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The Food Saga: The Sweets

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 Pop Corn, La Paz, Bolivia
Selling Nuts, Copacabana, Bolivia
Selling Nuts, Copacabana, Bolivia
Yummy Chocolate Cake, Lima, Peru
Yummy Chocolate Cake, Lima, Peru
Selling Sugar Cane, Curitiba, Brazil
Selling Sugar Cane, Curitiba, Brazil
"Facturas", Buenos Aires, Argentina
"Facturas", Buenos Aires, Argentina
"Medialunas", Buenos Aires, Argentina
"Medialunas", Buenos Aires, Argentina
Candies And Cakes, Parati, Brazil
Candies And Cakes, Parati, Brazil
Brigadeiro, Brazil
Brigadeiro, Brazil
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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