Marguerite's Diary

Tango in Buenos Aires

By Marguerite Brodie, Kuala Lumpur

Chapter 6

While we are still on the subject of restaurants and food, there is another place that I recommend very highly. Restaurant Sophie on Paraguay is the outlet of an international service and hospitality college, which, interestingly enough, has a branch in Kuala Lumpur.

When my sister, Eleanor, joined us in Bs. As. on 7^th May, Ming and I decided to have a welcome dinner for her, which also doubled up as farewell for Anna Maria Schapira and thank you to Luz Mary and Steve, the American couple living there. We had decided to use Lalos, but on Luz Mary’s suggestion, changed to this venue. The restaurant was not officially opened yet and usually is shut on Sunday, (8^th May) which was the day we had planned for the dinner. The head of the college, specially opened the restaurant for us that night. We were the only table and served by a whole complement of staff which included the head of the college, chef and 3 waiters – all those people to look after 6 of us.

We had a gourmet meal served in candle-light, beautifully laid table with all the glass ware etc, 4 course meal with the accompanying wines all for the princely sum of 40 pesos per head. (This is approximately RM 60/-- per head.) As I mentioned in the last chapter, my sister is one of the officials of the Chaine de Rotisseur and is a connoisseur of food and wine and enjoys the occasional good cigar with brandy at the end of a meal. This dinner was the most wonderful way to welcome her to Buenos Aires. By the way, I am the peasant in the family – food is food to fill your stomach, though I must admit, I will not eat tasteless food. Wine is just wine and the end result is still the same good high feeling that keeps me laughing all night long. And, finally, coffee for me is Nescafe Classic, because that was what I was brought up with in Malaysia. My sister will not drink Nescafe anywhere else except in my house. Only at my place does it taste acceptable – I am the older sister and she has to give me face!!

Knowing her liking for good coffee, we ordered breakfast to be brought to the apartment on the morning that she arrived. Within 15 minutes of her arrival at the apartment, Augustine of Memorias arrived at the front door of the apartment block. We buzzed him in through the security intercom and he breezed into the apartment with 3 cups of steaming hot coffee and 9 media lunas (croissants). Even the peasant in me admits that the Memorias coffee is really good stuff. Aaaah! That’s the way to live. He was introduced to my sister and very warmly gave her a kiss on the cheek in greeting. When he left soon after, I mentioned to my sister that she was doing very well indeed. Not even 2 hours in this country and she already had a kiss from such a handsome young man!

That afternoon we took her to her first milonga at Humberto 1. By this time, we had already become “regulars” and were taken to our usual table. Before we had even settled down, my sister was already asked to dance. As I mentioned earlier, this “world” revolves around tango. The professional tango people are very quick to spot new faces and immediately dance with the woman to have the opportunity present their cards. Should you require tango lessons, they will be the first in line. This is one of the hazards single women face when they visit Bs. As. To be aware of this is part of the fun of the whole adventure. As I was with Ming, this kind of harassment was greatly reduced. However, the flip side of the coin was that it was more difficult for me to get dances with other milongueros.

The second Saturday Ming and I went to Humberto 1, we already knew some of the ladies who had been in classes with us. After we had danced 2 tandas together, Ming went off to dance with one of the ladies. Suddenly, I was on my own and with no-one to dance with. As I was with Ming, I did not spend my time looking for invitations to dance. So there I was sitting on my own and thinking “Now, I must make someone dance with me.” So I looked around and saw this gentleman sitting against the wall, but he was not looking at me. In fact, he was looking decidedly bored and as I looked intently in his direction, absolutely willing him in my mind to look at me, he started a very big yawn. As he finished his yawn he turned his head and our eyes met and I started laughing. He gave a little shrug of the shoulders as much as to say “Sorry, you caught me yawning.” I gave him a big smile and mouthed “Would you like to dance.” Gentleman that he was, he came over and took me to the floor. I struck gold with Marcello. It was heaven dancing with him! After that tanda with him, where I did all the right things - like talk to him very nicely between each song. This was natural then because we had to get to know each other. Now I had someone else to enjoy dancing with and this is how one slowly builds up your selection of partners to dance and practise with at the different milongas.

I didn’t realize that Marcello was one of the very good milongueros. In fact, he is such a good dancer, he does not need to look for new partners. There are more than enough women waiting to dance with him, so he can be cool and very selective. I only found this out much later in our visit, when I became a “dance broker.” Let me explain the term “dance broker”. The more generous ladies always help others to get dances. For instance, if you dance with a guy and he’s good, one of your friends might ask you to get her a dance with that guy. I had been dancing 3 weeks in succession with Marcello when we went to Humberto 1 with Luz Mary. Luz Mary asked me to get her a dance with Marcello. I was on such good terms with Marcello, I very airily said, “No problem.” So the next time I danced with Marcello, I asked him to dance with Luz Mary. He said yes, but he asked me if she was a good dancer. It was only then that I realized that he was not willing to dance with total beginners. Luz Mary had to wait for 2 more tandas before he came to dance with her. That was how busy Marcello was!!

