Wel­come to my “Cen­tral and South Amer­ica Food Saga”!

Lati­nos appar­ently have a sweet tooth: there were panaderías (bak­ery) just about any­where!

In Cen­tral Amer­ica, as well as in Bolivia, there were less for­mal panaderías, but sweet snacks were always avail­able in the street. Nuts, pop corn, bread etc. were sold pretty much any­where.

Through­out South Amer­ica, a pop­u­lar cookie was the alfa­jor. It con­sists of two round sweet bis­cuits joined together with dulce de leche (milk jam) or jam, and cov­ered with pow­dered sugar.This is extremely sweet, but quite yummy too!

Dulce de leche — sweeten milk that looks like caramel — was found in almost all sweets and can­dies, and it was also used as a spread on bread. In Brazil, doce de leite was notably used as a fill­ing for chur­ros, sold in Copacabana.

My favorite place for baked sweet was Argentina: all cities have a panadería, which sell baked good by the dozen, instead of by the unit, like in France. Typ­i­cal price was 12 pesos for 12 fac­turas (small pas­tries), which is about 30 cents each. Medi­alu­nas (“half-moon”, or crois­sant), sweet rolls, alfa­jores etc, were pop­u­lar choices.

Mean­while, Brazil­ians are crazy about their brigadeiro, a small candy made of con­densed milk, but­ter and choco­late pow­der, rolled into a ball, and then cov­ered in choco­late or coffee-flavored sprin­kles. It was sold in the streets dur­ing Car­ni­val. But every­thing seemed to be brigadeiro–fla­vored: ice cream, cook­ies, cakes, cereal bars… I’m sur­prised I haven’t seen a brigadeiro drink!

Sell­ing Pop Corn, La Paz, Bolivia

Sell­ing Nuts, Copaca­bana, Bolivia

Yummy Choco­late Cake, Lima, Peru

Sell­ing Sugar Cane, Curitiba, Brazil

“Fac­turas”, Buenos Aires, Argentina

“Medi­alu­nas”, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Can­dies And Cakes, Parati, Brazil

Brigadeiro, Brazil

Related posts:

1. The Food Saga: The Drinks
2. The Food Saga: The Fish Era
3. The Food Saga: The Feast Era
4. Hello Frozen Hell…
5. Beau­ti­ful Beaches Of Brazil