Restaurants and shopping Buenos Aires

El cortijo
Santiago del Estero 20, Cap. Fed

An old fashioned, very good value restaurant. In particular the daily specials are worth checking out.

Vegetable soup of the day for only 5 pesos.
We had a meal with people having steaks, wine, beer etc. For 10 the bill was 415 pesos.

Definitely worth a visit.

Mundana
Beautiful jewellery at this shop. Locations at 5 different places around Buenos Aires
http://www.mundana.accesorios.com.ar/

Bits and pieces from Bueos Aires

Fantastic city, even though it has been freezing cold and raining.

We have spent time in Palermo. A great place to wander around if you like shopping, the interiors are like works of art themselves

Had lunch at Bar 6, Amenia 1676, Palermo
www.barseis.com

Ultra cool place to hang.

Had dinner at Sattua, vegetarian restaurant
Montevideo 446, BA
www.sattva.com.ar
An atmospheric quirky kind of place, great veggie food, we recommend the tacos, rice was good.

Tonight we had the most amazing buffet and grill at a place called
Brasas Argentinas
Alicia Moreau de Justo 1108
Puerto Madero
Reservas al 4331 4386

They had the usual buffet, plus chefs making fresh pastas, seafood and meat grills, sushi, parrilla and we were just too stuffed to have dessert. We went at peak time ie Friday night and paid $35 each for loads of food, beer and wine and as we said, we were too stuffed to move afterwards.

We love the Argentinian way, if three people order a bottle of wine, the wine gets poured in one go into all three glasses.

Hotel Tribeca
Downtown BA - good location, big rooms, great place to stay

Disfida Restaurant

In my newfound infatuation with Haberfield we went to Disfida this week.

109 Ramsay Street
Haberfield
02 9798 8299

We had a great meal here. Starters were mussels, caprese salad and venetian sardines.

We then shared a couple of pizzas one with prosciutto and one with fresh tomatoes which were pretty good.

The service was great, attentive, efficient. Total bill was $102 with one glass of wine. By the way really good wine list.

We'll definitely be going back Joanne

Kawa, Surry Hills

On what is fast becoming the very trendy part of Crown street, full of posh fresh food with Thomas Dux and a specialist butcher.

This is a welcoming, nook in the Crown Street landscape. Tables outside or an air conditioned space inside. Very friendly staff.

The feel is healthy and organic, but not overly so. Fresh juices here and good coffee.

As you can see my meal was huge. I had corned beef salad with hash browns, beetroot and other good things. Sandy had the big breakfast, which he didn't think was huge, but it was a decent size. He had poached eggs, which were on the point of just becoming solid. Personally I prefer my poached eggs runny, but I guess that is personal preference.

Reasonable prices that fit within the food trek budget. There is a surcharge on Sundays and public holidays.

They are open all day and also do some dinners.
346-350 Crown Street
Surry Hills 2010
9331 6811

Joanne
www.placesandspaces.com.au

Useful when travelling in Australia

National public loo registry, sure there are a lot more, such as department stores, restaurants etc, but possibly handy.

http://bit.ly/6kDqcz

Joanne
www.placesandspaces.com.au

Kammadhenu

This one had been recommended by Bobby Singh and Ben Walsh. They sometimes perform music upstairs.

The masala dosa was nearly as big as Arran.



The food was really yummy and lots of it.

Great value here in Newtown where we had mango lassi, 3 dosas, a beer and a soft drink for $38.

Kammadhenu
377a King Street
Newtown
9557 2186



Joanne
www.ceressolutions.com.au

Cupcakes and coffee

For some reason, in Australia we have been overtaken by cupcake fever. Cupcake shops abound and these little morsels can be found everywhere. They are marching along, like Thai shops against the Chinese restaurant in every country city in Australia - it is now cup cakes versus muffins. Early days yet, but I feel a takeover coming on.

The beauty of the cupcakes is that they are light and come in so many variations from regular to lemon merengue to this profiterole concoction.

The Cupcake Bakery have more than one site and they do a special coffee and cupcake offer for $5. The outlet in the Queen Victoria building, Sydney does a decent cup of coffee, which does justice to these tempting morsels.

We also go to Cupcakes on Pitt, at 323 Pitt Street. Although it has had some adverse reviews, the cupcakes we have had there have always been fresh and tasty.

Joanne Kee

http://www.placesandspaces.com.au/

twitter@joannekee