Dance broking can also turn a little sour on you because it is a very subjective thing. For instance, you might think a certain person is a great dancer and recommend your girlfriend to dance with that person. Your girlfriend might dance with that person and not enjoy herself at all – and to top it all, you get the blame for trying to be the good Samaritan!

Chapter 7

After 2 weeks of dancing regularly at the different milongas, Luz Mary kept insisting that we should go to Club Espanol. The afternoon milonga there is on a Thursday. We arrived, at that point in time, still as “the new kids on the block” and quite clueless about everything.

As the name suggests, this is the Spanish Club. The building is beautiful, with ornately carved balustrades of marble, high ceilings elaborately decorated and the piece de resistance the wrought iron old style elevators with full length red velvet seats lining the width in the rear. Even though we only had 2 floors to go up, I couldn’t resist sitting on the seat for that 20 seconds just to try things out. We were told that the basement was also incredibly beautiful and asked if we could go down to take a look. Unfortunately, security was tight and we were refused the chance to take a peek, inspite of me trying my best to look pathetic and beseeching! There is also a most elegant restaurant which is part of the building, but I cannot comment on the food as we did not eat there.

As we were very early, we were directed to a table fronting the dance floor. We settled ourselves down quite happily and as we had been shopping before that, I put our plastic bag of purchases on the table. Ming went to the Men’s room and I sat and waited. All of a sudden, I saw this very irate and grumpy old Argentinian standing in front of me, with the maitre d’, both of them talking to me/at me in Spanish. I looked up at them and guilelessly smiled and said, “No comprende.” This incensed this guy even more – he was almost apopleptic. Then the lady at the next table, who could speak both languages, very kindly, explained to me that I was sitting at “his” table. So I said, “No problem. Just tell me where you want me to move to.” I was then directed to a table further back and stuck close to the bar counter. I gathered up all our stuff and took “my” plastic bag off the table. It just so happened that this grumpy old man also had a plastic bag and I had taken his. He was almost steaming at the ears as I said, “I’m so sorry.” He snatched his plastic bag and in a great huff, settled himself down. When Ming came back, he found me at the other table and almost doubled up with laughter over the whole incident. I made sure Mr. Grumps didn’t see me laughing. That is the other peculiarity of the milonga scene. Many of the regulars have “their tables” and if you happen to be a poor tourist like myself who doesn’t know what the deal is, you get into silly encounters like this.

We had a lovely time dancing with each other and the many other partners, on the wooden floor, which was uneven at the end near the bar.. One had to be careful dancing in that area to avoid tripping and making a fool of one’s self. The organizers of the milonga at Club Espanol are the same as the Saturday Humberto 1. So at the end of the afternoon, Ming gave our girl Pato a generous tip and told her that we would be back the following Thursday.

That little tip worked a treat and when we returned the following Thursday, we were shown to the best table in the room for couples. It was during that milonga that we sat for the first time next to the blind man that I had described earlier in the Confiteria Ideal incident. I told Ming that I would like to dance with the blind man. I cannot say for sure if it was a feeling of sympathy, empathy of a subconscious nudge from the film “The Scent of a Woman”. I did not get to dance with him that Thursday as he was fully booked. As he is blind, he cannot “eye” the women for the invitation. However, he actually does very well, as the women keep on coming up to him to ask him to dance. They lead him on to the floor and then bring him back again to his seat. He got lots more dancing than some of the sighted guys at the milonga!

The following Thursday, I asked him to dance and led him carefully on to the dance floor. He is a good dancer though a trifle strong in the lead. However, he loves the salon style of dancing with elaborate boleos, ganchos and more extravagant movements. As we danced, he got more and more vigorous and adventurous with his steps and was dancing me into all the couples that were moving by. We were cutting a swathe through the milonga hall and I felt really embarrassed at all the dirty looks that we were getting from all and sundry. As Miguel (that was his name) is blind, he is oblivious to all this. Finally, I said, “Miguel, please let’s not do boleos and ganchos. There are many people on the dance floor.” When the tanda was over, I almost “ran” him back to his table. As I sat him down, he leaned over his shoulder to me and said, “I would like to dance a Di Sarli with you.” I did not let him know that I was sitting right next to him, but I promised myself that I would not dance with him again. Ming was laughing away when I came back to the table.

Now, having told my little story of dancing with Miguel, I have to relate my sister, Eleanor’s experience. The following Thursday again found us at Club Espanol, this time with her in the party. Again, we were led to the best table and this was even without prior arrangement (by this time we were “portenos” – locals!! – and had “our own table”). Eleanor also wanted to dance with Miguel and so she invited him to do so. I, of course, warned her about him – what are sisters for otherwise??! She came back after the tanda absolutely glowing. She had had such a brilliant dance with him – she didn’t mind being danced into people,and she loved all the dramatic moves that they had danced together. Of course, it did help that she had already had 3 glasses of white wine on an empty stomach. She was in an excellent mood, but it also bears out the saying that there are 2 sides to a coin – what was wanderful for her was not so for me. So moral of the story is, you just have to go to Buenos Aires yourself to find out.