Friday Music Feature! Danniel Radall

I was screening my Facebook wall when I came across an article by Gozamos. Part of the title mentioned "Guadalajara Chill Wave" and well that caught my attention.

Also, Gozamos is an online magazine directed at young Latinos in Chicago. I am no longer young, but I am from Chicago!

Estaba mirando mis noticias de Facebook cuando me encontré con un artículo de Gozamos. Parte del título menionaba "Guadalajara Chill Wave" y me llamó la atención.

Gozamos es una revista en línea dirigida a los jóvenes latinos en Chicago. Yo ya no soy tan joven, pero sigo siendo de Chicago!

I have family in Guadalajara; I spent part of my childhood there as well.

The article states that "his life in Guadalajara, México has inspired a unique and subtle fusion of cultures and sounds". Well, I just had to run over and start listening to see what that meant, and I am so glad that I did.
 

Tengo familia en Guadalajara, pasé parte de mi infancia allí

El artículo afirma que "su vida en GDL, ha inspirado una fusión única y sutil de las culturas y sonidos".

Tuve que correr a escuchar para ver lo que eso significaba y me siento muy contento de haberlo hecho.

GDL Chillwave is a perfect way to describe this and it is now playing at our Sugar & Spice store. Seriously, go and listen to this!

GDL Chill Wave es una descripción perfecta de esta música y ahora la incluimos en la música de Sugar & Spice. En serio, escuchen esto!

My favorites are Fleeting Romance and El Aislamiento.

Pardo [EP] by DannielRadall

Facebook
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Review of Fleeting Romance
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New Client Feature: Neme Sandwicheria

My sales person was giving me a list of his new clients when I looked on his map and there was a solitary pin in Villa Pueyrredon.

Mi vendedor me estaba dando una lista de sus nuevos clientes cuando miré en su mapa un aislado alfiler en Villa Pueyrredón.

He insisted that I should go check it out. It´s a little kiosko that expanded and now they have a sidewalk sandwich and cafe business with tables and chairs.

Insistió en que debía ir a visitar. Se trata de un pequeño kiosco que se expandió y ahora tienen una sándwicheria con mesas y sillas sobre la vereda.

He even serves pasta and premium ice cream.

Incluso sirve pasta y helado de primera calidad.

Well, that caught my attention. It´s mostly residential and it seems like a quiet neighborhood. Besides, we have no other clients near them. So what did I find?

Me llamó la atención. La zona es principalmente residencial y parece un barrio tranquilo. Además, no tenemos otros clientes cerca de ellos. Entonces, ¿con qué me encuentro?

The kiosco business started back in 1949.

El kiosco nació en 1949.

They still have a picture of the previous owner dated 1972 on the wall.

Ellos todavía tienen la imagen del dueño original.

It is still a family run operation and the current owner Eduardo, decided to expand his horizons a bit.

Sigue siendo una operación de gestión familiar y el actual propietario Eduardo, decidió ampliar sus horizontes un poco.

He told me that he left the picture of the previous owner because he wanted to honor him and the neighbors really liked to see their old kioskero behind the counter, even if he wasn´t around anymore.

Me dijo que él dejó la imagen del anterior propietario para honrarlo y los vecinos  realmente les gustaba ver a su kioskero antiguo, detrás del mostrador como en los viejos tiempos.

It´s the memories that tugs at their heart.

Son las memorias que tiran al corazón.

And that is how this "Sandwicheria" neighbors this old kiosco.

Y así es como este "Sandwicheria" sale del kiosco antiguo.

and his point of difference was going to be quality!

y su punto de diferencia iba a ser de calidad!

He serves Chungo premium ice cream from his stand; Cachafaz dulce de leche; pastas from La Juvenil; sandwiches and desserts from Deli Light, and now cookies and biscotti from Sugar & Spice.

Él sirve helados Chungo; Cachafaz dulce de leche, las pastas de La Juvenil, sándwiches y postres de Deli Light, y ahora cookies y biscotti de Sugar & Spice.

Rumor has it that in the summer he will be making ice cream sandwich cookies! and from both locations!

Se rumorea que en el verano tendra Ice Cream Sandwiches! y de ambos lugares! Sí, se está expandiendo y agregando otra tienda en Villa Devoto.

Yeah, he is expanding and adding another store in Villa Devoto.

Neme Sandwicheria
Avda. Albarellos 2918
Villa Pueyrredon
Facebook Page

Friday Music Feature!

On Fridays I will be highlighting a song or a band that is currently playing at the Sugar & Spice store. The idea is to showcase some of the music that I love and share it with you.

