If you are Vegan (or almost) like me and you live in Buenos Aires, Argentina like me then congratulations, you are a rare species my friend and I salute you, in this post we are going to be talking about how to survive and eat delicious and sometimes healthy food in the country of “Asado” (Argentinian barbecue) & “Chinchulines” (cows intestine that for some reason people eat) with the help of Google Maps and Local Guides!
disclaimer: this post also serves as an application post for the Local Guides Live Connect 2020 in California! Wish me luck!
I have create a list of restaurants and food places that I have been gathering for the past two years.
In 2020 is awesome to be Vegan in Buenos Aires, you have lots of exclusively vegan restaurants and lots of restaurants, pubs and bars with at least one Vegan alternative (beside good ol’ fries).
Talking to older Vegans is awesome to understand how much progress has been made in this front, there are more vegans in Argentina now but there are also more offerings. One exemplary fact is that we have our first Vegan “Dulce de Leche” commercially available from the company “Felices las Vacas” which is delicious and we can even cook with it your favorite desserts.
And on this front I have to tell the story of how I discovered Buenos Aires Verde via Google Maps. I love Buenos Aires Verde because they take classical recipes and adapt them to be Vegan and also I love them because I find a lot of inspiration for my own cooking (more on this later) and sometimes I have to confess that I go there purely to try to reverse engineer their “Vegan Tuna” or their “Vegan Cheddar” so I can later cook it for myself.
I do not leave in Buenos Aires but sometimes I have to go there for work related reasons and in the past I always have troubles finding a nice, quiet, relaxing place where I can go grab a nice vegan plate. One Tuesday night I have just landed off of my plane and I grabbed Google Maps and search literally for “Vegan Restaurants” and Buenos Aires Verded popped up, called, ordered a take way of Tuna Club Sandwich, a Vegan Pizza and a Carrot Cake, drove over there and couldn’t believed my eyes. The place is awesome and confy and the food was amazing, even after the time it took for me to drive home. After that meal I was convinced: I had to go there with my partner. And I seize every time to go there.
Another nice story. I was invited to a traditional wedding party. Traditional in the sense that it was church, reception and party. The friend that was getting married didn’t even understand what was “Vegan Food” so I really had my hopes very low for the food available in the reception and since the wedding was about him and not me I tried to now impose myself to much and let them be. But what happened was that after two hours of church and reception me and my partner had nothing to eat and things were starting to get hungry. Every time a tray of food passed by we politely asked what was it and unfortunately every time it was either meat or cheese because people do not know what to eat besides those things. After two hours I had enough and basically grabbed my partner and squeezed off the wedding without telling anyone and with all our fancy clothes we ended up having a super nice and romantic dinner at Buenos Aires Verde, two escaped vegans having the time of their lives.
And that is what life is after all, a couple of minutes we can grasp of absolute bliss and happiness with the people that we love and places that are welcoming and that is what the Local Guides program means to me. And hopefully I can help other people find their escapee moments of bliss and a place that they love with the people that they love.
Fran
Local Guide lvl 5