Oh for the love of sweet, creamy ice cream, Buenos Aires might be the most helado-rific city in the whole wide world. Welcome to year round summertime-wintertime-warm weather-cold weather bliss. Walk down just about any block in this crazy capital and you’ll be sure to find a flavor-packed multicolored display of glorious ice cream, served by the cone, cup, or kilo.
Argentina has a very special amorous relationship with postres (desserts). Sugary, gooey, chocolaty, caramel-y, fruity, and creamy; sweet lovers will sure not be disappointed when it comes to navigating the Buenos Aires post meal sweet-induced food world. Suck on a spoonful of dulce de leche and bite into a cake oozing with a rich chocolate center – it’s time to live la vida dulce and get to know some of Argentina’s most popular desserts.
Argentina: a country where you can get ice cream delivered to your door after midnight, where the number of variations on dulce de leche flavour can run into double figures, where homeware stores sell serving dishes that are just the right size for a one-kilo tub. Ice cream isn’t just an occasional treat here, it’s an essential food group.
In Buenos Aires, fitting in is a more complicated process than simply knowing your steak, wine and football, or becoming a pro at multiple-dog walking, staring and protesting. Here are some ways you can act, live and love like a local. If you follow them you might just avoid men on passing motorbikes hollering “Gringa!” (but probably not). Whether it’s their amigo, boss or total stranger, Argentines peck each other once on the right cheek to say hi and bye…
An influx of Italian immigrants in the 1870s and again in the 1940s left Buenos Aires with a strong Italian heritage. Evidence of this can be seen by flicking through the surnames in a phone book and by taking notice of the nation’s indulgence in ice cream. Often claiming to be better than gelato, Argentinian-made ice cream has got to be the country’s second staple after beef. You never have to walk far to find the neighborhood’s ice cream parlors (that’s right, plural)…