Typical Food/ Comida Típica

Although I'm pretty sick of it after three months, Buenos Aires has high quality, delicious food. Consisting mainly of meat, cheese, and bread, it does ,however, lack some variety.  Italian food and empanadas were heavenly the first two weeks, but now I'm dying for pancakes, mexican food, salads, and sushi. Anyways, I thought I'd walk you through a typical day's meals.

Breakfast/Desayuno

2 Crescent rolls with butter, jam, and dulce de leche / 2 medialunas con manteca, marmelada, y dulce de leche or
Grilled ham & cheese / Tostada con jamón y queso 
Coffee w/ milk / Cafe con leche
Orange Juice / Exprimido de jugo

Lunch/Almuerzo

Chicken fried steak with tomato and cheese / Milanesa napolitana or

Vegetable, spinach, and/or cheese pastry pie (kinda like quiche) / tarta or









Cross between a hot pocket and pot pie filled with beef, chicken, cheese, or veggies / Empanada










Snacks/ Meriendas


Choripan- a grilled sausage served between bread.  Chorizo (sausage) + pan (bread) = choripan

Pan relleno- bread stuffed w/ lots of combos of meat and cheese sort of like a mix of stromboli and calzone.  A popular flavor is Caprese, which is tomato, mozzarella, and basil.

Dinner/ Cena

Obviously there are a lot of different dinner choices out there, but I'll pick a few of the most popular.  Italian food such as pizza and pasta and grilled meats tend to dominate.

Pizza with cheese, pepper, olives and hearts of palm/  Pizza con jamón, queso, huevo, pepino, y palmitos


Spinach-stuffed ravioli in sauce of choice/


Traditional assortement of grilled meats/ Asado

Dessert & Sweets/ Postre y Dulces


Dessert and snacks are endless and everywhere.  It's really hard to resist the temptation when it's fresh baked, and the yummy scent is drifting around every corner.  It's pretty varied, but there are definitely some "usuals."


I guess I should start off with dulce de leche.  It's not a dessert in its own right, but it's in just about every other dessert there is.  It's the national pride of Argentina.  It's a thick, caramel-like spread.  I think it's pretty much just caramel, but the porteñans beg to differ.  They scoff at the comparison.  Well, whatever it is, it goes on everything here.  Bread, cookies, ice cream, you name it.  The one thing we thought made perfect sense and justified its ridiculous caloric content was using it as a dip for apples.  That's apparently the one thing they don't use it for.


Alfajor- the national sweet.  There are lots of different types but it's the basic setup is two shortbread cookies sandwiched together with dulce de leche.  Sometimes it's dusted with coconut, but the best way is bathed in chocolate or merengue.  If you want to completely indulge yourself, you can even get a triple stacker like these bad boys.
How do people eat like this and stay so darn skinny?!



Flan- a firm vanilla custard with a caramel sauce








Mil hojas- layers of flaky pastry and dulce de leche.  Sometimes it's served with honey and nuts.  My personal favorite is covered in chocolate, then rolled in nuts.

Ensalada de Frutas-fruit salad. Pretty self-explanatory, but it's a very popular snack and dessert.

Well, there you have it.  So take it easy on me when I get back a little thicker and softer than when I left.  You would too if you ate like a porteñan.