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Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Liga Argentina Is Set To Crown A New Champion
Franco Zapiola of Platense celebrates with teammate after scoring the team's first goal during a ... More Torneo Apertura Betano 2025 semifinal match between San Lorenzo and Platense at Pedro Bidegain Stadium on May 25, 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 'Liga Profesional de Fútbol' in Argentina will crown a new national champion this Sunday when Huracán take on Platense in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. The likes of River Plate and Boca Juniors have fallen, but the mighty minnows remain. Technically this final will be a Buenos Aires derby, but in truth these teams have got no bad blood and there are that many teams in the capital of Argentina that rivalries tend to be with those who share neighbourhoods and not the city. This encounter will be monumental either way, as it represents an extremely rare opportunity for both clubs to win silverware. This is a once in a generation chance for Huracán to win the league title, and a once in a lifetime chance for Platense. Just 90 minutes, and perhaps a penalty shoot-out, separates one of these clubs from the ultimate glory and it has been coming for a very, very long time. Huracan's Ecuadorean goalkeeper #01 Hernan Galindez (L) celebrates with teammate forward #43 Eric ... More Ramirez after the penalty shootout and winning the Argentine Professional Football League 2025 Apertura Tournament semi-final match between Independiente and Huracan at the Libertadores de America stadium in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Huracán hasn't won a title since 2014, and the club hasn't won a league campaign since 1973. That was the most recent of five top division titles, with the rest all coming between 1921 and 1928. Huracán has reached the final after a dramatic penalty shoot-out win away against Independiente in the semis. Another twist in the tale of what has been an epic play-off tournament in Argentina. In the quarter-finals Huracán won away against Rosario Central, who is top of the annual table in Argentina for 2025, so nobody can suggest that the 'Globo' doesn't deserve a spot in this final. Huracán is on an impressive defensive run, boasting three consecutive clean sheets, but the team still has to host Corinthians of Brazil in the Copa Sudamericana before the final this weekend. Thankfully for the home side it has already secured progression from the Copa Sudamericana group phase and so will surely rest players ahead of Sunday's league decider. Players of Huracan celebrate after the penalty shootout and winning the Argentine Professional ... More Football League 2025 Apertura Tournament semi-final match between Independiente and Huracan at the Libertadores de America stadium in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires province, Argentina on May 24, 2025. If you thought that the Huracán wait for a major trophy was a long one then you haven't read anything yet. Platense has never ever won a major title. Since it was founded in 1905 the club from the north zone of Buenos Aires has only ever had success in moving from the second division to the first. Therefore Sunday is an even bigger deal for the team known as the 'Calamar.' Victory this weekend, for sure, would be a miracle for the team that plays in the unique brown jersey. Oscar Salomon of Platense runs with the ball against Santiago Solari of Racing Club during a Torneo ... More Apertura 2025 round of sixteen match between Racing Club and Platense at Presidente Peron Stadium on May 10, 2025 in Avellaneda, Argentina. Platense is a relatively tiny club, even compared to Huracán which isn't one of the 'big five' in Argentina. The Platense stadium holds under 30,000 spectators but is normally half-full at the very best. It is a team looked down upon by the others and one that usually has to sell any blossoming talent just to remain in existence. Platense has already completed a historic play-off run to the final, winning all three knock-out games away from home. In defeating Racing Club, River Plate and San Lorenzo in those fixtures Platense managed to beat three of the 'big five' teams in Argentina. It's a remarkable run of form defying all the odds. The key for Platense has been staying solid at the back, conceding just one goal in those three games via a River Plate penalty. Platense does not play in continental competition and so has all week to prepare for the biggest game in its 119-year history. This is an incredible underdog story for a club that has never come close to silverware and a squad that has only won six league games from 16 this season. Platense's midfielder #10 Vicente Taborda celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the ... More Argentine Professional Football League 2025 Apertura Tournament quarter-final match between River Plate and Platense at the MAS Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires on May 20, 2025. Having said that, Huracán only lead Platense by four points in the annual table. Both teams were overlooked by everyone as title contenders but Platense's run to the final has been so outstanding that you might just believe that their name is on the trophy this year. If recent games are anything to go by this will be an extremely tense and low-scoring affair, but for the fans of both clubs it will be a huge party, and perhaps even the best day of their lives as soccer fans. For the majority of Huracán supporters it could be the first major trophy they witness their team winning, and of course for Platense it would finally be the first in the history of the entire club. The league structure in Argentina is often rightfully criticised, but this incredible final is a very welcome symptom of such mayhem, and either way; soccer history will be made in Argentina this Sunday. Platense's forward #26 Ignacio Schor celebrates after scoring during the penalty shootout and ... More winning the Argentine Professional Football League 2025 Apertura Tournament quarter-final match between River Plate and Platense at the MAS Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires on May 20, 2025.
