Tan Dulce

token smiling Italian owner (this pic caught the chest hair, but unfortunately missed his gold chain necklace)

See-through refrigerators

Alfajores

Facturas

A sliver of the variety

Another happy owner, maybe not Italian though...

Happy Birthday! To happiness and health.....Salud!

"Bueno dia, Emma! Tenemos un desayuna especial hoy!"

Breakfast, really? These beautiful facturas are from a place across the street from my apartment. Every block in Buenos Aires seems to have a kiosco (minimart), a leaking air conditioner and a token artisanel bakery. These corner shops are typified by grand display windows showcasing an outrageous variety of sweet morsels, treats, pastries, cakes, and pies. Each has a deli ticket machine and once they call your number you point to what you want like a spoiled brat in a toy shop. You then bring your receipt up to a cash register that is usually manned by a beaming italian looking owner.

I can't emphasize the variety enough. If you're one of those people whose always feels bogged down by the mundane choice between a bagel or crossaint every time you go to a cafe, and are always dousing you pastries with extra jellies and condiments, then you should probably come to Argentina in your lifetime. But if you're one of those people who tells the waiter multiple times that you need "just a minute" and makes the whole table wait for you to have an epiphany about whether fried eggs or an omelette is the best choice for you right now and get spend hours staring off in supermarkets, then don't step in one of these places. And also, if you usually choose the bagel, don't expect ANYTHING salty here. Well, maybe a quiche, but everything else is made from some combination of flour, sugar, butter and sometimes milk, chocolate and jelly.

For me everything I've tasted from the Porteno sweet factories has been over the top. Case in point, the birthday cake above: 20 layers of crepes glued by a thick dulce de leche, and topped off with creme chantilly (aka whipped cream). I'm accustomed to a bowl of simple oatmeal for breakfast, I guess the most neutral thing there is (on the salty-sweet spectrum) and black coffee. If I go out for breakfast, I flip to the eggs or hashbrown page of the menu. So regularly waking up to a plate of alfajores or frosted cake with sprinkles has been quite odd.

All the things I've tasted from these bakeries have been ridiculously tasty, but ridiculously overwhelming first thing in the morning.