You may be getting tired of hearing about my wine and pizza stories. But this one has something more. Add a beautiful palace, and now it’s a NEW story.
(For the record, I do not drink wine and eat pizza every day. But when I do, I like to write about it.)
I was hoping to have a quiet Friday night in.
Then I got a message from Chance to confirm I would be going to the Cuisine & Vins Wine Expo… because he already got my ticket. And I had to leave in 15 minutes to meet the group.
But I was already in my comfy pants 
So I said to myself, “Fine. I will woman up and go out tonight. The event starts early unlike everything else in Buenos Aires, so at least I won’t be out too late. No time to eat dinner, but surely there will be bread and cheese and maybe more food at this fancy wine event.”
Wrong! But we’ll get to that in a moment.
I put on my black tights and my leather boots, and I sort of looked like I belong at a fancy wine event in Buenos Aires.
Palacio Paz
I had not yet been in Palacio Paz, and now that I saw it at night decorated with gorgeous lighting for this event, I have no desire to ever see it again. I want to remember it just as I saw it that night.
It was enchanted, just like a palace should be. Colored lights illuminating the architectural details. Gorgeous chandeliers.
After my initial awe as we entered the palace, we headed for the wine. The palace is huge, so we meandered through several rooms. I was starving because I like to eat dinner at a normal hour unlike Argentines. I had my eye out for any sign of food.
The food was a bit disappointing.
The first thing I saw was pieces of bread. And I’m not talking about a baguette. I would have been delighted to eat pieces of a baguette. I’m talking buy-a-loaf-of-pre-sliced-white-bread-at-the-supermarket kind of bread with each slice cut into fourths.
The other option was waffle cone chips with dulce de leche. Seriously… they think that is appropriate food to have at a wine event. But Argentines have to have their daily allotment of dulce de leche.
Then I saw this, and my mouth started watering.
Unfortunately, hordes of people were swarming, so I only got a few small bites. There was a little part of me that just wanted to start gnawing on it.
The Wine
There must have been hundreds of wines to sample.
The VIP Room
We had VIP tickets to get into the room with the premium wines, but apparently everyone else did too. It was completely packed, and you had to fight your way to get a sample.
(Note to event organizers: limit the number of VIP tickets next time.)
Instead of the all-you-can-drink gluttony of the rest of the palace, we received 10 tickets. Didn’t think that was too bad until we saw how stingy there were with the pours.
But let’s be honest. There was plenty of wine available. Nobody left thirsty…. only dehydrated. They even had a few decanted wines in the VIP room.
My favorite wine of the night.
In addition to being my favorite wine, this was also my favorite wine server. He was super-friendly despite the hordes of people fighting to get a sample, and he was not stingy with the pour. This is the Tomero Petit Verdot 2008 from Mendoza.
Now satisfied that I’ve tasted the best wine on offer but with only a tablespoon of dulce de leche and some white bread lining my stomach, needed real food.
This is where the delicious pizza comes into the story.
El Cuartito
We picked up a hungry Irish food writer at the wine event (her site is Eat Like a Girl – love the name!), and Chance led us to a famous pizza place called El Cuartito a few blocks away. There was a line out the door. This place must be good!
But I was starving and waiting in line would just make me think about how hungry I was.
So what did I do?
I whipped out my camera and ask the guys behind the counter if I couldn come back to the kitchen and have a look around. I think having a big camera gives you a lot of credibility, even if your teeth are stained purple.
I had some fun chatting with the guys and taking photos of the pizza. None of them spoke English, but I definitely talked to them a lot and even understood what they were saying. Maybe my Spanish improves after a few glasses of wine. Or maybe it improves when I am hoping they will offer me a bite of pizza to tide me over until we get our table.
After I was done amusing myself and probably looking like an idiot, we got our table.
We started with the Jamon y Roquefort empanadas.
Seriously, amazing!
My new favorite type of empanada.
Then we had a fugazzetta pizza.
Remember me raving about Kentucky Pizza several weeks ago? I think I have to admit that El Cuartito is actually better. Maybe that is the wine talking. All I know is that this was delicious.
I never get bored of your wine stories
Good because that’s probably all I will be writing about for a while
Definitely… Wine stories are awesome.