Los viernes voy a destacar una canción o una banda que se está reproduciendo en la tienda de Sugar & Spice. La idea es mostrar algo de la música que me gusta y compartirlo con ustedes.

I don't know if posting it every Friday on the blog is the way to go. Call it an experiment.

No sé si publicarla todos los viernes en el blog es el camino a seguir. Llamemoslo un experimento.

I could also use the Sugar & Spice Facebook Page for these posts. However, like I said, I don't know yet. What do you think? Should I post it here or exclusively on the Facebook site?

También puedo utilizar la pagina de Facebook de Sugar & Spice para esto. Sin embargo, como he dicho, yo no lo sé todavía. ¿Qué piensan? Lo pongo acá o en Facebook?

If you did not know we had a Facebook page now is the time to head on over there, like us, and start listening...

Si no sabían que había una página de Facebook ahora es el momento de ir allí, hacer click en "like", y empezar a escuchar ...

And now, the first band:
Y ahora, la primera banda:

Metric
This one, I have to honestly say that I got to know about through Glenn Beck. It may the only thing I ever would be grateful to Glenn Beck for, but there you have it.

A Metric, tengo que decir honestamente, que los llegué a conocer a través de Glenn Beck. Es posible que sea la única cosa que agradeceré a Glenn Beck (porque es un loco reventado), pero ahí lo tienen.

He was using one of their songs in his shows and they asked him to stop doing so. The song in question was Rock Me Now.

Él estaba usando una de las canciones de Metric en su programa de television y le pidieron que dejara de hacerlo. La canción en cuestión era Rock Me Now.

There is also an Argentina connection to all of this, but for that you can just listen to Emily Haines tell it herself.

También hay una conexión a la Argentina en todo esto, pero pueden escuchar a Emily Haines hablar sobre eso.

One other plus is that Metric happens to be a favorite of my 9 year old as well. Take that Radio Disney!

Otro beneficio más de todo esto es que Metric pasa a ser uno de los favoritos de mi hija de 9 años. Tomatela Radio Disney!

You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, or if you're lucky and wandering around Recoleta you might see her taking in the view, sipping a cortado under the shade of a very large gomero tree in La Biela.

BA Cast vs Me (part 2)

I previously had the pleasure to be on B.A. Podcast and share some wine, copetines and conversation with Fer, Daniel and Diva.

You can read how that went by clicking here.

This time around Fer fired back with a top 5 of his own.

He vowed revenge and he's delivering it on a nice cold plate. He even has a back up cheering squad that should sound familiar to anyone who has lived in Argentina (or has watched the Argentine national team play).

Listen in Yanqs and see what makes us pesados. The recording is a collection of five Top 5's. Fernando's list is the last one.

After reviewing my list I am still sticking to it. However, I did receive a suggestion that I should try the chimichurri on choripan and that was a great suggestion. This works way better for me.

I also received a link to an article on sandwhiches de miga by another expat, and yes, when they are as good as they can be, they can be okay for me. I am still not dying for one though.

One more thing, if you click the label below called "BA Cast vs me" you would get a listing of posts that go back and forth between Fernando and myself.

In case you can't tell, I really like talking with these guys and more often than not we are actually in agreement, but we have a blast when we disagree.

Fierro Hotel Boutique

One of the great perks of my job is getting to meet other people who are building businesses in the community. Because of that, I get to hear about things that are fairly new and sometimes even hear about things that are in the making.

Of course, I respect ideas so I never say anything about up and coming things unless I am given permission to talk about it.

In this case, I actually learned about, and closed a deal, because of Twitter.

Yep, I was introduced to the Fierro Hotel Boutique through Twitter by a mutual friend:

Another great perk is that when a hotel is interested in our products, they themselves tend to be fantastic hotels. The Fierro Hotel is no exception. In fact, its tag line is "The Hotel for the Gourmand".

How do they follow that up?

Here is a quote taken from their site:

"But the outstanding element was the food. As someone who works with many of the finest restaurants in the UK, I can only say it's a shame that Michelin does not award in Argentina. " Andrew, London, UK

Their cheff Hernán Gipponi happens to have worked at the "Guggenheim Bilbao and Quique Dacosta's El Poblet in Denia, Valencia, both recipients of two Michelin Stars."

If you google the cheff you will get a whole list of ratings and sites about him and the restaurant both in English and in Spanish.

Yes, it's on my list of places to visit and dine at.

And now, if you happen to be staying at the Fierro, you don't even have to go far to enjoy some fantastic micro brewed beer from Otro Mundo with Argentina's yummiest savory cookies.

