Though still a serious concern, violent crime seems to have become a bit less of a problem last month, according to a new study.

Torcuarto Di Tella University’s latest crime “victimization rate” survey indicates that both overall criminal activity and violent crime seem to be trending lower.

Di Tella’s study, which surveys households in 40 urban centers around the country, shows that 28.5% of these homes said at least one household member was the victim of a crime within the past 12 months. Although that figure is up 12.6% on the year, it’s down 5.8 points from the previous month.

In other positive news, the percentage of violent crimes declined in July, falling to 14% from 16.5% the previous month. That’s the lowest level for violent crime in the past year.

More than 74% of those surveyed said crime is a “very grave” problem while another 19% said it’s “somewhat grave.” Almost 72% said crime is getting worse.

Link: Di Tella Victimization Survey

Argentina has 45 possible swine flu cases being tested for confirmation, up from 29 on Sunday, the Health Ministry said in a statement Monday night. So far Argentina has had zero confirmed swine flu cases.

If you’re curious, the number of confirmed dengue cases totaled 22,417 by Monday, according to the Ministry. About 82% of those were found in just two provinces: Chaco and Catamarca.

Some 2,124 cases were confirmed in Salta and just one in Misiones, meaning, presumably, there’s little reason to not visit Iguazu if that’s something you’re considering.

By Fiorella Donayre

Dante Liporace, the executive chef at the new Moreno restaurant, offers a menu that puts twists on traditional flavors to tap your taste memory with techniques that both surprise and satisfy.

“The idea is to look for flavors that you know, that you have in your mind, stuck to your memory, and to find this flavor that you know with a different texture, with a different temperature, but that in your mouth has the same flavor,” Liporace, 31, told The Argentine Post in an interview at the restaurant.

In his executive chef debut, Liporace, who worked at El Bulli, among other Spanish Michelin-starred restaurants including Akelarre and Tragabuches, doesn’t seek extravagant flavors. Instead he says his aim is to serve Argentine diners bife de chorizo or risotto in ways they can enjoy as never before through the use of “perfect flavors.”

Moreno joins a small field of restaurants including La Vineria de Gualterio Bolivar that have brought vanguard cuisine, also known as experimental cooking, or techno-emotional cuisine to Buenos Aires. The style emerged in 1990, led by El Bulli owner and chef Ferran Adriá, as a search for new culinary concepts and techniques which began as an empiric exercise that employed foams made with siphons and savory ice creams made with liquid nitrogen. In his search of constant innovation, Adriá later explored other fields, including “molecular gastronomy,” a scientific approach to cooking, and used the new technology to improve his cooking techniques. El Bulli has been named the world’s best restaurant four times. (Adriá’s manifesto is here)

Deconstructed Spanish Tortilla

Moreno Restaurante is located on Moreno St. on the edge of Montserrat and San Telmo, a few blocks from the Plaza de Mayo. The restaurant has a main dining room next to the bar and a VIP area, with seating for 70 and a wine cellar with a capacity for 1000 bottles that includes classic and boutique wines, says sommelier María de la Paz Nasta.

Moreno offers three-course daily lunch specials (50 pesos) as well as tasting menus of seven (220 pesos per person) and 10 courses (330 pesos per person), with a la carte options also available.

The menu includes a “deconstructed Spanish tortilla” served in a glass. It starts with a layer of onions cooked slowly for four hours under a layer of scrambled eggs topped with a layer of mashed potato foam that’s sprinkled with French fries to provide a juxtaposition of potato textures, Liporace says.

Another dish that stands out is the suckling pig served with a wild berry risotto and “ossobuco sauce.” The meat is vacuum sealed in a heat-proof plastic bag and vapor cooked in a special oven for 17 hours at precisely 72 degrees Celsius. The temperature is then quickly lowered to 3 degrees Celsius. On order, the dish is reheated to 72 degrees Celsius in 10 minutes and served.

The lack of oxygen helps intensify the flavors so it’s not necessary to marinate the product for hours. The pork only needs a few drops of olive oil and some herbs to obtain an intense flavor. This method gives the cut of meat a crunchy exterior and a tender interior that bursts with flavor.

The same technique is used in other dishes like the lamb with “locro sauce” and “humita” foam or the salmon with scallops, pistachios and a potato-leak sauce.

The level of efficiency achieved with this cooking technique is one of the characteristics of the vanguard cuisine, Liporace notes. It’s a way to reach an “extreme flavor” that surprises and stimulates the senses of the costumers who often find themselves compelled to discuss the food and the menu with the chef, at times making their own suggestions.

“This is a different experience. You don’t come here to exactly fill yourself up, but to look for different flavors and textures”, Liporace said.

