Spag bol at Patanuk

It's been way too long since I've cooked up some of my world-famous, home-made spaghetti bolognese. Back in Oz, I do it once a week. Last time I tried it while travelling, it had rather unfortunate consequences (thanks, Cusco market ingredients!). Tonight, in the Patanuk kitchen, Jaza's Spag Bol returned, as massive in size and as uncompromising on quality as ever. This being Argentina, I decided to use cut-up steak instead of mince-meat in the sauce. And sadly, I couldn't find any mushies at the shops (but I found some nice eggplant). Shared it with Dave and Finlandia, and I received nods of approval all-round.

Feels good to do a bit of cooking again. I really haven't done enough cooking on this trip, for various reasons. Up in PEB (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia), it's seldom an ideal hobby, for various reasons. First, many of the hostels are without kitchens that are free for the guests to use. Second, up there you buy your ingredients at the market, and (as I know first-hand) you have to be careful what you buy at those places, as rotten meat or vegetables can make you really sick. And third, the local "menu del dia" (lit: "menu of the day") places up there are so ridiculously cheap, that it's usually cheaper to eat at these kinds of restaurants every day, than it is to cook equivalent stuff yourself.

But down here in CA (Chile, Argentina), pretty much all of those factors are reversed. Most hostels do have kitchens. If you follow the locals, you're buying your ingredients at a standard, Western-style supermarket. And sure, restaurants are still cheap down here; but (more like back home) they're not nearly as cheap as doing the cooking and the dishes yourself. So it's time for me to get those pots and pans back out, and to get my a$$ back in the kitchen — 'cause it's dinner time.