Page 139 - WDT INTERACTIVE

Most of our lunches and dinners included a little
basket of bread. Maybe it was just bad luck, but
with only a couple of exceptions, we found the rolls
remarkably dry and flavorless. However, we did find
great bakery items in the three bakeries within a
block of our Buenos Aires apartment in Recoleta.
There was almost always room for a little dessert
in Argentina. We found terrific ice cream at shops
all over the country - my favorite flavor was dulce
de leche. Another sweet, available everywhere we
traveled is alfajores, the shortbread-like sandwich
cookie also filled with sweet dulce de leche. A
favorite sweetener used in Argentinean cooking,
dulce de leche is made by boiling equal parts of milk
and sugar, resulting in a delightful, caramel taste.
The most quirky culinary habit we discovered in Ar-
gentina is the drinking of mate, a kind of a tea made
from a local ground herb by that name. Mate is drunk
through a long metal straw called a bombilla, out of a
gourd or other vessel full of ground mate leaves and
boiling water. We tried it and thought it tasted a bit
like a cross between tea and tobacco. We were told
it provides an energy boost, much like coffee. It’s an
icebreaker in Argentina and it’s considered impolite to
refuse to give it a try.
Mate gourds and Bombilla can be very decorative
and are often embellished with silver. They are sold
everywhere and make great souvenirs. Ours is on
display in our bookcase at home – very nice to look
at but likely never to be used for its intended purpose.

Great meals and new
friends go together. Ron
and Mary enjoy their new
friends in Salta.

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