Gastro-Pimpin'

These countries we've been visiting ... Argentina and Uruguay ... have rarely been thought to be in great economic shape compared to their European parents ... and especially since the terrible peso crash and resulting IMF default that happened in Argentina in 2001/2 ... the economy is on pretty shaky terms. Yet ... I keep seeing things that are pretty pimp despite the tough times.

For one ... the bad economy seems to have spurred a class of jobs ... probably low paying but definitely subsistence ... like apartment door man ... security guy ... cop ... street sweeper ... in a way that you feel ... more fortunate or that life is good despite the economy. Apartment buildings have attentive door men ... there's lots of cops around ... and the streets are hand swept every day almost. I have no idea if these are new jobs, but I'm just struck by how there's certain luxuries that exist despite the economy and how it goes so far to giving a feeling of dignity. And in fact ... as a larger point ... there's just a lot of things here that would be deemed extraneous by our industrial-efficiency complex that feel really nice to have. Something old world about it ...

One example ... coffee service. There's few take-out coffee places ... usually you have to sit at a sidewalk cafe ... of which there are legion (and the weather is perfect). A waiter ... often in a tuxedo ... even in the most modest cafe ... will handle coffee service for you ... and coffee will come with, at the very least, the coffee, a cookie, and a diminutive glass of mineral/soda water. Often it will come also with a candy or two, a small glass of fresh orange juice, a scoop of fresh whipped cream, and possibly croissants and/or toasts and jam or dulce de leche. And it'll arrive on a silver tray. For $2.

Now ... who's doing badly and who's doing well? We often slurp down burnt coffee crap from Starbucks in our cars.

Another delight, and I realize I'm gonna get made fun of here ... but ... sandwiches de miga ... or tea sandwiches. Available everywhere. White bread (or black or wheat) ... cut into perfect squares and sliced thin ... with a single slice of ham and a single slice of cheese and some mayo or something. Little square white tea sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Sometimes they come in a vacuum pack ... impossibly fresh and soft and diminutive with no crusts, like we always wanted as kids. For a buck or something.

Did you have a grandma or mother somewhere that admonished you and insisted that you eat the crusts on the bread ... sometimes cooking up some story about how the crusts have all the vitamins or something?

Total horseshit. The sammies sans crusts are super good.

The local beer is pretty damn good, too.