Whither do we go?

With one “re-opening” dinner under our belts, we quickly found ourselves with two more, and then, a dilemma, which will change the way we’re approaching this. First off, as of this weekend, Buenos Aires is back under a semi-quarantine, with very restricted hours and movement. Not like it was a year ago, but it’s a definite rollback by a couple of phases. It’s in response to a clear “second wave” of coronavirus infections and deaths, much of which appears fueled by our neighbor to the east, Brazil, with its more virulent variants and lax response.

Second, was the second dinner, where we faced one of our concerns about this reopening…. What to do if the weather turned inclement and we couldn’t serve dinner outdoors? Now for most groups, we’re both pretty clear, it’d be, “look, we can’t serve outside, you’ll have to postpone or cancel”. Not a great business model, but a necessary one. But this time, the group of five included three people with whom we’ve already been socializing on and off since the serious quarantine ended, and two other friends of theirs with whom they’d been socializing. So everyone already within the “bubble”, though at least our past interactions with them had all been outside. We talked it over between ourselves, and then with them, and decided to go ahead, with all the doors and windows open, at our indoor table. Masks where appropriate.

But then we had an afternoon event scheduled for this coming weekend, a group of six friends (not of ours, but of each other) out to celebrate. And a couple of days ago, I got a message from the woman who organized it saying that three of them were now sick with Covid, and asking if I thought they should postpone the event until all could attend, or just have the three who weren’t sick come? That one was easy on our end – postpone for awhile until they’re all clearly out of the woods and not contagious. I mean, who’s to say that the three who weren’t sick hadn’t been exposed, given they all socialize with each other, and could be carriers or become sick in a few days? But, that put the whole question of doing this prior to us getting vaccinated back on the table.

Henry’s headed off to visit his family in Peru for the next couple of months, so maybe I’ll just put the whole thing to bed until he gets back, by which time I hope I’ll have already been vaccinated, and it should be getting to the stage where he’ll be able to. Decisions to be made.

On to the dinner… a bit different from our usual (do we have a usual anymore?) in that the organizer informed me what the menu would be rather than leaving anything up to us. And, they brought their own wines, that didn’t necessarily pair up with what we were serving (though I offered a suggestion or two that changed one or two of the six wines they brought). They started off with a little cheese and cracker period – we made homemade saltines to accompany a couple of local cheeses.

Wine: Lurton “Vuelà” Pinot Gris Rosado 2019

Ceviche to start, once again lenguado, or sole, this time cured with a mix of lime juice, salt, pepper, ají amarillos (yellow chilies), and hints of garlic, celery, and lemongrass. Garnished with red onion, cilantro, red chilies, toasted corn kernels, sweet potato, and corn on the cob.

Wine: Caelum Fiano Gran Reserva 2017

Paella is a hard dish to serve and look pretty. It looks great in the pan, but dishing it up is never all that attractive. We presented the whole pan and then took it back to the kitchen to plate it. By request, a change from the classic Paella Valenciana of chicken and rabbit to be chicken and spicy sausage. Paella’s not my forté, though I make a decent one, so it wouldn’t normally be our dinner repertoire, but it was a hit.

Wines: Contino “Viña del Olivo” Rioja 2001
Bodega Rafael Cambra “Dos” 2012
Humberto Canale Pinot Noir Gran Reserva 2017

Also served up rosemary and smoked paprika dinner rolls with the meal, just something a little different to go with the paella in particular. I think the five of them shared two rolls between them. They seemed to think we were serving an awful lot of food (two of them actually split one portion of the paella). But then, we usually do.