MEAT

14712 So today we hopped on the bus, (luckily it picked us up from our neighborhood this time) and it took us out of the city to Don Silvano Estancia for a gaucho experience. admittedly the place was a tourist trap, but the food was good, and having 20 other kids to traipse around with made it a whole lot more fun. the place is run by an italian family that immigrated to the area around 1900, it was a working farm for quite a while, but as technologies and agri-corporations got bigger small farms kinda fell behind, and in the mid 1990s, it was turned into what it is today. we arrived and were immediately herded through the empenadas and wine line, which was cool, cause id been awake for like 2 hours by then, and i definitely needed some ground meat wrapped in dough and some decent (but by local standards awful) wine. after a brief talking to by our handlers, we were set free upon the "farm" we naturally gravitated towards the horses, as we heard we would be able to ride them. unfortunately there were way more of us than horses, so there was a line, me and a few other catz decided to hit up the Bocce Ball court field lane? me and Evan dominating, with the other team (consisting of my roomate and taller rugby girl) conceding once we led by 8. we hurried back for some more wine and empenadas before climbing on the horses for the quick jaunt around the grounds.

turns out the horse i was riding was novios with the horse of tall rugby girl her and her horse:

me and mine:

roomate and his:

and Evan and his:

because my and madisons horse were so close, they had to remain physically close, so whenever one of us sped up the other would follow suit regardless of the riders intentions. my horse wasnt the most pliable, at one point i encouraged him to go a bit quicker through a larger open area, and madisons horse kicked it up too and chased us. evan, between his natural outdoorsmanship (he is from the middle of fucking no where Pennsylvania) and smaller horse, he was riding like a pro turning him around and trotting and stopping on a dime, it was pretty cool. towards the end of this jaunt, one of the ladies working at the tourist trap was taking pictures to sell to us later, now normally i would never pay for such a thing, but my horse knew what was up, and as this lady was stationed for the pictures, hurried out of line, and basically posed with my being a bad ass on top, so i shelled out the 5USD for the picture, if i can get it scanned ill throw it up here too. after the riding came the feast, and a feast it indeed was. there was a show also, but i mostly stuffed my face and spoke to the girl sitting next to me (who knew the accident prone little girl from the Czech Dialogue). first out came the salad, which i partook in liberally, you know roughage and whatnot. then came out the sausages, chorizo and a (morcilla) blood sausage. both of which we fantastic, the blood sausage, being a blood sausage had an odd texture, which i remedied by spreading on the home made bread rolls that were rife throughout the smorgasbord. after that came the chicken, i had the breast, which was nothing special, it wasnt the pumped up hormone chicken we get in the states, so it was a bit smaller, but tasted roughly the same. after that came the first round of beef, i think i got myself some rib tips i am not entirely sure. but this while covered in gristle and fat, was delicious, and by the time the second round of beef rolled along, i snagged myself a hunk of T-bone steak, which was prolly one of the best t-bones ive ever had, ever. to conclude the meal they handed out homemade flan and coffee. now normally im not a fan of flan, but this was really good, consistent thicker texture, i dont know if argentine flan is different from the kinds that i have had before, but i really liked it. upon completion inhaling my flan and the end of that show i wasnt really paying attention to, we were released from the long tables for the gaucho show. the show, while cementing the tourist trap aspect of the venture, was entertaining. it reminded me very much of the renaissance fair back home. there was a little race between a gaucho and gaucha? and then the gaucho demonstrated the use of the bola, by riding full tilt and catching a wooden post about 10m away from him with a flick of his wrist. after that there was effectively a jousting match, where they catch rings, instead of unhorsing eachother. apparently it came from spain, where the riders would be trying to put their lance/spear through a ring for the hand of a lady in marriage, however the gaucho lifestyle doesnt fit well with marriage so they have their own version. the argentine gaucho version calls for the ring grabbing, but its for a "kiss" (as explained by the owner). the gaucho in fact gets to choose who to kiss, and if the target has a significant other, said other must kiss the gauchos horse. after a few rounds of this ring catching endeavor, we were shooed away for Mate and pastries, the mate wasnt anything special, but the pastries were awesome, and after another few minutes we were sent on our way, busing back into the city. i got home and pretty much went to sleep, i read some, and made myself a honey and nutella sandwich, but did nothing else.