Bife de Chorizo Cocido al Vacio

The new technology is also used to make desserts, such as making ice cream in minutes with a special Italian machine — or even in seconds using liquid nitrogen. Among interesting dessert options are the moist chocolate biscuit that comes with a flan ice cream and dulce de leche sauce, or the chocolate hazelnut biscuit with coffee ice cream and vodka granite.

But not everything in this style of cooking is about new technology. Vanguard cuisine also broke down the walls between the worlds of sweet and savory. An example of this is Liporace’s foie gras with raspberry jelly, parmesan cheese foam and an olive sweet, or the Northern bluefin tuna tartar accompanied by eucalyptus sorbet and miso.

The Bar at Moreno Restaurante led by Juan Pablo Acosta also offers interesting cocktails like the “22 creations” made with vodka macerated with ginger, sake, pink grapefruit juice and ginger syrup. The “Troopez” that mixes up gin, mint ,key lime, sugar and orange juice, and the “Lichee Martini”, a blend of vodka, sake, lichee juice and lichee syrup. Microbrewed beers are also provided by Gambrinus brewery.

MORENO RESTAURANTE
Moreno 372
Information and reservations: 54 11 5291 2830 (or 8890 or 5593)
www.morenorestaurante.com

*Fiorella Donayre is a Peruvian lawyer who moved to Buenos Aires in 2004. She completed the professional chef’s program at Mausi Sebess in 2006 and has worked as a pasante at the Caesar Park Hotel’s Agraz restaurante in recoleta and at El Senorio de Sulco in Lima. She can be reached at: fiorella (AT) argentinepost.com

José Sarmiento Loading A Pizza

Have you ever wanted to host a party but didn’t want to cook and clean up afterwards? If so, now you’ve got the perfect solution: In-home pizza catering. 

For the second time since May, I have experienced the joy of having a party fully catered by a capable crew of thin-crust pizza chefs. On Saturday, my wife’s grandma turned 88, so we had a 75-person party to help her celebrate. We had it catered by La Marosca Catering. 

The company is run by Gastón Espinet and José Sarmiento, two youthful Argentines. They came with a crew of seven buddies, all English-speaking college students, who cooked up a dozen varieties of perfect pizzas, all delivered flawlessly to a hungry crowd.

They also brought a bar and made sure everyone, at all times, had enough to eat and drink.

“We started this business a year ago and we’ve been doing well from the start,” said Sarmiento. “There’s a lot of competition in this business but there’s also a lot of demand for what we do.”

His partner, Espinet, says the business is thriving because they place a lot of emphasis on customer service. “We are very careful about who we hire,” he said. “All of our servers are friends or friends of friends. In this line of work, in which you go into people’s homes, you can’t just hire anyone. So we hire only people we can trust. Our waiters are students, smart people who know how to deal with people. We train them to be constantly asking people what they need, so that our clients are happy.”

Three weeks ago, La Marosca added an elite menu that includes a dozen deluxe pizzas varieties and appetizers like salmon, smoked deer, wild boar and goat cheese.

Another company, which also does a good job with pizza catering, is Los Garcia, which catered a surprise party for my wife in May. They were quick and organized.

In both cases, the parties turned out great. And as they say in Spanish, “panza llena, corazón contento.” So if some day you need to host an event, consider giving these folks a call.

Link: La Marosca
Link: Los Garcia

It’s not often that you come across someone who is at once fiercely intelligent but also down-to-earth, confident but humble, outspoken and yet soft-spoken, philosophical but practical, gregarious but reserved, giving and yet forgiving. When you meet such a person, you feel fortunate. When you befriend such a person, you feel a sense gratitude.

Such is the feeling I have when I think about Alejandro Rozitchner. Alejandro is a philosopher, writer, blogger, teacher, motivational speaker, radio and TV personality, father, friend, husband and Porteño. In his blog, 100Volando, he has described himself as a “Nutritionist of Ideas.” In one of his many books, he describes himself not as an intellectual, but as a “basketball player of ideas.” If that’s the case, he may be something like the Manuel Ginobili of practical philosophy. He has somehow figured out a way to combine the wisdom of American self-help books with the teachings of great thinkers like Nietzsche and Freud. It’s an unusual approach, but it works.

The Argentine Post owes its existence to Alejandro’s generous spirit. One night after dinner Alejandro forced me to sit down and start a blog. He said he would not let me leave his house until I had uploaded my first post. I had little interest, but conceded that I had nothing to lose. So Alejandro grabbed his laptop, brought it to the table, and guided me to Blogger.com, where I wrote my first post. (It was something about the hideousness of eating blood sausage.)

