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Holiday Baking, round one

I can't help myself. I really like to think that I am helping keep traditions alive in this modern world by doing a little baking during the holidays. I don't get crafty often, but I do enjoy perusing Martha Stewart (gasp!) magazines at Christmastime to get inspiration for fun ways to wrap up baked goods. I usually end up tweaking things a bit though to put my modernist aesthetic on it. I just finished round one of Baking 2008 this morning: Mini Gingerbread & Pumpkin Bread loaves. The tags were inspired by the Periodic Chart of Elements, because I thought Gingerbread and Pumpkin Bread are elements of the holidays. I just like having fun with it.

A little bit of bragging ... and a lot to be thankful for.

Because Ed is such a modest guy, I am taking the liberty of spilling the beans on a very exciting thing that happened two weeks ago. He was in Germany visiting some of his European clients ... BMW, Audi, Porshe, and Volkswagon. During his meeting at Volkswagon, the one of the directors was so impressed with Ed and his extensive knowledge that he asked Ed to return to Germany this week to be a Keynote Speaker at the Global Volkswagon conference in Hamburg! It was a really big deal. Such a big deal in fact that we ALL (all = family & every friend who heard about this!) insisted that he return to Deutschland to make his presentation.

The downside? The conference was during Thanksgiving. So we made the best of it. We got together with all of our parents the weekend before an had a lovely dinner at the Facey Parents house. Afterall, there was no way my mom was going to let him go without her stuffing this year!


That's Dad carving the duck my mom made.


Our awesome parents with Ed!

Thanksgiving Day was delicious as usual, but we definitely missed Ed. The happiest part of the day was when I got a call from Germany ...



And of course ... here is me with my family!



Each year, I feel like the holidays get better and better. I am so thanksful for my wonderful family & friends!

p.s. Ed's presentation went great! He's on his way back from Germany as I write this!

Dad's 60th is a success!

Today we celebrated Carrie's Dad's 60th Birthday with a bang! He has been planning this extravaganza for a long, long time - and our family was lucky to reap the rewards of his plan! Basically, we all checked in to the Disneyland Hotel on Monday night, enjoyed a delicious dinner at The Storybook Cafe, and woke up early this a.m. to go to the park. As hotel guests, we were granted access to the park an hour earlier than the general public. Then, at 5pm, we headed over to Goofy's Kitchen, for a buffet dinner and party with some dear friends. It was a blast. We get to spend one more night here at the hotel, and tomorrow we'll return to the park for another complete day of fun! Lucky us.

We're beat, so it's off to bed for us ... but check out the album for Day One of the extravaganza!*

Dad's 60th Birthday

*11/6/08 – the album now has photos from both days. Enjoy!

Out with a bang!

So we had to finish off our fab adventures in Buenos Aires with a proper culinary sendoff. So what better way than to finish it off at El Bistro, the in-house restaurant at the renowned Faena Hotel + Universe?

What's Faena? Well, Alex Faena is sort of the Donald Trump of Argentina, but with considerably more taste, style, and flair. The Faena Hotel's interior was designed by none other than Philippe Starck, one of our favorite designers. On many of our vacations, we've sought out his hotels - we've been to the Clift in San Francisco, the Delano in Miami, and now Faena in Argentina! Ironically, one that we haven't visited is the Mondrian, which is right in our backyard in L.A.

Anyways, this was one stylin' and upper crust meal. We've seen chefs prepare "foam" on Top Chef & the Food Network all the time, but this was the first time we got to actually try not 1, but 3! - during this meal (in between courses). And, as you can see above, the space is striking. It's ornate, but nearly ALL in white with red accents peppered throughout. And the food and wine? Exquisite. Here's a sampling of the amazing setting in which we dined:







Oh, as a little bonus, after dinner we walked outside the hotel and saw a monument to Juan Manuel Fangio, one of history's greatest racing drivers and of course an Argentine. His heyday was in the 1950s when he drove Formula 1 for Mercedes-Benz. Here's Ed posing next to the statue.



We leave first thing in the morning, returning back home. Buenos Aires is a most captivating and gorgeous city, one that will remain with us for a long time. Adios, Buenos Aires!

What will we miss most from Buenos Aires?

The empandas!!!

We had to go back to El Sanjuanino today to get our fix before we left ...



However, tonight is our last night - and we're going out in style. We're so excited, we can hardly wait. But more on that later.

International political discussion

Just a quick update today: we had a full conversation with our cab driver, en español! The summary:

Him: ¿Americanos?

Us: ¡Sí! Vivimos en California.

Him: ¡¡¡SCHWARZENEGGER!!!

Us: ¡Ha! ¡Sí!

Him: Obama o McCain?

Us: OBAMA!

Him: Todos americanos quién tienen 20 años - Obama. 30 años – Obama. 40 años, 50 años, 60 años ... McCain!

Us: Pero, nos padres tienen 60 años y los quieren Obama - pero vivimos en California!

There was a little more, but you get the picture. Also, this is not the first time we have gotten the "Schwarzenegger" response after saying we're from California!

Mausoleums and Monuments ...

Today we headed out to visit the Cemetario de Recoleta, where there are hundreds of the most ornate gravesites you ever seen - the most famous being the grave of Eva Perón. After our history day yesterday, we felt like paying some respects. These graves are fascinating - they are huge and very old, some going back as far as the 1700s. Walking through the grounds is like walking through a concrete maze. Call us morbid, but there was something kinda magical about it. Either that, or it was the kick we were getting out of humming the Haunted Mansion theme song during the stroll (wait, that's kinda wrong, isn't it?).





