Argentina Trip 2008 - Day 4: We were lucky enough to travel here, and we're going to flan-t it. (eh? EH?)

We woke up the next morning and immediately called American to find out if our bag hand landed safely in Mendoza. We wanted to find out BEFORE we took the 20 minute cab ride to the airport. Alas, American did not know where the bag was (surprise surprise). Since we were going to hop in a remise (hired car) and take a hour+ long drive out of Mendoza for 2 days, we thought we'd at least try to go get the bag and hope it would be there.

It was not.......

So we came back from the Airport and grabbed breakfast. If you don't know what the picture below means, then you haven't read my entry for Day 1.

So, forget it. We decided we'd go to Valle De Uco and just enjoy it for 2 days - not worry about the stupid bag. I grabbed a couple more shirts (above, and a pink one you'll see in a minute, and then over and over). And we took a remise out to the Valle De Uco!

Our remise driver didn't speak any english, but he would speak slow enough Spanish that Sarah understood 90% of what he was saying, and I probably got 40%. Really nice guy who told us all about Mendoza and the outlying countryside.

Don't know if you can read this map, but we drove south from Mendoza (top of the map) along the base of the Andes, toward the Valle De Uco and a town called Tunujan. After a little over an hour, we pulled off the highway and drove through the town and out into some farms. Finally, we drove up the driveway into our residence for the next two days: Postales del Plata.

Postales is a Lodge on a vineyard in the Uco Valley. They have about 8-9 rooms and have been closed for over a year completely renovating the place. They reopened the DAY we came and we were their first and only guests! Literally, we had a staff of 6 who were only there because we were... which was kind of guilt inducing, but also totally awesome. If you end up in this area one day, and don't go here, you're stupid: http://www.postalesdelplata.com/valledeuco.htm

Our room had the old-school key.



Simple, but very tastefully done.

One of the three buildings with rooms (ours on the left)

You stay for the view... Yes, that's a vineyard about 20 steps from our door.

Pool...

Iphone photo of us deciding that this is when the trip REALLY starts. Forget that dumb bag.

Remember, it's their Spring right now.

So dinner was going to be around 9. They were having a chef drive in from the city, who would be preparing dinner just for us. Crazy. He runs his own restaurant called Fuego - but they're going to use him for the Postales too as it gets up and running. We decided to take a walk around the property before dinner...

Looking back on the lodge...

Pretty rough life.

See the roses by my feet in the picture below? We thought they were a just a nice detail in the landscaping, but as we learned about Bodegas we found out that they are actually there for practical purposes. Roses are more quickly affected by toxins in the soil or dramatic moisture changes. So they plant roses at the head of each row and around the borders to work as indicators of any major problems. Canaries are to miners as roses are to grapes... it is canaries, right?

Ok, so let's talk food, because that's really the point of the trip.

When we got back from the walk we were introduced to Pablo, our chef. He has worked in San Francisco, Buenos Aires, but has settled in Mendoza. Super, super nice guy. We chatted for quite a while, and he passed along a couple of restaurant recommendations for when we were going to be in BA. He told us all about the menu for the evening that he and his Sous-chef, Diego, had prepared.

He prepares everything in the true Argentinian style - by wood oven. So everything we had was oven baked. The roles we ate were fresh out of the oven. The pork ribs were roasted for 4 hours before dinner, served with mashed potatoes and a roasted tomato. He explained that he likes to use very fresh, very flavorful ingredients, so that he can prepare more simple dishes. Like our salad which was arugula, Gouda, oranges, and oil/vinegar. Amazing.

Our waitress was a sweet girl named Italia. She didn't speak much English and was very shy to try it. But she informed us that she had to use us to practice since we were the first - so the three of us talked for quite a while. These are the times I enjoy most on a trip... when you're spending time with the locals, having local cuisine, and really getting a sense for the place. Of course everything seems better when you have good food and good wine.

But for me, the real achievement of the meal, was the flan. Prior to this, I did not like flan. I'd tried it, probably, 3-4 times, and had mediocre to negetive experiences with it across the board. I've never had flan like this. It was more creamy than gelatinous, and it was served with the most smooth dulce de leche I've ever tasted. It was incredible. Kudos to Pablo for being able to completely change my mind about a regional dish!

That's post-dinner bliss.

At the end of dinner, we'd ordered an additional bottle of wine for our room. So we went back, watched Mad Men on the Iphone, sipped wine, and then read until we fell asleep.