The Food Saga: The Sweets

30 March 2009By Zhu 11 Comments

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

11 Comments »

Sharon said:

Hi Zhu

I love South America. We lived in Venezuela for two years, and the food was an adventure and so yummy.

I love alfajores, so sweet and fattening

The coffee in Venezuela is the best coffee i have ever had.

And the best of all are the arepas and empanadas.

Wow your post brings so many memories back.

Thanks or sharing
Sharon

# 18 April 2009 at 6:11 pm

Sidney said:

That looks delicious… I think I could live on that alone!

# 1 April 2009 at 4:00 am

Zhu (author) said:

@Agnes – I can’t help you, I like both!

@Bluefish – Me neither to be honest. That said it’s nice to have the option to grab something light and sweet!

@Tulsa Gentleman – French also call each other “mon chou”, literally “my cabage”, but it means “honey” or “sweety” Haven’t had choux à la crème in ages… it’s wedding food for me.

@Gail at Large – You are so spoiled! Lucky you… be nice to your neighbor

@shionge – Really? Do you have a lot of sugar cane there?

@Shantanu – Sugarcane in India too? Never knew that! How do you eat it?

@Max Coutinho – Factura has the same meaning in Spanish, not sure why they call the pastries like that… probably means “unit”. Anyway, they are sooo good!

@CM-Chap – Come to Argentina, it’s gonna be your dreamland

# 1 April 2009 at 12:29 am