Argentine Sweets

[garryl]

74% Argentines believe that Argentine medialunas and alfajors are the best in the world. The smaller medialuna appears to be better than the big as* French croissant. Argies, on the average, consume medialuna/alfajor at least once a week.

 

[garryl]

Top 5 medialuna places:

http://www.anuvawines.com/tasting-argentina/the-first-ever-official-medialuna-tasting-in-buenos-aires/

and #6 La Biela

 

[Crema Americana]

I remember an early conversation I had with my brother-in-law. We were talking about his trip to Spain some years ago... and he mentioned that the pastries there were different. I sighed and said "yes." Then he goes "Here they're better!"

I guess it's only natural to think that what you grew up on is the best, but there is really no comparison between European pastries vs the stuff you find here, in my opinion. Not to say that the ones here aren't good (I've had my share), but light and fluffy is hard to come by. And then there is that dreadful dulce de leche.... how they have the word empalagoso and not apply it to dulce de leche is beyond me.


And the churros.... what in the world. Cold churros belong in the trash.

 

[wineguy999]

Of course, if Anuva Wine told me the sky was blue, I'd have to run outside to check.

 

[Girino]

Argentina is an isolated country: economically, geographically, culturally - not surprisingly also gastronomically. Especially from Europe. Which makes really sad and ridiculous their effort/conviction to be sort of Europeans and better than other Americans (northerners and southerners).

I recently found this article about Argentine pizza which I agree with. And also the latest and so discussed article by CNN on Fernet+cola. I didn't know about Fercola before coming here, the first time I was offered one I started laughing at their face saying that only people over 80 y.o. drink Fernet and they don't add Coke since they're not children anymore.
My Argie friend got offended - I though it was a home-made mixup and not a national pride, ahem. :huh:

The golden proportion of 1/3 Fernet 2/3 Coke results in a bitter Coke to my taste buds, I can't figure out how much Fercola they have to drink to get drunk. We have bitter cola in Italy (called Chinotto) which tastes the same and it is served like any other soda. It has no alcohol (the bitterness is given by the chinotto fruit) and it is served also to children. I have a Fernet+Cola from time to time, but I'd never buy Fernet myself - it is quite expensive and anyway its taste gets lost in a tons of Coke.

Last night I was at one of the Farola joint, and I still (after 1.5 yrs) got perplexed seeing people ordering milanesa a la pizza. How did they come up with the idea of adding a pizza topping to a fried steak?!
My pizza was of course hard in the dough (due to the poor flour they have here) and with loads of cheese. I scratched away the cheese in order to be able to taste the tomato sauce underneath it. I didn't even noticed it had tomato sauce in it! I was dragged there by an Italo-argentinian claiming that the Farola's muzzarella was like the Italian pizza he had during many trips in Italy. Are you kiddin' me?

After all, what do you expect from a country where they add seltz to wine?!

 

[thorsten]

74% Argentines have most likely never been to Europe to know the difference...

 

[Redbeanz]

74% Argentines have most likely never been to Europe to know the difference...

Hmmm. Well, I have certainly been all over Europe, many, many times. I still like Argentina's dulce de leche, alfajores, medialunas, and helado.
And the steak I had in Paris last month made me long for an Argentine parrilla.

But I do draw the line at fernet & coke.

 

[nativexpat]

I draw the line at the brownie, ddl and meringue cake. Yuck!

Any meat dish "a la pizza" should be forbidden.

 

[wineguy999]

After all, what do you expect from a country where they add seltz to wine?!

Don't forget the ice!

 

[thorsten]

Hmmm. Well, I have certainly been all over Europe, many, many times. I still like Argentina's dulce de leche, alfajores, medialunas, and helado.
And the steak I had in Paris last month made me long for an Argentine parrilla.

But I do draw the line at fernet & coke.

Don't get me wrong, I like the local alfajores and ice cream too. But to be able to judge for example whether a medialuna is better than a french croissant, you should at least have tasted both, which I doubt is true for most of the Argentine population.