I love Buenos Aires because it’s truly a party city.
However such is my booze intake this weekend that my brain seems to have dehydrated into a small nut, knocking about inside my delicate skull. My eyes are tiny currants trying to retreat away from the light, whilst an ever-tightening clamp grips my temples. My pores are sweating out poison, while from time to time my blurry memory lets loose vague clues to embarrassing things that I may have done during the last few nights’ bender.
While the compulsive reaction to this feeling may be to seek out a big glass of red wine, starting the whole damn cycle all over again, I feel that something completely different may be in order this time.
Bring on Artesano. They are a café, food store, and centre for wellbeing that promises to be able to help you improve your quality of life on all levels – physical, mental and spiritual.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not meant to be rehab, but a place for people who want to live a ‘more healthy and natural life’. The blurb on their menu says: “We are the protagonists. The only ones responsible for our own health are ourselves.”
Having said that, maybe it will also have something to offer those like me who swing violently between the pursuit of wholesomeness, and full-on debauchery?
The tranquil, friendly atmosphere of their café already brings a sense of soothing restfulness – a welcome remedy from the wild activities of the weekend in question.
Artesano’s philosophy begins with the most basic of premises: that we are what we eat. Its food combines whole grains such as rice, quinoa, wheat, mijo and burgol (ahh what are these?), with a range of vegetables that provide vitamins and minerals to put right my neglected body.
Most of the dishes are healthy versions of Argentine classics in the form of tarts, wholemeal empanadas and pizzas. There are also delicious burgers made from grains, and vegetable wok dishes. As for snacks, the wholemeal savoury biscuits were really tasty, and there are a good range of organic cakes. The teas, which include diet and organic options, feel as though they are flushing all the evil out of my system.
Their store selling products from herbs to oils and dietary supplements, along with their classes in nutrition, mean that you can recreate this kind of nourishment in your own home. You can also have their healthy frozen meals delivered to your house (for free if you live within ten blocks of the centre) if you haven’t got time to make them yourself.
The lower floor in this welcoming house is a consultancy where you can see a nutritionist or even a psychologist. However, I’ll wait until I know exactly what I did over the past few nights before I decide whether I really need one of those.
The centre holds a variety of workshops and activities such as yoga, tai chi and group musical activities such as percussion and singing classes. The emphasis with the latter is on creating a beneficial group energy and dynamic, and ‘connecting yourself back to the earth’. Other musical activities include small scale concerts (conciertos intimos) once a month where musicians play instruments such as the didgeridoo and drums, whilst allowing their audience to journey into a trance-like state.
Funny – that sounds like exactly what I was trying to achieve by filling myself full of toxins. This time however I won’t be expecting such a painful follow-up.
