Dulce de Leche takes over Buenos Aires

Dulce de Leche

When I first arrived in Buenos Aires, I scoured the shelves of the supermarkets for one of my favorite foods—peanut butter. I knew it would be difficult to find peanut butter here as it was the same when I visited Europe, but I was still a bit surprised that it simply wasn’t available, anywhere. Fortunately, before my cravings really kicked in, I found that my addiction to peanut butter could be easily replaced by a different but equally delicious high calorie spread—dulce de leche. Meaning “milk candy” in English, dulce de leche is a milk-based syrup that tastes something like caramel. I have cooked it before at home, and it requires hours of simmering milk, sugar, and vanilla. Although it takes a while to prepare, it’s definitely worthwhile. I love the rich flavor of dulce de leche, I could easily eat a jar of it like soup. Dulce de leche is immensely popular here in Buenos Aires; it is SO popular here, that I have decided to dedicate this entire blog post to its popularity...

My first Buenos Aires dulce de leche encounter occurred on my first night in the city. I opened up the refrigerator at my home stay to find a jar of dulce de leche, and my host mom, peering over my shoulder, told me that it was my jar. She eats the syrup with anything from bread and crackers to fruit and sweets. I easily adapted to this routine…every morning I eat my toast with dulce de leche, and every evening I eat bananas with dulce de leche.

If you walk into any Buenos Aires pastry shop, you will find that dulce de leche is is a key ingredient in cookies, pastries, and candies. It is the city’s primary ice cream flavor, and it is also an ingredient in Argentina’s national cookie—the alfajore. In the supermarkets of the city, dulce de leche occupies the same amount of shelf space as nut-butters or jams do in the United States of America. Not only is it available by the jar, but it is also a flavor used for milk and pudding. They even sell individually wrapped cubes and tablets of the sugary treat at 24 hour kiosks, supermarkets, and pharmacies.

When I asked my host mom why dulce de leche is so popular here she said: “I don’t know why we eat it all the time! All I know is that when I was born, my mother gave me dulce de leche. Maybe it’s because it’s made with milk and we have so many cows here…we eat a lot of meat here, and we use the milk for dulce de leche”.