Time Out
13-05-2025
- Business
- Time Out
New York's 3-star rated Peruvian restaurant is coming to a close
Since 2019, chef Eric Ramirez has been cooking up his interpretation of Nikkei cuisine at Llama San in the West Village. Not just a favorite among various media outlets, the restaurant was also credited with the boom of Peruvian flavors on a worldwide stage (per the New York Times). Yet among all its accolades and fanfare, the team announced yesterday that it would be coming to an end. In an Instagram post, the Llama San team announced the closure. 'They say all good things must come to an end. After almost 6 years in business Llama San will be closing on Saturday June 7,' the announcement read. 'It's been a wonderful ride and a great pleasure to serve you while showcasing Peruvian ingredients and the magic of Nikkei cuisine.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Llama San (@llamasannyc) Following the very successful Llama Inn in Brooklyn, the team took to the city in 2019 to open a sister spot Llama San. Continuing the exploration of chef Eric Ramirez's Peruvian-Japanese heritage through Nikkei cuisine, the restaurant was a clear hit from the beginning, nabbing a three-star review from the New York Times and was named Eater 's ' Restaurant of the Year ' in 2019. Time Out New York gave it a four-star rating, praising chef Ramirez for his interpretation of Nikkei cuisine, even calling the scallop ceviche 'one of the best dishes we've tasted in 2019.' According to their PR rep, the team is "focused on closing out these last few weeks of service and spending time together with their regulars and team." Ramirez's remaining Peruvian concepts now include Llama Inn in Williamsburg, London and Madrid, as well as his most recent project, Papa San, which debuted in Hudson Yards this past February. The social-media post finished with gratitude to the restaurant team. 'Above all, thanks to our amazing current and past teams, many of whom you will find now at Papa San or Llama Inn: you all created magic out of a little and humble space.'
Boston Globe
21-02-2025
- Boston Globe
A trek to the small villages in Mexico's Sierra Norte highlands
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up We arrived there after a week in Puerto Escondido, a surfing mecca on the Pacific Coast. A recently built highway has transformed the bohemian enclave — once only reachable from Oaxaca by propeller plane or a nauseating nine-hour drive — into a bustling beach getaway. On our trip, traffic gridlocked the main drag. The cellular network regularly collapsed. When I asked the chef at my favorite fish taco stand how he was handling the onslaught, he theatrically fell to the ground in exhaustion — and then genuinely struggled to pick himself back up. Advertisement Los Pueblos Mancomunados felt removed from all this. And not by accident. The villages are run by a committee that, in 1998, created an ecotourism program called Expediciones Sierra Norte to promote and preserve the region's nature and indigenous Zapotec heritage. For much of the 20th century, Canadian paper and mining companies had their way with the land. But in the 1980s, the towns banded together to resist the plundering of their land and eventually restore local control over their resources. Today, a self-ruling cooperative system governs how those resources are shared and protected. Each member of the community must complete a year or two of service in their village; such as running a comedor, or restaurant, maintaining the adobe visitor cabins, or serving as a forest guide. The profits of the tourism initiative are shared among the villages, mitigating the problem of urban emigration that so many rural communities now face. Advertisement The wood-powered stovetop at a local comedor in the village of Cuajimoloyas brims with short ribs, yellow mole, atole, and other breakfast delicacies. Hanna Krueger Visitors can head into these mountains alone. But everything I read recommended hiring a guide; not for safety — crime levels are low in this region — but rather for a much deeper experience. We enlisted Zapotrek, an outfitter headquartered in Oaxaca and operated by Eric Ramirez, the grandson of a traditional Zapotec farmer. Ramirez organized our entire itinerary — hiking route, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and local guides — and joined us on our journey, providing tremendous company, translation services, and limitless knowledge of indigenous culture, botany, and Mexican politics. Our three-day personally curated itinerary brought us to four of the eight pueblos over three days — two spent hiking and one by horseback. (Mountain biking is also an option.) The first day involved a 10-mile hike to Lachatao, a small village of 1,000, perched on a ridge of a mountain. Late in the afternoon, a doe-eyed mutt met us at the edge of the village. We followed him to the farm of Martha Santiago Cruz, who greeted us with a large pitcher of homemade pulque, a beverage made from fermented agave sap. Dogs — large, small, scruffy, young, old, and always friendly — abound in Los Pueblos Moncomunados. Here, one perches on the balcony of a home on the outskirts of Lachatao. Tareq Habash The