These are serious savory cookies also. They are made with real grated Parmesan cheese for example. No artificial flavoring added.

The beer isn't shabby either. You can read about it here and you can see a review of it from BeerAdvocate. If you are also interested in the Beer Scene in Argentina in general you can see a previous post of mine by clicking here.

If you are planning on visiting Argentina then you should seriously consider this hotel. At the very least, your tummy will thank you and you can score some cool mini soaps.

Elephant and Piggie go to Buenos Aires!

Well, not exactly...

I was invited by my youngest daughter's teacher to come in and read in English to their 2nd grade class. Since they are learning English, and they are in 2nd grade, I thought the Elephant and Piggie book series would be the perfect books to read.

It's a good thing I took several books (I was then going to lend some to a friend afterwards), because they demanded that I read more.

Yep, I finished reading the book and they started chanting: Uno Mas! Uno Mas! Uno Mas!

These are my absolute favorite easy reader books. They are not just for the little ones either. They are a joy to read as an adult. And if you ever have to read to little kids and you want to be a rock star, these are the books to read to them.

There is lots of repetition, as there needs to be so that the kids can get used to the words and help pick them up, but there is lots of humor and there's lots of exclamation points! The dialogue, while very simple, is just very funny. Remember, these kids were laughing it up.

These books just so happen to be the very first ones that my eldest started reading. In fact, we bought them at the book store because she picked one up and started reading right then and there. We were so in love with that moment that we bought several of those books.

The other Mo Willems that I really love is the Pigeon series of books. Both of these are great!

Doing a little on-line research I found that there is a new on-line dancing game!

Click here for the link to the game.

I have not tried it yet, but so far, like everything else he does, he is getting great reviews.

I just found out that he is also starting to offer the books in Spanish.

I will leave you with some helpful links:

Mo Willems Blog
Teacher's Guide and Event Kits (which I also used to prepare a little gift to the class)
Jean Little Library Blog (A Librarian reviews the books)
Mo Willems Stuff...

Roman Numerals

Just last night my daughter decided that I needed a brushing up on Roman Numerals. I had told her previously that 'yeah, I knew them'.

Although when I had told her, I wasn't exactly sure if I really did know them.

I remember learning them, but how much did I really remember?

It turns out that I remembered quite a bit. But, I hope she didn't catch on. For her sake, I forgot quite a lot.

As it turns out they are useful beyond figuring out how many Superbowls have been played. And I found a great resource that has everything you ever needed to learn about roman numerals.

I also found this one that has a nice little graph that is a bit more detailed than the one my daughter used on me.

On one of the sites there was a comment from a mom saying that she did not want her kid learning Arabic numbers. That one made me giggle a little.

And after all of this you are still not sure how to use them, you can convert numbers here.

And of course, there is an app for that.

Now if only I could remember where I left my keys as well as I could remember that today is April XXVII, MMXI

One little disclaimer. Don't pay too much attention to my picture; it has some mistakes. After all, it's from a 9 year old who just saw them for the very first time.

Yanqui Mike is Leaving Buenos Aires!

Achievement seems to be connected with action.

Successful men and women keep moving.

They make mistakes, but they don't quit.

- Conrad Hilton

Five Years of Yanqui Mike

Yes, that's right, Yanqui Mike is leaving Buenos Aires. I first heard about him, or actually read his blog back around 2006. He had, and actually still has, a very popular blog.

He has also been very busy in real life. He is a character, and I am glad to have gotten to know him and his wife and count them as friends.

But life is calling for them to move on to greener pastures and I mean this literally not figuratively. He is a cattle rancher, a greengo gaucho you might say; and he's going to be closer to his little dogies (and the rest of his herd). You can read a little bit of background on him from his Huffington Post bio.

Like the bio says, he became the founding chairman of Democrats Abroad Argentina. He reached out to me to be one of the founding members as well.

He eventually roped me into running for office and although I really looked forward to working side by side with him, it was not the greatest experience, but that was not really his fault and that whole experience would require a series of blog posts on their own.

If all that was not enough, he also started the Buenos Aires chapter of Drinking Liberally.

Throughout all of this, he has kept us entertained, informed and has sparked spirited debate several times through his popular blog. If you have never read it you should. Here are just a sampling of some of his posts:

Mary McCunne
The Authentics
Uber Alles   
My last post... for my own safety
Martin Varsavsky
The Lexington Incident - This is a four part post on the United States role in the Falklands / Las Malvinas. This is one of my favorite posts.