My mouth is salivating… Lucky we have Barossa valley wines in Australia!
I would love to visit wine areas in Australia!
HEY IT’S ME, THE PETIT VERDOT! I’M GLAD YOU GOT TO KNOW EL CUARTITO! IT’S GOOD!!!
Hola! So happy you saw this post.
Excellent wine and excellent pizza. I love Buenos Aires!
you using your camera to get food faster cracks me up! and, you are not imagining that drinking makes your spanish better. i learned this first-hand during study abroad to spain, amazing myself. then, i was highly entertained by observing this second-hand through my students in mexico. they were all amazed how well they could speak spanish after drinking!
You would think I’d be fluent by now
And yes, I will use any means to get food faster. It didn’t actually work this time though, but I probably could have swiped a handful of cheese if I didn’t have to hold the camera.
Oh my lord that empanado. *drool* So much for a quite night in your comfy pants huh!?
ok I meant empanada
It seems nearly impossible to have a quiet night in my comfy pants while living in Buenos Aires
I don’t think I would ever have been able to leave. It looked so good. And the wine… oh the wine!
If it were not for my extreme hunger, I may have closed the place down
If it were not for all that wine you drank, you would have realized that you DID “close the p(a)lace down”.
Chance Miller recently posted..Lonely Planet Buenos Aires Guide 2011 recommends BAlocal’s Private Tours
This post made me VERY hungry. The food looks delicious. And the wine, well. What’s there to say? Very nice!
It is really hard to not eat these empanadas every single day. I have given up on trying not to drink wine every day … a glass is usually included with “menu ejecutivo.”
I love wine tastings- but I totally know what you mean about “comfy pants”.. whenever those get put on its really hard for anything else to happen!
Had the peer pressure not been there, I would have missed a great night.
I approve — amazing night!! And drinking is never a “problem” 😉
I’m just doing my part to sample the wines for everyone else to tell you what is good and what is bad
After reading your article, Alfonz just put a frozen pizza in the oven and cracked a bottle of Rhubarb wine from Sanduz, Not gourmet but you inspired!
It doesn’t need to be gourmet to be delicious
This food looks incredible. Would love to wash it down with Tomero Petit Verdot 2008
I need to find out where to buy that wine. I think it would pair nicely with, well, every meal I make
Love the atmosphere and I see absolutely no problem with eating pizza and drinking wine everyday.
I figure I’m just living like a local, so it’s okay 😉
I am jealous of all the great wine events you have been attending! I think I could taste that pizza through my monitor, yummy
And I went to another one last night
I love it! A perfect night out…though stingy pours are a downer…
Since there were plenty of all-you-can-drink options, I decided not to let it bother me too much
You are right, it’s a totally new story when you add a palace. And waht a place that is. I would love a picture of your boots, though.
I wish I had brought my wide angle lens because the palace was so beautiful both inside and out.
This post makes me realize how much I miss the time that I spent in Buenos Aires. It’s a gormandizers paradise!
I already know I will miss it when I leave too
Have to live it up while I’m here.
Your stories are mouth-watering. I agree with dulce de leche not really fitting to a wine event, but … I love dulce de leche. I’ve never been to Argentina but a friend brought it home for me once and I was in heaven.
I did enjoy it the first time I was in Argentina for a 2-week vacation. But now that I’ve been here longer and seen how much they put in their desserts, it’s just too much for me.
Sounds like you made it a great night after a slow start with the stingy pours! The fugazzetta pizza. and empanada looks great. Nice to have met some nice people along the way, too!
I love this. I wouldn’t have made it through all that wine on an empty stomach. I love that you got in the kitchen with your camera. The pizza looks delicious!
Ha! When you said you only got a few small bites I did actually have an image of you just getting through the crowd and sinking your teeth right in. Hahaha.
The men at El Cuartito? Whew, I need to move to Argentina.
At the next event, I will bring a baguette in my purse
Me encanta leer tus notas, sos muy dulce y amorosa. Que lo que resta de tu estadía en BA sea de pura felicidad. Y que vuelvas a visitarnos!!!!
Desde Palermo (Las Cañitas)