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Today we are going to find out about Allie's story:
a girl from the United States who came to Argentina and has been living here for 6 years, eating out.
How are you?
Good, good. How are you?
Welcome
I came to study in an exchange program in 2006, and well, I stayed, and I'm still in Buenos Aires.
Where's the mouse?
I stayed in Buenos Aires, I don't know, I don't know why,
it wasn't because I loved the city, I loved the disorder/chaos of the city.
I don't have that many opportunities in Chicago.
Why don't you have that many opportunities in Chicago?
There's less competition here, for starters. Someone younger to start something is much harder,
there's a lot more competition in Chicago. There are more opportunities all the time. And with the economic crisis,
I didn't want to go back to Chicago and start any old job, that I didn't care about at all,
and I wasn't interested in it, only doing it to make money. BA is a good place to start something.
I have a lot of friends who come here and have the opportunity to start businesses, to start something.
I don't know if all people like to eat a lot, but I LOVE to eat.
You say that with an odd passion
Yes, I always think about food. I've always thought about food, since I was little,
I was always cooking something, I was always interested in food. And eating, more than anything.
I started writing about food. I started a blog, that's called Pick Up The Fork
What does that mean?
Like, I never know how to translate it, because everyone has a different translation. Some people say grab the fork.
others say lift the fork, basically it's a food blog where I have a restaurant guide of restaurants in BA,
and I talk about places to go and eat
Can we see it now on the computer?
Yes yes
Show it to me
And I take a lot of photos of food
And you used to be a vegetarian
Yes
And now in Argentina could you live without meat?
It would be hard
Almost impossible
Yeah
And what's your blog about?
It has reviews of places to go and eat in BA
All of these restaurants you are showing you've been to eat?
In 6 years, yes
What I do get sometimes are comments from Argentines, or emails from Argentines, who are very mad at me for what I write,
they say "*** Yank, go back to your country", "You are all fat in your country, don't stay here", things like that.
Who reads the blog, tourists, Argentines?
It started with a lot of people who are foreigners living in Buenos Aires. The blog is in English,
so I don't have as many Argentine readers as I'd like
Does your boyfriend read it?
Yes
And what does he say when there are comments from peole who criticize it or insult you?
He has his own name there, and he makes comments too to defend me
Your lawyer?
Yup.
The owners of the restaurants, do they know who is the girl from Pick up the fork, or they don't have a clue?
In my opinion they have no idea, the good thing is that I'm tall, blonde, I speak English, so they think I'm a tourist
who likes to take photos of food
Now we are going to go with you to review a restaurant
Ok, let's go
In Pick up the fork Allie critiqued more than 600 restaurants in Buenos Aires and her blog gets more than 1,000 daily hits.
Hi, how are you?
This is the costa rican casado that has carne asada, marinated kalbi style, with sushi rice. And this is the combo,
it's fried chicken wings, japanese style.
What do you look for in a restaurant? What does a good restaurant have to have?
The food has to be... well It's all about the food. When the food is good, it's a good place.
I don't know about a lot of service (or really attentive service), but nice service. Like good attitude.
Sometimes what happens here in Buenos Aires, there are people who work who have really bad attitudes.
And that to me is a deal breaker
It loses a lot of points if they have a bad attitude
Yes
Do you know anything about cooking? Are you a chef or anything, or this is just..?
No, I never studied cooking, so I'm not a chef or a professional critic.. I never studied this.
But I cook a lot. And I like to eat. And for that.. I'm not sure .. it's like I'm the voice of any regular person,
and I don't know if I'm that voice that respresents them, or just a voice.
But it's common sense?
Yeah. For me, yes. It's that. (Although many people don't have common sense....)
OK we are going to try this
OK first I need to take photos.
Whenever I go out with my boyfriend or friends, this is the worst part because I have to take pictures of every plate,
and they have to wait.
This is food from where?
It's a mix of street food from the US. What I see here, is the food that's really tasty, there are a lot of elements in the food.
What's the message you send to your family in Chicago?
No, no message. They are happy with me and can't believe that me, the fatty of the family, is here now, eating,
and I can find work by just eating out. And in Buenos Aires
Alitas de pollo, no?
Yeah, chicken wings