An inquisitive old fart with a camera
A few weeks ago, I correctly guessed the end result of roof work being done on a charming quincho (thatched roof) house nearby. The sheet metal panels do come in different colors, including one similar to clay tiles. Maybe it’s just me, but bright blue feels like a charm-killer.
We attended and 18th birthday party last night. We were told there would be pizza, but I couldn’t have guessed how — cooked not in an oven, but on the parrilla / traditional grill. I explained parrilla — well, sort of — long ago. The fire is one one side, and the coals are raked under the grill, which typically can be raised or lowered. Doing an asado with meat this way takes hours, but with pizza it’s hella more efficient than trying to to do them in the kitchen oven.
Pizza after pizza was delivered to family and friends at the big outside table: Hawaiian, mushroom and cheese, gorgonzola, mussels. All delicious. The combination of the nearby fire, hot pizza, and wine did a nice job of making the chill go away.
Our host, Marcelo, told me that he had tried doing pizza on the grill and it turned out a mess. So here’s the secret: put the plain crust over the embers until one side is done, then remove, turn over and add toppings, and cook over embers again.
As they prepared to leave, the cooks gave out the quintessential Uruguayan marketing tool: refrigerator magnets. Yes, this is what they do for a living!
PS — can you guess the only business that doesn’t give out magnets? See here.
My wife recently asked, where’s your camera? which means come take a picture of this. (In case the concept of camera confuses you, yes, I do have a phone, but a a clamshell unit that can only sync the results of its .3 MB camera through Windows OS, which we do not use.)
And though I probably would have opted for white or yellow onions in a baked dish, I must say the red onions make it more photo-worthy. The light yellow is winter squash from our garden. Onions, carrots, green peppers, and tomatoes, were I to source them, most likely came from within 30 miles of here.
If you are familiar with the 3,000-mile-salad of northern North America, and the fragile nature of the truck-based food transportation system in the USA (Syd can fill us in, perhaps, about Canada), the thought that fresh produce grows nearby feels kind of warm and fuzzy. No, it’s not all organic, but organic is available: we paid 90 pesos/kilo* last Saturday for organic green peppers at the local féria organica at Pilar’s chacra. We then stopped at Tienda Inglesa, where they sold for 158 pesos/kilo* — and not organic.
Not perfect, but not bad. And we get lettuce and cucumbers as well year-round, also local.
*USD 1.36/lb vs USD 2.39/lb
Actually yesterday.
2. Well, this is moving at a decent clip.
Compare with the photo I posted on March 7:
Granted, a “dry” construction house could have been completed in this span of time, but this seems fast compared to another construction on the same street, which I’ve documented.
3. Duneshrooms, next to the dead snakes.
Syd has collected some edible mushrooms recently during dog walks in Villa Argentina, at the base of eucalyptus stumps. Which seems a reasonable place to expect mushrooms to grow. But here are some growing out of — what? I have never seen mushrooms in the dunes before. And OBTW a meter away (top) are the dead snakes.
Two dead snakes, where snakes shouldn’t be, then two clusters of mushrooms where mushrooms shouldn’t be. OK, maybe not massively weird, like elongated skulls and impossible stone construction (I’m foreshadowing: we’ll be exploring in Peru and Bolivia in July). But, a little weird nonetheless.
This might go faster than I expected:
Unfortunately, I was correct:
Gorgeous day, inexplicably empty beach:
Populated only by large dead fish, perhaps caught in changing salt/fresh water in yesterday’s stormy weather. With eyes intact: not a sign of seagulls. Yet.
They’ve got a little guard shack and a backhoe, so it looks like action time on this lot near us. This is for the record. Let’s see how long it takes them to build something. Might be fast; steel-frame houses are becoming more popular. Or might not.
This attractive duplex on the Rambla (beachfront road) appears to be nearing completion after what seems to me an inordinately long time. I remember specifically because the owners, Argentines, rented the El Nido Beach Hotel last summer, whether to house workers or run as a business I don’t know.
Anyway, as I have documented nearby in the past, by the time the place is ready for occupation the high season will have passed. Rents here are massively higher than the rest if the year, from 15 December through 15 March. So if you wanted to rent in the high season, you’d want to have it ready in December. Should be able to build a house in a year, no?
But then again I have no idea why they built it.
Start with spread-out chicken breast, add ham, bacon, provolone cheese, red pepper, and hard-boiled eggs.
Wrap it all up (and stick into a round plastic bottle with the bottom cut off).
Pull mesh tube over the bottle.
Tie off the end.
Drop it back out of the bottle, tie off the other end, and
Voilà! Ready to cook.
Much of it is simply “queso Colonia.” You have to point, or specify it by price.
For six years, I’ve walked past this house whose past-prime quincho roof has reminded me of a mangy dog. It’s finally getting groomed, to stretch a simile. It appears the back half is nearing completion, and the facing side is being torn off.
What’s the deal with quincho? Glad you asked. Denise (“day-NEE-say”) has answered your question exhaustively (and perhaps exhaustingly; we have different styles) here.