A colorfully painted wall on a narrow street in the Serrano Plaza area.

Tomorrow and on future January firsts, we will post “our year in review” with photos.  We haven’t been consistent in posting this feature but plan to do so in future years. Please check back tomorrow to see our year in review. 

Colorful painting on walls in Argentina is a popular cultural activity.

Last year, while in Penguin Tasmania, New Year’s Eve was on December 30th due to the International Dateline.  Subsequently, the photo below from one year ago, listed as the “one year ago” photo was posted on December 30th.  We apologize for the confusion.

Most likely, we won’t be on the other side of the International Dateline again until a much later date in the future, not necessarily in the next few years.  Also, tomorrow, we plan to post our upcoming plans for the future.  Please check back to see!

Everywhere we walk, we encounter wall painting of this type.  Very entertaining!

Yesterday, we took a taxi to the other end of Palermo to Jumbo, a large supermarket, where we purchased food and drinks for tonight’s New Year’s celebration with our new friends and past cruise-mate, Margaret and Con. Again tomorrow we’ll repeat the same meal, based on the lack of availability of opened restaurants over this holiday.

The “Jumbo” supermarket is located in a mall.

As always, it was fun to visit a huge supermarket in another country.  The types of foods vary along with the prices.  Unfortunately, we were so busy trying to find the items, including drinks, on our shopping list for the four for of us for tonight’s and tomorrow’s celebrations, we were too distracted to take photos once inside the market. 

It was a huge market although not as well laid out as some markets in throughout the world.  We managed to find most of the items on our list but couldn’t find all of the ingredients to make my special turmeric tea which I’ve been having each morning instead of coffee. 

We wandered around the mall where the Jumbo market is located.

Drinking the tea has become quite a treat for me and each morning, instead of eating (not hungry), I consume a mug of the healthy tea which includes cinnamon, turmeric powder, pepper (pepper increases the bio-availability of the turmeric), unsweetened organic cocoa powder, powdered ginger and unsweetened organic coconut cream along with your preferred sweetener. 

A deli located in the mall.

We were only able to find a few of these ingredients at the market. It made no sense to buy some of the ingredients, never knowing if we’d ever find the balance.  At that point, I decided I’d give up the tea and wait until we arrive in South Africa where I’m certain we’ll find everything needed.

After we returned to our room and rearranged the tiny refrigerator, we managed to fit everything except the roasted chickens we’d purchased.  The hotel staff offered to store them for us and reheat them in their microwave each of the next two evenings.

Tom checked out the McDonald’s but didn’t order a thing.  Good.

Fortunately, in this wonderful boutique hotel, we’ll be allowed to use our own food for this particular occasion when no restaurants are open.  We’ll dine in one of the large booths in the bar.  As typical in boutique hotels, the small restaurant has nothing on the menu that I can eat nor anything Tom likes.

We took the cart up the steep escalator in the mall.  We’d seen a similar set-up in Bali, Indonesia and Fairlight, Australia.

This plan works well for the four of us.  Tonight, we plan to get together with Margaret and Con at 8:30 pm to dine, a little late for us but, fine if we all plan to stay up for the midnight fireworks.

The seafood display was filled with many types of fish and shellfish.

Yesterday afternoon, after putting everything away, we moseyed back to the lobby to continue working on future planning in order to fine-tune some of our objectives over the next few years.  This end-of-the-year objective provides us with peace of mind and joyful anticipation of what is yet to come.

These salmon kabobs looked great, priced at US $2.09 (ARS 39.99) per 100 grams which would be US $20.87 (ARS 399.90) for one kilo (2.2 pounds).

By 5:30 pm, we headed out the door to once again to return to the Serrano Plaza area to find a spot for dinner and further explore this exciting area we’ve visited over the past few nights. 

Once we discovered this trendy area, it’s been hard to stay away from the lively streets, colorful graffiti painted on walls, with dozens of restaurants and shops all of which possess a typical Argentinian feel.

The exterior of Bulls BBQ Smoke House.

After wandering the streets for a while we spotted a  lone diner sitting at an outdoor table with a plate of barbecue ribs that looked great. We couldn’t resist checking it out further.  Once inside the restaurant, we noticed that Bulls BBQ Smoke House not only offered exquisite barbecue ribs and other meats but also a smoked chicken breast Caesar salad.   Perfect!

Meat cooking on the wood-fired stove at Bulls BBQ Smoke House.

We ordered and paid for our food and bottled water (cash only) at the counter and found a table in the back of the restaurant.  The owner was delightful, paying special attention to my dietary needs and Tom’s upcoming plate of beef ribs, fries, pickles, and coleslaw.  See photo below.

Tom, waiting for dinner to be served last night.

The meal was exceptional as was the reasonable cost at US $25.57, (ARS $490).  We hope to return at least one more time before departing Buenos Aires in 23 days.  I devoured Tom’s coleslaw, along with my salad and, he ate everything on his plate, leaving him feeling stuffed.

The restaurant is small but friendly with the freshest of well-prepared food.

After dinner, we decided to walk off our meal, meandering further through the area.  By coincidence, we stumbled across an upscale gourmet “spices and oils” shop noticing they had unsweetened coconut cream but none of my other tea ingredients. 

Tom’s monstrous meal.  I ordered the guacamole for my salad and ate all of his sugar-free coleslaw.

The lovely shopkeeper who spoke some English suggested we walk back to the direction from which we came to find a health food store that may have the remaining ingredients we’d need. 

By adding the guacamole and coleslaw I had plenty to eat.

After a two block walk, we found the health food store.  Alas, they had everything I needed!  All of the remaining organic ingredients were available in bulk and the friendly two shopkeepers engaged with us in chatty broken English while weighing the items we needed, wishing us a heartfelt “Feliz Ano Nuevo” as we headed out the door.

Once back on the street we headed back to the upscale spices and oils stop which luckily was still open so we could purchase the remaining coconut cream from her.  After all, she was kind enough to point us in the right direction of the health food store which we appreciated and, we decided to give her the business.

The shelves of the gourmet spices and oils shop are neatly lined with cooking treasures.

Luckily, we had the small cooler bag with us as Tom carried the heavy package as we walked back to the hotel.  By the time we returned to our room it was 8:30 pm. 

We hunkered down for the evening to watch two shows on my laptop; season two of “Top of the Lake” (exceptional); and season one of Damnation” (good but not great).

What a pretty display!

Tomorrow, New Year’s Day, we’ll be back with our “year in review” photos, plus photos from our New Year’s Eve celebration and our new loosely planned itinerary for the next few years.

May each and every one of our dear readers/friends have a safe and fulfilling New Year’s Eve and year to come.  You mean the world to us!

Photo from one year ago today, December 31, 2016:

Due to the International Dateline, we posted the “year in review” photos on December 30th.   From that date’s post, we included this photo of our visit to the Monkey Temple in Bali in May wearing the required sarongs.  For more of last year’s photos, please click here.