drink has a consistency reminiscent of kombucha, a milky white appearance, and a calming effect on the stomach. Cruz treated us to pitcher after pitcher of the probiotic, infusing it each time with a new flavor: banana, guava and sugar cane, locally known as piloncillo. In between sips, she shared tales of schlepping and selling her pulque in markets dozens of miles away, dwarfing our day's trek and putting my aching legs to shame. Advertisement Each time my resolve faltered in the final hour of our daily hikes, I thought of the feast awaiting me in the next village. The villagers' traditional cuisine is as much an appeal as the landscape from which they harvest their ingredients — by hand and ox. Each comedor felt like a home kitchen with soups in earthenware pots bubbling atop wood fire stoves. We ordered by just pointing at whatever looked enticing. For breakfast, we often sipped atole, a traditional hot drink made from maize and sugar cane, akin to porridge and a vital defense against the chill of the mountains. A home-cooked meal, such as this one at the top of Lachatao, awaits hikers in every town. A glass of agua de jamaica, or hibiscus iced tea, sits in the background. Tareq Habash During one hike, we stopped for truchas, the trouts native to the mountain rivers. We fished for our ingredients from the natural pools of a local farm and 20 minutes later we were devouring a whole fish, roasted on the fire-power oven and filled with quesillo, pico de Gallo, and garlic. And that is to say nothing of the hongos, or mushrooms, that crop up in the mountains during the summer rainy season. Thousands of mushroom species — many of them edible — have been found in the forests around the villages, leading to a deep regional reverence for fungi. An annual mushroom festival, La Feria Regional, in Cuajimoloyas, takes place every summer in late July or early August, depending on the rains. On Saturday local guides escort groups into the forest to scavenge for mushroom species. And on Sunday, each group puts their discoveries on display for experts to inspect and explain, cooks to use in cuisine, and visitors to marvel at. Advertisement The elderly dog of a pulque brewer, Martha Santiago Cruz, greets the author at the end of a 10-mile hike to Lachatao. Tareq Habash We stayed in Cuajimoloyas on our last night and made an 8 p.m. date with the medicine woman who lived next door to our adobe cabin. Zapotec culture reveres traditional healers, who wield the power of plants and mysticism to cure internal and external ailments. That night, we planned to take part in a temazcals, a traditional sweat lodge designed to cleanse the body and mind. Aware of the heat that lay ahead, I stepped out to fill my water bottle at the camping lodge. The night air was cool and thin and smelled of burning firewood. The sky was dotted with stars. From the hillside, I could distinguish the edges of the village — the boundaries where the lights ceased to exist and the faint outlines of mossy pine forest began. Dogs barked. The giant communal speaker at the town hall crackled to life; some townsperson had stopped by with a song request, a slow, sentimental ballad. The music reached every corner of Cuajimoloyas and a woman danced on the sidewalk under a streetlight. When I returned home, someone had stopped by our cabin and lit a fire to stave off the cold. The author and her local guides walk through a local trout farm outside of Cuajimoloyas. Tareq Habash The next day, we would head back to the city, and reunite with the cellphone we had accidentally left in the crevice of the taxi that drove us into the mountains days earlier. It wouldn't have been of much use. Cell service and internet connection are, graciously, rarities in these towns. Even without the upcoming flight notifications, I wasn't too naive to believe that the outside world couldn't creep its way into Los Pueblos Mancomunados. After all, mining companies still had a foothold nearby. Climate change-induced droughts threatened the water supply that sustained the towns and crops. The townspeople still had to descend into the city every now and then. Advertisement On a hike earlier that day, our local guide told me that his son recently died due to complications after wisdom tooth surgery in Oaxaca. Obvious malpractice — but what to do? He didn't have the money for a lawyer and, even if he did, the legal battle wouldn't bring his son back, he reasoned. The local guides of Los Pueblos Mancomunados have encyclopedic knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Sierra Nortes — and tremendously good humor as well. Tareq Habash We snaked our way down the mountain on a gravel road the following afternoon, after stocking up on dried apples and quince bars. A blur of agave plants and pine trees could be spotted outside our windows. Wandering oxen slowed our journey. And, then, the gravel turned to pavement. Our phones buzzed. Then buzzed again. Restaurant after restaurant cropped up along the highway. We reached the city center in less than two hours and were deposited on a sidewalk lined with colorful Spanish colonial buildings. Our hair still smelled of campfire as we hugged Eric goodbye. Hanna Krueger can be reached at
