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Charcoal cooking is guaranteed to be an amazing dining experience, especially when it is done at an Argentinean restaurant, where they part delicate smoky flavours to their food over a parilla (an Argentine charcoal grill). Quite recently I was able to indulge in a wonderful meal at Buen Ayre up in Broadway Market (see my thoughts on another restaurant close by called The Dove).

This little Argentine Grill & Bar offers a simple but effective menu and although they exceed the expectations of a wonderful Argentine beef eating experience, they do also cater for vegetarians with their grilled mushrooms, aubergines and haloumi cheese.

The various steaks they offer are apparently from Argentine and for the flavour, texture and preparation you get, I think is definitely worth the average of £12 per steak. I was fortunate enough to be dining with a large group of people so we also tried a number of their other dishes including their empanadas, grilled provolone cheese, ox tongue and chips with garlic butter. Pretty much everything was wiped clean except for the ox tongue that not even the brave person who ordered it could finish. I think it’s extremely thick cut combined with its unique texture and strong flavour is only for the true aficionado.

One of the best things about this restaurant includes their innovative extension of the parilla to the dining table. These excellently valued parrilladas are definitely worth getting if you have least two people. Each parrillada (a small brazier) arrives at the table filled with hot charcoals and topped with a plethora of meats including steak, sausages and a variety of sides depending on which one you choose.

Before eating at this restaurant I don’t think I have eaten that much meat since arriving in the UK, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the quality of the meat that we ate. Broadway market is not exactly close to a tube station and even though you should make a reservation, I think it is most definitely worth the trip out to East London for it.

Details: Santa Maria del Buen Ayre
Found On: 50 Broadway Market, London E8 4QJ
Contactable On: 020 7275 9900 or their website
Highlights: Great parilla cooking, fantastic quality steaks at very reasonable prices all in a great atmosphere.
Improvements: Bookings are timed and its location means you have to get a bus from the tube station.
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10

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A fews days late, but just stumbled across this interesting link from the BBC -a pelican eats a pigeon in St James Park. You can find some footage on Youtube.

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I finished reading this book a few weeks back and I found it a very compelling read describing a different negotiation technique developed by people from Havard. I found it a very easy book to read, filled with great examples and it is quite a brief book.

The book calls traditional negotiation ‘positional based negotiation’ where two parties state their intended position and leaves two styles, hard and soft or aggressive and passive, to reach their stated position. These two opposing styles of resolution typically lead to inadequate outcomes for both parties whilst endangering long term relationships between the two parties.

The book proposes an alternative style that they call ‘interests based negotiation’. In this latter style of negotiation, the goal is to first identify and then fulfil the real interests behind each party. With interests truly understood, it is then easier to generate more options and objectively identify the options that will increase the chances of fulfilling both parties’ interests in the best possible manner.

I found this book offered other great pieces of advice such as separating the people from the issue, and a number of strategies for dealing in situations where people are unable or unwilling to participate in this style of negotiating.

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Via Ajaxian…

A cool little 1.5 minute game where you’re randomly assigned a partner to try to match keywords for a give series of images. I think it’s a nice attempt to improve their image labelling and search facility. Why not give it a go.

Google Image Labeler

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A consequence of doing a lot of flying around on weekends and trains for work means that I have been able to get through a few books quite recently. One of my most recent reads was the classic science fiction book, Dune written by Frank Herbert. Despite being published in 1965, its classic qualities that made it popular back then still hold true today. It is a truly captivating and strange world with deep characters and numerous plots that drew me further and further into their world.

Most of the book is set on a desert planet that is valued for its prized spice hoards but is renown for its harshness with the lack of water and the monstrously sized worms that roam around consuming anything and everything in its path. A couple of Family Houses vie for control of the planet because the source represents an invaluable income due its extravagant uses throughout the galaxy, all while plots of deceit unfold and a legend of old is fulfilled.

After reading the book I’m not at all surprised by the number of off-shoots this book created. The author wrote numerous sequels detailing other aspects of other cultures touched in the book, several computer games were developed alongside a movie and TV mini-series.

I really enjoyed reading this classic book and I’m now reading the rest of the books before I see the movie and mini-series.

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I really like the concept of the Personal MBA that Josh Kaufman offers in the form of a nice downloadable PDF. It’s short, succinct and though it’s easily interpreted as just a booklist, I think it offers valuable advice. Before stumbling across this, I had read a number of the books he mentions and found them useful if not thought-provoking. It is also good to know a number of other books that have been sitting on my reading list are listed as well. Check it out here.

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I spent this week end away again but this time in the French speaking Swiss city of Geneva. I really enjoy weekend breaks to cities where you can easily walk around and Geneva is definitely one of them with most of the sights you want to see all within walking distance. The city surrounds a beautiful lake punctuated by the famous Jet d’Eau, a 140-metre-high stream of water that starts in the morning, continues for some time at night and is visible from all over the city.

Just south of the lake you can find the old town, the more historic and the more touristy part. In this part of the city, you will find the town hall where the Geneva Convention was first signed, the longest bench in the world, and the reformation park containing a number of giant game boards including chess and checkers.

Walking around the north shore of the lake, you head towards the botanical gardens complete with a mini-zoo including deer and sheep. Further north you will find the United Nations where you can take a guided tour at 10am and 2pm each day. Just opposite the United Nations you will find the International Committee of the Red Cross. It is one of the only museums where you must pay an entrance fee but you get an overwhelming understanding of why the organisation was created and what they do through their serious exhibitions.

Geneva is not a cheap city, even translated into London prices, but things are not as excessive as those in Scandinavia. Finding decently priced restaurants is possible and most of the places we ate served excellent food. Over the weekend we indulged in a couple of traditional dishes including Raclette (freshly scraped melted cheese served with bread, ham and potatoes), Cheese Fondue (bubbling melted cheese with various things to dip into it). We also dined at a Café De Paris restaurant where they only serve one dish, the excessively rich but tender Beef Entrecote.

We had fantastic weather for the entire weekend with clear skies and a moderate temperature. This allowed us to go for a small hike up a nearby mountain called Mont Salève that is readily accessible by bus and just lies across the border into France. From the top you get a spectacular view of Geneva, its lake and Mont Blanc in the background. Geneva is a friendly town and offers a nice little weekend away from London.

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This weekend went by so quickly that I haven’t really had a chance to write about it. The fun part really began last Thursday night when I had a big get together with a great bunch of people from all over London at the Holland Park Mitre, a spacious pub also serves some decent food.

Friday still meant a day of work but at the end of it, I flew out of London with a couple of other people to spend the weekend crashing at a friend’s place in Goteborg, Sweden (also known as little London). All up it was a fairly random weekend having not planned anything in advance, but was also one of the most fun I’ve had abroad for a while.

The first night we jumped into a taxi (with our bags) and ended up at a party in a small but modern Swedish apartment filled with a bunch of locals (as well as our friend). Everyone was super friendly even not really knowing us, and despite the bags we were carrying from the airport (as I said, pretty random).

We spent the rest of the weekend going out, eating at some nice cafes and restaurants and just enjoying the time off. We didn’t do as many of the touristy things I would normally do abroad, but we got an insight into the life of a local in another country, something you rarely get the chance to do. A great weekend all up and just another excuse to go back for another visit.

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