And the one post that he wrote back in 2007 and makes him look like a sage since it's pretty spot on with how the beef industry has evolved (or imploded might be a better word).
I am become a farmer

So Mike and Alicia, let me take a moment to say thanks and that we will miss both of you around here. I also wish you two the best in your new life out in the campo.

I just realized I don't have any pictures of us, but I do have one of Alicia at least. By the way, she also blogs.

The Beer Scene in Argentina

“A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.”
--Czech Proverb

I have been meaning to post about this and then I saw that LandingPadBA.com just came out with their post listing their top 5, basically kicking me in the ass on this topic.

I do happen to like most of the beers they mentioned and I would have to add that they missed out on some others. In all fairness though, she did have to come up with only five.

This is not a hard thing to do since micro-brewed beer here is still curving up, it´s still up and coming. This is a country where the majority of beer drinkers think that there are three types of beer: Black, Red, and Rubia (blond would be the literal translation).

I have written before on the subject of variety and a nice back and forth ensued between me and Fernando of the now very popular local podcast called BACast.com

This is an interesting article (in Spanish) that mentions the per capita consumption of beer to be 33 liters, but that in Santa Fe that number jumps up to 60 to 70 liters and that in Rosario, which happens to be within the province of Santa Fe, the consumption there is 52 to 58 liters.

They related this phenomenon to two things: First that there were two large breweries that merged (today it is Schneider) and secondly the high temperatures there drives people to order beer over wine in the summer.

Another article pins the consumption at 44 liters. This article goes a step further and breaks down the market share. This is a very interesting point:

74% goes to Quilmes
23% goes to CCU
03% goes to Isenbeck

As you can see, there is no considerable segment assigned to the small microbrewery. In fact, there are two companies that demand 97% of the total volume!

However, it´s not so gloom and doom. Remember, I said this was still an up and coming segment. There is a lot of excitement over micro-brewed beers. The following article from Clarin goes further into this.

In Mar del Plata they just had their third annual Beer Festival and Randy Mosher did not just attend, but he made a Porter with Dulce de Leche for the occasion! This actually sounds like a pretty good combination if you ask me.

And Peter Slosberg, who also attended, said that the Argentina beer scene of today reminds him of the US beer scene of 25 years ago. This is definitely a positive perspective.

But, back to the point at hand. What was missing from that article? I say missing, because I can´t possibly just mention five. Maria you had a very tough job limiting yourself.

1. Cossab - Bohemian little place that brews six varieties and has all you can eat pizza on Wednesdays to go with some of the finest beers in BA.

2. Buena Birra Social Club - This is a closed doors micro-brewery. If that alone does not peak your interest then you have wasted your time reading this. Great place, great beer, friendly people, it´s like beer heaven.

3. Una Mas - This one I tried at Buena Birra Social Club and they only had the Cream Ale and it was great. I am curious enough now to try the rest of their line-up.

4. Gulmen - This is another little brewery (not a microbrewery) that you would need to buy their beer at pubs or bars. I especially like their Weiss beer (ceveza de trigo). You could also order from them and they will ship directly to your house.

5. Otro Mundo - I have written about them in the past and we even paired some of their beers with Sugar & Spice savory cookies.

From Regalos 2009

And this is just Buenos Aires. In the rest of the country the same thing is happening and there are great microbreweries in Bariloche and the 7 lakes region for example.

And finally, there is a blog that is a great resource for beer in Argentina called Logia Cervecera. It is in Spanish and they do write about foreign beers as well, but they also write about local ones and they even have a list of bars that have microbrewed beers.

And finally, finally? I could not help but leave you with this image of a home made beer. I was so fortunate enough to have from James Foster. I sure do hope he gets back to making beer because this was one of the finest beers I have had.

Update: I can´t believe I forgot to include this list. Joy Magazine came up with a pretty good top 10 list as well.

Narda Lepes Still Likes Sugar & Spice Cookies

Narda Lepes just sent me her "cling"!

She had put Sugar & Spice in her book "Qué, Cómo, Dónde", which is a culinary guide for those who would like to know where to buy great and sometimes very rare foods.

Obviously, she knows where to get the best chocolate chip cookies.

She wasn't just doing lip service either. We actually ate some cookies together. Some people break bread, we break cookies.

Thanks again Narda!

************** Castellano **********

Narda Lepes nos acaba de enviar su "cling"! Ella había puesto a Sugar & Spice en su libro "Qué, Cómo, Dónde".

Obviamente ella sabe donde conseguir las mas ricas Chocolate Chip Cookies!

No es puro verso tampoco. Yo la vi, es más, compartimos unas cookies.

Gracias de nuevo Narda!