Alejandro is a controversial figure. On occasion he inspires intense and sometimes vulgar opposition. Scan the Internet and you will find plenty of people attacking him and his work. Many of his detractors fall victim to that contagious disease that leads people to attack each other instead of each others’ ideas. But Alejandro has many great ideas and, agree with them or not, they are often valuable and insightful. His ideas force you to think about life – and life in Argentina – in new ways. He challenges you to question your assumptions and act in ways that bring more value into your life and into the world.

Alejandro is offering a 4-class course on The Development of Enthusiasm and, having taken the course myself, I can highly recommend it. The course, which is offered in Palermo, is in Spanish, so keep that in mind. As with all of Alejandro’s courses, this one will likely cover a broad sweep of subjects, all of which are relevant to the topic at hand. He teaches with passion and humor, often interacting with students in hilarious and challenging ways to stimulate debate and participation.

You can learn more about Alejandro at Bienvenidos A Mi. There you’ll find information about his books, classes and seminars, etc. He often offers classes on Nietzsche and other things at the bar El Taller in Plaza Serrano. As someone who has taken many undergraduate and graduate philosophy courses, I can say that Alejandro’s are atypical. They are fun, unique, involving and more relevant to everyday life than those you find in a typical classroom. The only admission requirement: Fluency in Spanish and a desire to be challenged.

Among other things, the Enthusiasm course will touch upon the work of:

David Allen (“Getting things done” & “Ready for everything”), Brian Eno (“Oblique strategies”), Julia Cameron (“El camino del artista”) & Tom Peters (“El proyecto 50” y “Re imagina”).

Details on the Enthusiasm Course:
Where: El Bar Taller (Serrano 1595, First Floor)
When: Aug. 28, Sept 4, 11, & 18
What Time: 8-9:30pm
Cost: 250 Pesos or $83 (No I don’t get any of this and Alejandro did not ask me to write this post.)

For more info, or to reserve a spot, write to Shona at cursos@bienvenidosami.com.ar or call 4831-1588.

Link: Bienvenidos A Mi
Link: 100 Volando (the blog)

The iPhone went on sale Friday in 20 more countries, including Argentina, where it is being sold by Movistar and Claro. The miraculous electronic masterpiece is now sold in 47 countries. Surprisingly, Argentina’s northern neighbor and emerging economic powerhouse, Brazil, is not yet among these. But Brazil still has supermodel Gisele Bündchen, so the always cheery Brazilians have no right to complain.

Apple plans to sell 45 million iPhones next year, according to BusinessWeek. That’s about one iPhone for every 148 people on the planet. Prices in Argentina vary:

Claro‘s cheapest option goes for 1,599 pesos ($528) and includes an 8GB iPhone with 160 minutes, 100 text messages and a measly 512MB of Internet/email downloads. This plan also includes an obligatory 119 peso monthly fee. The 16GB phone, with the same package, sells for 2,029 pesos, or $670. With 400 minutes, 200 text messages and unlimited data, the 16GB iPhone sells for 1,479 pesos, or $489.

Claro claims to have the largest 3G network in Argentina, with access in 80 cities.

Movistar‘s cheapest regular 8GB contract goes for 1,079 pesos ($357), and includes 450 minutes, 200 text messages and unlimited data (Internet & email). This packages also includes a monthly fee of 230 pesos, or $76. This option is a bit better than a similar plan offered by Claro because it gives users 450 minutes, compared with just 400 from Claro. More Movistar prices can be found here.

The title of this post is nothing if not loaded. It is a value judgment of sorts, an implication that the Kirchners are not to be trusted: He, Nestor, is a liar and she, Cristina, is too. Generally speaking, respected newspapers, magazines and other media outlets do not use the word “lie” to describe a person’s actions or statements. Doing so implies a kind of character judgment that many careful journalists are loathe to associate themselves with. Imprudent use of the term indicates that a reporter has stepped atop a pedestal of public propriety, removed his cloak of objectivity and assumed the role of judge instead of journalist.

This can be dangerous for readers, for reporters and the people they write about, and for the public at large. But reporters also have a duty to describe reality as accurately as possible. And a simple fact of life is that people do lie, often repeatedly. So the question arises: When is it fair for a reporter to say someone has lied? When is it fair to describe someone as a liar?

Former U.S. Senator John Edwards recently admitted to lying about cheating on his wife. Given the blatant nature of his lie, and his public confession to it, reporters should feel no ethical misgivings about saying Edwards lied. But what if the lies, or perceived lies, are not so blatant? What if the lie is subtle or seems relatively harmless? Or what if the “lie” is deeply suspected but hard to prove? Here, journalists have to be much more careful.

By way of example, consider the Argentine government’s recent claims about poverty. In May President Cristina Fernandez said poverty had declined to 20.7% from 54% in early 2003. “These are numbers that make us proud,” she said. The achievement was laudable. Unfortunately, economists said it was implausible. Many economists, including Ernesto Kritz, who runs the Society of Labor Studies, said the government was likely underestimating the number of poor people by about 4 million. Kritz said the real poverty rate at the time was probably around 30%. Other economists offered similar estimates, while charity organizations and Catholic church officials said that poverty likely had increased within the past year.