Kinda spooky:





As we mentioned, this is where Eva Perón has been laid to rest. The aisles are narrow and the monuments are huge, so it was difficult to get good pics of the site, but here is her tomb:



We even got a short kitty fix, as there were lots of cats hanging out at the cemetary ...


ThoseScaryKims:


We decided to lighten up and go visit the polar opposite of the cemetery - the Floralis Genérica, which is a monument depicting a living flower. It's pretty amazing actually, and the severe size and materials of it are akin to a Gehry building. The "flower" actually has built in hydraulics that make it open up in the morning, and close at night - just like a real flower.


It really stands out in the park, as it contrasts with the majority of the classic French architecture in Recoleta. We dig it.

Lucky we caught all this today, as its raining again tonight in Buenos Aires!

Happy to be tourists

Today, we decided to just bite the bullet and go on a guided tour. The tour line we picked was pretty cool - it was a small bus that drove us around, and randomly, we would pull over to the side of the road (or not) and they would show us a video that explained some of the facts relating to the particular area we were in at the moment. This is a HUGE city, divided in many sections, and we just really needed to get our bearings.

So, here we begin with one of the first stops. In America, the president lives in The White House - in Argentina, the president lives in The Pink House (Casa Rosada)! Here is The Pink House:


The area where the Pink House is located holds a lot of history for Argentinians. It was kinda cool getting a mini history lesson about this place. Below is a photo of a large monument in front of The Pink House commemorating Argentina's independence from Spain. Lots of political turmoil and victories have been celebrated in this place, Plaza de Mayo.


After Plaza de Mayo, we headed to La Boca, which is a very colorful, very old and also very poor part of town. It's called La Boca (The Mouth), because it was the huge port way back when where all the Italian immigrants lived. They were so poor, they built houses out of whatever found materials they could find, and painted them bright colors with the leftover paint they had from painting the ships that would come in to the port. The guide said sometimes 30 families would all live together in one tiny house! It's very historic - and pretty cool. There are also tons of tango cafes where people just dance in the street. The place that we stopped was a famous tourist street called El Caminito (the little street) which is very close to the huge soccer stadium La Bomborena (The Candy Bowl). Argentinians are SERIOUS about their love for soccer! We watched an entire video of just how much Argentians love soccer, how important it is to them, and how their soccer heroes have been elevated in the society to almost saints! All this sports information was a little lost on Carrie, who doesn't give a rip about sports. But we digress ...

Here are a few pics of El Caminito:






We also visited Recoleta - a very rich area that basically looks like Rodeo Drive, Puerto Madero - which is an old port that has been recently revitalized and has a famous new modern bridge called Puente de la Mujer:

The architect who designed this bridge says it's supposed to reflect a couple doing the tango. Um, we don't necessarily know if we see it or not, but it is beautiful nonetheless.

Our tour guide said that Argentina's most famous author described people from Buenos Aires as Italians ... who speak Spanish .... who were educated by the British ... but want to be French!

Anyway, ciao for now - we are off for some empanadas!!!

Tiempo para la parilla!

Argentina is known for many things, not least of which is its beef. And there's nowhere better to eat your Argentinian beef than at a parilla, or grill, as we English speakers call it.

Luckily for us, our hotel is only a few blocks away from one of the best parillas in town, La Dorita. This unpretentious grill is muy autentico, with a bewildering array of available cuts of beef all grilled up to perfection. It attracts people from all walks of life - we saw families, stylish hipsters, seniors, businesspeople...anyone and everybody.


Here's Ed with his bife de chorizo, not to be confused with Mexican sausage, but rather the Argentinian term for sirloin. Now THAT'S a hunk of meat!



And here's Carrie with her half portion of bife de lomo, or what we call tenderloin. Can you believe that's a half portion?!?



But one of our favorite things at La Dorita wasn't even the food, as delicious as it was. It was this steaklover's take on The Last Supper. It was hanging on the wall next to us. Oh yes.


Why break bread when you can chow bife and drink malbec with 12 of your closest pals?

Museum Day!

It started off as a rainy day in Buenos Aires this morning, so we figured it would be a perfect time to check out Malba (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires). 

First of all, the building is beautiful.  Once we walked inside, it was exhilarating - big, bright and definitely bustling.  The art was VERY modern - lots of bright colors of course, and all different sorts of mediums.  We tried to take some pics, but kinda got busted by an undercover museum employee!  We made sure to say lo siento and put the camera away, but we caught a few snaps:



The guy walking towards us in this picture is who busted us ... oops.

This was one of the temporary exhibits, "Mercado".  It was really small, but so inspiring!  Just using simple imagery displaying foods from the market - the green you see above are a whole bunch of heads of lettuce!  The giant broccoli to the left was cool too - very pop - and made all of tile.  There were also intricately carved melons that were gorgeous too - and a very modern display of a giant pile of dirty dishes.  It was way better than we're making it sound ...

Another highlight was an exhibition of Felix Gonzales-Torres' work. It was shocking because throughout the exhibition, there were giant stacks of prints that people were just picking up and taking.  We watched for awhile, and then finally we asked if we really could take some. Yes, it was true, we could!  We absolutely fell in love with two prints - two simple, stark white sheets of paper with tiny black type.  One simply reads "Somewhere better than this place" and the other reads "Nowhere better than this place".  The art spoke to us because we both are always thinking, planning and dreaming of the next place we'll travel to, but we are always proclaiming to others how much we love our Long Beach "hometown" and how content we are to be in the LBC forever.  We can't wait to get them framed and displayed once we get back!

After Malba, we headed over to San Telmo, one of the oldest & "most authentic" neighborhoods in the city. We saw tango in the streets and lots of street vendors and performers, but it was crazy crowded.  We decided we'd tackle San Telmo later this week without carrying art prints among the sea of people in the streets!