I got back to Buenos Aires this morning. I think that Argentina can be summed up by three things beef, pasta and dulce de leche (caramel). Every restaurant I have entered in this country has had beef and pasta as main offering. It seems to make sense, esp. considering all of the dry land I have flown over. As I am sure it would be difficult to raise or grow much else. I am told that 30% of all Argentinians can trace their roots back to Italy and hence the pasta. Everywhere you go they claim to serve home made pasta. And as for the Dulce de Leche? I have no idea why but the people here are infatuated with the stuff (and that’s an understatement). I saw someone order flan (aka, creme caramel) with dulce de leche, and it looked as if there was more of that than the flan itself. Often restaurants offer you the option to add dulce de leche to your dessert. On the morning flight to Patagonia, they served 1 roll + 1 croissant side of butter and… you guessed it Dulce de Leche. Not jam, but Dulce de Leche.
All manner of pastries can be found with Dulce de Leche on top or squeezed inside. At the breakfast buffet yesterday, not only were there the usual offerings of bowls jam and honey, but there were not one not two , but three different bowls of dulce de leche. Regular, low fat and with coconut! As a matter of fact they love it so much I found this at the grocery store!
Since Argentina is the home of the Tango, I suppose it’s only natural that if you were looking to make a buck or two performing on the stree that you would dance for it. This is what busking in Argentina looks like:
Tomorrow off to Panama.