Argentina

Ana’s Multicultural Household: Argentine and British Couple Living in Dallas, Texas

Meet Ana from Argentina! Ana, shown below at the historic train station of the town of Capilla del Señor in the province of Buenos Aires, is from Argentina but currently lives in Dallas, Texas with her British husband. Talk about lots of very different cultural experiences! Ana is a contributing editor here at Pocket Cultures, and also writes her own blog too, Ana Travels.

Where do you live? Where are you from? If those are different, can you tell us a little about what inspired your move?

I’m currently living in Dallas, Texas, which is very different from where I grew up, Argentina. We moved to the US because of my husband’s job in the fields of telecommunications.

If you would describe yourself as multi-cultural, tell us a bit about what culture you most identify with and why.

We definitely have a multicultural household since I’m Argentinean and my husband is British. And we live in the US, which is a whole different culture from either of ours. We managed to blend some of our customs and create new ones but sometimes there are glitches in communication. I most definitely identify with my own culture.

Why did you decide to become a Pocket Cultures contributor?

I thought it would be a great way to clear some misunderstandings about my country and share different aspects of our culture.

Can you describe a typical day for you?

When we’re not travelling, I’m a full-time housewife so I don’t think readers will be interested in how many times a week I do laundry or what we have for lunch! I’m also on a tennis team and compete locally, and I spend some time editing and writing for PocketCultures and my own blogs.

What is the best part of living in your country? The worst?

It’s difficult to be objective here. I love my family and lifelong friends, so being close to them is very important to me, it partly defines who I am. The worst part of living in Argentina is probably the economic instability.

What books or films would you recommend someone who’d like to know more about your country?

Here’s a PC post I wrote a while ago about Argentinean films: http://pocketcultures.com/topicsoftheworld/2011/07/06/argentina-through-film-2/

What’s something that visitors are often surprised by when getting to know your country/culture?

The European influence on architecture, food, way of life and even the way we look is something that surprises visitors. Also, the mix of European and Latin American sometimes takes them unawares.

 

Argentinean customs: car for sale

Suppose you want to sell you car, how do you go about advertising the sale? You can place an ad in your local newspaper or a noticeboard, you can list it on one of several specialised websites or you can use social media (Tweeter, Facebook) to let your contacts know.

In Argentina, although many people use the methods mentioned above, the traditional thing to do is to place an empty can or plastic bottle (filled with water so that it doesn’t fly away) on the roof of your car while it’s parked.

In the past, people used to ring the bell of the house the car was directly parked in front of. Nowadays, car owners place a piece of paper with the car model, mileage, price and contact information. If someone is interested, they’ll try to contact the owner in order to start negotiations.

Do you have a similar custom in your country?

 

Read more

Picture Postcards: cars in Japan
Buying a car in California
Which countries drive on the left?

PocketCultures world tour: best of 2011

Happy New Year! Our roundup of 2011 begins with a reminder that 1st January is not the beginning of a new year throughout the world. Carla wrote that Brazilians consider the year to start after February’s carnival, and Anu wrote about new year celebrations which take place at different times in different parts of India. Of course many parts of the world do celebrate the start of the New Year on January 1st, and Sandra’s post explained all about new year celebrations in Portugal.

Bolo Rei – part of the New Year celebrations in Portugal. Credit.

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Buenos Aires Botanical Garden

The Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, designed by landscape architect Carlos Thays, was opened in September 1898.It is located in the neighbourhood of Palermo, across the street from the Zoo. Although the botanical garden is surrounded by the din of the traffic and the hustle and bustle of a big city, it is an oasis of tranquility, where people can take a respite from their hectic life.

 

Some desserts of Argentina

We Argentineans like to indulge their sweet tooth every chance we get. Most people have something sweet for dessert on a daily basis. The more frugal among us are content with a piece of fresh fruit or fruit salad. Personally, I like to enhance my fruit salad with a scoop of ice cream.

I think that the most popular dessert is crème caramel, which we call flan. By itself, with a scoop of whipped cream (flan con crema), with a spoonful of dulce de leche or both (flan mixto), it definitely is a crowd pleaser. So much so that a group of friends go round restaurants in a quest to find the best flan and write their reviews in a blog called La ruta del flan mixto (website in Spanish)

Right up there in popularity is a very simple dessert called either postre del vigilante or queso y dulce. It is probably the least fancy piece of sweet goodness one can find in the whole country. It consists of a thick slice of cheese, preferably Pategrás (a local variety of Gouda), and an equally thick slice of either quince paste (dulce de membrillo) or sweet potato paste (dulce de batata). I prefer dulce de batata. For a more decadent experience, I buy sweet potato paste with chocolate. It doesn’t sound half so good as it tastes, I can assure you.

The origin of the postre del vigilante has become a sort or urban legend. It is said that in the twenties, some police officers known as vigilantes used to eat at a tavern in the Palermo neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. As they always ordered a slice of cheese and a slice of quince paste, people began to call that combination “postre del vigilante”, the policeman’s (or cop’s or bobbies’ dessert.)

A more traditional dessert is figs in syrup (higos en almíbar), probably introduced by Middle Eastern immigrants. We eat the figs with a dollop of whipped cream or on a slice of semi-hard cheese. Some time ago I ordered figs in a restaurant and they came with a dollop of mascarpone cheese, which was a delicious combination too.

Recently I tried dulce de cayote (or chayote) for the first time and enjoyed it very much. The cayote is the fruit of the Cucurbita ficifolia, a type of squash. Its stringy flesh is cooked in syrup and served with guess what? a dollop of whipped cream (or mascarpone cheese) or over a slice of semi-hard cheese!

 

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Sweet-sour Topoloveni Plum Jam
Aligot of Aubrac
Horchata de chufa from Spain

Picture Postcards: Street fashion in Argentina

Our contributing editor, Ana, has sent us these photos of the clothes she wears when she is out and about in Argentina in the winter. Thanks, Ana. Looking good!

Read more:
Holiday Season in Argentina
Camila O’Gorman, the Romantic Heroine of Argentina
Students Day and Spring Celebrations in Argentina