But 8pm on a Sunday, here I am, standing with a group of like-minded people in the walled, glittering courtyard of a home in Palermo Soho, the city’s sassiest neighbourhood. Behind floor-to-ceiling windows, moody lighting and a long dinner table already heavy under the weight of wine and food beckons. The Oyuela Palacio family lives here and has done for decades, and tonight it’s the youngest generation that has dished out an invite to dine with them. These twenty-somethings, whose lives have been shaped by living in Argentina’s capital city, step outside to meet us in the courtyard, greeting us like long-lost friends. It’s all the encouragement we need to feel welcome in the house they’ve grown up in.
In the living room, sofas and side tables have been pushed to meet the walls, making space for a pop-up restaurant, a concept that brother and sister duo, Gaspar and Lina Oyuela Palacio, call a ‘knock knock’ restaurant. Hidden away in a quiet street, only those in-the-know are aware of the dinners they host here and know where to knock to gain access. It started out as a way for Lina, Gaspar and their cousin Agustín to earn some extra cash to help fund their university studies, but news of the makeshift restaurant’s charm soon filtered through to travel company Trafalgar’s South American arm. Today, the Oyuela Palacio family opens its doors exclusively for the Trafalgar’s Buenos Aires Be My Guest dining experience, one of the company’s famed Insider Experiences that provide a unique insight into a country’s culture.
As we wash silky pieces of cured meat and briny olives down with a glass of malbec, Lina lets us in on tonight’s menu, a three-course meal that she and her younger sister Julia will prepare. That leaves Gaspar and Agustín to share the role of host. A tango-dancing, piano-playing engineering student, Gaspar welcomes us to ask questions about what life, Porteño-style, is really like. We learn that families are tight-knit, a love of food is inherent and the locals are fiercely proud of the city’s heritage. And, that it’s not unusual to leave home to go dancing at 11pm on a school night. I don’t think I’m the only one around the table with a growing sense of cultural envy.
In the meantime, more food has started arriving in front of us. Aromatic empanadas, perfectly pink steak and freshly baked bread, all made from family recipes that Lina has been inviting us into her compact kitchen to watch being cooked. Clutching glasses of wine, we chat to Lina about her life and her food, and it’s as if we really are visiting a good friend’s house for dinner. And that’s the gift Trafalgar’s Be My Guest experiences offer the world over: the few hours spent around a local family’s dinner table let you dabble in what life might be like if, in this case, you swapped Bondi, Brisbane or Bega for Buenos Aires, complete with family and friends, and all the trappings that go with it.
By now, we’re up to dessert. It’s devilishly sweet and comes with the promise of seconds after Agustín places an overflowing dish of leftovers in front of us. What’s happening up near the head of the table soon upstages the appeal of embarking on another sugar rush. After more furniture is moved and the lights are dimmed a little lower, Gaspar grabs a partner and, together, they perform a sultry tango on the improvised dance floor. The couple’s dance is far less glitzy and a bit grittier than the versions you see rolled out during the slick tango shows for which Buenos Aires is famous. This is the real, down-to-earth deal, a version that visitors to the city don’t usually get to see.
Sadly, the end of the dance spells the end of our dinner with the Oyuela Palacios, too. As we make our way outside into the courtyard, Gaspar says he’ll finish the night with more dancing, this time at the local tango hall. Sure enough, it’s almost 11pm. On a Sunday night in Buenos Aires, it’s the perfect time to tango.
“Sure enough, it’s almost 11pm. On a Sunday night in Buenos Aires, it’s the perfect time to tango.”
The writer travelled courtesy of Trafalgar and Qantas. Visit trafalgar.com/aus and qantas.com.au for more details.
Photography Simon Bajada.
As seen in Feast magazine, July 2014, Issue 33.
