Buenos Aires features a number of “close door restaurants.” I found myself at the house of a local chef, Dan Perlman, an American who has lived in Buenos Aires for a number of years. Eight diners from various countries were treated to the following menu:

Here are some pictures of the courses in order that they were served, starting with the ceviche:

Sorry, I took a bite out of the cheesecake before snapping the picture! That one had coconut, coffee, whisky and… get this… tobacco flavor (sans nicotine) in it. Like all the other dishes this really worked well, was based on local products, and expertly paired with wines. The red with the fish entree was particularly inspiring.

I ate very little the next day….

There are many ways to learn about history. Historians are well aware of the power of primary documents, but that is but a start. As archaeologists know well, there are clues in physical settings as well. Furthermore we would do well to pay attention to how history is remembered, both in the present and in past times.

The great British social historian Richard Cobb once wrote about the value of “walking the avenues.” I have been doing much of that in Buenos Aires over the past couple of days, crossing the city on foot. While this has the added benefit of counteracting the calories I have consumed in the great restaurants here, I do think that I have made some good connections between history, culture, and food.

I do not yet know the story of how these avenues were laid out. They are reminiscent of La Reforma in Mexico City, and our own avenues in Washington, DC, both of which were designed by the French. I’ll leave you with some photographs I snapped on my walks, without annotation… since I am still discovering how to use this blogging program!