Adding to this, half way through last year the government stopped publishing poverty data. But Kirchner went even further. He fired national statistics agency specialist Cynthia Pok after she warned that poverty estimates could not be accurately made unless the government also accurately measured inflation data. Instead of praising her for being a patriot and a whistle blower, Pok’s superiors sacked her. Economists said that when Fernandez said poverty had declined, she did so based on a report using discredited inflation data. That data, even according to off-the-record comments by members of Kirchner’s own government, likely underestimates inflation by two or three-fold. But inflation data makes the difference between statistics that show millions of people falling into poverty or being lifted out of it.

Critics attacked the president, calling her a liar. Most journalists, on the other hand, simply reported the discrepancies between the government’s data and that provided by private economists. Did the president lie? Who can say for sure? After all, she may have been given faulty information. Or the private economists may be wrong, or she may really believe that poverty has declined. In this latter case, it is certainly logically possible that she could have been guilty of saying something that was untrue but without doing so intentionally. And intentionality – that is, intended deception – seems to be a key element of lying.

Whatever the case, the point here is not to examine the veracity of the government’s poverty claims. Instead, it is to look at some of the things journalists must consider when writing about the people – in this case, politicians – and their truth claims.

All of which brings us to the point of this post.

The newspaper Perfil has begun posting videos whose goal is to show how Cristina and Nestor Kirchner are dishonest. The title of the series? “The 100 Lies of The Kirchners.” How is that for clarity! The conclusion is forgone, the verdict in, the judgment rendered: The Kirchners are liars. There is nothing subtle about it, no room for interpretation.

In case anyone doubted it, Perfil has taken sides. It has thrown down the gauntlet, and issued a challenge to the Kirchners. The paper will release a new video daily for 100 days that – so says Perfil – will highlight the Kirchners’ disregard for the truth. Perfil says the videos will demonstrate how the Kirchners have failed to keep their word. Will Perfil keep its word to its readers, to you? You be the judge.

Link: Perfil Story
Link: Videos

Politicians worldwide often are accused of failing to practice what they preach. So it should come as no surprise that Argentine politicians, too, are also sometimes accused of such hypocrisy. On Sunday La Nación, the country’s No. 2 circulating newspaper, published an article indicating that former president Nestor Kirchner and his wife and successor, Cristina Fernandez, are guilty of practicing precisely the opposite of what they preach.

According to the article, which reportedly examines federal documents, Nestor Kirchner last year earned 5,264,105 pesos ($1.7 million). The money came from rent collected on properties owned by the former president. The properties, which include 16 houses, two retail stores, 13 apartments and six pieces of land, are reportedly administered by the ex-president’s son, Máximo Carlos Kirchner. In 2007 Nestor and Máximo paid taxes totaling a combined $4,461 on that $1.7 million of income, according to La Nación.

The Casa Rosada press office did not answer calls by The Argentine Post seeking comment.

As cited by the daily, federal law requires individuals to pay a 6% income tax on property rental income over 1,200 pesos a month. At that rate, if this law is indeed applicable to him, Kirchner should have paid taxes totaling $102,000 last year, or 2,187% more than he and his son combined actually paid. Cristina Fernandez, meanwhile, who was a Senator before becoming president in December of 2007, paid taxes totaling $416 for all of last year.

The combined taxes paid by Nestor, Cristina and Máximo in 2007 amounted to roughly $4,877, or about 0.28% of Nestor Kirchner’s total declared income.

Cristina declared income totaling $3,960 in 2007, according to La Nación. A separate story by the newspaper reported in June of 2007 that Congress had passed a bill raising legislators’ salaries to about $2,970 a month. This was a raise of about 16.5%, meaning that prior to this, the average senator made about $2,550 a month. This is about 750% more than what Fernandez declared.

As noted, The Argentine Post was unable to immediately contact a presidential spokesman to confirm La Nación’s article, so it is hard to know what explanation might exist for the discrepancy between what the Kirchners paid in taxes and what they apparently owed.

The comparatively minor amount of income tax apparently paid by the First Couple sharply contrasts with their declared plans to use the “redistribution of wealth,” implemented through progressive tax policies, to reduce social and economic inequity in Argentina. When farmers recently protested the government’s decision to raise export taxes to as high as 45%, Fernandez justified the move by saying it was necessary to “redistribute wealth from those who have the most to those who have the least.”

Ironically, if La Nación’s article is correct, this philosophy of redistribution does not apply to the Kirchners, who are wealthier than 99% of Argentines.

Link: La Nación Story (in Spanish)