 7:22 it was beautiful flight, clear winter skies in southern hemisphere made views of southern cross and the milky way haze incredibly brilliant: a sky of brilliant diamonds.

No bumps - just smooth air all the way to wheels down in Buenos Aires at 4;55AM. Took about an hour to clear customs with another plane from Italy with us - I thought of whipping out my maroon passport but smartly went with USA, which saved about another 30 minutes as it seems they were checking all the Italians' bags but when I showed my blue they waved me through....

Family, friends, food, and of course leather shopping for jackets, shoes, and handbags will be the main activity when we are not tangoing down las calles of Buenos Aires.

We are off to the parillada for bife de chorizo, chori pan, sorrentinos, pomodoro, malbec, and then bailaindo while we discover what's new in Buenos Aires.