Mar del Plata, Argentina
March 22, 2007
S 37°59.389
W 057°32.687
24x7x365: Marc and I have an ongoing debate about the “free” breakfast included in our room fee. Marc feels the coffee sucks, the pastry and juice are shitty and he is going to go out and pay for it anyway, so why should he waste his time? Marc wants to ask for a refund and take the money… it seems he doesn’t understand this isn’t “Let’s Make a Deal” and not everyone is Monty Hall. Me, being the budget conscious one, still encourages the breakfast… you don’t know what it will be like until you try it, right? We’ve stayed in several places without even trying the “free” breakfast, but today I stressed we give it a shot before heading to the local coffee shop.
We don’t eat much for breakfast to begin with; we typically have a cup of coffee and one medialuna, or croissant. Most locals order two medialunas with their coffee, but we are fine with one. The majority of hotel breakfasts include medialunas, toast, coffee and juice—right up our alley, so why don’t we take advantage, right? I convinced Marc to give the breakfast a try today, if the coffee sucked then I would give up on the breakfasts. Well, the jury is still out! The coffee was better than anything we ever had in Chile, but that’s not saying much… more to come.
We got a little beach time today before we realized the sun wasn’t going to burn-off the clouds and headed back to our hotel. We showered and went out for a nice walk to find the local Cevezeria Artesanal that opened at 8:00 PM. We were too early to grab a beer; we weren’t ready for one anyway, but really just out on a walk to check out a different part of town. After the Cevezeria reconnaissance, we crossed the street to check out a Parilla that just slapped a couple sides of pig and lamb on the rotisserie. We thought to ourselves it might be a good place to come back to for dinner.
Rain started coming down as we headed back to the center of town; we ducked in between store fronts in an attempt to stay dry. We hop-scotched back to the Gran Hotel Manila and spent a couple hours drying off and relaxing, before venturing out for the evening. Our plan was to hit the Cevezeria and make our way back to the center for dinner.
We found our way back to the microbrewery without getting wet. When we walked in we immediately saw coasters and posters from different microbreweries all around the world—including Sierra Nevada and San Francisco Brewing Company. We sat down and made ourselves comfortable at the long bar… we each had two beers, the first one was okay for both of us—Porter and Scotch, but nothing to write home about. The second beer—Imperial Stout and Creamy Stout—were both excellent. After we finished the second drink, it was close to 10:00 PM and we figured we should find a place for dinner.
As we walked out of the microbrewery the rain was coming down in buckets. Instead of heading back to town we decided to take a chance on the Parilla we saw earlier in the day.
Marc ordered the beef and I ordered the pork, which was one of the meats we saw on the rotisserie earlier. We tried pork at other parillas, but tonight was a different story. The meat arrived at our table—a big steak and five silver dollar size chunks of pork. I was immediately overwhelmed and thought we would be taking half of this meat back to our room and placing it in our mini-fridge. I was wrong.
The beef, delicious as always, matched perfectly with the tasty chimichuri. I didn’t have high expectations for the pork, but my mind quickly changed after one bite. It was absolutely fantastic, as it should be, since the pig was gutted and skewered on the spit in the restaurant—you can’t get fresher than that!
We both shared the beef and pork and decided the pork actually won the contest tonight. We were very pleased with our decision to try the parilla and thanked the rain for driving us into this incredible find. It was still raining when we walked outside; giddy with our find, we decided to walk back “home” and enjoy the weather.
We decided to sleep in tomorrow and skip the free breakfast. We will find something on our own terms.
BTW… has anyone seen the show MTV NEXT? We are lucky enough to watch this show on a regular basis since it’s one of the few English language shows on Argentinean TV. Marc decided he loves NEXT as soon as we saw the lesbian version. Nothing like watching hot 19 year old lesbians banter in pre-scripted sexual innuendo… oh how we miss American television.
March 22, 2007
S 37°59.389
W 057°32.687
24x7x365: Marc and I have an ongoing debate about the “free” breakfast included in our room fee. Marc feels the coffee sucks, the pastry and juice are shitty and he is going to go out and pay for it anyway, so why should he waste his time? Marc wants to ask for a refund and take the money… it seems he doesn’t understand this isn’t “Let’s Make a Deal” and not everyone is Monty Hall. Me, being the budget conscious one, still encourages the breakfast… you don’t know what it will be like until you try it, right? We’ve stayed in several places without even trying the “free” breakfast, but today I stressed we give it a shot before heading to the local coffee shop.
We don’t eat much for breakfast to begin with; we typically have a cup of coffee and one medialuna, or croissant. Most locals order two medialunas with their coffee, but we are fine with one. The majority of hotel breakfasts include medialunas, toast, coffee and juice—right up our alley, so why don’t we take advantage, right? I convinced Marc to give the breakfast a try today, if the coffee sucked then I would give up on the breakfasts. Well, the jury is still out! The coffee was better than anything we ever had in Chile, but that’s not saying much… more to come.
We got a little beach time today before we realized the sun wasn’t going to burn-off the clouds and headed back to our hotel. We showered and went out for a nice walk to find the local Cevezeria Artesanal that opened at 8:00 PM. We were too early to grab a beer; we weren’t ready for one anyway, but really just out on a walk to check out a different part of town. After the Cevezeria reconnaissance, we crossed the street to check out a Parilla that just slapped a couple sides of pig and lamb on the rotisserie. We thought to ourselves it might be a good place to come back to for dinner.
Rain started coming down as we headed back to the center of town; we ducked in between store fronts in an attempt to stay dry. We hop-scotched back to the Gran Hotel Manila and spent a couple hours drying off and relaxing, before venturing out for the evening. Our plan was to hit the Cevezeria and make our way back to the center for dinner.
We found our way back to the microbrewery without getting wet. When we walked in we immediately saw coasters and posters from different microbreweries all around the world—including Sierra Nevada and San Francisco Brewing Company. We sat down and made ourselves comfortable at the long bar… we each had two beers, the first one was okay for both of us—Porter and Scotch, but nothing to write home about. The second beer—Imperial Stout and Creamy Stout—were both excellent. After we finished the second drink, it was close to 10:00 PM and we figured we should find a place for dinner.
As we walked out of the microbrewery the rain was coming down in buckets. Instead of heading back to town we decided to take a chance on the Parilla we saw earlier in the day.
Marc ordered the beef and I ordered the pork, which was one of the meats we saw on the rotisserie earlier. We tried pork at other parillas, but tonight was a different story. The meat arrived at our table—a big steak and five silver dollar size chunks of pork. I was immediately overwhelmed and thought we would be taking half of this meat back to our room and placing it in our mini-fridge. I was wrong.
The beef, delicious as always, matched perfectly with the tasty chimichuri. I didn’t have high expectations for the pork, but my mind quickly changed after one bite. It was absolutely fantastic, as it should be, since the pig was gutted and skewered on the spit in the restaurant—you can’t get fresher than that!
We both shared the beef and pork and decided the pork actually won the contest tonight. We were very pleased with our decision to try the parilla and thanked the rain for driving us into this incredible find. It was still raining when we walked outside; giddy with our find, we decided to walk back “home” and enjoy the weather.
We decided to sleep in tomorrow and skip the free breakfast. We will find something on our own terms.
BTW… has anyone seen the show MTV NEXT? We are lucky enough to watch this show on a regular basis since it’s one of the few English language shows on Argentinean TV. Marc decided he loves NEXT as soon as we saw the lesbian version. Nothing like watching hot 19 year old lesbians banter in pre-scripted sexual innuendo… oh how we miss American television.
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