Mendoza and then HOME....

Back home – Sorry for the delay in the final Mendoza entry. But getting home is always fun. I am listening to the Beatles CD from the Birthday Dinner at Bistro 743 while blogging today. Oh the memories. I will blog in a couple of days about how the blog will continue. Thanks for the great input and we were happy to share our Argentina trip with you!

Photo of the day.... SPECIAL late harvest "Cab Franc Special".... from Pulenta Estates Winery.

Mendoza Day 7

The last day in Mendoza was nice. It was Sunday and we were planning to cook dinner at the house and take advantage of the last bottles of wine purchased for the house. There were 6 unopened bottles that were not getting packed in our overweight luggage. Because all of the food markets were closed on Sunday there, cooking was out. Purchasing groceries there is a multi-stop shopping experience. The super market does not have meat, very little cheese and no veggies. So you go to the market and then 2 doors down the veggie shop and then across the street on the next block is the meat store… but they were all closed on Sunday.

It was a lazy morning. We were all delaying the thought of leaving a newly found paradise, but the day was beautiful, sunny and warm 75 degrees. I went out wondering to see what our dining options for the day were. With no substantial groceries, we were wasting away the lunch opening of restaurants and I was thinking… what will we do for dinner???? Not hungry now, but I know I will be.

The streets around the Chacras de Coria square were blocked and a small public market selling trinkets and antiques had taken over. There were a ton of people milling about. It was nice. Noticeably there was no Starbuck’s or McDonalds anywhere near. It was a great day. I found a small place that listed their Sunday hours till midnight. We were in business. I was not looking for a 5 course meal, but only something we could all enjoy our last night together.

Dave, Bill, Liz, Rolando and I ventured out around 2 for some lunch as I showed them the market. We found Bocas del Toro Resto. We sat outside under an arbor and enjoyed lunch. At this point, we all seemed to share a bit of everyone’s food….. So I will just say what the table ordered…

We were greeted with a basket of warm bread with a tomato, eggplant, onion and pepper in olive oil for the bread.

A roasted butternut squash stuffed with sautéed carrots, zucchini, cabbage and onions (YES a meatless dish)

Spinach and Jamon lasagna with a meat tomato sauce

Linguini with a tomato cream sauce

Seafood risotto

Chicken Curry

The chef, who had come out to help answer some of our questions on them menu, sent out a huge plate of grilled vegetables with cheese and chimichurri sauce.

It was a great lunch. We decided not have wine with lunch, but have some outside on the back patio of the house. The square was VERY busy… On the way home, we passed an ice cream store. It was so tempting. Liz and Dave got ice cream.

No pictures….

We got home and Megan was in gym shorts and a Texas Tech sweatshirt and Melissa had been laying out in the back yard on a towel, enjoying some Argentine beer. When Megan heard about the market, she wanted to go, but not change clothes. So in flip-flops, shorts and her TT sweatshirt, Melissa, Megs and I went out to the market.

We arrived home and Dave, Rolando, Liz and Bill had already finished the bottle of Trapiche Torrontes and a bottle of La Flor Sauvignon Blanc (La Flor is the house brand of my favorite Pulenta Estates winery). We also had a bottle of Lopez Sparkling wine that we opened….

Final packing and then dinner at Café Flora.

We had asked the restaurant if we could bring our wines and it was OK with an AR$8 (or US$2.67) per bottle. Dinner reservations were at 9 p.m.

We arrived at dinner with 3 bottles of Pulenta Estates wine – The 2005 Malbc Cabernet Sauvignon Blend, The 2005 Gran Cabernet Franc and the small bottle of valued late harvest Cab Franc.

We started the dinner with a couple of “large” bruschettas; one tomato and olive and the other mushroom and leek. These were large thin slices of toasted bread topped with incredibly flavored toppings.

Bill had the onion soup and Dave had the pumpkin soup. Both were incredible.

Dinner came….. we had already finished both our Pulenta Estates wines and needed more for dinner. The host said her husband was a wine maker at a local winery and she offered a bottle of his wine for us to try… it was AMAZING too. I did not get a picture of the label or name of the winery….

Dinner consisted of the following –

Osso Bucco with grilled tomatoes and creamy polenta

Pumpkin Stuffed Ravioli with toasted almonds in a light cream sauce

A Smoked Trout Salad

Chicken Avocado Sandwich

Barbeque pork sandwich

The other pasta special…. (I don’t remember…)

And then it was time for the “cab franc special”. I ordered oven roasted fruit, but it was not quiet was I expected… so we just shared the wine. The beautiful thing is the wine maker had a bright pink sticky note on the bottle that labeled it “cab franc special”…. And special it was. This was the bottle from the barrel the winemaker had given us from Pulenta Estates… WOW!

We ended with 5 Café Flora Coffee drinks… A sweet creamy coffee layered with sweetened condensed milk on the bottom, next espresso, then steamed milk foam and then chocolate. YUM!!!!

We leisurely walked back to the house… looking at the moon and thinking about the 8 a.m. pick up tomorrow morning.

Mendoza Day 8 - Traveling Home…..

I woke early… got things organized and gave the groundskeeper 9 beers…

Oscar showed up on time as usual. WOW… Liz and Rolando were waiting at the house for a later flight and we had even more luggage….

Arrived at the Mendoza airport and caught the LAN flight to Santiago. There was a problem with Dave’s ticket, (he is quickly earning the name as Double Drama Dave after loosing 2 credit cards on the trip…). Everything was worked out after a call to the friendly AA desk. Our plane was FULL with 2 field hockey teams and managers and their entourage.

The flight over the Andes was BUMPY…. BUMPY…. But the view from here was incredible.

We arrived at the Santiago airport and there was our first Starbucks in 11 days…. There was talk of going into the city, but with the entry fee of $100 per person …. We opted to hang in the airport AA lounge for the day. I took my first airport shower... Melissa, Megan and I had salads at Ruby Tuesdays and Megs got a Latte from Starbucks…. Along with her mom’s local SB mugs.

The flight home from Santiago was not memorable... the food was good. I slept as long as I could. It is nice to be home… NO wine broken... !!!!